An airborne vehicle resembling the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that flew over the United States has been spotted in at least two Latin American countries this week.
DailyExpertNews is aware of at least half a dozen eyewitnesses in Latin America who reported seeing the white balloon and shared videos and images on social media of its flight over Costa Rica and Colombia. DailyExpertNews cannot confirm whether the footage shows a Chinese surveillance balloon.
Colombian media reports sightings of a balloon flying at about 22,000 feet above the airspace of the South American country, citing the Colombian military.
There are also reports that a balloon has been seen flying over Costa Rica, which could be the same as in Colombia.
Neither the Colombian government nor Costa Rica has so far issued any confirmation or official statement regarding any sightings.
Friday night, Pentagon spokesman Brig. General Pat Ryder said that “we are seeing reports of a balloon traveling across Latin America. We are now determining it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,” without specifying the balloon’s exact location.
Esteban Carranza, a lawyer from Costa Rica, posted a video of the balloon on Twitter Thursday, saying that “the same type of balloon spotted in the U.S. was visible in the Costa Rican sky all day.”
Carranza told DailyExpertNews he filmed the white balloon flying over the Costa Rican capital of San Jose. DailyExpertNews geolocated the video to Escazú Village, a shopping center in San Jose.
“I have to say I was quite excited because at first I thought I was seeing a UFO because the object was big, bright and absolutely silent,” he said.
“I watched the object for about 45 minutes from different locations, completely still, and a few hours later I went back outside and it was still there, in the exact same spot. A lot of people were watching it from different parts of the city. Although 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 city of Valledupar, according to a video shared with DailyExpertNews.
Luis Armando Toloza Calvo captured the video at 12:13 a.m. ET on Friday with his cell phone and a telescope.
First, a white dot is seen floating in the sky before Calvo points the lens of his mobile phone at his telescope to get a better look at the object.
