Notes: Public Hearing in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies on September 12 2023

 

I speak Spanish, but I am not a stenographer. This means that I will necessarily be "hitting the high points."

The hearing was opened by Deputy Sergio Carlos Gutiérrez Luna, who welcomed all those present and introduced the participants: Jaime Maussán Flota, who is arguably the most well-known figure in Mexican ufology, and would be the master of ceremonies for this hearing; Avi Loeb, Harvard astrophysicist and Director of the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University (who would give his presentation remotely); Mariano Tello, of INAI; Ryan Graves, a retired USN pilot; Lieutenant Robert Salas, USAF Retired; Capt. Julio Darwish, a Mexican air controller; Enrique Kolbeck, also a Mexican air controller; Andrea Pérez Sinondini, from Argentina, a member of the ALAS pilots' association and Director of the Commission for the Study of the Ovni (UFO/UAP) Phenomenon of the Republic of Argentina; Yoshiharu Asakawa, a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Japanese Congress; Rony Tadeu Vernet Braga, of the Brazilian Center of Physical Investigations; Michael Vaillant, one of the experts of the GEIPAN unit for the National Center for Space Studies (France); Jois Mantilla, journalist and investigator for Otromundo Comunicaciones; José de Jesús Zalce Benítez, who works for the Mexican Navy and is Director of the Scientific Institute for Health and is a specialist in Forensic Sciences, Ricardo Rangel Martínez, an expert in Immunogenetics and Histocompatibility.

Deputy Gutiérrez Luna then turned the podium over to Jaime Maussán. The first speaker was Avi Loeb, who participated remotely, speaking in English (which I could not hear, due to simultaneous interpretation in Spanish).Loeb made the case for the high likelihood that we are not alone in the Cosmos and the necessity to take it seriously so that we can eventually take our place among the civilizations of the Galaxy.

The next speaker was Mariano Tello, Director of the Center for Attention to the Public of INAI. His Center is responsible for attending to what we would call FOIA requests, of which he said there were a record number in 2022. He spoke about the people's right to information, and how to submit a request. He also committed to being an ally of those seeking information on this phenomenon.

The next speaker was Ryan Graves, who spoke in English, and again I could not hear him because of interference from the simultaneous interpretation. Graves is a retired USN pilot who became well-known as a result of his testimony to the US Congress on July 26. He recounted a 2014 event in which he confronted an unidentified object near Virginia Beach. The object was a dark cube within a circle, and it traveled at a speed greater than Mach 1. The object remains unidentified to this day. He said that the people of the US deserve a secure airspace. He lamented the absence of an adequate protocol for reporting, and the frequent stigmatization of those who report. He said that studies of the phenomenon are being undertaken at Stanford and Harvard, and there needs to be less secrecy and more release of information.  

I'm tired, so I will interrupt this report at this point.

(to be continued)

Text Copyright © 2023 by Donald C. Traxler.