UFOs Over Mexico

We could not discuss the solar system, in this blog, without touching upon the subject of UFOs. Mexico, as with every other country, has its sightings. Some are easily dismissed, as natural phenomena, aircraft or weather balloons. The first picture ever taken of a UFO, over Mexico, was in 1885. Upon analysis, it turned out to be high flying geese. However, some sightings have been harder to explain away or have received a lot of coverage over the years.

On July 11th, 1991, the world witnessed a solar eclipse. The view of this was particularly spectacular in Mexico. Thousands of people were filming the sky, waiting for a shadow to pass over the sun. Millions more were simply looking upwards. They were ready to see something awesome, but what many also saw took their breath away.



Did so many people, from Mexico City to Puebla, really see a spacecraft that day? The UFO was described as metallic and undulating. It had a haze behind it, like an energy haze, as it moved in the sky. A bright reflection came from it, as if shining in the sun, while a darker strip underneath seemed suggestive of a shadow. Moreover, it didn't just turn up once. It was seen annually, from 1991-1993, at the Mexico City Airshow, every September 16th.



Sceptics have supplied an explanation. The object certainly did originate from outer space, but it wasn't from an alien world. It was an alien world. The most prevalent explanation is that this particular UFO was the planet Venus.


Venus, as viewed from the Earth
Venus or UFO. You decide.

Our next story is one that was acknowledged by the Mexican Department of Defense. On March 5th, 2004, an air force Air Force Merlín C26A Bimotor 'plane, belonging to the 501 Aerial Squadron, was flying over Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche. They were searching for the unauthorized aircraft of smugglers. As a result, the crew were recording in both normal and infrared mode, while operating powerful sensors. It was a routine manoeuvre, but what happened next was anything but routine.


Crew of the Merlín C26A
The 'plane was under the command of navigation officer, Mayor Magdaleno Jasso Núñez. When, at 3.400 meters (10,500 feet), an unknown aircraft was picked up on their sensors, Núñez gave the order to investigate it. As they took off in pursuit, their information was being reported to ground control. It was also being recorded, in real time, by FLIR operator, Lt. Mario Adrián Vázquez, and RADAR operator, Lt. German Ramirez.

As they approached the position, their sensors showed that their target had conducted a 'surprising' feat of aerodynamics and then sped off extraordinarily fast. They had reached an altitude of 3,500 meters (11,480 feet). They should also have had visual contact by now, but the skies remained clear to the naked eye. The FLIR and RADAR screens were telling a different story. The readings all confirmed that there was now not just one, but 11 ojects in the sky. Yet outside the window, there was nothing but clouds.



Núñez radioed back to base, requesting instructions, as this was something far beyond the experience of anyone on board. As he did so, the sensors showed that the unseen, unknown objects had encircled their 'plane. The trained military crew on board kept calm, recording every detail and remaining in radio contact with the ground. Meanwhile, fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the objects and, possibly, rescue their colleagues in the Merlin C26A.

However, before they could arrive, the objects simply disappeared off RADAR and FLIR. The crew returned to base, where they shakily admitted to having been a little perturbed up there. Regardless of personal feelings, their meticulous professional had provided a wealth of data about the incident. General Clemente Vega Garcia, the Secretary of Defense, ordered a thorough investigation.

In an unprecedented move, the footage was also made public. Capt. Alejandro Franz pointed out that the Cantarell Oil Refinery was in the vicinity. The lights could well have been flares reflecting off the clouds. Another explanation was that they were car headlights, driving along the Yucatan headland.

Oil flares, headlights or UFO. You decide.

Pirates of the Caribbean - Laurens 'Laurencillo' de Graaf

The Dutch born Laurens Cornelis Boudewijn de Graaf was better known to the Spanish as Laurencillo or El Griffe. To the Dutch themselves, he was Gesel van de West, the scourge of the West. He was born in 1653, in Dordrecht, Dutch Republic (modern day Netherlands), but was captured by Spanish slavers as a child and taken to the Canary Islands. Around 15 years later, he escaped his captures and turned pirate. Now married, to Francois Petronilla de Gurzman, Laurencillo sailed to the Caribbean as the captain of a French pirate ship.

