1965: The Martians Arrive!

 

 

1965: The Martians Arrive!  On September 13, 1965, a Reuters report from Lima to the Argentine and Brazilian press—which did not reach the British media—stated that on September 12, two small "Martians" had been seen near Huancavelica, southeast of Lima, and that shortly afterward, a squadron consisting of a large, saucer-like craft in the lead, followed by four smaller discs, circled the area, witnessed by hundreds of Peruvian peasants and numerous officials. A week earlier, at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday, September 12, Lieutenant Sebastián Mancha, the military officer in charge of the administration of the tiny Andean town of Santa Bárbara, had seen—for about two minutes—two "Martians" about 80 cm tall, walking on the snow near Lake Ceulacocha. As he climbed into his flying saucer and took off, a sound like thunder was heard, and the craft left marks in the snow. That same night, many residents of Huancavelica witnessed two UFOs that flew over the town for two hours. There were also 'Martians' causing trouble the previous month. The newspaper La Prensa, in its August 31, 1965 edition, reported to its readers that 20 kilometers from Arequipa, two people had seen 'a strange being, a Martian' whose appearance 'was similar to that of a bush, 80 centimeters tall, with only one eye.' The creature was blackish in color, and in addition to the golden eye on its head, 'it also had small eyes' all over its body. According to Reuters, in its August 7, 1965 edition, authorities in Lima had arrested a very dangerous gang of thieves, whose leader was nicknamed 'the Pygmy.' They were posing as 'Martians' and, taking advantage of the incredible wave of UFO sightings in Lima, had donned 'spacesuits' and carried out a series of robberies and home invasions. Gordon Creighton adds: "A considerable portion of the more than 800 UFO reports received by Flying Saucer Review from the Latin American press in 1965, like this one, were disseminated by Reuters, the British news agency. When I wrote to their London office that year to ask why none of these astonishing Reuters messages from Latin America appeared in the British press, I was told that investigating such a question was impossible, since 'it had been a long time ago.'" (Extracted from "The Humanoids in Latin America" ​​by Gordon Creighton in the book The Humanoids, edited by Charles Bowen)