Jaime Maussán

José Jaime Maussán Flota is a Mexican pseudo-journalist, ufologist, sensationalist charlatan and UFO huckster with over 40 frauds to his name, including, most famously, presenting fake alien mummies to the The true story of the fake unboxed aliens is wilder than actual aliens by Aja Romano (16 September 2023) VoxWhy Would Anyone Think the Mexican ‘Alien Mummies’ Were Real? by Mark West (5 March 2024) Skeptical Inquirer Becoming interested in the UFO phenomenon during the Mexico City flap, which accompanied the solar eclipse of July 11, 1991, Maussán has gone on to build this interest into a massive business empire and has, according to Robert Sheaffer,UFO Sightings: The Evidence by Robert Sheaffer (1998) Prometheus Books. ISBN 1573922137. “made more money off the UFO mania than anyone else in Mexico, and perhaps the entire world.” Early success came from distributing material featuring Swiss New Age shyster Billy Meier. He has gone on to insert himself into all subsequently reported UFO sightings and close encounters in Mexico.
==UNEP Global 500 Roll of Honour 1990==
Maussán was named on the in 1990 for dedicating two decades of his journalistic career to the protection of the environment, during which he successfully pressed for measures to clean up heavily-polluted air, won protection for Mexico's forests, got legislation to preserve the passed, and generally raised ecological awareness particularly around climate change.Jose Jaime Flota Global 500 Environmental Forum That done he dedicated the rest of his career to bunkum.
==The 1991 Mexico City UFO Flap==
Maussán was among the alleged (by Maussán) 40,000 witnesses who saw, photographed and filmed a large stationary white light visible above Mexico City for 30 minutes during the The UFOs That Never Were by Jenny Randles, Andy Roberts and David Clarke (2000) London House. ISBN 1902809351. 
When Maussán broadcast footage of the incident shot by filmmaker Guillermo Arriaga the following week on Sesenta Minutos (the Mexican version of 60 Minutes) the station received thousands of calls from viewers who saw the same thing,Mexico UFO Unsolved Mysteries earning this incident the reputation of being one of the largest mass UFO sightings ever.THE ALIENS AMONG US: Mexico City by Frances Romero (19 May 2011) Time 
Subsequent analysis of the numerous reports, photographs and footage, however, indicates that what the vast majority of witnesses saw was, in fact, most likely, the planet Venus.THE JULY 11, 1991 MEXICO CITY UFOs: Basic astronomy ignored by Tim Printy astronomyufo.com Whilst some of the other sightings may have been a high altitude weather balloon above the location at that time. Nevertheless, Maussán subsequently became obsessed with collecting evidence of alien visitation.
==The UFO of Las Lomas==
Maussán, in September 1997, aired footage of a large disc-shaped UFO hovering over the rooftops of downtown Mexico City in broad daylight on 6th August 1997.The UFOs That Never Were by Jenny Randles, Andy Roberts and David Clarke (2000) London House. ISBN 1902809351. The footage was sent under a pseudonym to his TV offices on September 26thand despite being initially suspicious as no such incident had been reported at the time,An analysis: Mexico City video by Bruce Maccabee (April 1998) UFO Journal, he nonetheless broadcast the footage the day after receiving it. It was immediately picked up by international broadcasters and even went viral on the then still nascent World Wide Web.
Maussán quickly located the building where the footage had been filmed and by asking around was able to turn up a few witnesses that claimed to have seen something, but none proved to be particularly reliable. Although intial study by MUFON staff video analyst Jeff Sainio suggested the footage might be genuine, further analysis pointed to several clear signs of fakery.Three indications of a hoax: Analysis of Mexico City video by Jeff Sainio (October 1998) UFO Journal. The likely creator was eventually identified as Ignacio Ocampo Valles who was an employee of advertising agency Publicidad Virtual which had its video production facilities near to where the footage was filmed.El Ovni de las Lomas. El Autor revelado 18 años después by Luis Miguel Barrera (5 November 2015) Lamat Realidad Alterna Although this conclusion seems somewhat at odds with Maussán's factual claim that, "Mexicans do not make hoax UFO photos." 
==The 2004 Mexican Air Force UFO Incident==
Maussán was personally invited by Mexico’s Minister of Defense, General Gerardo Clemente Vega García, to assist in the analysis and release on 12 May 2004 of a video of an encounter between Mexican Air Force pilots using infrared cameras to search for drug-smuggling planes and eleven lights 3.5km high in the sky over southern Campeche on 5 March 2004.Mexico Unexplained by Robert Bitto (2017) CreateSpace. ISBN 1979049041. At the press conference Maussán called this "historic news" as it was the first UFO video to have the backing of the armed forces of any country, and, "the armed forces don't perpetuate frauds."Mexico pilots release 'UFO film' (12 May 2004) BBC News. He also interviewed Maj Magdaleno Castanon, who told him how he led the pursuit of the lights: 
UFO investigator Alejandro Franz, however, identified the lights as very stationary burn off flares from oil rigs in the Mexican Air Force FLIR's video lights are UFO's or simply Oil Well Gas flames? by Alejandro Franz alcione.org with any apparent movement entirely illusory.The Mexican Air Force UFO Affair: Aliens, Ball Lightning, or Flares? by James C. Smith eSkeptic Michael Shermer, who had appeared on CNN three times the week the story broke, noted how, like a fisherman’s tale, it grew with each retelling.