Laurencillo was reknowned as a very handsome man. He was also extremely well-read and cultured by the standards of the day. He always carried a violin and trumpet, which he would play to entertain his crew. He also knew huge sections of Shakespeare off by heart, which he could recite in Dutch and Spanish. His favourite play was 'King Lear'.

One of Laurencillo's first recorded pirate attacks was a terrifying assault on poor, beleaguered Campeche. This town suffered several such attacks during the 128 of high pirate activity, but Laurencillo's, in March 1672, was one of the worst. After setting fire to a frigate and ransacking the town, the pirates stayed on. They were still there when an unsuspecting merchant ship sailed into the harbour and was soon relieved of over 120,000 pesos worth of silver and other cargo.

They eventually left to sail the Caribbean Sea, causing such fear and outrage that even contemporary pirate, Sir Henry Morgan, sent a fleet to stop them. Their adventures to this point were legendary. Laurencillo's men had taken a 28 gun Spanish galleon, which he renamed 'Tigre' and used as his flagship; they had taken the 'Princesa', a ship carrying the entire payroll for the Spanish colonies in Puerto Rico and Santo Domigo, which in turn became his flagship; they had succeeded in open sea battles with Spanish fleets sent to capture them. Sir Henry Morgan certainly sent his frigate, 'Norwich', in pursuit of Laurencillo, but there is no record that he actually found him!

One pirate who did find Laurencillo was a fellow Dutchman, Nicholas van Hoorn. The two fleets joined forces to attack the Mexican city of Veracruz. Their enormous armada was led by two captured Spanish galleons, to lull the population into a false sense of security. Once in the harbour, on the morning of May 18th, 1683, the pirates descended on all sides. Laurencillo attacked from the sea, while van Hoorn led his men overland to attack from the rear. This was an audacious raid, as Veracruz was protected by force of at least 700 soldiers, plus 300 soldiers its fort, San Juan de Ulúa. Nevertheless, it worked.

The citizens were rounded up and 5,000 of them were locked into the Catedral de la Asunción (the largest cathedral in the city). This wasn't the easy option for the people. They were packed in like sardines, in searing heat, with no food or water. Their ordeal lastest for three and a half days. Some climbed to the top of the belltower and leapt to their deaths, rather than stand it any longer. The wealthiest, most important citizens were abducted for ransom. The governor himself was taken and a payment of 70,000 pieces of eight (eight-reales, the currency of the time) was required to secure his release. Also taken were thirty of the prettiest local girls that the pirates could find. They were taken to the pirate's base, in Laguna de Terminos, for the pleasure of the men.

All was not well between the pirate leaders though. Van Hoorn wanted more money. He was willing to behead a few captives in order to apply the pressure. Laurencillo refused to allow this and, in the fighting that ensued, van Hoorn received a slash to the wrist, which later turned gangrenous and killed him a fortnight later. The people of Veracruz were only saved when Spanish warships were spotted on the horizon. With their wealthy captives already sold for ransom; the pirates just abandoned the local girls, who were left without food nor water for five days before they were rescued. Meanwhile, the pirates sailed out, slipping past the Spanish, to land around the peninsula on Isla Mujeres. Here the spoiled were divided, with each man receiving 800 pieces of eight.

Incidentally, there is a story told in Veracruz that the Mexican folksong, 'La Bamba', which was later made famous as a rock'n'roll song by Ritchie Valens, dates from this period. The arrogance of the pirates is commemorated in the song, with its refrain, 'Yo no soy marinero, soy capitan!' ('I am not a sailor, I'm the captain!') The word 'bamba' comes from the Spanish 'bambarria', which has a meaning similar to the English phrase, 'shut the stable door after the horse has bolted'. It's a wry commentary on the efforts of Veracruz's officials to fortify the town after Laurencillo's attack, including numerous drills, which the citizens had to drop everything to participate in. The second verse, not often sung, talks about the people shut into the cathedral, climbing the ladder to fall to their deaths.



By now, several nations were vying with each other to enlist Laurencillo into their own private service. The king of Spain certainly sent a message requesting that Laurencillo joined the Spanish navy; while the English managed to solicit an acceptance. Laurencillo didn't actually do much for them though, other than sending a captured Spanish ship, laden with sugar, to the English colony in Jamaica.

