Machines From Elsewhere: Robots and UFOs

Machines From Elsewhere: Robots and UFOs
By Scott Corrales
(c) 2012

In 1920, when Karel Capek wrote the three-act play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) he probably didn’t realize he would be changing humanity’s conception of what it is to be alive for generations to come, much less had the word “robot” to the world’s collective glossary. Derived from the Slavic term “robota”, meaning the work done by an indentured servant, robots have gone on to become a staple of science-fiction. We take their functions and existence for granted, with our own efforts at robotics ranging from industrial mechanical arms to the new wave of lovely Japanese automata. According to our age group, we look back fondly at either Robbie the Robot or Artoo-Detoo and See-Threepio. Perhaps some even remember seeing the graceful “María” making her appearance for the first time in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis

Only a year after “R.U.R.” appeared on the stage, French director André Deed created one of the first science-fiction movies involving robots: L’uomo Meccanico (The Mechanical Man), depicting a giant humanoid robot created for criminal purposes, but who is checked by another equally sizeable machine, settling their differences inside an Italian opera house. These original “rock’em-sock’em robots” showed audiences that the mechanical men, while emotionless, could serve the cause of good as well as evil.


Rampaging Robots

In an article for SAGA UFO Report (UFO Annual, 1975), Otto Binder wrote: “[Robots represent] a rather rare category of UFOnauts, but one that cannot be ignored. Witnesses often describe these creatures as having stiff movements and also having angular lines quite unlike living human beings. These strange entities range from the uncanny to the eerie.” He goes on to add: “We can logically assume that some worlds do not send their living explorers to Earth, but use robots somewhat like the Russian mobile vehicle on the Moon. But apparently the aliens have perfected observation vehicles in the form of living creatures.” Binder refers to the automated Lunakhod probe, but a more updated example would be our own Curiosity rover on Mars, about to engage on a study of the red planet in 2012.

UFO encounter reports from the late 1960's and the early to mid-1970's often described encounters with robotic entities emerging from UFOs or conducting their activities in areas where UFO activity was common. Researchers at the time conceded that organic ufonauts could, on occasion, entrust certain missions to mechanical creations much in the same way that our planet's space programs launch unmanned probes to destinations within the solar system. The robotic alien, for want of a better term, became one of the four or five "recognized and accepted" types of possible UFO occupant.

Did robots from another planet visit Avon, Connecticut in September 1967? Police officers found themselves responding to frightened calls from the public involving a “shiny-suited robot” in the vicinity of Talcott Mountain. The seemingly mechanical entity appeared to be engaged in some sort of frantic semaphore, trying to stop drivers along Route 44. Descriptions of the entity coincided in aspects such as a cowl or helmet that completely enshrouded the figure’s features, and its stiff movements as it wobbled on the road’s shoulder, trying to stop traffic. Police officers reported to the scene, but were unable to find any trace of the intruder.

In February 1981, Luis Dominguez, proprietor of small food and beverage concern in the village of Fuentecén in Spain had a brush with the unknown that led him to believe that ‘robots” of unknown provenance had visited his small community.

Between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. on February 13 of that year, Dominguez had closed down his business and was heading home when two red lights caught his attention. Thinking it might be the taillights of car being used to commit burglaries in the wee hours of the morning, he headed in their direction, hoping to take the law into his own hands, but the would-be vigilante was floored by what happened next: the "taillights" rose into the air, made an odd twisting turn to the right, and landed elsewhere in the countryside. By his own admission, the unnatural sight made him break out in goosebumps.

Speeding back home, from where the red lights were still visible, Dominguez, his wife and son watched nervously as the lights engaged in a variety of movements, some of the undulating. Most spectacular of all was a sudden flash or beam of white light fired from the source of the two red ones, illuminating all the homes of Fuentecén as if by a giant klieg lamp.

It was then that Dominguez heard his dog bark. The family pet, ominously named "Satán", was outside the house barking at an object near to fence that encircled the property. Dominguez realized described it as a box-like contraption resembling a washing machine or small refrigerator, taller than the fence by a few inches. It had neither head nor appendages.

