Miami Republican Planning To Run For Congress Claims She Was Abducted By Aliens

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MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) - A Miami Republican who may run to replace Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen when she retires next year year has a far out story from her past.

She claims when she was seven years old she was abducted by aliens.

Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera has claimed in past Spanish TV network appearances, most recently in 2011, that she was taken aboard a ship with three blonde creatures that resembled Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer statue.

"I don't exactly know what happened," she told The Associated Press on Monday. "I believe it is real. But I was 7 years old. It was an experience I had a thousand years ago."

Since those television appearances, Rodriguez Aguilera has served as a council member in the city of Doral, where she was appointed vice mayor. She also teaches leadership at Miami Dade College and runs a consulting firm, Bettinara Enterprises.

Rodriguez Aguilera declined to go into details on what was said in her 2009 appearance on America TeVe, where she claimed the extraterrestrials told her "the center of the world's energy is in Africa." She then talks about 30,000 non-human skulls discovered in a cave on the Mediterranean island of Malta. Another video uploaded in 2011 also showed Rodriguez Aguilera in a TV show talking about that.

The videos were cited in a Miami Herald story Monday and are available on YouTube. In them, Rodriguez Aguilera mentions seeing paranormal activity later while growing up in Miami when she was 12 and into her teens. She cites a UFO sighting when she was 17 and referred to an article in the same newspaper that she says corroborated what she saw.

Rodriguez Aguilera said the Miami Herald article was "clearly an attack piece."

"It ignores to mention I have dedicated over 40 years of my life as a business owner, teacher, economic developer, Vice Mayor and community advocate and instead emphasis in a negative way an experience I had when I was 7 years old," she said in a statement. "Like the majority of Americans and scientists, I believe there is intelligent life in the billions of planets and galaxies in this universe. I will continue my work in the community, as I have done for over four decades, and focus on being a positive force to my fellow residents."

The Miami-Dade Elections Department said Rodriguez Aguilera has yet to officially file to run. A candidate for Congress must be registered through state and so far her name is not listed as a candidate who has filed.

Ros-Lehtinen's retirement opens up a competitive seat that Democrats have high hopes of capturing as Hillary Clinton won the district last year.

(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)