State Department Cable DOS-UAP-D5: Mexican Congress Hears UAP and Alien Life Testimony, September 2023

Source file: 059uap00013.pdf Originating agency: U.S. Department of State Cable origin: AMEMBASSY MEXICO (U.S. Embassy Mexico City) MRN: 23 MEXICO 2544 Date/DTG: September 16, 2023 / 160150Z SEP 23 Classification: UNCLASSIFIED (Released in Full) E.O.: 13526 TAGS: PGOV, PREL, ASEC, TSPA, KJUS, KCRM, MX Subject: Mexico: Weekly Political Blotter, Sep 11–15 Signed by: SALAZAR (Ambassador Ken Salazar) Released by: John Powers, Acting-Director, US Department of State, February 25, 2026 Page count: 7 (all read; UAP section on pages 5–6) Incident date: September 12, 2023 (Congressional hearing) Incident location: Mexican Congress, Mexico City

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Official Blurb (from war.gov)

State Department UAP Cable 5, Mexico, September 16, 2023. On September 12, 2023 the Mexican Congress heard testimony on UAP from experts related to the debate about an Aerial Space Protection Law, which, if approved, would make Mexico the first country to formally acknowledge the presence of alien life on earth. Experts asked legislators to recognize UAP, guarantee airspace security, and allow UAP to be studied. They presented two alleged alien corpses and videos of Mexican pilot's encounters with fast-moving flying objects during flight. Disagreement about the efficacy and validity of the purported alien corpses.

Summary

This document is the Weekly Political Blotter report from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, covering the period September 11–15, 2023. The bulk of the cable addresses domestic Mexican political matters — including the MORENA party's presidential candidate selection process, the resignation of Mexico City's security secretary, attacks on prosecutors in Guerrero, and other items. Section 11 of the cable (pages 5–6), however, is devoted to an exceptional event: testimony before the Mexican Congress on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) and extraterrestrial life. The hearing took place on September 12, 2023, during debate over an Aerial Space Protection Law that, if adopted in its proposed form, would have made Mexico the first country in the world to formally acknowledge the presence of alien life on Earth.

Witnesses included Mexican journalist Jaime Maussan — a prominent figure in the Latin UFO community — and Ryan Graves, a former U.S. Navy pilot who had testified before the U.S. Congress on UAP. The experts asked legislators to recognize UAP, guarantee airspace security, and allow scientific investigation. They presented two alleged alien corpses and videos of Mexican pilots' encounters with fast-moving flying objects during flight. After the hearing, Graves expressed disappointment, saying the display "took away from his and other pilots' experiences with UAP" and called Maussan's presentation an "unsubstantiated stunt." The Embassy notes explicitly that "scientists have discredited previous alleged alien corpses Maussan presented as evidence of alien life."

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Research Article

Introduction: Mexico 2023 and the Cultural Context

In September 2023, the Mexican Congress (San Lazaro, the Chamber of Deputies) hosted an event that drew international media attention. The Chamber's National Security Committee held an open hearing on UAP, as part of a drive to legislate an Aerial Space Protection Law. The current document is the U.S. Embassy Mexico City cable that reported the event to Washington as part of the weekly political briefing.

Mexico has a distinctive tradition of governmental engagement with UAP. In 2004 the Mexican Air Force (FAM) released FLIR thermal footage of unidentified objects filmed by a Merlin C26A aircraft over the Gulf of Campeche — one of the first instances in which a national security organization publicly shared visual evidence. Media figures like Jaime Maussan, a prominent television journalist and producer of the program "Tercer Milenio," became the most visible public voice of the Latin UFO community. This cultural environment — in which prime-time journalism, politics, and a popular tradition of belief in extraterrestrial visitors are woven together — provided the setting for September 2023.

In 2023 Mexico was in political upheaval: the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) was in its final year, the MORENA party had nominated Claudia Sheinbaum as its presidential candidate, and the conservative opposition was consolidating. Simultaneously, the UAP issue was gaining momentum in the United States following the July 2023 Congressional testimony of David Grusch, Ryan Graves, and David Fravor. Mexico's hearing, only two months after that American testimony, was part of a global wave of open debate on the subject.

The Aerial Space Protection Law

The cable states that the hearing's purpose was "to debate language on UAP in the Aerial Space Protection Law, which, if approved, would make Mexico the first country to formally acknowledge the presence of alien life on Earth." This is a dramatic assertion. Had the bill passed in this form, Mexico would have distinguished itself from every other country that has addressed UAP. Prior legislation in the United States — AARO amendments to the NDAA, the Schumer-Rounds UAP Disclosure Act — focused on "unidentified anomalous phenomena" as a neutral category, without predetermining the extraterrestrial nature of the phenomenon. No national legislation has ever sought to enshrine in law a formal acknowledgment of alien life.

