0310 - South America - Brazil
‘Operation Saucer’ was an investigation into a terrifying series of reported incidents in 1977 where residents in the Brazilian city of Colares claimed that they not only witnessed flying saucers - but they were also being attacked by them. Bright objects of differing shapes, sizes and colours were said to have been flying at low altitudes - just a few metres above the tops of trees - and firing light beams at people on the ground below. Several witnesses claimed to have seen beings piloting the crafts, describing them as no more than three to four feet tall.
What separates these sightings from the usual glimpses of UFOs in the skies are the numerous and recurring injuries that people suffered. Sightings: Photographs were taken by officials of bright lights in the sky (Operation Saucer) The beams gave off intense beams of radiation that caused puncture marks and lesions, with some reporting to local media at the time that it felt like a “heavy weight pushed against their chest”.
A report into the claims made by the victims stated: “The beam was about seven or eight centimetres in diameter and white in colour. “It never hunted for them but hit them suddenly. When they tried to scream no sound would come out, but their eyes remained open. “The beam felt hot, almost as hot as a cigarette burn.” Describing the injuries, Doctor Wellaide Cecim Carvalho - who worked in a health care unit in the area during the 1970s - wrote: “All of them had suffered lesions to the face or the thoracic area. “The lesions, looking like radiation injuries, began with intense reddening of the skin in the affected area. “Later the hair would fall out and the skin would turn black. There was no pain, only a slight warmth. “One also noticed small puncture marks in the skin. The victims were men and women of varying ages, without any pattern.”
The saucers were quickly dubbed ‘chupa-chupa’ - meaning ‘sucker-sucker’ - and with reports of more sightings and more incidents of people being injured or losing blood, panic soon started to set in and women and children left the area while local men stayed to look after their homes or possessions. With no reasonable explanation offered as to what exactly was behind the so-called attacks from UFOs, the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) was tasked with finding out what was going on on the island, with the investigation officially named Operation Saucer.
A 2,000-page military report was soon compiled, featuring 500 photographs and 16 hours of film that the FAB reportedly witnessed with their own eyes.
Ufologist Daniel Rebisso Giese claimed in his book Vampiros Extraterrestres Na Amazonia (Extraterrestrial Vampires of the Amazon) that several military personnel suffered nervous breakdowns, while others went completely insane during the course of the investigation. The documents were kept classified until several pages were released in 2004, showing drawings and photographs of what the military saw.
Bright, cylindrical lights feature in the photographs, while several drawings show similarly-shaped objects witnessed by people on the island at the time. Despite this, the operation never explicitly stated that UFOs or aliens were the official cause of the sightings and injuries. However, high-ranking officials from FAB reportedly told a group of ufologists in 2004 that they had discreetly been studying the existence of UFOs since the mid 1950s.
But what could the explanation be if the aliens theory is dismissed? Some think the area was simply being used as a test site for top secret military craft - something people have also used to explain away the secrecy behind Area 51. However, there are yet more strange occurrences aside from the sightings that make this case an ongoing mystery - and catnip for conspiracy theorists.
Dr Carvalho, who treated islanders for their injuries after the ‘attacks’, later said she was “compelled” to lie to them about their injuries - and to tell them they were simply hallucinations. She said: “This is what the Air Force always asked me to say. It did not happen any kind of mass hysteria or visual hallucinations. “The psychiatry proves it didn’t happen. It may happen mystic collective problems when people commit mass suicide. “But nobody can have the same delirium, the same visual, sonic and synthetic hallucination at the same time and in different places.” She also claims to have seen a UFO herself, adding: “I could see the UFOs bright metal and it wasn’t a dish-like object, but much more like a cone or a cylinder.”
Further to this, Captain Uyrangê Bolivar Soares Nogueira de Hollanda Lima - the commander of the operation - gave an interview in 1997 to UFO Magazine, where he recounted how terrified his men were during their investigations. He went on to reveal eyewitness statements which described residents waking up to beings wearing protective clothing shooting coloured beams at their heads, as well as several officers reporting seeing strange lights emerging from and diving back into coastal waters around the area - leading some to assume this was the location of a UFO base. Three months after giving the interview, Captain Hollanda was found dead in his home after he seemingly hung himself using the belt of his bathrobe. It’s fair to say there is a lot to be suspicious about in this particular UFO case and it remains one of the most baffling and mystifying incidents in the history of unexplained phenomena.
Source: https://news.yahoo.com/operation-saucer-the-official-search-for-ufos-155317526.html
The following article originally appeared in the Brazilian magazine UFO, No. 7, vol. 2, April-May-June 1989, pages 13-18. This is an unauthorized and unofficial translation from the original Portuguese by Ed Stewart.
UFO is published by GRUPO EDITORIAL PARACIENTIFICO (GEP) in conjunction with CENTRO PARA PESQUISAS DE DISCOS VOADORES (CPDV)
Daniel Rebisso Geise is a biologist and professor, currently working on the state system of health of the State of Para' in Bele'm. President of the Centro de Investigaca~o de Pesquisas Exolo'gicas (CIPEX) since its foundation, currently participates as a director of Grupo Ufologico da Amazonia (GUA), Caixa Postal 624, 66000 Bele'm (PA).
EXTRAORDINARY - THE PHENOMENON "CHUPA-CHUPA" IN AMAZONIA.
In Amazonia, UFOs are called "aparelhos" [machines] by victims and the violence by these extraterrestrials, principally in their attacks on women, have characterized an odd phenomenon: "Chupa-Chupa." [Suck-Suck]
Daniel Rebisso Giese
Grupo Ufologico da Amazonia (GUA)
INTRODUCTION
In the decade of the 70s, strange phenomena began to occur on the coast and interior of the states of Para' and Maranhao. News came from all parts and the depositions were unanimous: mysterious light beams, projected from unidentified flying objects, which in the majority of cases appeared at night, burning men and women. Chasing people, taking blood from its victims, originating the expression "CHUPA-CHUPA," a name by which the phenomenon became popularly known. In other regions, principally in Maranhao, the phenomenon became known by the name "APARELHO."
The phenomenon, in spite of a long hatching period, manifested itself with such force and consistency never before seen in the history of the national Ufology. In a few short weeks, the news ran throughout the entire States of Para' and Maranha~o, taking the population by surprise, generating a climate of terror and collective panic. Motivated by curiosity and with the objective to shed light on the Chupa-Chupa mystery, we undertook a research which took us to several counties of Para'. We entertained but, due to our modest financial resources, and available time, it was not possible for us to cover all of Para' and Maranha~o. We hope that in the near future someone will be able to complete this research.
What we will be exposing in this article won't consist of fables created by backwoodsmen or diverse residents of the interior and coast of Para'. We will be faithful to the facts and rendered depositions. Each interview was taken with attention and care. This way, we selected the most coherent reports, whose relationships with other depositions, added to the competence of the testimonials, constituted bearing elements. The objective of this work is to trace a real picture and an historical outline of one of the most impressive ufological manifestations which we could know.
NEWSPAPER ANNOUNCEMENTS
The first part of this research constitutes a bibliographical survey of all articles and reports published in the periodicals of Para' such as A PROVINCIA DO PARA', O LIBERAL, and ESTADO DO PARA'. However, the same was not possible, for the reasons previously described, with the press of Maranha~o. We read all the articles of the cited periodicals and feel that the press of Para' related in a very interesting form the development of the Chupa-Chupa phenomenon. All of the articles were heavily illustrated and taken at the locations of incidence, together with the testimonials... If today we are able to reconstitute this ufological wave, it is due to the press and the care of the Public Library of Bele'm.
Several ufological news forecasted the Chupa-Chupa wave, but the most significant article was in O LIBERAL, 7-16-77, where we read:
"The UFO photographed in Montevideo, spherical shape, compares in detail with the strange objects seen at several locations in Para', along the Maranha~o side of the Gurupi River and along the entire Para'-Maranha~o border. Just yesterday, these objects were observed at several locations in the interior of Maranha~o, frightening the population, similar to what occurs in the area of Vizeu in Para'."
A few days before, precisely on 7-12-77, the JORNAL DA BAHIA reported in a clear manner what would become the phenomenon Chupa-Chupa:
"Flying object which emits fantastic light frightens Para': Bele'm (AJB) --- A fantastic story of a flying object emitting a strong light and sucking blood from people, circulated from mouth to mouth among the population of the counties of Braganca, Vizeu and Augusto Correa in Para', where many people fear leaving their homes during the night so they won't get caught by the vampire-like light from the strange object which, according to information, already has caused the death of two men. No one knows how the story started, but the truth is that it reached Bele'm and grabbed headlines in the local newspapers."