The curious object disappeared when Dominguez armed himself with courage and a flashlight and stepped outside for a closer look. However, he made a startling remark to J.J. Benítez: "the dog would bark at it and the object, from the very edge of the fence, would answer it with a very slow "bark" that was slower and muted. It may seem ridiculous, but I swear it's true. We got the sensation that the thing was imitating our dog."

The following day, while returning from school, Jose Francisco Dominguez excitedly told his father that a patch of burned vegetation was now in evidence at the site where the red "taillights" had been seen the night before: in fact, a patch measuring some five square meters of desiccated--rather than burned --grass was found in a field. The case attracted the interest of a number of local newspapers, which in turn prompted government ministries to take an interest in it. Subsequent analysis revealed no traces of radiation at the site.

Willy Rodriguez was an avid fisherman who enjoyed practicing the sport in the waters of the Esla River, not far from the monastery of Santa María de Moreruela in the Spanish province of Zamora. During the quiet hours of an early morning in the spring of 1974, Rodríguez’s two dogs began to bark furiously for no reason. Chiding his animals for spooking away the fish, the man later became aware of a bizarre figure, standing over six feet tall, with its arms held closely to the sides of its body, “like a soldier”, according to his description. In the sunlight, the strange entity looked as though it had been made of silver. Once recovered from the shock, he ordered his dogs to attack the strange metallic form, which simply glided away toward a nearby hill, and then vanished.

While may have questioned his claim, Rodriguez is adamant that the silvery presence he saw in the spring of 1974 “wasn’t a person – it was artificial. I think it was a sort of robot that came out of a flying saucer and answered to its commands,” he told Iker Jiménez and viewers of the Cuarto Milenio television program.

Spain’s own Antonio Ribera made a significant caveat when it came to cases involving humanoid occupants: “We must not exclude the hypothesis of biological robots created by an extremely advanced Science. Such robots would bear no resemblance to the crude robots of our science-fiction, full of nuts and bolts and electronic cells, but would be actual living being.” (FSR, “The Landing at Villares del Saz”). This dovetails, interestingly enough, with the physical appearance robots presented by Karel Capek’s “R.U.R.” – human looking in every way, and capable of emotion.


Robots in Saint Jean du Gord

On August 19, 1972, Mrs. X -- a schoolteacher -- was camping in Southern France near Saint Jean du Gord in the backyard of a friend's house. The location commanded a view of the town and its surrounding hills. At around 2:00 a.m., stirred by the sound of festivities in the town, Mrs. X left the tent for some fresh air and became aware of a very bright light "about the size of an Isetta" (an egg-shaped, two passenger car) located in a parking lot on one of the hillsides. While she wondered what could cause an automobile to glow in such an uncharacteristic manner, she heard the sound of heavy footsteps advancing toward her in the darkness. She would later tell researcher Jean Paul Guguen that strange sound was similar to "a child stomping on dry leaves". Upon turning around, the woman was startled to see a perfectly black shape against the blacker background: a rectangular shape crowned by an oval head, standing some ten feet away.

"It seemed to me that the shape was made of wood, some thirty to forty centimeters thick," she would later tell Guguen. "It was a parallelepiped, with two round circles where its eyes should have been...two round circles some five centimeters in diameter which were all that could be seen of the black mass, turned toward me. I was unable to see its feet or its legs, because they were covered by tall grass."

According to Mrs. X, she felt an overwhelming sense of morbid fear--not arising out of herself, but being projected onto her by the apparition. She added the curious detail that everything surrounding the object appeared "dead", as if it were able to neutralize the very air, grass and trees around it.

Mrs. X ran back into the tent, where her sleeping husband had been aware to the entire proceedings. The husband testified that his wife's features were "deformed by fear" and that she told him she had just seen a "frightful, horrible thing" outside the tent. When asked why he did not venture out of tent to see for himself, he admitted that his courage failed him.