The experts who testified asked legislators for three things:

1. To recognize UAP as a category deserving governmental attention
2. To guarantee airspace security with respect to the phenomenon
3. To allow scientific investigation of UAP in an official and systematic manner

The first two items align broadly with AARO's mandate and similar recommendations from U.S. defense analysis. The third — demanding open research — moves beyond bureaucratic consensus into politically sensitive territory.

The Expert Witnesses

The cable identifies two principal witnesses.

Jaime Maussan: A Mexican journalist active in UAP since the 1990s. He has previously presented claims about "alien corpses" that were subsequently discredited by scientists. In 2017 he presented a series of images of so-called "Nazca mummies" which he claimed were non-human, but DNA testing and anatomical analysis by academic institutions in Peru and elsewhere determined they were human remains that had been artificially shaped, or assemblages of animal bones from different species.

Ryan Graves: A former F/A-18F pilot in the U.S. Navy and co-founder of Americans for Safe Aerospace. Graves was one of three witnesses at the U.S. House Oversight Committee's UAP hearing on July 26, 2023 — alongside David Grusch and David Fravor. He testified there about repeated UAP encounters by Navy pilots off the U.S. East Coast between 2014 and 2015. His presence in Mexico City, only six weeks after his Washington testimony, signaled that the UAP disclosure movement was intentionally moving from a national to an international framework.

The experts presented, according to the cable, two categories of evidence:

1. Two alleged alien corpses — displayed before Congress
2. Videos of Mexican pilots' encounters with "fast-moving flying objects during flight"

The "Alien Corpses": Documentation and the Controversy

This section requires care. The cable reports that "experts presented to Congress two alleged alien corpses," using deliberate hedging language. The Embassy does not authenticate the claim; in fact, on page 6 it returns to the subject with diplomatic restraint but firm clarity:

"Scientists have discredited previous alleged alien corpses Maussan presented as evidence of alien life."

This is a precise diplomatic formulation: it does not directly assert that the bodies presented in September 2023 are not genuine but notes that a pattern of presenting bodies claimed to be extraterrestrial, which are subsequently discredited by scientists, recurs in Maussan's history. The cable reinforces this with Graves's quoted characterization: the display "took away from his and other pilots' experiences with UAP," and he called Maussan's presentation an "unsubstantiated stunt."

The corpses displayed in 2023 — shown in a Reuters photograph on page 6 of the cable — are the specimens described in international media as Maussan's "non-human beings." The remains, allegedly originating from phosphate mines near Cusco, Peru, were presented by Maussan as non-human entities with three-fingered hands and feet and an elongated cranium. The scientific community, including Peruvian government authorities, published strong rejections throughout 2023 and 2024, concluding the remains were artificially modified human material or assemblages of animal bones.

Historians and journalists who have tracked Maussan's career documented similar events over many years. The American cable, in measured language, implies that the Mexican Congress was drawn into a forum whose core evidentiary claims had already been examined and rejected.

The Pilot Videos

Alongside the corpses, the experts showed videos of "Mexican pilots' encounters with fast-moving flying objects during flight." The cable provides no detail. The footage most likely included materials released by the Mexican Air Force in 2004 (the Campeche incident) and subsequent recordings. This element of the testimony is the only one Graves appeared willing to endorse as a basis for serious discussion. His disappointment with the event clearly focused on the combination of pilot footage — which he considered legitimate UAP evidence — with the unsubstantiated corpses, which he believed undermined the credibility of the entire subject.

Embassy Analysis

The diplomatic-political dimension of the cable is significant in its own right. The cable was signed by Ambassador Ken Salazar, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico from 2021 to 2024, and was a former Secretary of Agriculture under President Obama. The inclusion of the UAP section in the weekly political blotter — alongside weighty items such as the assassination of prosecutors in Guerrero and the 2024 presidential race — signals that the Embassy treated the event seriously. The cable was distributed to: the National Security Council at the White House, the Office of the Vice President, DNI (Director of National Intelligence), CIA, DIA, USNORTHCOM, USSOUTHCOM, DHS, DOJ, and all U.S. consulates in Mexico. This distribution list is not typical for a "cultural or media event" and reflects the political significance assigned to it.

At the same time, the document's classification is UNCLASSIFIED, and the UAP section is marked (U) with no restrictions. The Embassy did not consider it necessary to classify its analysis — suggesting it was based entirely on open sources (Mexican and American press coverage) rather than sensitive intelligence.

Comparison: Mexico vs. the United States in Approaching UAP

The cable implicitly invites a comparison between two national approaches to UAP.