Months later, on October 8, O LIBERAL launched the first in a series of reports, giving the population knowledge of what was the Chupa-Chupa phenomenon. The report begins in a taxing manner:
"Sucking animal attacks men and women in the village of Vigia: A strange phenomenon has been occurring for several weeks in the village of Vigia, more exactly in the Vila Santo Antonio do Imbituba about 7 kilometers from highway PA-140, with the appearance of an object which focus a white light over people, immobilizing them for around an hour, and sucks the breasts of the women leaving them bleeding. The object, known by the locals as "Bicho Voador" [Flying Animal], or "Bicho Sugador" [Sucking Animal], has the shape of a rounded ship and attacks people (principally women) in isolation, in spite of it also having attacked some men... One of the victims, among many in the area, was Mrs. Rosita Ferreira, married, 46 years old, resident of Ramal do Triunfo, who a few days ago was sucked by the light on the left breast, and passed out. Increasingly it looked like dealing with a nightmare, feeling as if there were some claws trying to hold her. She was attacked around 3:30 in the morning. Another victim was the lady known as "Chiquita," who was also sucked by the strange object with her breast becoming bloody, but without leaving any marks."
CHUPA-CHUPA
It was then on 10-16-77, that O LIBERAL launched for the first time the expression "Chupa-Chupa," as we read in the first paragraph of this report:
"Chupa-Chupa: That was the denomination given by the population of Vigia to an unidentified flying object, which has brought to panic the dwellers of Imbituba, Camaru and Km-25, as well as other localities situated in the vicinity of those cities."
Henceforth, until the end of mid-november 1977, the newspapers of Para' did not seize to bring to the public articles on the Chupa-chupa. The newspaper A PROVINCIA DO PARA' brought, on 10-20-77, 11-19-77 and 11-20-77, valuable reports for ufological investigation. On October 20 there were two full pages with popular depositions, graphics of UFO evolution in the skies of Vigia and the strange CI 2 [Hynek's CE-I] occurrence with colonist Manoel Matos de Souza (known as Coronha), registered in the small village of Monte Serrado, county of Santo Antonio de Taua' (PA). This farmer, 44 years old, was awaken around 2 to 3 am by a strong light which circled his area and penetrated his shack. On opening the door, he met with a flying object with two creatures in its interior. He returned to this room, and now armed with ammunition, he tried to fire in the vehicle's direction. To his surprise, the weapon did not fire and, feeling paralysis overcoming his body by the light from the UFO, screamed for help.
On 11-19-77, A PROVINCIA DO PARA' published, for the first time, photographs of possible lesions of chupa-chupa, registered on the young Aurora Nascimento Fernandes, 18 years old, resident at Passagem Tabatinga, in the Jurunas neighborhood (Bele'm). Aurora found herself washing dishes around 9 p.m. on 11-18-77 in her home when a strong gush of cold air surprised her in conjunction with a strong, reddish light. The young lady relates:
"I became frightened. I called my mother and before she arrived, a strong red light enveloped me, making me dazed. At the same time, I felt really fine piercings striking my breast, and fell to the floor fainted."
Afterwards, Dr. Orlando Zoghbi, after seeing the patient, framed the fact as an episode of hysteria and panic produced by the collective psychosis around the Chupa-chupa phenomenon. According to Dr. Zoghbi by the configuration of the marks, the wounds present on Aurora's right breast were caused by the contraction of her hands clutching (over the breast), in an instinctive act of protection at the possible Chupa-chupa attack. We loudly disagree, because the same appeared to be concentrated and deep (like biopsies) within a small area; no traces of scratches and the wounds did not possess a fingernail configuration.
In conversation with UFO phenomenon researcher and student, Professor Fabio Zerpa (ONIFE)1, he observed similar facts, ahead of the described picture by Aurora and other women of Para' who said they were Chupa-chupa victims, occurring in southern Argentina in the 70s where one women was attacked by an entity which took blood. It is interesting to note that the described events occurred in cities and villages in proximity to rivers, lakes or seas. This makes us recall the Japanese mythological entities called the "kappas" which, according to legend, came from a distant star and populated the rivers (or seas) of Japan. Researchers Scornaux and Piens, in their excellent work "A Descoberta dos OVNIs" [The Discovery of UFOs], relate:
"Kappas appear to use a submarine, or something of the like, provisioned with a respiratory device as well as some strange helmet with antennas. The ears are abnormally large. The skin is copper-colored (see the men of bronze who appeared at the Utinga reservoir, county of Bele'm, during the Chupa-chupa period) and the hands and feet are hook-like. This description reminds us of some humanoid ETs observed in our day, and the reputation which the Kappas had, of making ill the people who came in proximity to them, makes us think of the physiological effects experimented on some current witnesses."
THE PHENOMENON IN COLARES
The island of Colares is located around 70 kilometers northeast the city of Bele'm. It bounds the county of Vigia, another region rich in apparitions and ufological cases. To its front is the Bay of Marajo~ which finds itself separated from the continent by the river Guajara'-Mirim. Colares comprises an area 600 square kilometers, approximately, and harbors several communities, such as Vila de Colares (the county seat), Fazenda, Mocajatuba, Ariri and others. Its population, in great part, is dedicated to fishing and agriculture.
During the Chupa-chupa period, Colares was the target of intense UFO apparitions and several victims of the mysterious rays were detected. The fear was so much that a good part of the island residents abandoned their homes and temporarily went to reside with their parents in other counties.
CIPE
X2 located several witnesses to the phenomenon during the days which it stayed in Colares. We look at a few cases:
(a) Jonas Ferreira Gondim, 60 years old, a married fisherman, confesses that in that time his house was illuminated by the Chupa light. Taken with courage, he went outside to the yard and fired a June firecracker to scare away the "aparelho." His son, Claudio Gondin, related to us: "During that time, we did not sleep right. I and some other colleagues went out for vigils at the home of friends. One night, I saw that machine over the treetops, there on S. Joa~o street. It suddenly stopped and emitted a clear light on top of the trees and right away climbed at great velocity towards another side of the village."
(b) Mr. Zacarias dos Santos Barata, 74 years old, married, confesses: "I saw this machine around two times. The first time, it came from the direction of Soure' (Marajo' Island) and cruised the village really fast. On the other time, I saw here from the house when a luminous ball came lighting up all of the Luzio countryside. It wasn't making any noise and it was not enough to see how it was correctly, for the light was very strong and of a bluish color." The same was observed by his neighbor, Julio de Brito Correia, 70 years old, adding solely that the ship flew low and at great speed.
(c) The carpenter Carlos Cardoso de Paula, 45 years old, married, describes two curious events. We see: "In the time of the Chupa, many times I left at night to visit the homes of friends and colleagues. The majority of them would meet on the street making a bonfire and frying fish. Once in a while, they would make noise with guns and cans to scare the Chupa... One time, at leaving the house around 21:00 hours, we heard the people yell: "There goes the chupa"; here from the house I only saw when a ball of fire came running in our direction, but soon it changed headings, entering into another street. A strange thing occurred another time, second account: "We were all asleep in the house and I was still smoking the last cigarette when all of a sudden, through the house's roof ridge, entered a small ball of fire. That thing started to ride around the room until it came next to my hammock. It climbed up my right leg up to the knee. I regarded all of this with much curiosity when that small ball passed to the other leg and I started to feel weak and sleepy. The cigarette fell from my hand and, scared of that situation, I screamed. The small ball disappeared and everyone woke up. I think it was looking for a vein in my body, but it didn't have any luck... When it would increase in brightness, I would feel a kind of heat..."
PROBES
The account of Mr. Carlos de Paula, besides the bizarre, indicates to us that that small ball, in reality, could be a matter of a probe, for the described characteristics by the witness so indicate. During our research, we located two people in the Vila de Colares who were victims of the Chupa-chupa. The clinical picture of this phenomenon will be better detailed with the description of the accounts which we gathered there.
The first one was of the merchant Neuton de Oliveira Cardoso, 27 years old, married and who, at the time, resided in the Vila de Mocajatuba. One night, he woke up ill, feeling a "heat" throughout the body and, frightened, noticed that he was burned to the height of the neck on the left side. Family members took him on the following day to the Vila dos Colares for the medical appointment owed. Neuton comments: "I became very weak and without courage during various days and still feel a strong torture and headache." The second victim was Mrs. Claudomira Rogrigues da Paixa~o, 43 years old, married, popularly known as "Mirota." She was hit in the breast by the Chupa-chupa light, when still sleeping at her parent's house. It was around midnight and she slept in the hammock next to the window when she was surprised by an intense glare; quickly, she felt a heat over the body that paralyzed her, when then a focused beam of greenish light was projected over her torax, being right away withdrawn. But it was late and mirota already had burns present on the left breast.
