December 12, 2007-A report from Ana Luisa Cid

On Tuesday, December 11, 2007, dozens of districts in the Mexican capital and some municipalities in the state of Mexico were affected by a 25-minute blackout. According to reports, the causes were simultaneous explosions in three electric power stations.

Reports from the Ministry of Civil Protection indicate that said explosions, whose causes are still unknown, took place at the substations of the Nonoalco and Tlatelolco plants, as well as the one located in Ecatepec.

The incident was reported at 23:30 hours and people living next to the Tlatelolco Unit stated that they heard loud explosions within the plant shortly before the blackout, which in turn caused several flashes. The possibility of a terrorist attack against the facilities of the Luz y Fuerza company has been officially discarded.

This information was obtained from the El Universal newspaper, where the picture taken by Valente Rosas was published, showing a luminous object over the skies of the nation's capital during the blackout.

While the use of pyrotechnics around this date are common due to the feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the structure does not correspond to that of fireworks, in my opinion, due to its size and morphology. In any event, I think that the possibility of an airplane with a sweeping effect must also be dismissed.

Until contact can be made with the newspaper's photographer and more information offered, it should be noted that two possible UFO sightings occurred that day: the first in the Coapa area to the south of the city, and the second toward the airport.

I had a personal sighting at 11:30 at night as I drove along Avenida de los Cien Metros in the Gustavo A. Madero district. What I saw, in the company of my family, was an object made up of two shining lights, resembling the planet Mars, but double--one sphere above and another below, both of them very large and shiny, traveling at relatively low altitude. The object remained static. It was, however, difficult to capture it on video due to the motion of the car and the impossibility of pulling over on an expressway.

It should be noted that this is not the first time that the UFO phenomenon is linked to blackouts in Mexico. Renowned researcher Pedro Ferriz states that then-president Luis Echeverria told him that he and his wife were witnesses to a sighting during the blackouts in Cuernavaca, Morelos, on September 23, 1965, describing the object as similar to a mechanical pencil. The president added that they were in the company of Amalia Hernandez, founder of the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico.

Do UFOs cause blackouts? We really don't know. Those who support this theory opine that UFOs exert powerful electromagnetic influences, particularly near power stations.

[Translator's note: More information on the Mexican blackouts of the 1960s and 1970s can be found in "Forbidden Mexico" by Scott Corrales]

(Translation (c) 2007. S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Ana Luisa Cid)