Luis Burgos: UMMO's Agents in Argentina
(An exclusive by FAO-ICOU)
[
Editor's note: This is a partial translation of Mr. Burgos's very extensive article on UMMO, which can be read in its entirety at https://luisburgosovni.blogspot.com/2019/11/ummitas-en-argentina.html?fbclid=IwAR200CXtZRRe-oedXbn5os3T1Q9eP0VFr-ZZC45XaIosgSd5Drl-aKXLPOQ (in Spanish) There are illustrations at the site as well]
In the turmoil of the UFO realm, it is evident that nothing surprises us any longer. But few times has a case remained current for decades upon decades: The UMMO enigma. Its agents stand on the podium right next to Kenneth Arnold, Roswell, Adamski or Billy Meyer - not due to their absolute credibility, but by virtue of being among the most heavily PUBLICIZED in the subject that consumes our lives.
The legend says that around the 1930s, a civilization located in the Virgo Constellation, from a world orbiting a red dwarf star christened Wolf 424 by a terrestrial astronomer, picked up a radio transmission from a Norwegian trawler and thus 'became aware' of the fact that there was intelligent life on Earth. Or at least that's we believe.
It was then that a mission to our world was quickly dispatched, and a fleet of three vessels landed nearly two decades later - on March 28, 1950, in the lower French Alps, eight kilometers from a locality known as La Javie. Given that the "Ummites" physiology was very similar to that of humans, they soon blended into the local population and even began 'healing' locals who suffered from a variety of afflictions.
What we know for sure is that the third great UFO flap, subsequent to the initial 1947 flap and the 1950 events, coinciding with the alleged Ummite arrival on Earth, took place in 1954 and one of the most affected countries "just happened" to be France, with which they were very familiar, and where researcher Aime Michel had discovered the notorious and controversial "BAVIC Line", indicating an aligned projection of sightings that went beyond mere chance. Were many of the French sightings of this major flap have been spacecraft from UMMO? Hmmm.
As the years went by, and now fully acquainted with Earth customs and Earthmen themselves, the Ummites embarked upon sending a series of letters - written on a typewriter - to a select group of researchers in different countries. France, the United States, Spain, etc., discussing their arrival, their stay, technological know-how and their purpose for being on planet Earth. The way in which these letters was drafted was acceptable for that time, and all letters bore a seal that displayed a thumbprint and characteristic symbol, similar to the letter "H".
According to them, who were unaware of the names bestowed by headstrong Earth people - Martians, Venusians or Pleiadans to the likely denizens of Mars, Venus or the Pleiades - they did not call themselves "Wolfnians". Rather, they identified themselves as OEMII, dwellers of a planet they called UMMO. The name of their star was IUMMA; their spaceships were not UFOs but UEWA. WAAM was the name they gave to the universe or the cosmos. Their God had a name: WOA. And so it was with everything else.
As expected, some of their letters were sent to Argentina. Six researchers of that time had the fortune of being their recipients in the 1960s, among them Fabio Zerpa, Pedro Romaniuk, Jesuit priest Segundo Benito Reyna, engineer Airel Ciro Rietti (creator of the Solar Car), Luis Anglada Font (author of "La Realidad de los OVNIS a través de los siglos) and the newsroom of "2001: Periodismo de Anticipación" magazine.
1966 proved to be a pivotal year for the "UMMO affair". On February 6, 1966, a mysterious UFO landing took place in the locality of Aluche, near Madrid (Spain), which was repeated on June 1, 1967 with the thoroughly well-known San José de Valderas case, near Alcorcón, also in the environs of Madrid and involving the same type of flying object. Both incidents had a point in common: The marks found on the surface, the eyewitness reports and the photos taken of the flying saucer - all of these displayed the symbol used by the Ummites.
Likewise, a strip of synthetic material and a small nickel tube were found in the area. The case was one of a kind in the world, a ufologist's dream. It was a UFO event that gathered all the elements that made it "ideal" - enough to bring the scientific world to "its knees" once and for all. From that moment onward, disputes erupted between die-hard believers, skeptics and detractors.
Years later, a "hurried" Antonio Ribera, in the company of Rafael Farriols, described the case as "perfect" and chose to release "all of the incredible evidence collected" in a single book, which yielded them considerable profit. It was called "Un Caso Perfecto" (Ed. Plaza y Janés, 1973), which would be followed by other releases. Since then, [Ribera] used the acronym VED (Guided Extraterrestrial Vehicle) to certify these incursions, in substitution of UFO. This change was met with lukewarm approval among his colleagues. Some currently believe that Ribera died convinced of the reality of UMMO.
In the mid-1960s, an "old snake charmer" appeared in Argentina. In other words, a big-time swindler named Carlos Eduardo Jeréz, who had founded the Planta de Ivnestigaciones Cientificas Argentina Internacional de Neurologia (emblazoned on his business card) on Kilometer 77, National Route 3 in the locality of Cañuelas. Obviously, he was its General Director.
Together with his wife, the radio and television technician had 'decorated' the facilities with antenna and a replica of a flying saucer on the doorway, crafted out of metal plates and acrylic. Within there were devices with cables, oscilloscopes and lights through which he healed terminal cancer patients and those affected by other ailments. He claimed to be in contact with beings from planet UMMO, who instilled knowledge of the treatment into him through "gamma rays and cybernetic energy"
According to this hoaxer, he was the inheritor of a scientific project started by his grandfather - Gaspar Asprella - in France in 1901, which brought him to Argentina in 1937. We are unaware of the grandfather's reputation, but according to Jerez, he had certain political backing at the time from Senator Lisandro de la Torre and subsequently, Gen. Juan D. Perón himself, who delighted in receiving proposals for technological developments (bear in mind Project HUEMUL by the Austrian eccentric Ronald Richter). In 1968, the government of General Onganía even granted provisional authorization for the plant. In other words, grandfather and grandson had "contacts", not necessarily ET.
