Photos shared to social media on Friday and Saturday appear to show a new Chinese surveillance balloon that is traveling across countries in Latin America.
Some Twitter users shared images of videos of what may be the Chinese spy balloon after the Pentagon confirmed on Friday that it was aware of another balloon on the continent.
That comes after significant alarm about an earlier Chinese spy balloon crossing the U.S. and some calls to shoot it down amid concerns that doing so could be dangerous due to falling debris.
There were reports on Friday of a second balloon passing through the Latin American countries of Colombia and Venezuela with some images appearing to show the balloon shared to Twitter.
Biologist Luz Marina Alvare shared a short video to her Twitter account on Friday that may show the balloon in the skies over Colombia, which neighbors Venezuela.
“Floating in the sky of Cartagena, Colombia for more than a half hour. Moving slowly. Chinese balloon??” Alvare wrote.
User The Compass Observer tweeted a video said to be filmed in Maracaibo, Venezuela of the second suspected Chinese surveillance balloon.
Other users shared images of what appeared to be a Chinese spy balloon flying over Costa Rica, while The Tico Times, an English language news outlet in the Central American country, reported that Costa Rica’s social media was “abuzz” with reports about a balloon.
The photos and videos have not been verified and Newsweek has asked the Department of Defense for comment on the balloon.
U.S. officials confirmed on Friday that there was a second Chinese spy balloon traveling through Latin America. That confirmation came amid alarm about a similar balloon in U.S. airspace and criticism of the Biden administration over its handling of the matter.
“We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon.”
“We have no further information to provide at this time,” defense officials added.
Some conservatives, including former President Donald Trump, had called for the balloon traveling across the U.S. to be shot down, but a senior defense official said on Friday that not only did the balloon not pose a major threat but debris from shooting it down could be dangerous.
“This isn’t like Top Gun where it just explodes and doesn’t go anywhere. It’s large and it’s metal, it would put hundreds of Americans at risk,” another U.S. official told CNN.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has said the balloon is a “civilian airship” mostly used to monitor the weather.
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