In 1970, The US shot a missile at Mexico…and it was carrying a radioactive payload.

The Athena missile, originally headed for the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, had a grave malfunction and crashed in the desert of Chihuahua, Old Mexico... while transporting Cobalt 57 in the nosecone.

This was part of an Air Force testing plan for what we would later know as ICBM’s-Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, that can deliver nuclear warheads across continents. Remember the Cold War?

The US sent a team to find the wreckage, deal with Mexican authorities and avoid an international incident.

Since then, myths and stories about the area emerged, including "strange magnetic anomalies," mutations in plants and animals, and, of course, aliens… and it’s now called la Zona del Silencio---the Zone of Silence--Mexico's Bermuda Triangle, and people have sort of forgotten about the missile crash.

Meet me on the Mysteries of Latin America podcast for the full story.

-Andrew