During several days, she felt a great weakness and strong headaches which occasionally still return to bother her. Later, she was lead to the Instituto Medico Legal Renato Chaves (Bele'm) for complimentary exams. Years ago, inclusive, she had the visit of two foreign researchers who arrived together with an interpreter at the island in a single-engine plane. Mrs. Claudomira certifies: "During the instant the fire struck me, I felt holes like from needles over my chest. Later, I did not feel any pain, unless headaches and a great laziness which kept me in the hammock for several days...
SECRET ACCOUNTS
At the start of the rumors of curious ufological apparitions in the interior of Para' and in Maranha~o, increased by the panic of the population about the phenomenon, the 1st Regional Aerial Command (1st COMAR)3, located in Bele'm, activated an exhaustive field operation with the intent of clearing up the Chupa-chupa phenomenon enigma. The command's order was the following:
The UFO phenomenon merits a deep and objective study;
All relevant information on the phenomenon needs to be gathered;
Public announcements and commentary about the subject needs to be avoided.
During the time, the Air Force sent researchers to several counties where the presence of UFOs were detected, in such a way that hundreds of reports of the first and second degrees and around 200 photographs of strange objects, UFOs, were gathered. The most rich locations were Baia do Sol (Ilha de Mosqueiro) and the Ilha de Colares (Para'). In these regions several UFO photographs were obtained, mostly nocturnal, and still some films of short duration registering the ship's evolution.
The majority of the photographs were taken with professional cameras (Cannon, Nikon) coupled and tele-aimed, utilizing Kodak 1000 ASA film, black and white, with the equipment belonging to the military. At the end of the field investigation, the second phase of the operation was initiated which included the elaboration of a report and analysis of the recognized data. This report, around 500 pages including photographs of UFOs, drawings, maps, records of interviews and clippings of local newspapers, was sent to the military high command (EMFA), together with all the existing photographic documentation (films, negatives, photograph copies).
The obtained results of this far away work points that the Chupa-Chupa phenomenon was general and of ufological nature, being difficult to specify with objectivity the origin and purpose of the same.
EVIDENCE
In a ufological research, it is not sufficient to gather and archive cases. It is necessary to test them, compare them with others and submit them to several criticisms (both internally and externally).
The climate that the 1977 Para' wave generated in the breast of the population is complex and rich in data; all of society's sectors were hit and the divulged opinions are the most diverse possible. The press effected an excellent job, maybe addressing, as it allowed itself by one side, by the skepticism of the high domes; and, on the other side, by the inexperience of the ufological camp. However, these small flaws are understandable and natural. But, the same judgment is not valid when we denounce the scientific, political and military community's position which still insists in hiding themselves under old anti-ufological pretexts. This omission was expected, being in part deliberate.
Tactics of this nature are well recognized among researchers and publicists of the UFO reality. Not withstanding or missing were the Air Force secret research, the ridicule, the "prophets" announcing the arrival of the martians and still the confusion tactic with the prejudiced affirmations of some liberal professionals with their "famous" convenient explanations.
CONCLUSIONS
This research, despite its limitations, allowed us an adequate sampling of the 70s ufological wave in Para'. We emphasize some points:
The zone of action was the north of Brazil, being frequent the sightings on the edges of rivers and of the Atlantic Ocean;
The UFOs surfaced, in the majority of times, at night, being rare the sightings during the day;
The depositions confirm the presence of ships - not always coming from high and disappearing in the sky;
Whatever the small ships, everything indicates they were about probes, due to their aerodynamic and behavioral profile, such as round extremely luminous objects, rapid movements, low altitude flying, emission of luminous beams and chasing people;
The burns produced by the UFOs were not accidental, but demonstrated an objective. Men and women were the aim, preferably targeted when they slept;
There is no complete proof that the UFOs removed blood from their victims; on the other hand, the biochemical and clinical exams performed by Dr. Wellaide C.C. de Oliveira attest to the lower number of hemoglobin in the hemogram from the victims, besides the quite peculiar clinical picture of people who have lost considerable blood (fainting, chronic headaches, body weaknesses, preventing the victims from standing on their feet) including the presence of diminutive "prick marks" in the regions hit by the beams from the UFOs;
Informational references about the occupants of the ships were few, but they point to the presence of beings of below/medium stature, greenish and wrinkled skin;
There is a specific objective of great importance which precipitated the UFOs invasion of coastal Para' and Maranha~o.
Everything leads to believe that the global phenomenon was a mission of great scope, not only by the frequency of sightings, but by the great number of sighted objects. The zones incidental were chosen due to their strategic positions and by the security which they gave to the action of the UFOs (geographic isolation, far apart and small population centers). The objective of that invasion was related (possibly) with the research and biological manipulation on man on the part of the aliens, whose purpose in the mean time we are unable to elucidate.
ARTICLE PHOTOGRAPHS
Page 13: In the inset, an UFO photographed by the team from the First Regional Aerial Command (COMAR), in Bele'm, Para'. The larger photo is on an UFO whose shape is the same as in the described cases in Bai'a do Sol (Para'). Both phenomena are associated with the "Chupa-chupa."
Page 14: Above, view of Bai'a do Sol (Para'). Below, ufological probe frequent in the region.
Page 15: Above, UFO of great proportions photographed by the team from the 1st Regional Aerial Command (COMAR) of Bele'm. In the inset, a smaller ship, extremely luminous against the nocturnal sky, observed in Mosqueiro (Para').
Page 15: The proof of silence and military secret about the UFO problem:
CONFIDENTIAL
Round seal ----> Regional Aerial Command - 2nd Section
All and any person who becomes aware of this
secret matter becomes, automatically,
responsible for the maintenance of its secret.
(Art. 12, of Doc. no. 79,099 of 06.01.77)
(Regulation for the Safeguard of Secret Matters).
Page 16: Authentic engraving from the time of Heian, of a "Kappa" - a dweller from the deeps of rivers and seas. Similar beings are seen in Para'.
FOOTNOTES
(1) Fabio Zerpa is presidente-founder of ONIFE, Organizacão Nacional Investigativa de Fenomenos Aerospaciais: Casilla de Correos 35, Sucursal 29, 1429 Buenos Aires (Argentina).
(2) CIPEX is the initials of Centro de Investigacão e Pesquisas Exológicas, founded in Curitiba (Pernambuco) and transferred to Bele'm, together with its founder, and author of this article. Its address is the same as Daniel R. Giese.
(3) The photographs from 1st COMAR were unprecedently published by the magazine UFOLOGIA NACIONAL & INTERNACIONAL, No. 5 and 7, from 1985. This publication - also the editorial responsability of CPDV - is the precursor to UFO. The present article was extracted from the referenced editions and updated for this presentation.
French astronomer and computer scientist Dr Jacques Vallée went to South America to investigate and document reports of UFO close encounters that have resulted in the death or injury of witnesses and published the results in his book "Confrontations."
Among the numerous cases he studied in South America, he dealt with the 1977 events in Colares:
It is in the islands around Belém, where the waters of the Tarantins and the Amazon majestically come to meet the ocean one degree south of the equator, that the 1977 Brazilian wave culminated; and it is there that for the first time the proof of the reality of the phenomenon was obtained. More specifically, as Daniel Rebisso has revealed, the culmination took place over a three-month period from July to September 1977 on the island of Colares and on the beach of Baia do Sol, on the island of Mosqueiro. (Ref. Rebisso Giese, OVNI no Para)
We found fishermen there who had witnessed the objects, and a doctor who had ministered to the medical needs of dozens of people hit by the light from the chupa. She confirmed that one of her patients died after the experience. Several of these witnesses also told us that they had observed two teams of Brazilian military filming the objects, attempting contact.
Ground truth: there was no denying the wave of 1977. It started in June near Cape Gurupi, north of the town of Vizeu, and it moved in both directions along the coast: toward São Luís to the east and toward Belém to the west during June and July; it reached a peak in September and October.
The reason the phenomenon could not be denied was very simple: every evening the UFOs appeared, coming from the north. In some cases, they flew down from the sky, in others, they emerged out of the ocean. I saw a photograph of an object with a luminous white ring flying right out of the brackish water at dusk.
They came over the islands at low altitude and circled; they descended as if to land; they made loops and accelerated suddenly; they hovered over houses and probed the inside with beams. They even emerged out of larger objects and reentered them. And this happened on schedule, every evening for three months.
