Pod Insights The Why Files: Operation Podcast Peru's Most Terrifying Mystery | The Face Peelers About this episode In 2023, something began hunting people in the remote Amazon village of San Antonio de Pintuyacu. Witnesses described seven-foot beings in black armor with glowing yellow eyes, hovering on disc-shaped platforms, hunting for human faces. Fifteen-year-old Talia barely escaped when two tried to peel the skin from her face with a laser device. She heard them speaking Spanish and English, planning their procedure. For 500 years, the Ikitu people have told stories of the Pishtaco - pale-skinned beings who steal human fat and faces. Now the legend had returned with advanced technology. Authorities blamed illegal miners with jetpacks. But the evidence suggests something far more sinister - advanced military technology entwined with a shadowy international trade in human lives.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJDT8vn-nVU
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 Cheers to fall savings at Whole Foods Market, home of higher ingredient standards. This Halloween, share chocolates and candies made without that spooky high fructose corn syrup. Throwing a party? Make it easy with a berry chantilly cake. Ready to cook pizza? No antibiotics ever chicken wings. And sushi made fresh daily. Fall gatherings never tasted better. Save through November 3rd at Whole Foods Market.
0:29 AJ Gentile? On July 11th, 2023, just after sunset, a girl started screaming.
0:36 AJ Gentile? The men on patrol responded quickly. Over the past few weeks, something had been terrorizing their village. And tonight, they were ready. The men armed with hunting rifles and shotguns opened fire. The bullets had no effect. The attackers were seven feet tall, covered in black armor with large helmets and glowing yellow eyes. In an instant, they were gone. But they didn't run. They hovered six feet off the ground and disappeared into the Amazon jungle.
1:05 AJ Gentile? The girl was bleeding from a cut on her neck and barely conscious. She almost became another victim of Los Pelicadas, the face peelers. At first, the authorities didn't believe in face peelers. Then the bodies showing up. Bodies without faces.
1:30 AJ Gentile? The attacks in 2023 were shocking, but they weren't new. For years, something has been hunting people in the Amazon. In the 1970s, the island Kaladis in Brazil was under siege. People were attacked by beams of light that drained their blood. They all had burn marks and puncture wounds that doctors couldn't explain. There were over 200 victims. Two people even died. Finally, the mayor begged the government for help. The Brazilian Air Force took thousands of photographs, videos, and witness testimonies. That was Operation Prato. There's a link below to the whole story. It can't be debunked. And there's a twist. But in case you haven't seen it, I won't.
2:10 AJ Gentile? Brazil, Colombia, and Peru kept having encounters, all violent. The earliest documented case was Juan Cervantes in 2013. His body was found floating in Lake Emiria. No signs of drowning or trauma, but his face was completely gone, right down to the skull. And there was a precise cut all around his neck. Skeptics said he was attacked by piranhas, but the autopsy showed he died before he went into the water. Fish would have eaten more than just his face, and fish don't make surgical cuts, but the face peelers do. In April 2023, the face peelers attacked again. A boy's body was found in the same area. Again, his face was gone.
2:55 AJ Gentile? Again, precise cuts. There's a video of this if you want to see it, which you don't. The attacks then accelerated. On September 2nd, 2023, Pablo Verdales, a villager from Pucunalayque, was sitting on his porch. About 7:00 at night, he saw a light between the trees, only 50 feet from his house. He called his family out, and everyone saw the same thing. Humanoid beings, about 7 feet tall. They wore black astronaut-like armor. They wore black helmets that hid their features, except for glowing yellow eyes. And most shocking, they stood on disc-shaped platforms and hovered above the ground. Pablo fired his shotgun and hit one of them.
3:38 AJ Gentile? Except for a few sparks from the impact in the armor, the entity was unaffected. Then it returned fire. It shot a laser beam that knocked Pablo out for hours. Then the beings accelerated into the air and disappeared into the night sky. There was no doubt, this was yet another alien attack in the Amazon. Not only did the villagers see the aliens up close, they also saw large silent craft hovering in the sky. They were acorn-shaped, the length of a private jet but wider. No wings, no propellers, just bumps of a hull and a lot of flashing lights. The major hotspot was San Antonio de Pintayaku, a remote village in the jungle occupied by the indigenous Iquitlans.