==The Metepec Creature==
Maussán spent many years touting the apparent extraterrestrial origins of the so-called Metepec Creature, a small, smooth, whitish-grey creature, which bore a distinct resemblance to a skinned marmoset.Metepec Creature Cryptid WikiClassic Hoax: “Baby Alien” Found in Mexico (11 January 2016) Waffles at Noon The specimen had been purchased for US$23,000 in 2007 from taxidermist Urso Ruíz, who claimed to have captured it alive in a rat trap on a ranch in Metepec, Mexico, and shown it to multiple witnesses before killing it. In 2010, however, Ruíz made a truly shocking confession:The Jaime Maussan Metepec Creature Confirmed as a Hoax (21 March 2010) AboveTopSecret.com 
Undeterred, Maussán continued shopping it around and hyping up the indeterminate DNA results which Ruíz had predicted. Analysis of advanced scanning and DNA testing at for Channel 4’s in 2012 conclusively identified it as a marmoset and, under lie-detection for the same programmme, Ruíz confirmed it to be a he’d been sent by the local zoo for taxidermic preservation.Science now confirms the Metapec creature is a hoax (8 December 2012) AboveTopSecret.com
==The Roswell Slides==
Maussán hosted the 5 May 2015 beWitness event at Mexico City’s Auditorio Nacional for nearly 7,000 attendees who paid between $20 and $86 for a ticket on the promise of a “smoking gun”, what he gave them was the “Roswell Slides”.The “Roswell Slide” – Alien Kodachrome Slide Released – But Just One (Now two) by John Greenwald (6 May 2015) The Black Vault The slides, discovered in a house clearance of a deceased Texas couple, were two almost identical Kodachrome images of what appeared to be a mummified child on display in a museum, complete with labelling (albeit out-of-focus) which seemed curiously visitor friendly for a or Area 51 secret archive. 
Sports videographer Adam Dew had spent nearly five years investigating the photos, roping in Roswell crash self-professed experts Anthony Bragalia, Donald Schmitt, Tom Carey, and Richard Dolan along the way, because, well, Roswell’s not so far from Texas, before turning to Maussaán to help raise funds for his intended documentary on the slides.The curious case of the alien in the photo - and a mystery that took years to solve by Les Carpenter (30 September 2017) The Guardian And while in all that time no one had apparently thought to deblur the labelling, within days of the presentation an ad hoc assemblage of investigators, calling themselves The “Roswell Slides” Research Group, had obtained leaked high-res scans of the images and done precisely that. The labelling, it may shock you to learn, read:
 
The exhibit was then traced to the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum in Mesa Verde, Colorado, which confirmed that while the boy's remains had been returned to a local Native American tribe in 2015. They had prior to that been on display in the museum following their donation to the National Park Service in 1938. Subsequently, many of those involved in this disrespectful debacle admitted to their mistake and apologised,Tony Bragalia and the End of the Roswell Slides by Anthony Bragalia (10 May 2015) A Different Perspective suffice it to say Maussán did not, nor did he pay out on his promise of $5,000 for similar images and $10,000 for information on the specimen's whereabouts.Case Closed: New Photo Proves “Roswell Alien” in the Kodachrome Slides is Definitely a Mummy, Maussan by Chris Savia (10 June 2015) Week in Weird
==The Demon Fairy==
Maussán reportedly paid $10,000 dollars for his next specimen, a small, winged creature with glowing red eyes, which looked like a P. T. Barnum-style stitch up, à la the complete with taxidermist pins showing up in the X-rays.Demon Fairy Fiasco Update by Dr Michael S. Heiser (17 September 2016)LA Marzulli’s ‘Demon Fairy’ Revisited by Tony Breeden (30 May 2017) Exotheology.org Christian ufologist and nephilim theorist L.A. Marzulli was however impressed enough to feature it on the cover of his book Nephilim Hybrids and fill out its backstory as one of the locusts described in :L. A. Marzulli Releases More Information on "Fairy" Corpse from Mexico by Jason Colavito (22 July 2016)
 
When Marzulli finally got it to a lab in the US, however, it literally fell apart, as a zoologist revealed it to be the remains of a bat held together with toothpicks and epoxy, along with a dab of phosphorescent paint for that demonic glow.Marzulli Admits "Demon Fairy" Is a Fraud; Plus: David Wilcock Implies Hillary Clinton Is a Tool of the Nephilim by Jason Colavito (18 September 2016) Marzulli was, of course, repentant,L.A. Marzulli: The Winged Hoax (28 September 2016) Prophecy Watchers Maussán not so much.
