Lima, Jan 12 (EFE). – “This is, simply put, a fraud,” experts from Peru’s Attorney General’s Office and the Ministry of Culture said during a press conference on Friday about two alleged extraterrestrial mummies seized in the Lima airport.

Flavio Estrada, a forensic archaeologist at the Public Ministry’s Institute of Legal Medicine, warned that “pseudoscience is distorting the history” of Peru.

“Our ancient civilizations built the (Inca shrine of) Machu Picchu and the Nazca lines, they did not need alien help,” he said.

And added that “science is a beacon of light” and that the alleged mummies are “pseudoscience.”

The forensic archaeologist of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Lima of the Public Ministry, Flavio Estrada, speaks during the presentation by the Ministry of Culture of Peru of the results of the expert analysis carried out on two pieces that look like mummies in Lima, Peru, 12 January 2024. EFE/ Paolo Aguilar

The figurines were subjected to studies that showed that they were made “with modern glue, therefore they are not from the pre-Hispanic era, that is a lie,” said Estrada.

According to the report, which he presented jointly with Humberto Ávalos, forensic pharmacist at the Institute of Legal Medicine of the Public Ministry, the mummies, which are said to have tridactyl hands, contain camelid bones, wool, polypropylene, rubber, tissue fibers and glue, among other things.

The two puppets, dressed in cloth and wearing shoes with glitter and lace ribbons, were seized at the facilities of an international transport company at Lima airport as they were about to be sent to Mexico.

They are very similar to the alleged “extraterrestrial remains” from Cuzco, Peru, presented by Mexican TV personality Jaime Maussan in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies in September 2023, which were also labeled a fraud by experts.

“They are not extraterrestrials, they are not intraterrestrials, they are not a new species, they are not hybrids, they are nothing of what this group of pseudo-scientists who have been presenting these elements for six years are saying,” Estrada said, without explicitly mentioning who the “pseudo-scientists” were.

Ultimately, Estrada questioned why Peruvians “have to talk about puppets put together by a group of people who have made a spectacle of it” and asked that attention be paid to “more important problems.” EFE

Photograph of a slide showing the details of the survey carried out on two pieces with the appearance of small mummies, during the presentation of the results of the process, Lima, Peru, 12 January 2024. EFE/ Paolo Aguilar

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