Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador shared a photo on social media Saturday of what he claimed was a mythical elf-like spirit from Mayan folklore.
An engineer snapped the photo, which was taken at night and appears to show a humanoid figure with long white hair crouching in a tree, three days prior to the social media post, López Obrador tweeted.
The president said the creature appeared to be an “aluxe,” which The Associated Press described as “small, mischievous creatures that inhabit forests and fields and are prone to playing tricks on people.”
“Everything is mystical,” López Obrador claimed.
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
The engineer who took the picture was working in the Yucatan peninsula jungles, scoping out a tourist train line, the New York Post reported. In addition to the photo of the “aluxe,” López Obrador shared another picture of a pre-Hispanic sculpture.
López Obrador is known to cherish beliefs from indigenous cultures, according to the Post. AP reported that the president did not appear to be joking in his social media post. (RELATED: Fisherman Catches Strange-Looking Deep Sea Shark In Australia, Experts Disagree On Species)
Fox News reported that some social media users are mocking the president and speculating that the elf-like creature is merely an animal. Other social media users posted screenshots appearing to show that the photo is an old one that showed up in multiple news stories in 2021.