Puerto Rico Town May Build UFO Site

By ALEXANDRA OLSON, Associated Press Writer
47 minutes ago

LAJAS, Puerto Rico – People in this sleepy hamlet are
so sure they have been receiving other-worldly
visitors, they want to build a UFO landing strip to
welcome them.
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A bright green sign along a lonely country road in
southwestern Puerto Rico proudly displays a silhouette
of a flying saucer and two words: “Extraterrestrial
Route.”

Most Puerto Ricans laughed when a horse farmer
installed the sign on his property at the request of
Reynaldo Rios, a local elementary school teacher who
says he’s been communicating with alien visitors to
this U.S. territory since he was a child.

Rios, a 39-year-old with a goatee and a shock of dark
hair, won’t be ignored. With the blessing of a local
government desperate for tourist dollars, he’s
dedicated himself to building the UFO landing strip.

“I can’t say exactly when they will come, but I know
it will happen,” Rios said. “I want to keep believing
in my dreams.”

Lajas Mayor Marcos Irizarry’s support for the idea has
provoked outrage among islanders who complained it
would be a waste of money at a time when the
government is encouraging thousands of employees to
shorten their work week to cope with a staggering
fiscal deficit.

“What nonsense,” said Luis Arocho, 47, sipping coffee
with friends in a cafe in historic Old San Juan. “This
country is in crisis, and since politicians are
incapable of creating jobs, they create fantasies.”

Irizarry quickly clarified that his municipal
government would not invest in the project. Instead,
he has promised to help Rios get the proper building
permits.

The mayor insists his goal is to attract tourists to
his small town.

But he is also among Lajans who believe they have seen
UFOs in the area.

“It’s a very mysterious place,” said Irizarry, who
says he once saw red lights zigzagging above the
hills. “A lot of people have seen things.”

Francisco Negron, the farmer who put up the sign and
allows UFO watchers to gather at his ranch,
volunteered his property for the landing strip. He and
Rios estimate the project could cost up to US$100,000
and are looking for funds from private companies.

Negron, a soft-spoken grandfather, has already applied
for a permit to build a road to Indian Hill, the
chosen site for the strip. Negron and others believe a
UFO crashed on the hill in 1997. They claim they heard
a boom and saw the hill go up in flames.

Rios, who leads a group called “UFO International”
that holds nighttime vigils to search for signs of
alien life, lets Negron worry about details like
investment costs and permits while he envisions the
design. The landing strip would be 80 feet long and
have pyramids as control towers because aliens are
attracted to the shape.

The mayor hopes that UFO enthusiasts will flock to
Lajas as they have to Roswell, New Mexico, the site of
a supposed UFO crash in the 1940s. Hundreds of
visitors have already come to check out the
Extraterrestrial Route since the sign went up,
Irizarry said.

Puerto Rico is already known for its Arecibo
Observatory and its 1,000-foot (304-meter) parabolic
receiver that astronomers really do use to search for
extraterrestrial life. The huge dish, in northern
Puerto Rico, made a cameo appearance in the 1997 film
“Contact,” starring Jodi Foster as an astronomer who
picks up a signal from extratraterrestrials.

But it’s a little-known aerostat off the
Extraterrestrial Route that inspires UFO lore in
Lajas. The U.S. military uses the aerostat, a tethered
blimp with a radar system, to detect low-flying drug
smuggling planes.

But many Lajans don’t believe that. Even Irizarry has
suggested that the aerostat’s true purpose is to
detect UFOs.

A paved road leading to the blimp curves out of sight
between two hills. Two signs warn against trespassing.
Rios claims he was once briefly detained while trying
to see the aerostat.

The school teacher says he first encountered aliens at
13. He says white lights burst into his bedroom,
entered his body and cured him of a back injury he had
received during a basketball game.

In Lajas, people who have grown up hearing reports of
UFO sightings seem more open to his scheme.

“If we have the technology to reach the moon, there
could be others who have the technology to come here,”
said Ronaldo Barea, 26, a sandwich shop owner.