4:20 AJ Gentile? The only way in or out is a 10-hour boat ride down the Nanyi River. In the summer of 2023, there were sightings every night. Village leader Hiro Dabila documented all of them. The reports were consistent: beings seven feet tall, wearing black armor and elongated black helmets with yellow eyes. They didn't walk. They had red lights at the bottom of their feet that allowed them to hover. They could jump over houses. The only sound was a faint hiss as they accelerated. Every night, men grabbed rifles and patrolled the perimeter. Their weapons were useless. Shotgun pellets made a dull pinging sound when bouncing off the aliens' armor. The community lived in constant fear, too scared to hunt or farm. Food supplies ran low. They were trapped.
5:05 AJ Gentile? The attacks seemed random. Nobody knew what these beings wanted. But that would change when 15-year-old Talia was attacked. After she escaped, she told her family exactly what the aliens wanted. They wanted her face. They asked how she knew this. She said, "I heard them say it."
5:26 Speaker 00 Cheers to fall savings at Whole Foods Market, home of higher ingredient standards. This Halloween, share chocolates and candies made without that spooky high-fructose corn syrup. Throwing a party? Make it easy with a berry chantilly cake, ready-to-cook pizza, no antibiotics-ever-chicken wings, and sushi made fresh daily. Fall gatherings never tasted better. Save through November 3 at Whole Foods Market.
5:56 AJ Gentile? On July 11, 2023, Talia Dabila Diaz was in her backyard picking fruit as she did almost every night. Suddenly, she felt a rush of wind behind her. She turned around and saw a tall figure hovering on a circular platform. It was covered in black armor and had bright yellow eyes. It moved silently and faster than any human she'd ever seen. Then another being grabbed her from behind and covered her mouth. The first held her legs. She fought, but their grip was unnaturally strong. Then the attack became a procedure.
6:30 AJ Gentile? The figures put something like a nasal syringe up her nose. Instantly, Talia was overwhelmed by a sharp chemical smell. Her vision began to blur as she started to lose consciousness. They had given her some kind of sedative. Then they smeared cold cream on her face. Terrified and disoriented, her face started going numb. Then she heard them speaking, speaking Spanish. One had a local Peruvian accent. The other had an American accent, a gringo. She heard the local voice say, "Be careful, be careful." Then he said the words that defined this entire phenomenon. "Don't use too much, you'll ruin the flesh." They weren't trying to kill her, they were trying to peel her face.
7:14 AJ Gentile? One of them produced a small glowing device, a laser scalpel. She heard a humming sound and smelled something burning. They were cutting into the side of her neck. Somehow, she was able to get her hand under the helmet of one of her attackers. This gave her just enough time to scream. Then she heard the local attacker say, "Let's get out of here." Then the American said, "No, we can't just leave her here." They tried to drag her onto one of the platforms, but the villagers heard the struggle. They came running with flashlights and shotguns. The figures dropped Talia and shot straight up into the sky, gone. They left no boot prints, just two perfect circles pressed into the soft ground.
7:56 AJ Gentile? Talia survived, but with a deep cut on her neck and severe PTSD. But her story finally revealed the invaders' motive: to peel the skin off her face. What happened to Talia seemed shocking and new, but for the Ikitu elders, it was both terrifying and familiar. They knew this story. It had been passed down through the tribe for 500 years.
8:31 AJ Gentile? The technology was new. The method of attack wasn't. The Iquitú tribe elders knew exactly what they were facing. Because their ancestors had faced it before. They had a name for it: pichaco. In the 1500s, when Spanish conquistadors tore through Peru with steel and gunpowder, they were searching for gold. Any locals that got in their way were killed. But it got worse. The Spanish were taking something from the bodies of the dead. Something the Andean people considered very valuable: human fat. In Europe, fat was used to treat wounds, grease the gears of machines, maintain weapons. But they believed that human fat was even more potent. But for the Andean people, this was a desecration.
9:15 AJ Gentile? In their culture, fat was life. To take a person's fat was to steal their essence. The pichaco was born from this horror. A pale-skinned man who hunted at night carried a knife and peeled the skin off his victims. Now, this isn't just a ghost story. In 2009, Peruvian police arrested a gang carrying plastic soda bottles filled with liquefied human fat. They were selling it on the European black market. Human fat was supposedly used in high-end cosmetics. The price? $36,000 a gallon. The ancient legend had found a modern market. Evidence of the pichacos kept appearing. A few days later, in the village of Oca Bamba, farmers found all their sheep dead.
