The figure caught on video through the window of a historic government building appeared to be a woman. Some said that she was naked, others that she wore a light robe. From her second-story height, she looked briefly at the protesters outside, one pointing a cellphone camera toward her, and then walked into the dark and out of sight.
The footage, taken this April during a teachers’ protest over wages in the main square of San Luis Potosí, a city in central Mexico, shot around the internet and raised all the obvious questions. Who was this person? Why would she be dressed, or undressed, like that in a state government building? And did she have anything to do with the governor or another state employee?
The governor’s suggestion drew only more attention: It could be the ghost of Charlotte, the only empress of Mexico, a woman whose short and turbulent 19th-century reign has transformed her into the legendary figure known as Carlota.
His remarks drew national attention to the mystery, as well as jokes, skepticism and criticism of the governor, who has been accused of trying to divert the focus from the teacher protests, his government’s spending and other issues.
“If it had been a ghost, everyone would have reacted in that moment,” said Leo Torres Hernández, 54, one of the teachers protesting that day over what they called unpaid wages. “But we didn’t. It’s not a ghost. Someone was there.”
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