The General and The Aliens

The General and the Aliens
By Scott Corrales
(with thanks to Raul Núñez)


A number of books and magazine features have been written, over the years, about the presence of strange non-human “counselors” or “advisors” whose presence has weighed heavily upon some of the most important figures in world history. The exact nature of these shadowy beings has always been a matter of controversy: some have associated them with space aliens, time travelers, envoys from the court of the King of the World in legendary, subterranean Aghartha, tutelary spirits, ascended masters. As these entities never present their credentials, and the gulf of centuries separates us from their activities, these accounts are safely circumscribed to myth and hearsay. These visits, while usually reserved for individuals endowed with political or military power, have sometimes been bestowed upon others, as in the case of the resplendent beings who visited the alchemist Facius Cardan in August, 1491, and who discussed the nature of the universe and the immortality of the soul. These entities, appearing before the befuddled alchemist, were arrayed in gold and purple armor with glittering boots. One of them, the foremost among them, was described as having “the most commanding air...and a face that was dark red in color.”

Might this red-faced elemental have been the “Red Man” who appeared on three separate occasions to Napoleon Bonaparte? And what of the “Grey Man” who aided and abetted the conquests of King Charles XII of Sweden, and the longhaired figure that supposedly showed George Washington the “birth, growth and destiny of the United States?” These unknown parties bestowed crucial information that benefited, or provided encouragement, to these historical figures at critical moment.

Brad Steiger, the master chronicler of the unknown, gives us added insight into the specifics of these meetings in his book Atlantis Rising (NY: Dell, 1973). The headstrong Napoleon was admonished by the “Red Man” to desist from his efforts to conquer Egypt, predicting the expedition’s failure. “True to the Red Man’s predictions,” writes Steiger, “the Egyptian campaign failed. In 1809, after the Battle of Wagram, Napoleon made his headquarters at Schonbrunn, where again he received the mysterious visitor.” The Red Man would grace the Little Corporal with his presence once more, in 1814, when beset by his enemies, the emperor was forced to consider abdication. “It is said that Napoleon beseeched the Red Man for time to complete the execution of certain proposals, but the prophetic messenger gave him only three months to achieve a general peace or it would all be over for him.” The emperor was unable to do this, opting instead for a renewed military option, and was forced to abdicate and withdraw to his first place of exile – the Italian island of Elba.

Our friends at IIEE Chile have recently posted to their blog an article written by one of the forgotten giants of South American paranormal studies – Prof. Francisco Aniceto Lugo, whose essays appeared magazines and journals on both sides of the Atlantic and whose speculative works, such as Las Cuatro Grandes Catastrofes Cosmicas Mundiales (Mexico: Editorial Orión, 1978) are highly sought by collectors.

Professor Lugo’s article bears the title “Bolivar y los Extraterrestres” (Bolivar and the Extraterrestrials) -- referring to the General Simon Bolivar, who won the independence of five South American countries from Spain – and it issue No. 56 of Revista Kabala, dated June 1981. The article goes on to include General Bolivar among the illustrious personages to have face-to-face encounters with these beings, and we translate his article below with sincere thanks to Raul Nuñez of the IIEE.

Bolivar and the Extraterrestrials
By Francisco Aniceto Lugo

It must seem very strange to our readers to see me state that the Liberator had contact with aliens and received information from them. In saying this, I am basing myself upon the very important historical research of Don Luis Beltrán Reyes, which are rather well documented and therefore worthy of trust. At no point does he suggest that the three strange men that mysteriously interviewed the Liberator were aliens, but the characteristics of these beings, as described, are sufficient for me to sustain, as I do now, that they were in fact aliens without question. During the course of his famous military campaigns, Bolivar would meet with three mysterious men, very strange in their appearance, and whose arrival and departure, or no man knew the means through which this was achieved. According to the description given by Luis Beltrán Reyes, these three men were tall and distinguished in their manner. They wore white uniforms with white dress coats and golden cuffs, with the extraordinary detail that [the uniforms] were emblazoned with golden spikes that gave off a strange luminescence. They also wore Wellington-style boots, but the strangest feature was that their footsteps could not be heard as they walked. Moreover, some witnesses say that they were endowed with magical powers, such as the ability to become invisible whenever they deemed it necessary.