In September 1684, Laurencillo set sail in his latest flagship, Nepture, from Isla Mujeres. He had his wife on board and he was heading into Cuban waters to see what piracy could be found there. However, they hadn't got far, when a Spanish fleet of warships was spotted. One of his ships was taken, with the crew and captain made prisoner, but Laurencillo wasn't prepared for this to happen to him. He jettisoned guns and other heavy equipment into the Yucatán Strait and managed to outrun the Spanish, despite being 'only a couple of spars shot away, even though he was being attacked from both sides within musket range.' He made it to Isla de Pinos, in Cuba, where they could dock and lick their wounds.

Whether it was this or the whole catalogue of events during their marriage, but, in 1689, Francois Petronilla de Gurzman formally divorced her pirate husband. The documents were registered in Tenerife, with copies found in Seville. By now, Laurencillo was finally back in France, where he received a hero's welcome for all of the wealth diverted from the Caribbean into his patron country. He couldn't settle there though and soon headed back west. He had been awarded the position of governor of Cap François, a French colony in Santo Domingo (modern day Cap Haitien, in Haiti). Not that this slowed him down much. Even with such a respectable title, he still sailed out on pirate raids.

It was here that he met the woman who was to be his second wife, Marie Anne Le Long, who was better known as Marie Dieu-le-Vent (Marie, God Wills it), after her commonly heard catchphrase. She appears to have been a firebrand herself. After Laurencillo publicly insulted her, Marie took a pistol and marched into his quarters to demand an apology. She got one. In fact, he asked her to marry him as his apology and she accepted. Whatever the quarrel had been about, it might be worth noting that she was pregnant with their eldest daughter at the time. She often sailed out with him, earning the reputation as a 'lioness'. In 1698 though, she was at home in Cap François, with their two young daughters, when the port was raided by the English, as revenge for Laurencillo's attack on Jamaica the year before. Marie and the children were taken, but Laurencillo paid the ransom to get them back.

Laurencillo died in 1704, but there are two contenders for where this occurred. Some say that he passed away quietly at home in Cap François; others reported that he was involved in creating a French Colony in what is now Biloxi, Mississippi, and it was there where he died.


* Isla Mujeres: A frequent place to dock, take on supplies and share out the spoils of their plunder. Nicholas Van Hoorn was buried there after Veracruz.

* Baluarte de San Carlos Museum, Campeche: This museum is built in the wall of the fortress built to protect the town from pirates. It contains a lot of exhibits documenting the raid by Laurencillo's men. It is located at Calle 63 and Calle 8, Presidia Circuit, Campeche.

* The Pirate Ship “Lorencillo”, Campeche: This replica ship travels around Campeche Bay during the evening. The cruise lasts for an hour and affords stunning views of the night sky, the oceanscape and the city lights. The entertainment includes a pirate show and on-deck salsa dancing, with audience participation. Naturally, the rum flows throughout. It sails from the exit of the Pier of Lerma, daily, at 5pm.

* Veracruz City, Veracruz: Taken by Laurencillo in 1683, the fortification of the city began in earnest afterwards.

* El Pirata Lorencillo, Ricardo Flores Magón, Veracruz: A statue of the infamous pirate, Laurencillo.

* Roca Partida, nr Arroyo de Lisa, Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz: It is in a cave here, under a modern lighthouse, that Laurencillo reputedly stashed his personal treasure.

Pirates of the Caribbean - Jean-David 'L'Olonnais' Nau

Jean-David Nau was born in Les Sables-d'Olonne, in France, circa 1635, and brought to the Caribbean as an indentured slave. White slavery was harsh, but had a limit upon it. After seven years, the 'servant' was free to leave and Jean-David Nau did just that. But his life thus far, under the ownership of Spanish masters, had left him with a hatred of all Spandiards. He renamed himself François l'Olonnais and embarked upon one of the most brutal of all pirate careers. Bertrand d’Ogeron, the governor of Tortuga, gave him the ship upon which to do so.

Within a year or two, L'Olonnais (El Olonés to the Spanish) was lying shipwrecked on a beach in Campeche, Mexico. The Spanish soldiers which had destroyed his ship began the systematic approach of killing all survivors. L'Olonnais managed to smear himself in the blood of his fellow pirates and lay amongst the dead. He was overlooked and escaped once the Spanish had left. He walked into Campeche and persuaded slaves to flee their masters, in order to become his crew. The next Spanish ship to attack was overtaken. All of the crew, but one, were tortured and beheaded. The survivor was sent to Havana with a message for the governor: 'I shall never henceforward give quarter to any Spaniard whatsoever.'

