Mexico's president is being mocked for sharing a photo that he claimed was of a woodland spirit creature similar to an elf

• Mexico's president shared a photo on social media of what he said was an elf-like woodland creature.
• "Everything is mystical," he wrote along with the photo.
• His widely viewed tweet sparked confused and mocking responses.

Mexico's president has been mocked on social media after he shared a photo of what he described as a sighting of a mythical woodland figure.

The image shared by Andrés Manuel López Obrador appears to show a dark creature with bright white hair and eyes sitting in a tree.

López Obrador said the photo "was taken three days ago by an engineer" and appears to be an "aluxe," which is a type of small elf-like mythological creature in Mayan mythology.

"Everything is mystical," he concluded.

—Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) February 25, 2023

The mythical aluxes, like the elves and fairies of European folklore, are mischievous beings that inhabit forests and fields and sometimes play tricks on humans, according to the beliefs of some Mayan people from the Yucatán Peninsula and Guatemala. 

Journalist Mauricio Schwarz responded to the tweet to debunk the sighting, telling the president that the image has actually circulated on social media since February 2021.

"If you believe it, you are stupid. If you know you are lying, you are malicious." Schwarz wrote.

López Obrador, who has been president since 2018, has previously expressed an interest in and respect for indigenous cultures.

The tweet spread widely in Mexico, being viewed over three million times at the time of writing and sparking confused and mocking responses.