APPENDIX C

Statement of Moricz’s Lawyer Peña Matheus

Official statement of the lawyer Gerardo Peña Matheus about the Tayos, Moricz, and the first expedition for the official military and tourist discovery of 1969, as a response to the book The Mysteries of the Andes by Robert Charroux.

This French author, a pioneer on books about hidden treasures and lost civilizations, deformed several parts of the real story behind the Tayos, and also took advantage of the initial sensationalism of the story.

  1. Afterwards, in the same complaint (a certified copy of it is attached) Mr. Juan Moricz requests the appointment of an “Ecuadorian commission, and he would only reveal to its members the exact location of the several caves and caverns that hold the artifacts he discovered.”
  2. I attach several copies of official memos that prove the Ministry of Finance of Ecuador received the aforementioned complaint, and they sent a copy of it to the General Procurement Office of the Nation, to the Ecuadorian House of Culture, and to the Ecuadorian Corporation of Tourism (CETURIS).
  3. I attach a copy of statement N 1159 from July 15, 1969, sent by the Ecuadorian Corporation of Tourism to Dr. José María Velasco Ibarra, Constitutional President of the Republic. This statement proves CETURIS, as a consequence of the complaint by Mr. Juan Moricz, organized an official expedition which had the following objectives:

Find the caves and caverns that hold the artifacts.

Prove the existence of these artifacts.

Inform the truth of the discovery.

  1. I attach a copy of the newspapers El Telégrafo from Guayaquil, and El Comercio from Quito, both editions from Sunday, September 18, 1969, as evidence that the story of the discovery of a “subterranean world in America” discovered by the “Moricz Expedition of 1969,” organized by CETURIS was published in important newspapers with many photos. The following persons participated in this expedition:
MEMBERS OF THE MORICZ EXPEDITION OF 1969
JUAN MORICZLeader
GASTÓN FERNÁNDEZGeneral Manager CETURIS
GERARDO PEÑA MATHEUSLegal Advisor
LILIAN ICAZACoordinator
HERNÁN FERNÁNDEZPhotographer
MARIO POLITDoctor
PEDRO LUNAAssistant
JOSE ROJASJournalist
  
DEFENSE AND COMMUNICATIONS
CAPTAIN CARLOS GUERRERO GUERRÓN
SARGENT ORTIZ HERRERA:National Police Sargent
SENUSIANO AND SANCHEZ:Agents of the National Police

GUIDES

Army Corporal Segundo Guevara and Julio Cambizaca The civilians Alfredo and Mario Punin

TRANSPORT

43 mules with their corresponding drivers

SCHEDULE

Departure from Guayaquil to Cuenca by car and truck, from Limón on mule to El Pescado, Tres Copales, La Esperanza, La Unión, where Corporal Julio Cambizaca was the commander. From here, they continued on a canoe to Puntilla, through the Santiago River, and its meeting with the Coangos River.

From here, they continued on foot to Jibaria to meet the witch Jukma from Coangos. Then on foot to the settlement of the “Moricz Expedition of 1969,” which is in the part of Jibaria that belongs to Juajare.

  1. I attach a copy of page 60 B of the international magazine VISION, available on the American continent, an edition from November 21, 1969, that serves as evidence that the news of the discovery of a “subterranean world” in America by the researcher Juan Moricz spread quickly.
  2. I attach a copy of the article published in the magazine VISTAZO, an edition from December 1969, which proves, with plenty of photographic material, the discovery of a system of caves and caverns by the “Moricz Expedition of 1969.”
  3. I attach the original edition of the newspaper El Telégrafo from Guayaquil, from April 4, 1976, which announces the arrival of a British expedition to the mysterious caves and caverns discovered in 1969 by Mr. Juan Moricz.
         There were some new explorers, among which we find Dr. Vagu Mijdahl, a member of the Danish Commission of Atomic Energy, who is mentioned in the book in relation to the Glozel plates and the thermoluminescence experiments. Moricz and I had the pleasure of meeting him during his stay in Guayaquil.
  4. I attach the original clipping from the newspaper El Universo, from the city of Guayaquil, from Tuesday, August 3, 1976, which proves the famous North American astronaut Neil Armstrong (the first man on the moon) was a guest of the British expedition and visited the caves discovered seven years before by Mr. Juan Moricz.
  5. I attach a copy of the map of the area around the caves and caverns investigated by the British team, for 1,500,000 pounds, which proves:
    1. The subterranean system is made up of several galleries and tunnels that lead to large caves and caverns.
    2. The galleries and tunnels cross over on different levels.
    3. The caves and caverns are located 610 feet deep under the surface of the earth.
    4. The location of the only entrance known to the subterranean system, which was made public by Mr. Juan Moricz in 1969, is located 3 degrees 6 minutes latitude south and 77 degrees 13 minutes longitude west from the Greenwich Meridian.
    5. The cartographic inspection of the subterranean area reached 3.04 miles.
    6. There are large subterranean chambers that are 984 ft. long × 262 ft. wide.
    7. There are passages longer than 984 ft. long.
    8. There are chimneys or ventilation shafts every couple of feet.
    9. The system continues under the Andes in areas that still haven’t been studied topographically, but their subterranean prolongation is evident.
  1. I attach a copy of the magazine VISTAZO from the month of August 1976, which shows color photographs of weird tunnels, giant rocks, and constructions found 650 ft. deep in the Tayos Cave discovered in 1969 by Mr. Juan Moricz.

In summary, Mr. Juan Moricz is not an “adventurer,” but a serious researcher, the wonderful network of galleries was not discovered in 1970, but in 1969, and I am not the “assistant” of adventurers, but a lawyer with a Ph.D. in Jurisprudence who intervened to verify the discovery, in my capacity as a Legal Advisor. There is no lack of evidence of the discovery; on the contrary, the evidence is abundant.

I am certain that once you examine the evidence I have sent about the discovery and “real existence of a fantastic network of galleries located 656 ft. deep that connect Ecuador with Peru,” you will be able to rectify the audacious statement found on pages 101–02 of the edition of your book The Mysteries of the Andes that states, “In fact, neither the Swiss writer, nor Moricz, nor his assistant Gerardo Peña Matheus, have provided the least bit of evidence of their discoveries.”

On page 102 of the Spanish edition of your book The Mysteries of the Andes, under subtitle “Mythomaniacs that hit the mark”:

“Juan Moricz had said the Ecuadorian-Peruvian gallery had valuable objects, as well as the archives that prove the existence of an ancient and advanced civilization that disappeared before the Flood.”

“Von Däniken was sure there was a hideout that held such things, but again, it was important to determine their location.”

The Swiss writer stated in one of his books that in fact he had found the tunnel, and had seen golden statues of unknown animals, as well as many manuscripts printed in golden plates.

But—quoting the magazine Nostradamus—Juan Moricz denied this testimony, “and stated von Däniken never had access to the tunnel with the documents and artifacts of inestimable value.”

The German magazine STERN, after contacting Moricz, also obtained evidence to prove the story of the writer was not true.