Vallée discussed with Dr. Carvalho and wrote this list of symptoms from the Doctor's patients medical records:
A feeling of weakness; some could hardly walk.
Dizziness and headaches.
Local losses of sensitivity. Numbness and trembling.
Pallid complexion.
Low arterial pressure.
Anaemia, with low hemoglobin levels.
Blackened skin where the light had hit, with several red-purple circles, hot and painful, two to three centimetres in diameter.
Two puncture marks inside the red circles resembling mosquito bites, hard to the touch.
Hair in the blackened area fell out and did not rejuvenate, as if follicles had been destroyed.
No nausea or diarrhea.
After asking various forensic pathologists to peer-review his findings, Vallée claimed that "what UFO witnesses describe as light may, in fact, be a complex combination of ionising and non-ionising radiation. Many of the injuries described in Brazil, however, are consistent with the effects of high-power pulsed microwaves." He later pointed out that pulsed microwaves may "interfere with the central nervous system. Such a beam could cause the dizziness, headaches, paralysis, pricklings, and numbness reported to us by so many witnesses."
In the conclusion to "Confrontations" Vallée discusses whether the Brazilian UFOs such as those seen at Colares are deliberately trying to kill people. If they are, he considers that they are fairly inefficient at doing it. After all, someone in a helicopter with a high powered rifle and night scope, could probably do a better job. He does however point out that a radiation beam that was designed merely to stun people at one range might be lethal at another range.
Given that there is evidence that research has been done into High Powered Microwave (HPM) weapons, Jacques Vallée ponders the relationship between human and alien technology. "Here again, the UFOs seem to represent an alien force that anticipates our own scientific developments by decades, mocking our own efforts to identify its nature and its long term intentions." (Vallée, 1990, p.206)
A general conclusion offered by Vallée at the end of "Confrontations" is:
"The material gathered in this book represents only a portion of the cases I have personally investigated and a very small percentage of the data compiled by other researchers and by official agencies. The realization that none of this material has ever been seriously examined by professional scientists is staggering. Strictly in terms of the sociology of science, the refusal to consider the facts of the phenomenon is a remarkable statement about the narrow limits within which our society authorizes the serious pursuit of knowledge."
Actually the example of Colares indicates that in this case the UFOs light beams served some other purpose than just to hurt people. What exactly the purpose of this targeting was remains a puzzle.
Two factors have seemingly been essential to determine the participation of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) in the inquiry of the Chupa-chupa phenomenon: the ostensive invasion of the local airspace by foreign flying craft and the constant pressure that suffered many inhabitants of the region which was a deep concern to most of the mayors of the hit cities.
These reasons have been enough for the First Regional Aerial Command of the Aeronautics (COMAR), hosted in Belém, to elaborate a full report on the phenomenon, that was to be thoroughly analyzed in an objective manner.
To create this documentation a group of military under command of then captain Uyrangê Bolivar Soares Nogueira de Hollanda Lima, who had the mission to head "Operation Plate," came to survey the hit villages and to collect depositions of witnesses and victims, and to record manifestations of the UFO phenomenon in the area.
The operation lasted from September to December 1977, and resulted in the elaboration of a document of approximately 1.000 pages, including hundreds of flying disk photographs, drawings, maps and copies of journalistic news articles. The operation managed to take about five hours films in 8 mm format evidencing extraterrestrial ships in the Amazonia, but none of these data were publicly released at the time.
Of course at the times many officers faced the UFO phenomenon as something doubtful and even a mere popular belief. According to Colonel Hollanda, the flying disks were seen with much caution, as something improbable, and were a reason of arguments between the military.
Revista UFO, the Brazilian Ugology Magazine, published in September of 1991 an edition containing descriptions of comments and data collected by agents of the Brazilian Air Forces. Some photos of the time had also been divulged. However, the great new development was that the events were occasionally confirmed in a rather transparent manner, for the first time in the FAB history. Obviously the military has been divided, some high rank officers willing to state that UFOs are real, other willing to put the matter to a rest.
In interview and lectures in Rio De Janeiro, at the invitation of the ufologist Marco A. Petit, Colonel Hollanda told that he believed that the Operation Plate was completed thanks to the presence of Brigadier General Protásio Lopes de Oliveira, in the command of the 1st COMAR, who had much interest in the subject. "It was a luck at that time, in that region, an officer of the Aeronautics, a Brigadier General, who believed flying disks, was in charge. If there had been another officer, another Brigadier General, the operation would perhaps have not taken place."
The reason that Brigadier General Protásio Lopes de Oliveira had interest in the subject is simply that ha was himself a witness in a previous UFO event, which left him with no doubt that UFOs are real.
Hollanda presented a sample of the vast quantity of data that the military, himself and other sources collected, under anonymity back then.
At the time a Captain, Hollanda returned from a course in Brasilia when he presented himself to the head of the Second Section of 1º COMAR, Camilo colonel Ferraz de Barros. He was first asked if he believed flying disks. When he received an affirmative reply, Ferraz de Barros said "then you are in charge of this." In the files that Hollanda received there were documents related to the operation, which still did not have a code name, but already had private agents operating.
Pressure of municipal authorities:
The situation in diverse regions of the States of Pará and Maranhão demanded action. In June, July and August the newspaper brought to the attention of the main cities authorities at Pine, Cajapió, Are Vicente and Are Bento, that people told to have been attacked by what they described as "luminous rays" coming from "mysterious lignts." Because of some ostentation in the press, and then some deaths reports related to the phenomenon, there was quite a stir.
For example the newspaper "The Liberal" of Belém, in 14 of July, reported that in June 22, 1977, the brothers Apolinário Firmino and Jose Correia, together with their brother-in-law Aureliano Alves, anchored their boat in Crabs Island, in the city of Alcântara. During the night, Firmino, Jose and Aureliano had gone to sleep, Apolinário decided to sleep on the top part of the boat. Shortly after midnight, as Jose and Aureliano reported, a great object produced a strong flash The terror hindered them to cry out until Firmino broke the silence with a shout. At this moment Apolinário was waken up and went down to help his brothers and brother-in-law. When he arriving, he found Firmino dead and the others two relatives if twisting of pain. All presented marks of burning in the thorax and the chest. The policy investigated the place and found nothing abnormal. The doctors who had treated Aureliano and Jose, in the "Socorrão" hospital in Sao luiz, gave no conclusion. The legal experts who had made the autopsy of the body of Firmino concluded their report saying he has been "burned" by "an electric dump", without further explanations.
"The Letter," a periodical of the region of Pará in 1977 also reported the concern of the inhabitants when this story was known. Scared by the apparitions of UFOs and its effect on the population, Maneco Paiva, mayor of the city of Pine, sent a request for help to the Command of the Aeronautics in Sao Luiz. According to the regional newspaper, the command directed the note to the air base of Belém, where the information was followed up to the Ministry of the Aeronautics.
The phenomenon arrived at the cities of Vizeu and Bragança, along the Gurupi river. In little time it reached the environs of Belém. One of the mostly hit region was Colares, a city with 2000 inhabitants who, according to colonel Hollanda, received greater attention from Operation Plate.
The mayor of Vigia, in Pará, in the second semester of 1977, notified the 1st Regional Aerial Command of the events and requested action from the Armed Forces. It created quarrels in the City council of Belém. When they learned that the inquiry of the "competent authorities" had concluded that the phenomenon was provoked for meteorological balloons and satellites, the councilmen of Belém complained in court, being angry with the newest ridiculing commentaries in the press.
In the village of Saint Antonio de Umbituba, next to the city of Vieja, the former policy commissioner Alceu Marcílio de Souza perfectly remembers facts that occurred to the population. During nights spent in Umbituba, in police investigations, he observe the worried state of the people. At the time, a team of "the Aeronautics" walked the region, and some of its members came to speak to him regarding the sightings. It is nevertheless quite possible that the "people of the Aeronautics" were in fact Jacques Vallée and his team. Vallée had been a computer consultant at NASA at times and was sometimes wrongly introduced as "someone from NASA."
TWENTY YEARS LATER:
In interview granted to a Brazilian UFO magazine in 1997 almost twenty years after the case, Colonel Hollanda started to make surprising declarations. He was now a retired Colonel, and affirmed that his UFO team could not disclose anything before due to the risk of personal sanctions from the Air Force authorities.
"Now," he stated "I feel myself in the obligation to tell what happened in the Amazonia." He said to the Revista UFO publisher J. Gevaerd "the operation had the initial objective to demystify those phenomena. I was skeptical myself about the extraterrestrial nature of those facts. But after some weeks, when the flying disks had started to appear from everywhere, I had no doubts anymore."
