Ibague, Colombia being encounter — August 10, 1973

Four schoolboys reportedly encountered tiny figures near Ibagué on August 10, 1973. The fuller account, attributed by Gordon Creighton to Rafael Barrero Cortés and the CIREX research group, names Medardo Martinez, Hipolito Garcia, Hernan Manjarras and Mario Fernandez Ramirez. They were gathering botanical specimens near the El Jordán ravine and a partly dry streambed. Beneath and slightly ahead of a small stone footbridge, they allegedly saw four humanlike beings no more than twenty centimetres tall. The figures wore white clothes and small grey caps and seemed to search the mud. As the boys approached, the figures reportedly disappeared abruptly. The boys then examined the streambed and described a series of tiny footprints. Later reproductions mention a photograph showing several deep marks, but such marks alone do not establish what made them. The police officer in the compressed NICAP entry was not necessarily standing with the boys: the fuller account describes a later, separate sighting by an anonymous officer of similar creatures nearby. No spacecraft was reported in either summary. There is no basis for adding an abduction or military investigation. The plate therefore depicts the four boys and four small figures at the bridge, explicitly identifying the absence of a craft and the separate nature of the officer's account. The matching Hatch and NICAP listings repeat the same source chain.