9:59 AJ Gentile? The injuries were consistent with animal mutilations from New Mexico to Argentina. Two neat holes drilled in the skull. Eyes removed. Brain gone. No blood, no tracks, no explanation for how this could be done. After Tleilac was attacked, the villagers used a satellite phone to call for help. They wanted the navy, armed soldiers. They wanted protection. Eventually, a couple of police officers arrived to investigate. It didn't take them long to solve the crime. They knew exactly what this was. Miners, wearing jetpacks.
10:43 AJ Gentile? The police investigation was brief. The conclusion was simple. The attackers were illegal gold miners using jetpacks to scare the villagers off their land. The international press picked up the story. It was a convenient explanation that dismissed the entire phenomenon. And the explanation stuck. But the story... The jetpack miner story... Had holes. Big ones. First, the technology. Commercial jetpacks are loud, hard to control, and can fly only for a few minutes. But witnesses say they hovered for hours, moved with superhuman agility, leaping over houses, and all in complete silence. You couldn't do this in the middle of the densest jungle in the world.
11:27 AJ Gentile? The villagers had set traps around the perimeter. Shotguns rigged tripwires. Throughout July, they heard the traps firing at night. Every morning, they'd check for bodies. All they found were mysterious oval footprints, twice the size of human feet. And no blood.
11:45 AJ Gentile? And the motive doesn't make sense. Cartels and illegal miners want to stay under the radar. These attacks were terrifying. They brought global attention. The last thing a covert mining operation wants is a visit from the press or the police. The jetpack story collapses completely when you look at the city of Nauta nearby. Thirty-five thousand people, and no gold. And yet, a humanoid figure was caught on video climbing a rooftop in the dead of night.
12:17 AJ Gentile? Why would a miner be doing that?
12:21 AJ Gentile? If these attacks weren't done by miners or the cartels, then we're looking at something far darker. Because every year, nearly 12,000 women vanish in Peru. Most are girls, teenagers. Fewer than half are ever found. Some are trafficked, others completely disappear. But disappear to where? Some investigators believe these women are being used as livestock.
12:48 AJ Gentile? The black market for human organs is a multi-billion-dollar industry. A single body can be worth millions. The face peeler motive suddenly had a terrifying, real-world context. Organ harvesting explains the motive. Remote villages provides the opportunity. But what about the means? This theory doesn't explain the technology. Gangs and cartels have a lot of money, but not for technology like this. If we're assuming these attacks are being done by men and not aliens, who would have such advanced tech? The CIA and military might. So was the US military operating deep in the jungles of Peru at the exact time of these attacks? They were.
13:34 Speaker 00 Cheers to fall savings at Whole Foods Market, home of higher ingredient standards. This Halloween, share chocolates and candies made without that spooky high-fructose corn syrup. Throwing a party? Make it easy with a berry chantilly cake. Ready-to-cook pizza? No antibiotics ever chicken wings. And sushi made fresh daily. Fall gatherings never tasted better. Save through November 3rd at Whole Foods Market.
14:07 AJ Gentile? While the villagers were under attack, another force was in the jungle. Organized, armed, American. That summer, the US military was running a massive exercise called Resolute Sentinel 2023, right out of Akito's naval base, just upriver from San Antonio de Pintoyaku to Leah's village. Eighty-seven US Marines were in the region until July 9th. The Pelicatis attacks began July 11th. The timeline is, in theory, this is a fact. And the Marines weren't alone. The operation included multiple US branches, even the Space Force. Why was Space Force part of jungle warfare training in Peru?
14:51 AJ Gentile? Nobody asked, so nobody knows. Suddenly, the villagers' stories don't sound like aliens. They sound like a field test for black-budget technology. The silent hovering isn't a commercial jetpack. It's consistent with experimental silent lift systems using advanced ducted fans or even electromagnetic propulsion. The armor sounds a lot like the Talos suit, an advanced combat exoskeleton. The suit is bulletproof and enhances a soldier's speed and strength. Night-vision goggles explain the glowing yellow eyes. The laser burns match the effects of directed-energy weapons, which use millimeter waves to heat an area. These weapons work on missiles, so they would definitely work on human skin. And then there's the detail from Taliya's testimony.