L'Olonnais joined Sir Henry Morgan's fleet, as captain of his own ship, and so was there at the sack of Maracaibo, Gibraltar and Panama. He later commanded expeditions of his own, attracting 700 pirates into his fleet to attack Puerto Cabello, in Venuzuela, and San Pedro de las Colonias, in Mexico. However, even amongst such bloodthirsty company, L'Olonnais's cruelties stood out. Alexander Exquemelin, author of 'The History of the Bucaniers of America' (1684), wrote,

'(L'Olonnais) drew his cutlass, and with it cut open the breast of one of those poor Spaniards, and pulling out his heart with his sacrilegious hands, began to bite and gnaw it with his teeth, like a ravenous wolf, saying to the rest: I will serve you all alike, if you show me not another way.'

His other favourite tortures included cutting out tongues, slicing off bits of flesh with his swords or 'woolding', which involved tying knotted rope around his victim's head and tightening it until their eyes popped out.

In the end, it was not the Spanish, but a native tribe in Panama who defeated L'Olonnais. The Kuna lived around Darién and captured L'Olonnais while he and his men foraged for food there. Exquemelin wrote,

'(The Kuna) tore him in pieces alive, throwing his body limb by limb into the fire and his ashes into the air; to the intent no trace nor memory might remain of such an infamous, inhuman creature.'

* Campeche, Mexico: The beach is where L'Olonnais lay shipwrecked taken for dead; the town is where he formed a crew out of deserting slaves, circa 1662.

* San Pedro, Mexico: L'Olonnais raided there in 1667. It is here where he reputedly cut a Spaniard's heart from his chest and ate it raw in front of his victim's eyes.

Pirates of the Caribbean - Sir Henry Morgan

Hari Morgan was born, circa 1635, in Llanrhymni, Wales; he was reputedly the son of a squire. He became known by the English version of his Welsh name, Henry. In 1658, he arrived in Jamaica, where his uncle was the Lieutenent-Governor. He married his cousin, Mary Morgan. It was from Jamaica that he began life as a sailor, progressing quickly to becoming a pirate around the Caribbean Sea. His attacks included ports along the coasts of New Granada, Honduras and Mexico.

By 1661, he was in command of his own ship and soon had permission from the governor of Jamaica to attack Spanish ships on behalf of England. One of his first acts was to capture several Spanish ships just off the coast of Compeche, on the Yucatán Peninsula. Morgan and his men also over-ran the Spanish owned Island of Providence, destroying every settlement and all but one of the forts. This briefly turned into a pirate owned island, but the Spanish returned with greater forces and managed to reclaim it.

When word came that the Spanish were going to attack Jamaica, in retaliation for Providence, Morgan assembled a fleet of 500 of the most notorious pirates active in the Caribbean at the time. In order to do this, he dressed in fine silks and decked himself out in expensive jewellery, then trawled known pirates haunts to find the best. They saw his garb and assumed that there were rich pickings aboard his ten ships. Their remit was to find and capture Spanish citizens throughout the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. They began in Cuba, where they planned to attack the Cuban town of Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe (now Camagüey). However, bad weather forced them to dock early. A Spanish prisoner managed to escape and warn the residents of Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe, who all fled with their valuables. Those who remained were captured and tortured for information about where their neighbours had gone. It was all to no avail though. Morgan's men managed to recover very little wealth from the town; far too little to pay his pirate horde.

Clearly there was going to have to be another raid. Morgan thought big and set his pirates towards one of the most prosperous cities in the New World: Porto Bello in Panama. What followed was fourteen days of pillage, torture, rape and murder. The city was stripped of its wealth. The pirates stayed for another month and a half, which was the time it took to transfer all of the valuables from the city onto their ships. All told their two raids brought them over 200,000 pieces of eight (the standard currency of the time, which would later evolve into the peso). By modern standards, the booty would have been worth millions. It certainty boosted Morgan's reputation. The governor of Panama itself promptly sent Morgan an emerald ring, as a bribe not to attack his own city; while the English crown sent Morgan the 34 gun HMS Oxford, a much superior ship, to help him with his career.



