Around the world
Cases and official files from Mexico, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay and beyond. 34 events, newest first.
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Government1 Jul 2025
The NASA-funded ATLAS survey telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, found a fast object on an interstellar path, reported to the Minor Planet Center on July 1, 2025. Named 3I/ATLAS, it was only the third known interstellar visitor and was classified as a comet.
Photo: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/K. Meech, CC BY 4.0
Government12 Jan 2024
Experts working for Peru's prosecutors examined figures seized by customs and said they were dolls built from animal and human bones held with modern synthetic glue. Similar bodies had been shown to Mexico's Congress in 2023 as possible non-human life.
Government7 Nov 2023
Journalist Jaime Maussan returned to Mexico's Congress with doctors and Peruvian researchers who said the three-fingered bodies were once-living organisms. None would certify them as extraterrestrial, and the bodies were not shown this time.
Photo: ProtoplasmaKid, CC BY-SA 4.0
Government12 Sep 2023
At Mexico's first congressional UAP hearing, journalist Jaime Maussan displayed two small mummified bodies he claimed were non-human. UNAM said its lab had only carbon-dated samples and drew no conclusions about origin; scientists widely called the bodies a hoax.
Photo: ProtoplasmaKid, CC BY-SA 4.0
Military3 Feb 2023
Colombia's Air Force said it detected an object with balloon-like features above 55,000 feet, moving about 25 knots, and tracked it out of the country's airspace, judging it no threat. The Pentagon had reported a Chinese balloon over Latin America; China called it a stray civilian craft.
Photo: Fuerza Aerea Colombiana, CC0
Sightings23 Apr 2019
A fireball at about 9:07 pm, recorded by Costa Rican seismological cameras, dropped stones on Aguas Zarcas. One piece punched a grapefruit-sized hole in a house roof and another hit a dog house; the stones were classified as a CM2 carbonaceous chondrite.
Photo: Csavil, CC BY-SA 4.0
Government4 Apr 2019
By Resolution 364/2019 the Argentine Air Force restructured its aerospace phenomena commission (CEFAE) as the Centro de Identificacion Aeroespacial (CIAE) from April 4, 2019. The center publishes annual case reports and says most sightings it receives have ordinary causes.
MediaJul 2017
In June 2017 the streaming site Gaia and journalist Jaime Maussan promoted a 'three-fingered' body said to come from Nazca, Peru. In July Peruvian scientists said they would file a complaint over altered ancient remains, with the Ministry of Culture and prosecutors to review.
Sightings10 Aug 2015
A volunteer group, the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, released an analysis of the 2013 Aguadilla infrared video arguing a wind-borne object could not explain it. In 2025 AARO assessed with moderate confidence that the objects were sky lanterns.
Photo: Miguelpr91 at English Wikipedia, Public domain
Military11 Nov 2014
A Chilean Navy helicopter crew on coastal patrol west of Santiago filmed an object with an infrared camera for about 10 minutes. Chile's CEFAA studied the footage for two years and called it unidentified; skeptics later argued it was an airliner leaving contrails.
GovernmentOct 2013
Peru's air force said it was reviving DIFAA, an office set up in 2001 to study anomalous aerial phenomena that had been dormant for about five years, citing a rise in reported sightings. Col. Julio Vucetich said it would pair air force staff with scientists and take public reports.
Photo: Lizet Morales Zaragoza, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sightings25 Apr 2013
An infrared camera on a U.S. Customs and Border Protection aircraft over Rafael Hernandez Airport filmed objects that seemed to race and enter the sea. Private analysts argued it was anomalous; in 2025 AARO said the objects likely were two sky lanterns drifting with the wind over land.
Photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Erniefr&action=edit, Public domain
Sightings25 Oct 2012
A Televisa camera clip showing a long luminous object dropping toward the Popocatepetl crater went viral as a UFO. Mexico's disaster agency CENAPRED said it was most likely a bolide from the Taurid meteor shower, noting no impact or tremor was recorded at the volcano.