ARMY RECORDS STILL NOT RELEASED:
NOTE: The following paragraph is kept as published in 2002.
The documents have finally surfaced, in 2005; see the main page for this case file.
The Brazilian Army files are still not accessible to the public and researchers, however, certain military personal let go some reproduced information of their input to the files. Underneath is a handwritten document which is intended to be a reconstitution of one of testimonys in the official files:
Date, time, place are precisely indicated, the objet was estimated to be 500 meters away from the observation place.
It is indicated that the objects emitted red and green rays at the front, a red exhaust at its back, and a red glow underneath, and had a transparent dome at the top, the overall color being whiteish.
The weather in indictaed as: clear sky, nothing particular.
Introduction by A.J. Gevaerd, editor, UFO Magazine, Brazil, 2005:
Dear Colleagues:
I made a commitment to myself and the readers of the Brazilian UFO Magazine to never let go of the issue about the lies we are getting from our military and authorities about UFOs in Brazil. The lies are simply outrageous and we cannot be silent.
So I decided to pursue this issue no matter what happens. I am loaded with info to contradict the liars and I now publish a recent message received from a reader of the magazine, who is also angry because of the coverup policy implemented by the military. There is more of this to come and I will spread it both in Brazil and overseas.
If readers want to check out the over 200 pages of official documents of Operation Saucer in the Amazon, 1977, go to:
http://www.ufo.com.br/documentop.php
and download as many as you want.
A. J. Gevaerd
Spokesman From The Brazilian Air Force Department For Social Communication Lies About UFOs
Letter to the Brazilian UFO Magazine:
The newspaper Correio Braziliense published a whole page about UFOs in its January 30th, 2005 issue under the title "Security" and subtitled as "ET Hunters". The report was signed by Ullisses Campbell. Among other subjects, the text describes the campaign carried out by Brazilian UFO Magazine [www.ufo.com.br], UFOs: Freedom of Information Now!, and reports the Brazilian ufologists' will to see the opening of their government secret archives about the Operation Saucer, the Varginha Case, and the Brazilian UFO researchers call "The Official Night of UFOs in Brazil". This request is included in the document called Manifesto of Brazilian Ufology, which is an integral part of the campaign, and is published by the magazine and its website.
In the aforementioned report, under the subtitle Archives in Brasilia, Campbell presents parts of his interview with the Air Force major Antonio Lorenzo, from the Brazilian Air Force Department for Social Communication. The text reads: "The Ministry of Air Force admits the existence of reports about unidentified flying objects in the archives of the Brazilian Command for Air Defense (Comdabra), a military body based in South Lake area". A statement of major Lorenzo follows: "But none of these has an investigative approach. We have never gone out looking for flying sauces in Brazilian skies".
The officer goes on by saying that ufologists do not need to gather 30,000 signatures, which is the intent of the above mentioned campaign - to make these documents disclosed. He finishes: "An order from the commander of the Air Force, Luiz Carlos da Silva Bueno, or from the minister of Defense, Jose Alencar, is enough to open the archives".
The text continues by informing that the report from Operation Saucer, which is read by ufologists all over the world and is published on the website of Brazilian UFO Magazine [www.ufo.com.br], would have been released by the officer who headed the operation, Uyrange Hollanda, interviewed by the editor of the magazine, A. J. Gevaerd. In the documents, says the Correio Braziliense, there should be statements from people attacked by lights coming from the sky which burned their skins, the so-called chupa-chupa (*).
To finish, the report informs the reader that, according to major Lorenzo, there would be no evidence of UFOs sightings in any of the reports of the Air Force. The officer states: "As far as I know, there are only reports about people saying: I saw this, I saw that in the sky. Based on these reports, the Air Force has never established any operation in order to wait for lights from Mars or Jupiter".
The officer lies
I would like to inform Brazilian UFO Magazine that I received verified information saying that the statements made by Major Antonio Lorenzo, from the Brazilian Air Force Department for Social Communication, are false. He lacks the truth in his declarations to the journalist Ullisses Campbell and, therefore, in the position he occupies, he commits a serious fault towards the Brazilian society which needs to be repaired.
I state that in 1977 I was a member of the Brazilian Center for Ufology Studies (CNEU), founded and headed by General Alfredo Moacyr de Mendonca Uchoa, which was based in the College Uniao Pioneira de Integracao Social (UPIS). I occupied a high position in the institution, which I am not going to reveal in order to keep my name in secret. One night, at 8:30 PM, I was in General Uchoa's office, sit at his table, when three men dressed in black suits and holding huge suitcases appeared. From the door they said: "General, we are here". "I'm going", was his response.
Then the three men left to wait at the corridor. General Uchoa told me in low voice: "These are security agents from the Air Force and bring good news from Colares, State of Para". He then asked me to follow him and the men, and we headed to the dead archives of UPIS. The first of the officers had a key in his hands, he opened the door and stand aside so that the others could pass. He was the last one, but when it was my turn to enter, I was stopped under the claim that the subject was secret and I was not allowed to go any further.
General Uchoa, who was already inside the room, turned back and said: "He is a man I highly trust. If he can not enter, than I can not either". Thus, the officers had no choice but to let me in. We sat all around a large table and they started by explaining in details all that should come to General Uchoa - and among other issues, there was the fact that the duty they carried out was assigned in Colares, a city at the coast of the State of Para. What they showed to us were images and documents concerning the Operation Saucer, which were impressive.
I was amazed with the quantity of films and more than 200 pictures they presented. That was an endless source of high quality material. Flying saucers were closely filmed and photographed by those officers - I figure a distance from 100m to 200m. In that great amount of evidence were shots of distant lights, which came towards them until getting very close. Everything was filmed and well photographed in high quality and contrast images. All facts occurred during several nights. There was a photo and film expert among the men, who explained to General Uchoa technical details of the images, the conditions in which they were made, the kind of film, and the exposure time.
There was another expert who explained physical aspects about the UFOs to General Uchoa, and we spent more than three hours watching all the material. However, during all this time, I did not say anything, since I was seen as an intruder and was not really invited. The men did not address me either. In the end, Uchoa's conclusion was: "No doubt these are interplanetary ships present in our planet. We should receive them in order to understand their real intention".
Well, this is my report, which I hope to be useful for Brazilian UFO Magazine and the Brazilian Ufology Community in their campaign for the freedom of Ufology information. My intention is to contribute to show how important it is that the Government asks the Armed Forces to open their archives at once.
R (name and address in our archives)
(*) Chupa-chupa - Brazilian repeated words meaning to suck. Refers to the lights which sucked people's blood.Translated by Eduard Rado, of the Brazilian UFO Magazine team.Edited by A. J. Gevaerd, editor of the Brazilian UFO Magazine (gevaerd@ufo.com.br)
When the terror caused by the UFOs spread from Colares to the neighboring cities, the Brazilian Aeronautics sent a military team to discover what was happening. This operation was named Operation Plate and was commanded by Captain Uyrangê Bolivar Soares Nogueira de Hollanda Lima, now a retired Colonel. His team made hundreds of photos and four films. When the phenomenon ceased, the military locked up its activities. Unfortunately, none of the photos and films were disclosed. But to the great surprise of the Ufologists, in October of 1997, Colonel Hollanda gave a detailed interview to the Ademar researchers Jose Gevaerd and Marco Antonio Petit, respectively publisher and co-publisher of the Brazilian UFO magazine "Revista UFO." Here is the full text of this capital interview.
Note: because my understanding of the Portuguese language is somehow limited, I have kept the original untranslated version at the end of this page. Do not hesitate to contact me if you find a translation error.
UFO Magazine - If you have created a file, then it tells us that there has already been some progresses in the investigation?
Hollanda - Yes, when I arrived from Brasilia I already had agents who had being sent to investigate occurrences of UFOS, because this thing was already happening so often in the area of Colares, which is a belonging to the city of Vigia, on the coast of Pará.
The mayor of the city sent an officer to the commander of COMAR to inform him that the UFOs were bothering the fishing very much. Some of them could not exert the fishing activity anymore, because the objects navigated under their boats. At times, some objects even dived near them, in the rivers and in the sea. The local population spent the night outside. The people set up fires and used firecrackers to try to drive the invaders away. It was the panic that made the mayor contact the command of COMAR, asking for instructions, and the Brigadier General ordered that I was to investigate the sightings.
UFO Magazine - Was there at some point a participation or instruction from Brasilia (Ed.: the capital, i.e. the government) so that the situation is inquired?