These strange men practically followed the Liberator everywhere and conferred with him, especially when critical situations arose in military situations or great battles, to insure the success of Bolivar's troops. Surely, these interviews were far from being common knowledge among the combatants. They took place in great secrecy and confidence. Nonetheless, the fact that they were taking place filtered down to events frequented by the high command, and these officers began wondering the role being played by these strange people. The intrusion – to give it a name – of these three strange beings, fostered by the Liberator, became more noticeable every day and Bolivar’s staff became increasingly concerned, in the belief that these people were being apprised of the plans of the independence movement, thus jeopardizing its triumph through the alleged disclosure of important secrets. But it could not be further from the truth, since it was these “extraterrestrials” that surely displayed the true progress of events to the Liberator, all the while finding the best way to counteract the military progress of the Royalists and obtain a resounding victory as soon as possible. Of course, the information exchanged between the extraterrestrials and the Liberator was the greatest secret; only a few people were aware of this, and only then indirectly.

Day after day, the presence of these three unknown individuals causes increasing concern among members of Bolivar’s staff and his closest friends, who believed that the affair could have disastrous consequences for the Patriots, to the extent that Santander [Gen. Francisco de Paula Santander, 1792-1840] was moved to address a letter to the Liberator: “There is nothing that grieves me more than to contradict your thoughts, but see, My General, that I’m a sincere and honest man. I further suppose that Your Excellency shall make good use of his new friends, given the power they profess to have. But I repeat, My General, that no one knows them or their true intentions...”

One of Bolivar’s closest friends, Don Pepe Paris, wrote about the matter to a friend in Santa Marta three years after the Liberator’s death: “I believe they were the Liberator’s advisors. On my part, I was glad for it, as you know how much I loved Bolivar and how it pained me to see him surrounded by ingrates and enemies...” This also goes to show that some of the Liberator’s nearest and dearest believed that the three unknown men he met with could have an unfavorable influence on the War of Independence. However, they were never seen to have had any kind of untoward effect on the matters of the great armed encounters of the Revolution.

Before the battle of Carabobo, for example, Bolivar met at Tinaquillo with the three enigmatic characters, and as is well known, this tremendous feat of arms (in which nearly the entire Venezuelan nation took part, young men, teenagers and the elderly, along with women of all ages and even the infirm) was the decisive engagement of the struggle for independence. It can therefore be said that the influence exerted by the three unknown characters was evidently a positive one.

The fact that the golden spikes emblazoned on their uniforms gave off a strange luminescence, the fact that their footsteps could not be heard, the no less important fact that they had certain magical powers, even to become “invisible” when circumstances dictated the need, along with other details, make it clear that these enigmatic beings could have been aliens. On the other hand, General Santander himself confirms this characteristic when he writes in his letters of “the powers they profess to have...” Moreover, Manuelita Sáenz [Bolivar’s influential mistress] remarked about these significant characteristics in later years, after the Liberator’s death, when answering questions put to her by the eminent figures that visited her in Paita.

Not a few great men who have changed the course of History have had the protection of the gods. Bolivar, bent on carrying out the most astonishing adventure of all times, could not be the exception. This thrills us, stimulates us, and tells us at the same time that our people are not alone. We have, without question, aside from the protection afforded to all by Divine Providence, the protection of the gods.

* * *

Professor Lugo ends his article by employing – twice – the suggestive term “the gods” to refer to these elusive presences. In doing so, he hearkens back to the much-too-human gods of antiquity and their penchant for sometimes directing, or meddling, with the course of human events. Arrayed in unsubtle white uniforms with golden facings, emitting light from the rayed emblem on their chests, Simon Bolivar’s secret “war cabinet” could have stumbled out of a contactee chronicle of the 1950s...or Faucius Cardan’s 15th century description of the elemental or angelic beings that visited him. The interest evinced by these entities in human warfare has been picked up by other authors, such as the late Andreas Faber Kaiser, who mentions the manifestations of angelic and/or saintly figures throughout the conquest of the Inca and Aztec empires by the enterprising Spanish conquistadores. These beings sought to terrify the native resistance, assuring them that all efforts at fighting the invaders were fruitless. Strategic matters are also of interest to them, if we believe the legend that the Emperor Constantine, while tracing out the walls of his “New Rome”, said that an invisible being was guiding him in delineating the walls – aided by a spear – on the soft soil of the Bosphorus. The city of Constantinople would stand for a thousand years as the final redoubt of the Roman tradition, and endures today as Istanbul.

Readers with more than just a casual interest in ufology and high strangeness are surely reminded by all this of how “groups of three” appear to be prevalent in non-human manifestations of which we have records in the 20th century: the notorious Men in Black tend to appear in threes, some classic encounters with “ufonauts” in the Fifties and Sixties involved landing parties (for want of a better term) of three beings. Christian researchers have seen in this the possible demonic nature of such presences, which seek to mock the Trinity. But regardless of their origin or activities in the past, the more fitting question would perhaps be: are any contemporary world leaders receiving advice or solace from such shadowy figures, and if so, what outcome might this have for our times? A distressing thought.