State Department UAP Cable 005, Mexico, September 16, 2003

This cable’s title and listing give its date as 2003, but the document itself is a Mission Mexico “Weekly Political Blotter” sent from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City on 16 September 2023, covering 11 to 15 September. Most of it deals with Mexican politics: a challenge to the ruling party’s presidential selection, election officials, resignations and violence against prosecutors in Guerrero. The UAP item is the last of eight.

What it says about the hearing

The cable reports that on 12 September Mexico’s Congress heard testimony on unidentified aerial phenomena from experts including the Mexican journalist Jaime Maussan and Ryan Graves, a former U.S. Navy pilot who had testified to the U.S. Congress. The session concerned UAP language in a proposed airspace protection law that, if passed, would according to the cable have made Mexico the first nation to formally recognize alien life on Earth. Maussan put two supposed alien bodies on display, and footage of Mexican pilots’ encounters was played.

The embassy adds two points. Graves afterward complained that the display distracted from pilots’ experiences, calling it an “unsubstantiated stunt.” And scientists had discredited earlier alleged alien remains that Maussan had presented. A Reuters photo of the bodies is credited in the cable.

Why it matters

The cable is a brief, skeptical outside view of a widely covered event, and shows that U.S. diplomats reported it as political news. Background on the U.S. hearings Graves took part in is on our timeline.