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El País (Cali): The Mystery of the Buga Sphere That Ended Up in Jaime Maussan's Hands — UFO or Hoax? (Oct 2025)

4 min read

El País (Cali): The Mystery of the Buga Sphere That Ended Up in Jaime Maussan’s Hands

Summary

Long-form Colombian-press investigation by Santiago Cruz Hoyos reconstructing the chain of custody of the buga-sphere from its March 2025 alleged discovery in the Alto Bonito sector of buga, Valle del Cauca, to its transfer to Mexican ufologist jaime-maussan. The piece names peanut vendor and metal-detector hobbyist José Arias Restrepo as the finder and his cousin David Vélez “El Potro” — shareholder in the Cali-based metal-detector firm Germany Company — as the intermediary who held the object for two months before handing it to Maussan’s team. Four Colombian scientists — astrophysicist santiago-vargas (Observatorio Astronómico, Universidad Nacional), marino-guarin (Escuela de Astronomía de Cali), educator oscar-amaya-montoya (Fundación Casa de la Ciencia de Buga), and astrophysicist lauren-flor-torres (Universidad de Antioquia) — uniformly reject the extraterrestrial framing, calling the object a contemporary terrestrial artifact or publicity stunt. Vélez also reveals that a Bogotá laboratory contacted him claiming the sphere was part of a 2011 experiment.

Key Claims

  • Find date and location: March 2025, Alto Bonito sector of Buga (“Ciudad Señora”), Valle del Cauca, Colombia. Arias was metal-detecting for old coins when he saw the object flying near him “like a soccer ball with a motor”; a companion filmed it for 8 minutes on an iPhone 11.
  • Physical effects: Initial weight estimated at ~2 kg, allegedly grew to ~10 kg over days. After Arias placed it on his bare chest he experienced vomiting, dizziness, and an aluminum taste in his mouth.
  • Handoff chain: Arias gave the sphere to his cousin David Vélez “El Potro” (shareholder in Germany Company, operator of the “Cazadores de Ovnis Latinoamérica” Facebook page). Vélez handled it in an electronics-grade lead radiation suit and kept it on a display stand at his Cali firm for two months.
  • Vélez’s claims: Measured electromagnetic fields and “certain signals.” Cites an unattributed carbon-14 report dating the sphere to 12,560 years; calls the object a “drovni” (drone-UFO); claims 170 videos of similar sphere sightings across Colombia (Medellín, Tuluá, Yumbo) and ties them to airport closures in Denmark (Sept 2025) and Manchester (Nov 2024).
  • Bogotá laboratory contact: Before the sphere went viral, an unnamed Bogotá laboratory contacted Vélez claiming the object was part of an experiment they had been running since 2011 and asked for it back. Vélez refused, citing no documentation.
  • Transfer to Maussan: Maussan’s team contacted Vélez, took the sphere to Mexico, and exported it from Colombia with no restrictions — a chain-of-custody El País calls unexplained.
  • Scientific rebuttals (all on the record):
    • santiago-vargas (Observatorio Astronómico, Universidad Nacional): the sphere’s components — including identified optical fibers — are “very terrestrial”; no scientific studies support Maussan’s claims; likely a publicity stunt comparable to the Arizona monolith.
    • marino-guarin (Escuela de Astronomía de Cali, self-described “total skeptic”): neither the university-of-georgia nor any Mexican university has published an official C-14 report; “if it had substance, it would circulate in scientific journals, not on TikTok.”
    • oscar-amaya-montoya (Fundación Casa de la Ciencia de Buga): the sphere is gray, ball-shaped, lacks visible welding seams, has engravings; AI-era video fabrication is plausible; “ufology has no scientific certainty.”
    • lauren-flor-torres (Universidad de Antioquia, exoplanet statistics): real meteorites show heat-fractured crusts from atmospheric entry; the sphere’s pristine surface is inconsistent with a space origin.
  • Maussan track record: the piece reminds readers his Peruvian “non-human” Nazca mummies were forensically assessed as composites of human/animal bones, glue, synthetic rubber, and plant fibers.

Notable Quotes (translated from Spanish)

“We are amazed by what is happening with this sphere. They just delivered the carbon-14 test report and it came back at 12,560 years old. They analyzed its internal polymers. To me this is a ‘drovni’: a drone-UFO.” — David Vélez “El Potro”

“There is no technology in the famous Buga Sphere that is ‘from another world.’ On the contrary, its compounds are very terrestrial, like the optical fibers that have been identified.” — Santiago Vargas

“What exists about the sphere so far are tales, charlatanism. There is nothing with scientific backing… Where is the university’s official report? If it had any substance, the news would circulate in scientific media, specialized journals, not on TikTok.” — Marino Guarín

“How does a sphere supposedly coming from space not show [atmospheric entry] features and instead look pristine?” — Lauren Flor Torres

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