She says that six hours after she purchased it, she placed it on this altar and inexplicably the statue began to cry.

It was on the 9^th of March, 1995 that Silvia Arebolo purchased this statue. Then it looked like this.

Cochabamba television presented the story just after it began.  Their reporter told of how he saw and filmed the statue weep first what seemed like tears and then blood.  He produced for us to see a cloth that he used to wipe the statue at the time of the bleeding:

"For us it was an experience that is just unbelievable. As a reporter, you know that throughout the world all reporters are hesitant to believe or they are skeptical about some things, and when I first came here I was skeptical about it.  But I was there for over an hour and a half and no way that anybody, nobody that even got close to it, and no way that anybody, would have put water or any substance that would make it look like tears or blood."