To bolster his claims, he placed a small metal plaque beside the saucer with the UMMO logo. It read: "The HONO Intelligence Service, in memory of this plant's founders - 1901" followed by a series of fifteen names, among them one Eduardo Jerez, possibly a relative. The timeline is also unclear. If the plant was established in 1901 in France and the Ummites arrived in 1950, how are we to interpret the appearance of their symbol on the plaque a century earlier? All this leads one to suppose that the aforementioned plaque was "set" by Jerez to substantiate his fable. This hoaxer not only proclaimed himself the heir to a revolutionary scientific project commenced by his poor old grandad, but that alien blood also flowed through his veins, therefore making him a hybrid entity. He also bragged that all of his plant staff hailed from Ganymede! When the Ummites made their presence widely known in 1967, the situation 'suited him to a tee."
With Jerez at the helm, the 'scientific plant' began operating on a regular basis in those years, to the extent that some twenty hopeful individuals would arrive daily. Some of the doctors involved in the 'alien clinic' project, were Dr. Analberto Alcaraz Luzzi, a Paraguayan (currently residing in Capital Federal and a specialist in Oncology) and homeopathic specialist Dr. Eduardo Salatino (who died in 1966). The residents of Cañuelas were aware of the situation - most doubted, and a minority decided to grab the bull by the horns and expose this false doctor, a native of Baradero. Somaliel Haron and Pedro Agustin Elorga, physicians of the Cañuelas medical establishment, were the ones to do it. In 1976, the plant - in full swing - was shut down by the Buenos Aires Undersecretariat of Public Health. Jerez was not only arrested, but made available to the National Executive Power (PEN, in Spahish) under the dictatorship of Gen. Jorge R. Videla, with everything that this entailed. Rumor had it that this 'space oil salesman' was released months later thanks to some contacts he had among the military. But from that moment onward, citizen Carlos Eduardo Jerez, bearer of identification document 4.587.258, lapsed into obscurity.
According to some sources, Jerez 'reemerged' in the 1980s in Baradero as a toilet paper plant manager, and subsequently charged with homicide and unlawful practice of medicine in 1995. Never again was there any word concerning this 'master of the humbug'. If still alive, he should be some 80 Earth years old. We do not know how that translates into Ummite years.
Despite all of this, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with Ribera and Farriols book selling like candy worldwide, and with the UMMO emblem seen absolutely everywhere, the UMMO saga would begin a slow but steady retreat. No more letters were sent, photographs proved to be crude manipulations, and major investigative and journalistic contradictions emerged. In Spain, there was an awareness of "another Ummite Institute" at work in a palace in Albacete under dark circumstances. Even so, some arrests became known worldwide. An effort was even made to link the controversial 'healers' of Chile's Friendship Island with the techniques used by their Ummite colleagues. On November 21, 1977, in Argentina, between the localities of General Roca (Rio Negro) and Piedra del Aguila (Neuquén) a UFO was seen flying by with the UMMO emblem on its lower hull. An effort was made to invest the subject with credibility, but it didn't go beyond an attempt.
Things were different twelve years later with the notorious Voronezh (Russia) incident on 27 September 1989: Numerous witnesses, mostly teenagers, witnessed the descent of crewmen from an alien craft and sustained a close encounter. However, the Ummite emblem on the UFO's lower section refired the enigma. Did it really happen, or as many believe, the UMMO logo was added later on to make the matter even more confusing?
In an effort to find relationships between facts and circumstances, we find ourselves in Argentinean Patagonia in 1950. There, in the vicinity of Lago Argentino (Santa Cruz) on 18 March 1950, we find the event involving landowner Wilfredo H. Arevalo and his son, who witnessed the near-landing of a spacecraft. They were able to see four two-meter tall humanoid figures inside it, clad in white outfits. The case was published in the print media of the time, transcended borders and it is even mentioned today when 'occupant cases' are brought up. Over the years, efforts mae to finding Mr. Aréalo were fruitless and there was even talk of a 'journalistic hoax'. As a counterpoint, some suspected the aerial device seen by the southern witnesses was a German craft - a 'flying top' built by Rudolph Schriever, a former Luftwaffe pilot and engineer, who placed his wartime project at the disposal of American nations. His design is very very similar to the craft described by Arévalo. Both news stories, the Arévalo sighting and the German device, were disseminated 'almost coincidentally' in April 1950 by the same newspaper, Buenos Aires's "La Razón" and its chief editor, Pedro Larralde, who had received the letter from Wilfredo Arévalo setting forth the details of the case, publishing them immediately without 'any sort of fact-checking'. That's how the story started, and as a consequence, so did the doubts...
There was a fascinating coincidence: It turns out that the Arevalo case of 18 March 1950 took place in the midst of the southern UFO flap, scarcely ten days before the Ummite landing in the French Alps! Faced with such a concomittance, we can only ask: Was the Lago Argentino sighting a craft fom UMMO? This is hard to believe. Just things that fate almost surely set in motion around that time.
[Translation (c) 2019 Scott Corrales, IHU]
