The Mexican journalist who presented the mummies to the world is being investigated. Photo / Getty Images
The Mexican journalist who presented the mummies to the world is being investigated. Photo / Getty Images
Authorities in Peru are launching a criminal probe into discredited ufologist Jaime Maussan after he presented two “aliens” to Mexico’s congress.
Peruvian officials are now looking into how two alleged “non-human” alien corpses were taken out of the country.
The small skeletons, about 60cm long, prompted a bizarre break in proceedings in Mexico’s congress last week as Maussan presented them in large wooden caskets to MPs.
Maussan claims that the bodies were found in Peru in 2017 and are “non-human beings that are not part of our terrestrial evolution”.
However, scientists and academics have dismissed the discoveries as yet another stunt by Maussan in his quest to prove the existence of aliens.
On Monday, Jose de Jesus Zalce Benitez, the director of the Health Sciences Research Institute of the Secretary of the Navy, conducted tests on the remains and livestreamed the event on Maussan’s YouTube channel.
They conducted X-rays and CT scans of the bodies, concluding there was “no evidence of any assembly or manipulation of the skulls”, seemingly proving the remains were not human-made.
The bodies have no relation to human beings, experts said. Photo / Getty Images
That contradicted earlier suggestions that the bodies had been assembled with animal or human bones - though is unlikely to assuage Maussan’s critics because of his relationship with Benitez. The pair appeared alongside each other at the Mexican congress to give evidence of their discoveries.
“[They] belong to a single skeleton that has not been joined to other pieces,” he said.
Benitez, who previously claimed “these bodies have no relation to human beings”, also made claims about large lumps inside the abdomen of one of the bodies.
He said scans by his team showed one “was alive, was intact, was biological and was in gestation”, suggesting the lumps could be eggs.
Footage of the team doing the tests shows one of the bodies had an elongated head, two slanted eyes and a small upturned nose. While it bears a resemblance to fictional depictions of aliens, scientists have yet to suggest that they are indeed from another planet.
One theory put forward by academics and archaeologists is that the remains are mummified human bodies.
The press conference was held the day after the country's first public congressional hearing on the topic with UFO experts. Photo / Getty Images
But Peruvian government officials have dismissed Maussan’s claims, who has a history of making dubious claims, with the government saying the bodies are likely pre-Hispanic objects.
Culture Minister Leslie Urteaga is looking into how the corpses came into Maussan possession and added that a criminal complaint has been filed.
Maussan hasn’t explained how he obtained the corpses but maintained he is innocent and would reveal all “at an appropriate time”.
“I’m not worried,” he told The Telegraph. “I have done absolutely nothing illegal.”
Dan Evans, an assistant deputy associate administrator for research at Nasa, said this week: “Our primary goal today is to steer away from speculation and conspiracy theories and towards a scientific and rational approach, and this is achieved through rigorous data analysis”.
Maussan made prior claims in 2017 where he was involved in a documentary making similar claims about mummified aliens.
The film by conspiracy theory video platform Gaia.com claimed a three-fingered mummy was discovered in the Nazca region of Peru.
“Independent scientists and universities are currently analysing findings, with initial examinations suggesting the possibility of material that is unlike anything found in the fossil record,” the website said.
“Could this be a primitive human with an intentional or developmental deformity, or undeniable evidence that a non-human species exists?”
Maussan, who led the Gaia filmmakers to the Nazca mummy, had two years earlier been a key organiser of what the Skeptical Inquirer magazine dubbed “UFOlogy’s biggest black eye”.