Photo: Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0
Government6 May 2011
Argentina's air force set up CEFAe, a commission of military and civilian experts, to study reported aerial phenomena. Press accounts say it examined few cases at first; in 2019 it was restructured as the CIAE, which reports that the cases it analyzed were identified as ordinary objects.
Military4 Nov 2010
Images and video from a Chilean Air Force change-of-command ceremony at El Bosque base showed a small object near the aerobatic team. In 2012 retired general Ricardo Bermudez of the air force's CEFAA committee said experts ruled out birds, aircraft and meteors; skeptics suggested an insect.
Photo: Unknown photographer, Public domain
Military5 Mar 2004
A Mexican Air Force surveillance plane on a drug patrol recorded up to 11 lights visible only in infrared over Campeche. The Defense Ministry gave the video to a UFO researcher, and it aired in May 2004; a later analysis argued the lights were distant oil-platform flares.
Photo: Zahpo75, Public domain
GovernmentDec 2001
In late December 2001 the Peruvian Air Force set up an Office for the Investigation of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena (OIFAA), reportedly after a televised sighting over Lima's La Molina district. The office later lapsed and was relaunched as DIFAA in 2013.
Photo: Sodacan, CC BY-SA 4.0
Government1997
Chile set up CEFAA, a committee within its civil aviation directorate (DGAC, part of the Air Force structure), to study anomalous aerial phenomena reported at airports and by aircrews. It became one of the longest-running official UAP study bodies in the world.
Photo: Direccion General de Aeronautica Civil, Public domain
Sightings17 Nov 1996
Russia's Mars 96 probe, stranded in Earth orbit after a launch failure, reentered over the Pacific and northern Chile. Witnesses in the Atacama reported a fireball breaking up, and its roughly 200 g of plutonium in power units was thought to have reached the ground.
Photo: NASA, Public domain
Sightings31 Jul 1995
Capt. Jorge Polanco of Aerolineas Argentinas flight 674 reported a bright light pacing his Boeing 727 on approach to Bariloche during a power cut; Gendarmeria pilots also reported it. A 2018 Argentine Air Force report attributed it to a searchlight aimed at the clouds; files were released in 2020.
Photo: Nocturnogatuno, CC BY 3.0
Sightings11 Jul 1991
During the total solar eclipse over Mexico City, a number of residents reported seeing a strange hovering craft, in what has been called one of the largest mass UFO sightings; reports also came from other Mexican cities. A skeptic suggested viewers without eye protection were seeing spots.
Photo: Claudio Lelli 2, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sightings7 Feb 1991
The derelict Soviet space station Salyut 7 reentered uncontrolled over Argentina in the early hours of February 7, 1991. Witnesses described a long fiery trail across the sky, and fragments fell in several provinces, the largest in a yard in Capitan Bermudez. No injuries were reported.
Photo: Carloszelayeta, CC BY-SA 4.0
Military9 May 1980
A U.S. defense attache cable from Lima reported that Peruvian Air Force officers saw a round object hovering near Mariano Melgar air base at La Joya, and that an Su-22 fired on it without effect. Pilot Oscar Santa Maria Huertas later gave his own account. The object was never identified.
Photo: U.S. DoD photo, uploaded by en:User:Victor12, Public domain
Military1979
Uruguay created CRIDOVNI, a commission within its Air Force to receive and investigate UFO reports. It was still active decades later, publicly explaining or rejecting viral sighting claims.
Photo: vectored by FOX 52, CC BY-SA 4.0
SightingsMay 1978
In May 1978 Bolivian and Argentine media reported that an unidentified object had fallen on a hill in southern Bolivia near the Argentine border, that the area was cordoned off and that Bolivia sought U.S. help to identify it. A U.S. press-monitoring compilation recorded the conflicting reports.
Photo: Ruditaly, CC BY-SA 4.0
