A white balloon similar to the one seen flying across the United States was spotted over Latin America this week
An airborne vehicle similar to the alleged Chinese surveillance balloon flying over the United States has been spotted in at least two Latin American countries this week.
CNN is aware of at least half a dozen eyewitnesses in Latin America who reported seeing the white balloon, sharing videos and images on social media of its flight over Costa Rica and Colombia. CNN is unable to confirm whether the footage shows a Chinese surveillance balloon.
Colombian media are reporting sightings of a balloon flying about 70,000 feet above the South American country’s airspace, citing the Colombian military.
There have also been reports of a balloon being seen flying over Costa Rica, which may be the same one seen in Colombia.
Neither the Colombian government nor Costa Rica has issued any confirmation or official statement so far regarding the sightings.
On Friday evening, Pentagon spokesman Brig. General Pat Ryder said “we are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We are now assessing that it is another Chinese surveillance balloon”, without specifying the exact location of the balloon.
Esteban Carranza, a lawyer from Costa Rica, posted a video of the balloon on Twitter on Thursday, saying “the same type of balloon spotted in the United States was visible all day in the skies of Costa Rica.”
Carranza told CNN he filmed the white balloon flying over the Costa Rican capital of San José. CNN geotagged the video to Escazú Village, a mall in San José.
“I have to say I was quite excited as I first thought I was seeing a UFO because the object was large, bright and absolutely still,” he said.
“I looked at the object for about 45 minutes from different places, completely still, and a few hours later I came out and it was still there, exactly in the same place. Lots of people were looking at it from different parts of the world. town. Even though it was not a UFO, it was still very unusual and therefore an exciting experience,” he added.
The object was also spotted over Colombia near the town of Valledupar, according to video shared with CNN.
Luis Armando Toloza Calvo shot the video Friday at 12:13 p.m. ET using his cell phone and a telescope.
Initially, a white dot is seen floating in the sky before Calvo points his cellphone lens at his telescope to get a better view of the object.
cnn