Despite the gift of a ship, the English could not officially be seen to endorse Morgan's behaviour. They were supposed to be at peace with Spain at the time. The governor of Jamaica was sent a message to recall Morgan and stop his piracy. This was duly ignored. Instead, Morgan sailed out with a fleet much inflated by pirates flocking to his banner. Word of mouth was a powerful recruiting tool, when the riches of Porto Bello flowed so freely. Eleven ships filled with 900 pirates set out for Cartagena, in Colombia, but first they paused for a party on Isla Vaca, in Mexico. This resulted in a rum fueled disaster, when a fuse was accidentally lit on the HMS Oxford. This ignited explosives which destroyed the whole ship with a massive loss of life on board. Morgan was one of only ten men to survive, after he was rescued from the water.

Some pirates took this as a bad omen and deserted immediately. However, there were still ten ships and eight hundred men, which set out along the Yucatán Channel towards Cartagena. Unfortunately, the wind was against them and some ships simply weren't strong enough to fight against it. Already rattled by the loss of the HMS Oxford, some crews gave up easily, so only five hundred pirates reached Colombian waters. This wasn't enough to take the heavily fortified city of Cartagena. They decided to take the Venezuelan city of Maracaibo instead. A nearby fort spotted them and gave warning in time for most of the residents to flee, taking their valuables with them. Nevertheless, the pirates stayed in the city for three weeks. They were as merciless as they had been in Porto Bello. Any remaining people were tortured and many killed, though some were kept as messengers. Then the pirates moved around Lake Maracaibo to attack the neighbouring town of Gibraltar. Here no-one had had warning, so the town was filled with its people, all of whom were tortured to discover any hidden wealth. It was all carried away.

On the way out, three Spanish warships intercepted them. But Morgan had spotted them in advance. He ordered one of his own ships to be packed with explosives. Logs were dressed up as pirates and placed around the riggings and on the decks. This fire ship was sent straight onto a course with one of the warships and the resulting explosion destroyed both of them. A second warship was captured and the third, now isolated amidst a fleet of pirate ships, was set alight by its own crew, rather than allow it to fall into Morgan's hands. The fleet managed to escape and carry its booty back to Jamaica.

Two years later, Morgan did return to Panama, despite the bribe of an emerald ring a few years previously. He took 1,400 pirates with him and the attack was so vicious that the whole city was nothing but smoldering ruins at the end of it. The modern city of Panama is located a short distance away, because the whole place had to be rebuilt. The majority of the citizens were killed, all of them tortured first for the location of their valuables. Despite all of this, there was little wealth to be carried off. Much of it had been put into safekeeping aboard a Spanish galleon anchored out in the Gulf of Panama. The pirates didn't know it was there.

Though initially arrested and taken to England for the sack of Panama, Henry Morgan defended himself in court and ended up with a knighthood instead of execution. In 1674, it was as Sir Henry Morgan that he returned to Jamaica. He took the opportunity to retire from piracy and settled down on the island. He became its deputy governor, then acting governor. He gained a reputation for drunken rowdiness and died of cirrhosis of the liver, on August 25th, 1681. He was buried in Jamaica's Palisadoes Cemetery, which sunk beneath the sea during the 1692 earthquake.

* Isla Vaca, Mexico: Morgan's ship, HMS Oxford, lies on the seabed just off the coast of Isla Vaca.

* Campeche, Mexico: Raided by Morgan in 1662. He sacked two forts and took away fourteen Spanish ships.

* Vilahermosa, Mexico: Raided by Morgan in 1663.

* Yucatán peninsula, Mexico: Morgan's ships were once stolen by the Spanish, during a land raid. He used canoes to sail around the Yucatán peninsula in order to escape.

* The drinking establishment of your choice: Captain Morgan rum is named after Sir Henry Morgan.

Pirates of the Caribbean - Sir Francis Drake

Francis Drake began life as a humble farmer's son, in 1540, Plymouth, England. He grew up to become one of the first sailors to circumnavigate the globe; and his piracy made him feared and loathed along the coastline of Mexico. There he was known as El Draque (The Dragon) for his reign of terror. It was not just ships that he attacked, but towns and cities too.

