Mexican President Tries to Pass Off Two-Year-Old "Witch" Image as Recent Capture of Mischievous Elf

The above images were first shared in February of 2021. *(Johnny Martinez / Twitter)*

Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador posted an image to Twitter last month of what he said is “apparently an aluxe.”

He claimed the image was "taken by an engineer three days ago” while working on the Maya Train project—a 948-mile intercity railway in Mexico that will traverse the Yucatán Peninsula.

"Everything is mystical," he said in the post.

Les comparto dos fotos de nuestra supervisión a las obras del Tren Maya: una, tomada por un ingeniero hace tres días, al parecer de un aluxe; otra, de Diego Prieto de una espléndida escultura prehispánica en Ek Balam. Todo es místico. pic.twitter.com/Tr5OP2EqmU
— Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) February 25, 2023

Aluxes are mischievous, faerie-like creatures found in Maya folktales, and are occasionally compared to the elves or leprechauns seen in other folk traditions. While often said to spend most of their time invisible, aluxes do sometimes show themselves. When visible, they appear as hairy, diminutive creatures who stand only a couple of feet tall and have wide, owl-like eyes that sometimes glow red.

However, the image shared by President López Obrador can be traced back much further than three days prior to his social media post.

The purported aluxe image first gained widespread attention two years ago when TV host and radio personality Johnny Martinez tweeted that a person named Juan Pacheco had captured two images of a strange being up in a tree in Terán, Nuevo León.

Mexican news outlets were quick to pick up the story, continuing the narrative introduced by Martinez that the creature might be a bruja, or witch.

Skeptics at the time thought the image was likely a hoax—possibly involving a person wearing camouflage and night vision goggles.

Una persona de nombre Juan Pacheco capto estas imágenes en el municipio de #GeneralTeran las imágenes rápidamente se han echo virales, hay quienes aseguran se trata de una #Bruja 👇👇👇😱😱😱😱 pic.twitter.com/t8gWSVkRff
— Johnny Martinez (Juan Francisco Martinez R:.) (@johnnymtz800) February 9, 2021

The actual origin of the images is a matter of some debate, since other sources claim they actually came from the East Kalimantan province of Indonesia.

At least one article published by Indonesian news outlet Kumparan does show the images in question and was posted several days prior to Martinez’s tweet.

It is unclear why, exactly, López Obrador shared the image, although some who are critical of the Mexican president speculated that it was meant to be a distraction from those who oppose the Maya Train project.

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