While no other locals corroborated the sighting of the "robot", a nearby homeowner complained of having heard strange footsteps on her back porch at exactly the same time that Mrs. X's encounter with the unknown was taking place.

Geometrical, artificial ufonauts must have had a fondness for France: in 1976, Jean Dolecki was driving his pickup truck along a twilit rural road in St-Jean-de-Royans (Saintonge) when he became aware of a bright white light in the darkening skies above him. In a hurry to make it home, Dolecki ignored the object and continued on his way--before realizing that the object was coming in for a landing. Suspecting a private plane in distress, the motorist pulled over and hoped to get a better look.

In a matter of seconds, he realized that it was neither an airplane, nor a balloon, nor anything he'd ever seen before. The spherical object eventually landed in a nearby field. Much to his amazement, an opening appeared on the side of the luminous object and three "giant robots" -- as Dolecki described them -- emerged from within, having small square heads and spindly tubular arms resembling "fishing rods". After cavorting in the field for approximately ten minutes, the mechanical giants re-entered their craft, which shot away at a fantastic speed.

An article by Jacques Vallée for Flying Saucer Review (“The Pattern Behind UFO Landings”) contains an interesting case that could be perhaps interpreted as a cyborg report rather than a robot: On October 20, 1954, an unnamed witness in the Parravicino d’Erba near the Italian city of Como saw a strange being in a silvery outfit, standing near a tree. The witness was paralyzed by a “flashlight” type device wielded by the unknown entity (a common occurrence in UFO reports) but somehow was able to break this hold by clenching the car keys he held in his hand at the moment. Upon seeing this, the entity rose from the ground making a whirring sound: its lower body appeared to end in a funnel-shaped device with a circular platform “having the same diameter as a bicycle wheel”. Authorities managed to photograph what appeared to be an oily spot on the ground. Had the cyborg sprung a leak as a result of the incident? Four days later, a child in Sainte-Catherine (Rhone) reportedly saw a manlike figure “with clothes that looked like iron” emerge from a craft.

Summoned by Mechanical Men

Argentinean ufologist Roberto Banchs looked into a case involving peasant women from the town of General Pico in the Province of La Pampa on May 24, 1962. The psychological impact on the witness was such that she required hospitalization after the experience.

The anonymous witness was tending her field adjacent to another property belonging to her brother when she saw two “flying saucers” land in a neighboring field. One of these objects disgorged “two horrible giants that shocked her deeply.”

According to sources, the witness’s family reported the incident immediately to the police, who reported promptly to scene of the events. Their survey of the area found “an immense wheel of burned, crushed grass at the sight where the flying saucer had made a soft landing.”

The witness’s brother – who acted as her spokesman in all these reports – told others that the giant entities made “non-human movements, uncoordinated and mechanical” and gestured to his sister, bidding her to come closer. These gestures were described as “strange and nearly incomprehensible”. With the witness unavailable to tell her story, hearsay details would later emerge, such as the giant mechanicals retreating to their saucer when they noticed the woman flailing about in abject terror.

High Strangeness Robots

The following account may remind some readers of Matthew Robbins’ 1987 film Batteries Not Included, in which diminutive alien mechanisms – “the Fix-Its” -- lend assistance to the movie’s harried protagonists. But it is far from being a rough draft for some science fiction project.

Jerry Townsend, a young radio broadcaster, was on his way from Little Falls to Long Prairie, Minnesota, at around 7:40 in the evening on October 23, 1965. As he rounded a bend a few miles outside of Long Prairie, the electrical system in Townsend’s car went dead, forcing him to hit the brakes and coast to a stop. Ahead lay an astonishing sight: a rocket-shaped object standing some twenty to thirty feet tall, resting on fins much like a V-2 rocket or a pulp magazine spaceship. According to the broadcaster – who had left the relative safety of his car for a closer look at the rocket – a trio of diminutive objects “shaped like beer cans” emerged from under the ship, heading toward him. These small robots, six inches high, waddled on two fin-like appendages and appeared to be watching him.