The American approach (2023): The United States advances through a bureaucratic-legal framework. AARO (All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office) was established in 2022 within the Department of Defense. Congressional hearings take place under the House Oversight Committee, with formal procedures and security-cleared witnesses. The Schumer-Rounds UAP Disclosure Act attempts to mandate disclosure — but the entire effort is built around "unidentified anomalous phenomena" as a neutral category, without predetermining any extraterrestrial nature.

The Mexican approach (2023): The Mexican Congress chose a shorter path. The proposed law did not ask merely to investigate the phenomenon but to enshrine in legislation a formal acknowledgment of "the presence of alien life on Earth." The selection of witnesses — including Maussan with his corpses — reflects a culture in which the "conclusion" is already assumed and what remains is to clothe it in legislation. Graves, representing the American approach, found himself in an unsuitable arena.

This comparison is revealing both culturally and legally. Both societies were surfacing different facets of the same UAP reality. A formal Mexican recognition of alien life, had it passed, would have created an international precedent to which every other government would have had to respond, from a legal or diplomatic position.

Significance: The World's First Legislative Attempt

The Aerial Space Protection Law, according to the cable, would have made Mexico the first country in the world to formally acknowledge the presence of alien life. To the best of public knowledge, the law was not passed in that form. But the debate itself is a historical marker. In the global history of UAP discussion, no prior national legislation had such a declaratory purpose.

The symbolic importance of the proposed legislation reaches beyond the bill itself. It poses a question to other countries: Is formal recognition of alien life a political, scientific, or even theological step? Does it require scientific consensus, or can it rest on "public knowledge" already accepted by the broader population? The Mexican Congress, by holding the hearing, implicitly answered that such recognition is within the legislature's competence.

Diplomatically, the U.S. Embassy preferred to document the event in restrained language, pass along the scientific community's rejection of Maussan's previous corpses, and let the reader draw the clear conclusion: Mexico was not advancing on a scientific track but being swept along by a media spectacle.

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Key People

Witnesses Who Testified

• Jaime Maussan — Mexican journalist, producer of "Tercer Milenio." Presented two alleged alien corpses.
• Ryan Graves — former U.S. Navy pilot (F/A-18F), testified before the U.S. Congress in July 2023. Criticized Maussan's presentation and called it an "unsubstantiated stunt."

U.S. Embassy Figures

• Ken Salazar — U.S. Ambassador to Mexico 2021–2024, signed the cable.
• Sergio A. Moreno — Drafted By and released by at the Embassy.
• Brian Naranjo — POL, Cleared By.
• Amanda Karimi — POL, Drafted/Cleared.
• Mark Johnson — EXEC, Approved By.
• Eduardo Cortazar, Maria de los Angeles Tejeda, Steven Conlon, J. Harder, Ifeoma Okwuje, Gregory Bernsteen — drafting team.

Mexican Political Figures (referenced in broader cable context)

• Claudia Sheinbaum — MORENA presidential candidate for 2024.
• Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) — President of Mexico 2018–2024.

Figures Not Named in the Cable

• The Mexican pilots whose footage was shown are not named. They may include participants in the 2004 FAM Campeche operation.

Locations

• Mexico City — Mexico's capital, site of the Congress and the U.S. Embassy.
• Mexican Congress (San Lazaro, Chamber of Deputies) — site of the September 12, 2023 hearing.
• U.S. Embassy Mexico City (AMEMBASSY MEXICO) — origin of the cable.
• Cusco, Peru — the claimed origin of the "alien corpses" presented by Maussan.

Incidents

Incident	Date	Location	Pages
Mexican Congress hearing on UAP — presentation of "alien corpses" and pilot encounter videos	September 12, 2023	Mexican Congress, Mexico City	5–6
U.S. Embassy cable transmission (Weekly Political Blotter)	September 16, 2023, 0150Z	U.S. Embassy Mexico City	1
Full public release of document (FOIA) by John Powers, Acting-Director	February 25, 2026	Department of State, Washington, D.C.	1

Notable Quotes

"Congress heard testimony on unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) September 12, from experts including from Mexican journalist Jaime Maussan and former U.S. Navy pilot Ryan Graves, who previously testified before the U.S. Congress." — page 5

"The hearing was to debate language on UAP in the Aerial Space Protection Law which, if approved, would make Mexico the first country to formally acknowledge the presence of alien life on Earth." — page 5

"Experts asked legislators to recognize UAP, guarantee airspace security, and allow UAP to be studied." — page 5

"Experts also presented to Congress two alleged alien corpses and videos of Mexican pilots' encounters with fast-moving flying objects during flight." — page 5

"After the hearing, Graves lamented the display took away from his and other pilots' experiences with UAP and expressed disappointment with Maussan's 'unsubstantiated stunt.' Scientists have discredited previous alleged alien corpses Maussan presented as evidence of alien life." — page 6