Hollanda - At the time, it did not participate in the discussions. There was only one captain and he received only orders. I was no part of this proceeding and I do not know with certainty as of the decisions that had been taken. But, for the little that I know, the decision was in the hands of the command of COMAR. If it had involvement of Brasilia, I do not know about it.
UFO Magazine - How did you organize Operation Plate? How many sections, how many people, how many missions etc? And did you organize all the tasks?
Hollanda - Well, we were a team. I was at the head of it. We had five agents, all sergeants, that worked in the second division of COMAR. Moreover, we had informers on location, people in the places where the lights appeared, on the field, that helped them. At the time I divided the team in two or three different positions in the country. Clearly, we were constantly in contact with one another, through radio.
UFO Magazine - What was the immediate objective of Operation Plate? To observe flying disks, to photograph them and to contact them?
Hollanda - As a matter of fact I wanted to test this thing off exactly and completely. It wanted to explain it and clear it out. Because everybody spoke in the lights and objects and had even nicknamed them with popular names, such as "Chupa-chupa" (Ed.: "suck-suck" or "absorb-absorb"). And, the Brazilian Air Forces needed to know what was really happening, since this occurred in the Brazilian airspace. The responsibility to inquire was ours. But in the beginning of Operation Plate, what I exactly I wanted was a confirmation the events that were happening.
UFO Magazine - What motivated the local population to call the lights "Cupa-chupa?"
Hollanda - There were a series of stories of people who had been touched by a light ray. All judged that the effect of the ray was to suck blood out of them. And actually we verified some cases and we discovered that several of them, mainly women, had strangest marks on their left breast, and there were two punctures of needle around a brown spot. It looked like iodine burning. And those people had their blood sucked out, in small amount, by those lights.
Therefore they had started to nickname them "Chupa-chupa." It was always the same thing: a light came out of nothing and followed somebody, generally a woman, who was hit on the left breast. At some times they were men who were hit, with marks in the arms and (pemas.) To tell you the truth, in ten cases, there were more or less eight women and two men.
UFO Magazine - And you have recorded and checked the marks on the people?
Hollanda - Yes, it was all checked and analyzed by doctors, who went with us to the locations at the time. Sincerely, I entered in this as the devil's advocate. What I exactly wanted was to demystify this story and to say to my commander that this thing did not exist, that it was a collective hallucination. I found that some things were being seen, but that it was not extraterrestrial.
UFO Magazine - What did you think it was, then, that was being seen and attacked the people?
Hollanda - I do not know. Perhaps the plumage of an owl reflecting the light of the moon or some other thing of this sort. It was thought it might be extraterrestrial, but I did not think so. I went there for verifying that this thing was really happening. I spent at least two months to get an answer for my commander, when I came back from the mission, I had discovered nothing.
The first the two months of Operation Plate, I saw nothing that could change my opinion. At one point we spent one week in the weeds and came back only on the Sunday, we lived a little bit like a family. At each report, my commander asked:
"Did you see something?" And my response was always: "We saw strange lights, at least, but nothing extraterrestrial". In fact, we saw lights that never blinked, that passed at a low altitude, but nothing very strange.
UFO Magazine - This was during the night. What happened during the day? Were there other activities during Operation Plate?
Hollanda - Yes, we had other things to do, that were part of the objectives of the operation. We made interviews with people who had had experiences, we prepared the places to spend the night and searched "hot" spots for night watches. When we discovered that something appeared in such a place, we (...). We made a survey of the situation, and we always registered the names of the involved people in a proper form.
UFO Magazine - What procedure or methodology was used to collect information?
Hollanda - We always recorded the name of the person who had the experience, the place where it occurred, the date and time etc. We made a description of each fact that occurred in the same locality. Thus, if three cases in a night happened, people heard three witnesses. Some of the descriptions were common, the other had most strangeness. At times we received stories from things that we could not prove to be authentic, as dematerialization of entire walls or roofs, for example.
UFO Magazine - What do you mean? Do you have some example to illustrate this type of events?
Hollanda - Yes. The first lady that I interviewed in Colares, for example, told me absurd things. We came by the helicopter from Belém just to hear a woman who had been attacked by the Chupa-Chupa. We really did see that she had a mark in the left breast. It was brown, as if it was a burning, and had series of holes in a line. When we talked, told to me that a child was seated in a net trying to put a child to sleep when, suddenly, the environment started to change of temperature. She found it rather pleasant, but she could not imagine what happened next. Then, lying in the net, she saw that the roofing tiles had started to be colored, in live coal color. After that, they changed to be transparent and she could see the sky through the roof. It was as if the roofing tiles had turned into glass. She saw the sky and even the stars.
UFO Magazine - Were strange stories such as this very common during Operation Plate?
Hollanda - Very common, and it scared me a lot, because I had never heard anyone speak about such things. When I heard of such cases, I was both worried and even more curious. These people seemed to be sincere. For example, through the hole that the woman described she saw a green light shining in the sky. The lady was half asleep, until, after that, a red ray that left the UFO reached her left breast. It was strange that in the majority of the cases the people were hit at their left side. There was more: exactly at the time where we were speaking of this, a girl came to us and said:
"Look at the thing that is passing above." When I left the house, I saw the light that the young girl was pointing, flying at a reasonable speed, although the sky was sufficiently covered. It was not very quick and it blinked as it was going to the North. It looked like a satellite, except that this light turned back on its route - and satellites do not do this!
Soon after that, there was something even stranger. But I could not exactly say if it was an extraterrestrial ship. By the way, I was not there to cover up any thing that appeared as being a flying disk.
UFO Magazine - Did you use some type of radar equipment that could confirm or follow these phenomena?
Hollanda - No. All the airports have fixed radars. We did not carry anything of this type.
UFO Magazine - Were the attacks that were happening with certain frequency communicated to the Government, to the state or municipal authorities?
Hollanda - Yes, clearly. Some doctors of the Ministry of Public Health of Pará had been sent by the government to examine the people. They analyzed the burnt skins and took the patients statements, but they did not do anything more than that - never. Some victims recovered easily. Others were very terrified. Some have been nauseates, or fell asleep for days. A citizen once came to look for me and said that next to his house a light had appeared, that focuses a shining ray towards him. He told me that he has been so terrified that he ran inside his house, caught a weapon and pointed it to the light. Then stronger rays came and caused him to fall. The poor men spent two weeks with locomotion problems (Ed.: Because he fell), but did not have anything more serious.
He has not been hit by anything solid, as a shot, for example. It seems that the nature of this light was that of a very strong energy that left people paralyzed. I believe that the federal authorities were informed of this type of attack on human beings that were happening in the region, but I am unaware of any tests. I only received orders from my commander, nothing more.
UFO Magazine - If these depositions had been collected since the beginning of the Operation Plate, when were the first close encounters with UFOS in that region begin?
Hollanda - It was sufficiently significant. Certain night, our team was searching the Island of Mosqueiro, in a place called Bahia do Sol (Ed.: Sun Bay) (Publisher: a known health-resort of Belém, near Colares), therefore we had information that these things were happening there. And as we were investigating all and any indication of ufological occurrences, we settled ourselves in the place. In this period, the agents who had more time than I to devote to this operation - since "I caught the train when it was already started" -, they questioned me all the time, after they saw some lights, as if I was already convinced of the existence of the phenomenon. As I was still undecided, they said to me: "But captain, do you still not believe?" I answered that I wasn't, that we needed more tests to believe that those things were flying disks. I had not seen any ship at that time. Only light, many and varied. I was still not satisfied.
Physician Compelled By Brazilian Air Force To Lie About UFOs
February 8, 2005 - Brazilian UFO Magazine reports - Article by Carlos Mendes
Wellaide Cecim, a physician working during the 70s in a health care unit in Village of Colares, Para, Brazil, admits she was forced by military to lie about how serious the "suck-suck phenomena" was.
Introduction
"I've been compelled by Brazilian Air Force to convince the locals that the lights attacking them were mass hallucinations and that what they saw has never happened". Who says this, after reading the material published yesterday by newspaper O Liberal about the "suck-suck" phenomena, a weird episode that terrified many communities at Colares, Vigia, Santo Antonio do Taua, Mosqueiro e Baía do Sol in the end of 1977 and beginning of 1978, is Wellaide Cecim Carvalho. She was the responsible for a health care unit at Colares at that time. She treated about 80 victims of the mysterious lights. "I was the first one to make contact with the victims of the suck-suck phenomena. In spite of my 22 years old at that time and being completely skeptic, I started to notice changes the medicine failed to explain. The burns on the victims' skin were almost always on the neck and the breast, with two small and parallel holes, as if it was a little bite, but it wasn't".
