MEXICO: Pies in the Sky

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In Mexico City's bustling Barrio Santa Maria, a huge crowd gathered, staring intently up into the sky. Dario Moctezuma joined the skygazers, but complained that he could see nothing. An obliging stranger threw an arm around his shoulder, pointed up—and sure enough, Dario thought he discerned a white globelike shape floating by. When his gaze returned earthward, he saw the stranger disappearing around the corner. Dario slapped the pocket where his wallet had been and began to yell: "Policia, policia!"

All over Mexico last week, pickpockets, adding a hyper-modern wrinkle to their ancient profession, did a booming trade among crowds gathered to scan the skies for plativolos (flying saucers). For the saucer-hysteria that still flickers occasionally in the U.S. was sweeping Mexico.

From Yucatan came news that a large aluminum disc had been seen whizzing by at an altitude of a thousand feet. The most magnificent dispatch came from the northern state of Zacatecas: a farmer had found a large kite-shaped object in the mountains, with two passengers, each just under two feet tall. The Department of National Defense solemnly denied the existence of the midget visitors.

Others beside pickpockets made hay while the plativolos shone. Two employees of the Department of Communications and Public Works were fired for peddling fake photographs of discs to newspapers. A chiropractor advertised: "Stiff neck from looking at the saucers? Come and see me for a massage."