(Original headline: UFOs spotted at campaign, candidate's aides say )
MEXICO CITY - Gubernatorial candidate Yeidckol Polevnsky may be trailing in the polls, but campaign aides suggested Thursday that she's gaining energy from an unlikely source: objects some describe as UFOs.
Cameramen working for Polevnsky's leftist Democratic Revolution Party appeared on Mexico's most-watched morning television news program to show images of rod-like objects darting in front of the candidate several times as she spoke at a rally in the State of Mexico.
"We don't know if this is a paranormal phenomenon," said campaign adviser Raul Correa. advertisement
But he said that both he and Polevnsky agreed "it could be a good vibration for us and I hope it favors us for the July 3 election" for Mexico's most populous state.
"Insects?" asked Televisa anchorman Carlos Loret de Mola, with a burst of laughter.
"It's energy, it seems," Correa responded.
Cameramen Jose Luis Martinez and Israel Enriquez said the objects resembled "Roswell rods," whose investigation is promoted by UFO enthusiasts and researchers in the United States.
Some have suggested the mysterious objects could be from space. Others say they seem to be a previously unidentified terrestrial life form. Skeptics say they are probably just a visual effect caused in cameras under some circumstances by fast-moving insects.
They were identified in 1994 by U.S. cameraman Jose Escamilla, who was working at Roswell, New Mexico, famous as a site of alleged UFO sightings.
The campaign aides said they discovered the images when workers at the Federal Electoral Institute, which allocates television airtime for Mexican political parties, noted what appeared to be flaws in their videotape.
One of the institute workers said they resembled the "rods" featured on a television program by Jaime Maussan, who specializes in shows on UFOs and paranormal phenomena.
Correa, whose candidate is running third in most polls, said he decided that "this should be made known."
Appearing on the news program, Maussan called the rods "a fascinating phenomenon," but noted no physical evidence, such as the body, of a rod has been found.
The campaign of Polevnsky, formerly head of a national business chamber, has been troubled from the start.
After weeks of newspaper speculation that she was using a false name, she confirmed in March that she had changed her original name after being abused as a child. Critics have continued to question whether the name change - and thus her candidate registration - was legal.
