The United States detects a second Chinese spy balloon that flies over Latin America

The United States has detected a second “spy balloon” from China and assures that it is flying over Latin America, the Pentagon reported on Friday. “We are looking at information from a balloon that is flying over Latin America. We now assess that it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,” said in a statement sent to the press on pentagon spokesmanBrigadier General Patrick Ryder.

The newspaper The nation from Costa Rica had published an article about a white flying object that it looked like a hot air balloon, and that it had been sighted over the Latin American country. Consulted by CNN, a senior pentagon official said that the balloon sighted over Latin America does not appear to be heading to the United States. The Pentagon announced Thursday that it was following the movements of a Chinese “spy balloon” that flew over the state of Montana (northeast US), where one of the three existing nuclear missile silo fields on US soil is located.

As the Pentagon explained on Friday, the globe has moved in the last few hours in an easterly direction and is now in the center of the country, some 60,000 feet from the surface (18,288 meters). Meanwhile, as the balloon crosses the North American country, the top of the Pentagon has strongly recommended that the president, Joe Biden, that you do not take any action against the device for security reasons, since debris could fall on the population.

diplomatic crisis

The presence of this Chinese “spy balloon” in US airspace has triggered a diplomatic crisis between Washington and Beijing and has motivated the suspension of the trip that the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, planned to do to the Asian country. For its part, Beijing admitted this Friday that the globe belongs to it, although it assured that “it is a civilian airship used for research purposes, mainly meteorological.

The director of the Office of Chinese Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi, asked the US to “remain calm” after confirming that the “spy balloon” flying over the North American country belongs to the Asian giant. Wang had a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in which the two parties discussed the crisis. “China is a responsible country and has always strictly abided by international law. We do not accept any speculation baseless,” said the former Chinese foreign minister in a statement released today by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

“In the face of unexpected situations, the two parties should keep calm, communicate in time, avoid misjudgment and control differences”, added the Foreign Ministry publication. The incident led to the suspension of Blinken’s trip, although according to US officials, in the telephone conversation he conveyed to Wang hoping to be able to travel to China “as soon as possible when conditions permit.”