==The Nazca Mummy==
Maussán teamed up with "digital New Age nonsense" streamer Gaia Inc. in 2017 for the “Unearthing Nazca” series on the scientific examination of the so-called “Nazca Mummy”. This three-fingered humanoid appears to be a plastered over an assemblage of looted ancient human remains and animal bones, as created by local hoaxer and YouTuber Luis Quispe (a.k.a., Paul Ronceros) in a batch crowdfunded by French pseudoarchaeologist and Ancient Aliens regular Thierry Jamin in 2016. 
The crack team of scientific advisors filmed by Gaia roughly manhandling the specimen in the decidedly non-controlled setting of an open rooftop in Peru, consists of known cranks Konstantin Korotkov, who markets his own version of Kirlian photography and claims to have photographed the human soul, and José de Jesús Zalce Benítez, who previously authenticated the Roswell Slides for Maussán. 
The series earned a stern rebuke from The World Committee on Mummy Studies who concluded that “pre-Columbian human remains” had been "maliciously manipulated and even mutilated to obtain an 'ad hoc' appearance for commercial exploitation,” and that this “criminal abuse of corpses for petty ends violates human dignity in a profound way."The Racism Behind Alien Mummy Hoaxes by Christopher Heaney (1 August 2017) The Atlantic And the Peruvian prosecutor’s office, based on a report by the Institute of Legal Medicine, concluded that, "They are not the remains of ancestral aliens that they have tried to present," but are, in fact, "recently manufactured dolls, which have been covered with a mixture of paper and synthetic glue to simulate the presence of skin."Scientists call fraud on supposed extraterrestrials presented to Mexican Congress by Megan Janetsky (14 September 2023) AP NewsMexico’s scientific society called the alleged extraterrestrial bodies presented by ufologist a fraud by Magali Alvarez (14 September 2023) The Yucatan Times
Quispe eventually accepted that the mummies were fake, but then claimed they were two-thousand-year-old fakes made by the ancient Nazca people to represent the aliens they saw.“Unearthing Nazca”: A Common Sense Approach to Analyzing The Three Fingered Mummy from Peru by John Greenwald (26 June 2017) The Black Vault Unbowed, Maussán completed the 9-part series for Gaia, hawked the mummy in numerous other documentaries, and even had the gall to present it in a hearing before the Everything You Need to Know About the 'Alien Mummy' Unboxing in Mexico's Congress by Jason Koebler (13 September 2023) 404 Media
==Hydrotene==
Maussan took some time off from alien hoaxing during the COVID-19 pandemic to join his long-time "scientific" advisor Zalce Benitez in promoting snakeoil miracle cure Hydrotene. Agronomic engineer Juan Alfonso García Urbina maintained, without evidence, that this “antioxidant nutritional complex” that he had spent 5 years developing provided 96% effective protection against viral infection when applied to the skin. A forum titled "Hydrotene: Strategies and Alternatives for COVID-19 Treatment," organized by Mexican senator Lucía Trasviña was cancelled following backlash which was in no small part due to Maussán’s involvement.
==The Nazca Mummy returns==
Maussán and Zalce Benitez presented two more so-called "mummies" from the Luis Quispe and Thierry Jamin collection at hearings on UFOs held in the Green Room of Mexico's in SeptemberMexican Congress holds hearing on UFOs featuring purported 'alien' bodies by Cassandra Garrison (14 September 2023) ReutersExclusive: A close encounter with the 'alien bodies' in Mexico by Cassandra Garrison (16 September 2023) Reuters and NovemberMexican Congress holds second UFO session featuring Peruvian mummies by Cassandra Garrison (8 November 2023) Reuters 2023. The resulting backlash included Peruvian Culture Minister Leslie Urteaga questioning how the specimens had been removed from Peru and announcing a criminal complaint from the Ministry of Culture against Maussán's associates,'Alien bodies' presented in Mexican Congress panned as 'stunt' by Cassandra Garrison (15 September 2023) Reuters and physical anthropologist Guido Lombardi, who studied mummies in Peru, maintaining:
A further shipment of two small figures and a three-fingered hand, from the between 20 and 200 specimens the various “researchers” now claim to have found, was intercepted by Peruvian customs on it’s way to Mexico,‘Aliens’ Found in Peru Were Actually Just Dolls, Experts Say by Edith Olmsted (12 January 2024) The Daily Beast as part of ongoing efforts to stop the plunder of the country's archaeological sites.Alien fever dreams fuel Peruvian grave robbing by Cassandra Garrison and Marco Aquino (6 April 2024) Reuters Following analysis, forensic archaeologist Flavio Estrada made an earthshaking announcement:
While the hand, according to Estrada had been "very poorly" built from human bones.
==References==
Category:Ancient aliens
Category:Environmentalism
Category:Hoaxes
Category:Journalists
Category:Living people
Category:Mexico
category:Pseudoarchaeology
Category:Shysters
Category:Ufology