‘Unusual’ candidate gets key endorsement
MIAMI — U.S. House candidate Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera has a long list of accomplishments to bolster her campaign in Florida. But she is perhaps best known for claiming that she was abducted by space aliens as a child.
Rodriguez Aguilera is a longshot in the race for the Miami-area seat being vacated by retiring Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Yet last weekend, the Miami Herald endorsed her for the GOP nomination in the Tuesday primary out of a field of nine candidates.
In an interview, she said she is grateful for the endorsement and that her tale of kidnapping by aliens does not define her.
“It has nothing to do with what I have done. It happened when I was 7 years old,” she said. “I am so proud of the Herald and what they did.”
Rodriguez Aguilera says she was taken aboard a spaceship as a young girl by blond extraterrestrials who resembled the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro. She says they told her that the “center of the world’s energy is Africa” and that thousands of non-human skulls were once discovered in a cave on the Mediterranean island of Malta.
She has said she witnessed paranormal activity since then and saw a UFO at 17. She also said she has been in touch with the aliens telepathically long after the abduction.
Even if it’s hard to believe there’s a starman waiting in the sky, Rodriguez Aguilera