When he first set sail, in 1567, it was the young Drake who was traumatized. He was aboard his cousin's slave ship, when they were attacked by pirates in the Mexican port of San Juan de Ulúa. After a four-day battle, the English lost all of their human cargo and one ship from their fleet; but Drake and his cousin, John Hawkins, both escaped. Those who had been captured were treated mercilessly by the pirates. Many were dead. It was all too much for Hawkins, who made this is last voyage. But a nautical life was only just beginning for Drake. It was a life filled with hatred towards all Spaniards and all Catholics. Drake was a Protestant; it had been an English Catholic Uprising which had forced his family off their farm, back home in Devon, England. Now it was Spanish Catholic pirates who had attacked their ship. Hawkins and Drake limped back to England in severe hardship, as they hadn't been left adequate rations to make their return voyage. They had dreamed of making their fortune in the slave trade, but now they had nothing. Drake wanted revenge.

Three years later, in 1570, Drake was given a commission by his queen, Elizabeth I, to sail back into the Caribbean and harry Spanish galleons. Hawkins had given him three ships and Drake had hired 70 men as his crew. They descended upon the Spanish colonies, attacked the ships and returned home with a vast wealth in gold and silver. In fact, there was 20 tons of the stuff and that was too much to carry on board their ships. Drake buried what he couldn't fit in his hold, but managed to take back the equivalent of millions of pounds worth. Elizabeth I was thrilled. However, she had just signed a peace treaty with the Spanish and so couldn't openly reward him.

Drake waited until 1577, when the political winds of change meant that he could sail out again with the queen's blessing. This time he took five ships and many more men, with the intention to sail down the coast of Africa before heading towards South America. A mighty storm, at Cape Horn, convinced most of his crew that they wanted to go home, but Drake's own ship carried on. Sailing on the Golden Hinde, Drake and his pirate crew terrorised Chile before heading north.

In 1579, they took a Spanish ship, Manila Galleon Cacafuego, off the coast of Peru. The cargo taken from its hold took four days to transfer to the Golden Hinde and was enough to pay off England's national debt at the time. He returned home in September 1580. Queen Elizabeth I was very pleased with him. She knighted him a year later. Drake immediately bought a manor house and became a member of parliament. His crew received nothing.





Elizabeth I commissioned Drake to sail into the Caribbean and raid all of the Spanish settlements along the coastline. Drake set off in 1585 and destroyed three Spanish towns, in Spain itself, before heading across the Atlantic Ocean. On New Year's Day 1586, the fleet reached Santo Domingo, in the Caribbean, and plundered of 25,000 ducats. They set off again, heading into Cartagena, where 110,000 ducats were taken. Then up to St. Augustine, in Florida (now USA), which was utterly destroyed.

In 1587, Drake was back in Europe. He entered Cadiz Harbour, in Spain, and proceeded to capture and sink 24 Spanish ships. A year later, the Spanish Armada sailed into English waters, in a bid to invade the country. Bad weather and bad luck stopped them. A mighty storm paused them north, always within sight of the coast, but never able to land, as that would mean sailing against the winds. Just when they'd crested the north of Scotland and were able to use the same winds to reach the shore, the weather changed. Now the same strength of storm pushed them south in the opposite direction. Many crashed on the coastline of Ireland. The remainder were harried all the way by an English fleet commanded by Drake. Even in British waters, he was not above piracy. He attacked the Spanish payship, the Rosario, and succeeded in taking off with her wealth.

Drake's piracy continued unabated. He persuaded his cousin, Sir John Hawkins, to return with him into the Caribbean in 1595. There they found that their luck had run out. The Spanish had fortified many of their coastal towns. Then fever struck aboard the ship. Hawkins died first then, on January 27th, 1596, Drake died of fever aboard his ship. His body was thrown overboard into the Caribbean Sea, at Portobelo, Colón, Panama.

* San Juan de Ulúa, Veracruz: The place where Spanish pirates attacked Drake on his first voyage.

* Campeche: Drake raided the town twice during his pirate career.

* Hotel Francis Drake, Campeche: This hotel, named after the infamous pirate, can be found at Calle 12 No. 207 | Entre 63 y 65 Centro, Campeche C.P. 24000 For more information, please visit their website.

* Huatulco, Mexico: A port ravaged by Drake during his pirate days.