Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera, photo from her Facebook page
Miami, FL – A Florida congressional candidate is getting national attention for comments she made in 2009 to a Spanish format television station. According to several news sources, including the Miami Herald—which published the initial story—Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera, 59, stated on camera over eight years ago that when she was 7-years-old she was kidnapped by aliens who took her to their spaceship.
The Cuban-born Aguilera stated the “three tall, blonde space people took her to a spaceship.” She stated the aliens reminded her of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.
Aguilera is a Republican and is one of several candidates seeking the seat of incumbent Ileana Ros-Lehtinen [R –FL District 27] who is not seeking another term in 2018.
In a New York Post account of the Herald’s report, Post writer Joshua Rhett Miller quotes Florida political pundit Rick Yabor, who told the Herald, “she [Aguilera] got into details that are not very mainstream. Someone who’s running for Congress – you’ve got to raise a lot of money. A donor might have second thoughts. Miami politics are unusual. This one takes it to a new level.”
“The Miami Herald article is clearly an attack piece,” Aguilera stated on her Facebook page. “It ignores to mention I have dedicated over 40 years of my life as a business owner, teacher, economic developer, vice mayor and community advocate and instead emphasis in a negative way an experience I had when I was 7-years-old. Like the majority of Americans and scientists, I believe there is intelligent life in the billions of planets and galaxies in this universe and I have a strong belief in God. I will continue my work in the community, as I have done for over four decades, and focus on being a positive force to my fellow residents.”