Doctor on public health and psychiatry, Wellaide Cecim says that after 60 days of daily records, more than 120 cases, she started to report these cases to their superiors. But she wasn't prepared to their reaction: She has been forbidden to admit something strange was happening. "But, being faithful to what I see, not to what I hear, I kept on speaking. Even under the risk of being fired". Follows the interview she gave to Carlos Mendes, a journalist from O Liberal, published by the Brazilian UFO Magazine and added to its campaign UFOs Freedom of Information Now, which is described at:
Interview
Question — The authorities didn't see the phenomena, but even seeing they wouldn't believe...
Wellaide — They didn't even pay me a visit. I had to discover the victims lost erythrocytes all by myself. I've always tried to do my best in my job, since that time. I noticed the victims had lost blood because of the research I made to find out why these people had giddiness, sluggishness and could hardly walk. I sent several reports to the health secretary.
Question — And who was the health secretary?
Wellaide — Doctor Manoel Ayres. My immediate superior was doctor Luiz Flavio Figueiredo. He forbad me to talk, make suggestions or even agree to the locals. But, you don't need medical knowledge to know. Necrosis occurs only 96 hours after a burn. The victims burns had necrosis immediately, just five minutes after the attack.
Question — What's the explanation to this?
Wellaide — That's when it all begins: they (the flying objects pilots) couldn't be Russians because, it doesn't matter their technology at that time, and nobody could make burns in that way.
Question — As a psychiatrist, do you believe these people could be victims of a mass hysteria?
Wellaide — This is what the Air Force always asked me to say. It did not happen any kind of mass hysteria or visual hallucinations. The psychiatry proves it didn't happen. It may happen mystic collective problems when people commit mass suicide. But nobody can have the same delirium, the same visual, sonic and synesthetic hallucination at the same time and in different places.
Question — Who asked the Air Force to investigate the case?
Wellaide — Once nobody helped, much the opposite, they told me to shut up, the Colares mayor at that time, Mr. Alfredo Ribeiro Bastos, called the Brazilian Air Force. And came, from Parana, the president of the Ufology society of that state, the philosopher, ufologist and biomedical Daniel Rebisso Giese. We wrote the first book on this subject: "Vampires and extraterrestrials in Amazonia". The priest of Colares and also a doctor, Alfredo de la O, already dead, also called for help.
Question — And what hurt you most?
Wellaide — It was the fact that, in my 22 years old, responsible for a health care unit, I had a lot of people in front of me needing research to find out why they were immobilized. Why they couldn't walk or talk. And when I looked at the hemogram to compare the last records, I've learnt they had very low rates of erythrocytes and hemoglobin. The fact is, no object can bring out skin necrosis after a burn so fast. A third factor is the alopecia, the fall of hair from the skin, in a way it will never grow again. The victims have never had hair on the skin burnt again.
Question — And when did the Air Force appeared?
Wellaide — 90 days after our requests. When Colares was empty and scared, they came. Because of the dictatorship we were under, they used to call me every day to ask me to speak to the people, to try to convince them they were having mass hallucination, but I always refused.
Question — Under all this pressure from the military, what did you do?
Wellaide — I refused to do this. I always told them I wouldn't obey. I disagree to them when they say I was afraid of being considered a fool. I really don't mind. I gave interviews to several TVs from Brazil, EUA [USA] and Europe, even under the risk of being fired. Besides being a skeptic, I'm totally sure of what I saw. I don't know what it is, but I know it's real.
Question — Did you, as did the captain Uyrange Hollanda, the investigation commander, see beings from space?
Wellaide — Yes I did. It was 5 pm in the afternoon at Colares. There was a ship at 50 meters of altitude, above the city's main street. Inside of this ship there was a being, 1.20 or 1.30 meter high. This happened when I was driving to help a child with broken clavicle, I was going to immobilize her. They were flying so low that I was completely unable to react. I could see the UFOs bright metal and it wasn't a dish-like object, but much more like a cone or a cylinder. Its course was elliptical. 5 o'clock in the afternoon your eyes can't play tricks on you. You may have visions, hallucinate, but, like me, many others would have to.
Question — Did someone died after being sucked by the lights? Wellaide — Two persons I took to the hospital in the capital, Belém, had died. I took them in my car. And when they gave me the death certificate, I could read "unknown reason". The victims had the burns, the tinny holes, the examination. I mean, it's very easy to hide things in this country.
Some amazing cases
The Operation Saucer collected reports from the people who saw the lights. Fishermen, rural workers, simple and ordinary people hit by the lights were interviewed by the Brazilian Air Force's personnel between November of 1977 and the beginning of 1978. What they told is written in a report called Operation Saucer. The Air Force's document signed by the captain Uyrange Hollanda and obtained by the newspaper O Liberal. Over 230 pages of the Operation Saucer main report were fully scanned and are published at the website of the Brazilian UFO Magazine. They can be downloaded freely at:
More documents about the Brazilian Air Force secret procedures of UFO research can also be downloaded freely at:
www.ufo.com.br/docPrincipal2.php
Both courtesy of the Brazilian UFO Magazine.
Case 1 — Adelaide Pereira da Silva, 37 years old, illiterate. Place: Colares, October 16th 1977, 21:00 hours. She noticed a reddish light lighting her room and all the interior of the house. All the doors and windows were closed, then she opened a window to see a bright object with a bluish light moving slightly above the trees (about 30 meters). She felt a strong pain in the eyes and her body became numb. She carried these symptoms for several days.
Case 2 — Maria Celeste Pereira da Silva, 20 years old, educated. Her UFOs sighting happened on October 18th 1977 at 22:00 hours. In the same moment her mother, Adelaide, noticed a strange light coming inside her house, she felt a great pain all over her body, as if she were being heavily compressed. Also a numb feeling started to rise through her body coming from the feet and a strong heat appeared, spreading from the right shoulder until the head. She thinks She have been hit on the right side of the body by a beam of reddish light.
Case 3 — Maria Francisca Furtado, 30 years old, primary school education only. She told what happened in the night of October 18th of 1977, about 21:30. She lives close to a village called Vila Nova do Ubintuba. As the attacks were becoming more common, she and her husband used to come every night to Mr. Miguel Arcângelo Soares house in order to sleep together to several families. On that day, she was hit by the light beam and got half-paralyzed. She felt a kind of electric shock. First, her feet became hot and a shiver took over her body, from the feet until the head. She felt the right part of the body became numb and this sensation endured for one hour. Then came the headache and fever. Se did not go outdoors, so she couldn't see the 'ship'. Men and Women had the same symptoms after seeing the object.
Case 4 — A farmer called Abel Soares Trindade, 28 years old, was inside his house hearing to the radio when something happened. It was about half past nine in the night of September 14th 1977 when he noticed a bluish light coming from the roof. He got half-paralyzed and had a feeling as if his head was growing bigger. He struggled to cry for help for he could hardly speak. For several days after the attack he had headache and hoarseness. His wife, America Silva Soares, 23 years old, had the same symptoms.
Case 5 — Another report came from Raimundo Nonato Barbosa, 48 years old. He told when he was coming back home through the woods, as he passed by a friend's house, he suddenly felt as if he lost his strength. The shoes he was carrying on his hand fell to the ground. He picked them up and kept walking. The shoes fell to the ground again. When he lowered to pick them up again he could see a bright object, with a round shape like a sea-ray, just above his shoulder. It had about 1.50 meters and moved at very low altitude, about five or ten meters over the ground. The object was emitting a light beam, as a flash lamp, very strong and bluish colored, towards him. Very scared, Raimundo gathered his strengths and run to his friend's house, crying for help.
In the middle of his way, looking back, he noticed the object rose to the sky, between the trees, leaving bright and multicolored sparks behind. He complained of shivering, headache and numbness on the region of the body hit by the light beam. It wasn't noticed the symptoms of burning. He showed how the object was drawing on the ground. He represented the bright sparks using three vertical lines with about 20 degrees between themselves. He drew small circles connected to these lines and told they were lights in several colors. He couldn't repeat the draw on paper.
Case 6 — Five fishermen told to the military they could see two beings inside the ship. An encounter of the first kind with five fisherman of Colares and a ship with extraterrestrial beings inside would have taken place on October 12th, 1977, at 23:30. In the report the farmer called Manoel Espírito Santo, 20 years old, primary school education, told to the military what happened, during the Operation Saucer. He told he was in front of his house with his friends, Julio, Paulo, Deca and Carlito, when he noticed a yellow light moving in the rising-sunset direction. It slowed down, almost stopping by them, about 20 meters away. Manoel said he could see the light had two 'pilots'. They seemed to be human. The 'man' was at the left side and the 'woman' at the right side.
