Chile: UFOs On The Prowl Over Tarapacá

Source: La Estrella de Iquique
Date: 04.26.10

UFOs On The Prowl Over Tarapacá
By José Cuello Miranda

Ufologists throughout the country have a lot of work on their hands, and the reason for this is Tarapacá, where there has been an exponential increase in the number of sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).

The phenomenon has startled residents of Iquique. On many occasions, citizens have been stunned to see lights or objects that shouldn’t be there every time they look up to the skies.

The phenomenon’s very existence is a mystery, considering that the reason for its presence has never been explained, and much less forecasted. But there are historic periods of time in which the appearance of numerous UFO cases have drawn the attentions of ufologists.

When a large number of UFO reports occur in a short period of time, ufologists call it a “flap”; if the situation endures for a longer time span, it becomes known as a “wave”, which can easily last several months.

As far as Iquique is concerned, the area has been tallying manifestations since the month of November (2009) and has reached its highest point during the month of April of this year, as sightings keep occurring. Another interesting fact is that whenever a sighting appears to be spectacular, another occurs to surpass it.

During last week alone, and while this report was being drafted, cases began taking place on a daily basis. Several have been left out of this compilation due to an absence of good quality visual evidence. Foremost among these is the sighting of three objects simultaneously, recorded accidentally from Cerro Tarapacá, where a contractor recorded the event for 30 minutes.

But while this case was celebrated by experts, the event that occurred on Thursday, April 22nd was more important: Paola Cabrera, a resident of the Mares del Sur condominium, was able to see a multicolored light that remained for several minutes over Iquique and which “escaped” toward the mountains, causing a blackout as it did so. The surprise was even greater on the next day, when Yocelin Melendez, a resident of the Los Conquistadores building in the north of the city – that is to say, on the other side of Iquique – was seeing the same object and even managed to record it. What makes this case remarkable is that she worked for an airline for a long time, and is wise about things that belong in the sky, or don’t belong there.

“My camera was focused from the balcony. I took a long time to set it up on the tripod. I tried to focus on the object, but it was very hard. It was toward the sea. I stepped away from the camera for a while, as I had other things to do, and it left at that moment.”

Yocelin was even more specific in her narrative, as she described the object: “It was round, a red-colored circle, and a sort of light.” She adds that her husband also saw it, and while somewhat skeptical at first, he believed her. The recording covers a total of seven minutes.

Finally, on Friday at 23:45 hours, a new report of a similar object was received. It could be seen from the southern area of Iquique, toward the sea..

Why are these objects plowing the skies over Tarapacá? No one knows. This is one of the greatest enigmas of our time, a riddle for which there appears to be no solution.

(Translation (c) 2010, Scott Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez)