Mexico: Controversy Rages Over Yucatan Alien

SOURCE: MILENIO.com
DATE: 01.18.06

Maussan: "There's proof, I wasn't taken"

Jose Alonso Herrera denies that he and his friend asked for money and accuse Carlos Trejo
of slandering them.

According to a written instrument sent to MILENIO by Jaime Maussan, radioactivity was found
at the site where three youths recorded a seemingly non-human being on March 20, 2005
using a cell phone.

The text says that astronomer and physicist Jorge Guerrero stated that the discovery was
astounding and inexplicable, since there is no reason to justify the existence of
radiation in Fraccionamiento del parque. Measurements taken with specialized equipment
detected the presence of radiation not deemed hazardous, but merely as "dark matter".

"I wonder it was me who was hoodwinked or you, dear friends of Milenio."

The text goes on: present at the site where the youths who participated in the video's recording,
Jose Alonso Herrera and David Espada.

Maussan points out that great expectations have emerged around the so-called Merida Alien. However,
this has allowed some like Jorge Moreno or Sergio Valdez Diaz of "Misterios de Merida" magazine
to slam the researchers. "According to Moreno and Valdez, the video is only a prank by a young man
who donned a carnival mask, which they state was admitted by not one buy all of the youth's
participating in the event."

Maussan says that Valdez Diaz told Daniel Barquet, a reporter for MILENIO, that the youths had
mocked Maussan because they wanted to "get some dough" out of him and also because they wanted
to pull the wool over his eyes. In stating this fact, notes the journalist, neither Barquet nor
Valdez exhibit a single shred of proof or authoritative evidence.

He goes on: Herrera and Espada state that Valdez Diaz's declarations are false, and accuse Moreno
of having offered money to minors to admit their part in the prank.

"The video reached me accidentally, after having circulated for months among teenage cell phones.
I was never asked for money, and I have never offered it."

Maussan says that the video has been analyzed by experts and that it has been established without
a doubt that no animation is involved, although they admit that it could be something else, either
a prank or a legitimate video.

In the early hours of March 20, two young men from Yucatan, Jose Alonso Herrera and David Espadas,
filmed strange figures using a cell phone, a recording they later disseminated through e-mail.
They were then contacted by ufologist Jaime Maussan, who asked them for the film, to which they
agreed, as he promised to investigate it. However, a man named Carlos Trejo came to Merida a
few days ago with the intention of discrediting Maussan and the video fans.

The story given by Alonso Herrera, 17, is that he and his friends make daily recordings in different
places, as would any young men with a cell phone. "We shot several videos that day and nothing
had happened," said Herrera, who said over the phone: "Then suddenly this happened." In other
words, the controversial images of alleged aliens -- as published by reporter Daniel Barquet
in MILENIO yesterday -- hidden behind a street lamp.

-- Then it's not true that the images are fake, or that you were playing a prank, or that you
asked for money?

No, not at all. on the contrary. We resorted to Maussan because we lack the mans, but
Carlos Trejo is putting us in a bad light. All of this is due to a problem between Trejo and
Maussan.

The story of the alleged aliens also came from a local paper, according to Herrera, the
author of the recording, who is uncomfortable with the stories that are circulating. "They only
publish accusations and that seems unfair to me," he insists. At no time are they referred to
by name, but he and his friend feel attacked, "because they say that we had a mask and we hid
behind a street lamp."

Herrera says that at no time did they ask for money in exchange for the images. "The papers said
that our sister had a mask and who knows what else. But haven't made any statements. The
problem is that the papers here made them up on their own."


-- How did the video come [into Maussan's possession]?

We showed them to people here, and suddenly it was going from one cell phone to the next until a
a chain was formed. And they day that Maussan came to make his presentation here, I have no idea
who told him about the video. He came to see us and we told him about it.

The Merida International Airport control tower received at least 75 UFO reports last year. Jorge
Moreno Gonzalez, director of the Centro de Investigaci�n de Fen�menos Paranormales, said that
tower personnel received at least 75 UFO reports over the last 12 months, but most of them were
dismissed due to a lack of evidence or by being notoriously fake. Only 8 are still under
investigation. Regarding the Fraccionamiento del Parque case, in which a group of teenagers
admitted to creating a prank about an alleged alien in order to be able to mock Jaime Maussan
and other researchers, Jorge Moreno Gonzalez, one of the best-known ufologists in the Yucatan,
stated that he also received the alleged evidence and that his team of researchers looked into
the case, but the result was the same as others: "The teenager who used the mask to play a prank
on his friend no longer wants to discuss the subject. He's scared, as are his parents."


Newsroom / Humberto Rios, Mexico City. Daniel Barquet, Merida.

(Translation (c) 2006, Scott Corrales, IHU)