Both were wearing something similar to glasses on their eyes and had communication equipment. The man on the left rose his 'glasses', as if staring to them, and at this very moment the other pilot, using a lateral pipe, sent a red light beam to them. The moment he was hit by the light Manoel felt a strong shock, as if it was an electric shock. The sensation started on the feet and rose to his head. Then he got his legs and arms paralyzed and almost lost his consciousness. The ship went away slowly, speeding up. Manoel could move again, but felt numbness for several minutes. From far away, the ship looked like a star red-yellow colored. It changed its color from bright yellow to red and, when it was closer, he could see a bluish light on the frontal upper part. It was cylinder-shaped, like a barrel, and had a frontal smaller pipe, reddish colored, and a thinner one on its side, 45 degrees apart, where the bluish light was coming from. It had about 1.20 to 1.40 meters, seemed transparent on the bluish part and had a division between the pilots.
See more at www.ufo.com.br/materiaespecial/brazilianairforce.htm
UFOs – Freedom Of Information Now: Brazilian UFO Magazine www.ufo.com.brA. J. Gevaerd, editor of the Brazilian UFO Magazine, can be contacted at: gevaerd@ufo.com.br
Source: "Brazilian Physician Compelled To Lie About UFOs", article by Carlos Mendes, February 2005.
FIRST CASES:
The first reports of the "vampire light" over Mosqueiro came from Tapiapanema, a small, isolated community on one of the arms of the Rio Pratiquara (river). The inhabitants, mostly fishermen, began to get terrified after the experiences of some of their members. Journalists from the newspaper O Estado do Pará (no longer in existence) reported:
"It was late in the evening of last Saturday (October 29, 1977). At Tapiapanema, Benedito Campos (24) and his wife, Sílvia Mara (17), were reclining in their hammocks after the day’s labours, and they were alone. The rest of the folk living in the house had gone to Mosqueiro, a little town 16 km distant, and reachable by boat."
Shortly after 6.00 pm they spotted an oval, silvery object emitting a greenish beam like a searchlight towards the room where they were lying. Filled with curiosity, they approached a small window and, as they did so, the beam shot in through it and made straight for Sílvia, throwing her into a sort of benumbed trance-like state. Concerned for his wife (she was pregnant) Benedito at once tried to protect her and move her, but she fell down on the floor in a swoon.
But there was more to it than that. Benedito says two "people" then entered the house from outside, with a golden colored object (like a battery torch) probing all the openings of the house, and once again the beam struck Sílvia, this time hitting her left arm at the level of the wrist. Her veins seemed to "rise up out of the body", so swollen were they by the beam striking them. Distressed and screaming loudly for help, Benedito picked her up and carried her into the sitting-room and hid her behind a partition.
At that point, his neighbour, José do Nascimento Sobral, had heard him shouting and had run in, with a shotgun, into the room where the two beings were and had evidently managed to drive them away. (His immediate pre-occupation was to see how Benedito and wife were, so he did not actually see the departure of the entities).
Benedito and Sílvia were taken over to Sobral’s house, some 500 m. distant. The two men, Benedito and Sobral, tried to calm Sílvia, fearing she was about to suffer a miscarriage, and whilst they were thus engaged the UFO appeared again, this time flying very low. Benedito ran out of the front door to get a good view of it, and the beam struck him too, paralyzing him for a while, Sílvia was not molested by this second "strike", (See article, "Flying Saucer Attacks Woman: Terror on Mosqueiro Island," in newspaper O Estado do Pará, Nov. 1, 1977, page 7).
Benedito and wife were immediately taken by their relatives to the Mosqueiro Medical Clinic. They went there by boat, by night, and a UFO accompanied them on the entire journey. At one moment during the journey the UFO shone a vivid beam down onto the river. According to the newspaper O Estado do Pará this was accompanied by a tremendous noise. Then the UFO vanished.
The couple remained at the clinic for three days receiving medical treatment. Sílvia was soothed and calmed down, and a miscarriage averted. As for Benedito, he was in a state of severe depression for some days, his motor functions disturbed and, as his mother reports, weeping frequently. The hospital staff maintained great reserve about this case and only members of the family were allowed in to see the couple. The newspaper O Estado do Pará commented:
"The doctors were unwilling to express an opinion about the affair. However, on the morning of October 31 (yesterday) a very tall fair-haired man was at the clinic and requested that there should be no talk about the happenings."
The members of Sílvia’s family, learning of this, asked the Mosqueiro Police authorities for assistance. The local official in charge, Orlando Pantoja, explained the difficulties that there would be in attempting to take any measures against the "vampire light" and the strange craft, and stated that he would of course send a "confidential" report on the matter to the Central Police Headquarters in Belém, asking for advice as to how to proceed in such cases.
SIGHTINGS OVER BAIA DO SOL, JOURNALISTS ON THE UFO TRAIL:
Later, from May 1977 until June of the following year, 1978, came the Baía's second UFO wave.
The Jornal do Pará sent a reporter, Biamir Siqueira, and a photographer, José Ribamar, to cover the situation, and a summary of their findings was published in the newspaper over the days from June 25 to June 29, 1978.
They later explained to UFO investigators in 1984:
"We remained in the inland districts of Pará, investigating,, for 41 days, especially on the Island of Mosqueiro, and we saw several UFOs and managed to photograph them. At first nothing much happened, but from the moment that we put a red and black and white stripe on the bonnet of our car we had more luck in our sightings. This question of the colored stripe was pointed out to us by an acquaintance of ours who was at the time working with the Air Force teams who were investigating the phenomenon. According to him, these colors had been seen on some UFOs. When we had our first encounter with a craft we were in a car belonging to the editor of the newspaper O Estado do Pará. I remember that Biamir and I were having a nap when we were suddenly awakened by an intense flash of bluish - verging towards greyish - light. We felt a powerful impact, as though it had a force behind it. We at once got out of the car and saw a craft flying overhead. It must have been at a height of 20m or so. Then it switched off its beam of light and vanished. On that occasion we didn’t manage to photograph anything owing to our surprise and shock."
"We would at this point mention that at no time during our own investigations did we ever secure any confirmation, from either the Military or from any of the other agencies involved in the investigations, that three-colored beams of light had been seen. On June 25, 1978, the Estado do Pará published certain details which require correction. It said:
"On May 24, 1978, the unbelievable happened on the sloping waterfront at Baía do Sol township. The night was dark, with no stars visible in the sky. At 2.00am as they were sitting in their car sheltering from the heavy rain, the Estado do Pará’s reporters were awakened by a powerful beam of light which - however unbelievable it may seem - passed through the metallic structure of the roof of the vehicle. Alarmed, they rapidly got out of the car. Then, when already a small distance from the car, they saw that a tube-shaped light beam, about ten inches in diameter, was coming down from above onto the roof of the car and passing through the metal paneling. All of this went on for about two minutes. When they started taking photographs, the craft, which was emitting the light beams and hanging silent and stationary in the air, at once lit up all the tree-tops all around."
"We managed to photograph the UFOs on another night. I think that altogether during those night-watches we managed to take more than 200 photos. To begin with, we lost a lot of pictures. We were using very high sensitivity film, and a NIKON camera fitted with a telescopic lens. I didn’t keep any of the photos, and later on, on orders from the office of the newspaper, the entire collection of our photos was sold to a North-American group - I don’t know for how much."
"Funny things happened during those watches. At first, the craft used to appear at night, after high tide. Their arrival was announced by means of repeated flashes, averaging from 7 to 9. At that moment, we would start to feel very drowsy, and I particularly began to feel unwell —a sort of nausea. Not long after that, the craft started appearing. We never heard the slightest sound from them during their manoeuverings in the sky, which were usually very rapid."
A testimony given by the journalist Biamir Siqueira is confirming Ribamar’s statements:
"One of the features that at once aroused my curiosity was the luminous signals that foreshadowed the arrival of the craft. Those beams of light crossed the sky horizontally and were repeated between 7 and 9 times, during an interval of 10 to 45 seconds. The UFOs always appeared from precisely that direction ie North)."
"In particular, it is my belief that the purpose of the light beams is to prepare the route of the mother-craft, in as much as the latter never produced any sound during its passage - such "flashes" being designed maybe to remove all matter existing along the intended trajectory of the craft."
"We saw the mother-ships several times, and some of them had a row of lighted windows. The smaller craft were released from them via a sort of cockpit which would open up in the lower part of the larger craft."
"In addition to the intense brightness of the machines, another interesting detail was the fact that it was impossible to use a flash to photograph them - so we were informed by a colleague in the Air Force."