Case description
At about 3 a.m. on December 9, 1968, a Peruvian customs official was on the terrace or balcony of his home in Lima when he saw an unusual luminous object. In details sent to Aimé Michel by Lima-based APRO correspondent Ermanno Maniero, its light varied between dark red and violet and it appeared two or three kilometres away. The man remained motionless with fear for two or three minutes.
The official said violet rays from the object reached his face. Preston Dennett’s later retelling, citing Ralph and Judy Blum’s Beyond Earth, describes a glowing disc, a narrow ray striking his face and chest, and a brief period of disorientation as the object moved away. The man then found that the thick spectacles he used for myopia were interfering with his sight. Removing them, he said, he could see clearly without them.
He also reported relief from rheumatism. Dennett’s account separates the immediate change in eyesight from the rheumatism, which cleared during the days and weeks afterwards. The surviving account describes the balcony sighting, the light reaching him and these subsequent changes; it supplies no encounter with occupants or recollection of boarding.
Michel reproduced a contemporary Reuters report and Maniero’s additional details in 1969. The Reuters wording refers to the previous Wednesday, whereas Maniero explicitly gives December 9 at 3 a.m.; the catalogue follows Maniero’s date.