15:36 AJ Gentile? Two voices, one local, the other a gringo, an American. The Peruvian Amazon is an ideal test site for secret operations and experimental equipment. Dense terrain, limited oversight, no media access. It's a region with a long history of exploitation, a place where thousands go missing every year. But this is something the Peruvian government doesn't like to discuss, so jetpacks. The official story was: illegal gold miners with jetpacks, the media bought it, and that was the end of it. But it wasn't the end for the Iquitú people in San Antonio de Pintoyaku. They swore this was something else. The government wouldn't listen. The villagers were dismissed as simple and superstitious.
16:20 AJ Gentile? They were desperate for help. And a few weeks later, help would arrive.
16:35 AJ Gentile? With food supplies running low and the government silent, the people of San Antonio de Pintiaku were on their own. Then, in October 2023, help arrived. American explorer and investigator Tim Albarino and former Marine Doug Thornton, they launched a privately-funded expedition to the Amazon. Their mission: to provide aid and find the truth. They brought supplies: food and medicine. They brought high-powered flashlights, radios, night-vision goggles with recording capabilities. Albarino and Thornton spent days in the village. Everybody was on edge. Men carried shotguns everywhere, even during the day. But their weapons were barely functional: rusty barrels, some held together with wire and tape.
17:20 AJ Gentile? The villagers had cut down a wide swath of jungle around their community. This was a desperate attempt to extend their line of sight against an enemy that came from the dark. The men of San Antonio de Pintiaku were brave and intelligent, but they didn't have the experience or training necessary to defend their homes. So Doug Thornton provided it. He taught the men basic patrol tactics: how to move in a column, how to handle their weapons safely, so they wouldn't accidentally shoot each other in the chaos of an attack. After interviewing dozens of witnesses, Albarino was convinced the villagers were telling the truth about what they saw. But he didn't believe they were seeing aliens. He believed they were facing a powerful, international organization involving sex trafficking and organ harvesting.
18:05 AJ Gentile? They were using advanced technology, possibly reverse-engineered alien tech. An organization like that would have the means and the opportunity. But what about the motive? Well, they had that too. The motive was profit, and the method was terror. And the alien story was the perfect cover. And the Ikitu people, defenseless and discredited by their government, they were the perfect victims.
18:39 Speaker 00 Cheers to fall savings at Whole Foods Market, home of higher ingredient standards. This Halloween, share chocolates and candies made without that spooky high fructose corn syrup. Throwing a party? Make it easy with a berry chantilly cake. Ready to cook pizza? No antibiotics ever chicken wings. And sushi made fresh daily. Fall gatherings never tasted better. Save through November 3rd at Whole Foods Market.
19:12 AJ Gentile? Seven-foot-tall hovering beings terrorize a remote village. A 500-year-old legend of face-peeling monsters seems to come to life. And in the middle of it all, a secretive US military operation is active just miles away. So let's break down what we know. It's easy to see why the Peruvian government was so quick to dismiss the story. And the Nájai River is gold. Lots of gold. During the pandemic, the authorities disappeared. Gold prices soared, and the jungle opened up. Criminal networks from Brazil and Colombia moved in. They set up illegal gold mining operations that generate billions of dollars a year. But these operations use dredges and pumps and shovels, not hoverboards and lasers. If this were about gold,
19:56 AJ Gentile? why attack Nauta, a city with no gold at all? So were these aliens? Probably not. Why would aliens speak Spanish? With an American accent? There's strong evidence Americans who were involved. The training ended on July 9th. The attacks began on July 11th. The timeline is fact. Taliya, hearing two accents, one local, one American, points directly toward a joint operation, which it was.
20:25 AJ Gentile? The CIA has done plenty of evil things, but pretending to be face peelers sounds like a stretch. It isn't. The CIA once faked vampire attacks as part of a counterinsurgency strategy. In the 1950s, in the Philippines, a communist group called the HUX tried to overthrow the government. The CIA brought in a psychological warfare unit to try to scare the HUX away. There was a local legend of a monster called the Aswang. The Aswang had a sharp tongue that it would use to drain the blood of its victims. So the CIA started hunting the HUX. They kidnapped them, punctured their necks, and hung the corpses upside down to drain their blood. The plan worked better than they expected.
