Mexico's President has posted a photo on social media claiming it's a mythological woodland spirit similar to an elf.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador posted the photo on his Twitter on Sunday of an "Aluxe," a mischievous woodland spirit in Mayan folklore.
López Obrador wrote the photo "was taken three days ago by an engineer, it appears to be an aluxe," adding "everything is mystical".
However, the original source of the photo remains unknown.
The blurry nighttime photo shows a tree with a branch forming what looks like a halo of hair and what may be stars forming the figure's eyes.
The President has long expressed reverence for indigenous cultures and beliefs. He currently has engineers and workers constructing a tourist train in the Yucatan peninsula, which is the President's pet project.
"Aluxes" are small, mischievous creatures that inhabit forests and fields and are prone to playing tricks on people, like hiding things, according to traditional Mayan belief.
The photo has gone viral with almost six million people viewing the image.
But criticism has been quick to come to the President with local journalist Mauricio Schwarz saying the image was originally circulated in February 2021.
"If you believe it, you are stupid. If you know you are lying, you are malicious," Schwarz wrote.