21:09 AJ Gentile? The same PSYOPs unit was deployed in Vietnam a few years later for Operation Wandering Soul. They broadcast ghostly voices and screams into the jungle at night. This was so effective that the US was instructed not to play the sounds around their local allies. They were terrified.
21:29 AJ Gentile? But why would the CIA go through all this trouble and take on so much risk for money? They have access to all the money they need. And what about Tim Albarino's theory about a shadowy organization harvesting organs using alien technology? That's probably the best theory we have, but there's no proof to support it. But Tim went to the jungle. He spoke to the witnesses. He did prove their fear is real. The official story is a lie. We know that. Whether the attackers were miners, soldiers, traffickers, or something else, they were organized and technologically superior. I don't think this is aliens. I'm pretty sure this is being done by men, evil men. And if this is happening in Peru,
22:12 AJ Gentile? it's happening to defenseless people in remote villages all over the continent, maybe even beyond. Advanced technology in the hands of those who profit from suffering. We've seen that all throughout history. The face peelers aren't a legend anymore. They're an industry, and business is booming.
22:39 AJ Gentile? Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. My name is AJ and this has been a Y-Files stripped episode. If you had fun or learned anything, do us a favor, hit the like, subscribe, comment, and share buttons. That stuff, that stuff used to help the channel. I hope it still does. And like most topics we cover on the channel, today's was recommended by you. So if there's a story you'd like to see or learn more about, go to the Yfiles.com/tips. And I'm sorry if I was late on this one. I kind of avoided it because it seemed kind of grisly, but a lot of you asked for it, and Tim Albarino has been making it around, so maybe this is relevant again. Something is definitely going on down in the Amazon. As recently as a few weeks ago, there are some strange activities.
23:21 AJ Gentile? And there's, local authorities are almost at war with the illegal gold miners. It's, something's up. Remember, The Y-Files is also a podcast. Twice a week, I post deep dives into the stories we cover here on the channel, and sometimes I post episodes that wouldn't be allowed on the channel. You'll know those because they're labeled "redacted." Anyway, the podcast is called The Y-Files: Operation Podcast, and it's available everywhere. And if you're listening on an audio platform, hit the thumbs or the stars or the, just click something nice for us. That stuff, that stuff still helps. If you need more Y-Files in your life, check out our Discord. There are thousands of people on there 24/7. They're talking about the same weird stuff we talk about here.
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26:58 Speaker 02 I fear the crack at I got stuck inside Mel's home with MKL truck I'm being only too aware Did Stanley Kubrick fake the moon landing alone? On a film set, were the shadows people there?
27:17 Speaker 02 The Roswell aliens just fought the smiling man, I'm told And his name was Cole And I can't believe I'm dancing with the fish Head to fish on Thursday nights with AJ2 And the web of zombie feet all through the night
27:38 Speaker 02 All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth So the web of zombie feet all through the night
28:04 Speaker 02 The Mothman sightings and the solar storms still come To have got the secret city underground Mysterious number stations, planets circle to Project Stargate and what the dark watchers found In a simulation, don't you worry though The black nights had a lot of toll to me so I can't believe I'm dancing with the fish Head to fish on Thursday nights with AJ2 And the web of zombie feet all through the night
28:44 Speaker 02 All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth So the web of zombie feet all through the night Head to fish on Thursday nights with AJ2 And the web of zombie feet all through the night All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth So the web of zombie feet all through the night
30:00 Speaker 03 I don't know what I'm doing. Need a break. Forget it, I quit. Escape to Pluto TV.
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30:12 Speaker 05 You stay classy, San Diego.
30:14 Speaker 03 Watch Tommy Boy, Crazy Ex Girlfriend, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The X-Files, Wayne's World, and so much more.
30:20 Speaker 04 We're not worthy!
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30:29 Speaker 05 Para los grandes, para los chicos, para los bajos y los altos, los pacifistas, los valientes. Para los optimistas y los pesimistas, los que valoran lo de adentro. Para los que están lejos, los que no vende lejos, y los que no vende cerca. Para los introvertidos y los extrovertidos, para los que piensan y los que hacen. Para los que nos mostraron el camino. Coca-Cola. Para todos. Compra una Coca-Cola en una tienda cerca de usted.
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