After ascertaining that the 19-year-old radioman was no threat, the objects retreated under the rocket and vanished into it. The craft took off noiselessly, causing Townsend to compare it to “a flashlight being lifted off a table.”

Coral Lorenzen, who included this account in her article “UFO Occupants in the United States” for Flying Saucer Review, noted: “The wrap-up on this case included inquiries to teachers and friends. Townshend got a clean bill of health as far as his reputation for honesty was concerned.” The local sheriff and a police officer visited the scene of the alleged incident and found “three parallel strips of oil-like substance about 4 inches apart and a yard long on the surface of the road.”

Corrboration for the sighting came from a pair of hunters, who reportedly saw a lighted object lifting off into the sky from the area where the mini-bots had startled Jerry Townsend, who perhaps wishes he would have had a witness or two to corroborate his mind-bending experience, as occurred in the following Australian case.

Six young friends had set off in their car to Bents Basin in Wallacia, New South Wales (Australia) on June 4, 1972 never thinking for a minute that they would become part of UFO lore. Finding that their vehicle would not start, the group became aware of a pulsating, red, disc-shaped object resting on a nearby hill, some two hundred yards away. A humming sound, combined with the red pulsations, caused the witnesses to feel ill. Two members of the group who had gone out to search for help returned running, saying that a giant “shadow” was headed their way.

Hiding in the grass, the youths reportedly saw a towering robotic entity – having an estimated height of seven to nine feet -- gliding over the surface. They described the menacing presence as shiny and with “a round, helmeted head, broad shoulders, and arms that came to pointed hands.” (http://thecid.com/ufo/uf19/uf5/195853.htm). As it grew closer, the witnesses reported that it vanished into thin air. An illusion projected by the disc to keep intruders at arms’ length? This fascinating case was investigated by author and researcher Bill Chalker in 1975, who suggests the area surrounding Bents Basin is a major paranormal “hotspot” prone to a wide array of UFO-related experiences (http://www.ufoera.com/articles/new-ufo-reports-australia_1190311261.html).

Conclusions

As our own automated probes venture cautiously into the solar system, delighting scientists with data and the casual observer with amazing photographs, we had no problem envisioning an extraterrestrial civilization engaging in similar behavior. Why expose an organic crew of explorers to the perils of a hazardous, even poisonous, atmosphere without first sending a mechanical advance party?

UFO case histories, particularly those overseas, contain fascinating eyewitness accounts of machines and entities that were classified as “robotic” due to their halting movements or simply the observer’s perception that he or she faced something that wasn’t alive. Are such robotic manifestations by an unseen intelligence simply meant to fit into an acceptable frame of reference – that of the machine man – which has become worldwide, or actual pioneers from a distant solar system?

Spain: Preliminary Report - The Almería-Aguilas Case (March 2006)

Source: GEIFO (Grupo Español de Investigación del Fenómeno OVNI)
Date: August 24, 2012

Spain: Preliminary Report – The Almería-Aguilas Case (March 2006)

Case Name: Sighting of Disc-Shaped Object with Witness Pursuit
Date: 9 March 2006 as from 2300 hours
Account of the Facts:
Good morning. I would like to ask you something that no one has been able to explain so far. I’ll tell you what happened to see if you can shed some light on the matter. Approximately 4 years ago (subsequent correction to 5 or 6 years) I went to Almería to spend the day. I’m from Aguilas (Murcia).

We decided to head back; it wasn’t relatively late. It was around 12 midnight when my boyfriend and I headed back to our town.

The night was different from any other. There was no one on the road, we weren’t on the highway, and driving on a back road that is faster. The night was overcast, low clouds, no stars in the sky and I repeat, not a car on the road. I suddenly saw some very powerful lights gyrating within our car. I paid no mind at first, thinking it could be a laser beam from some disco.

Fifteen (15) kilometers later, the lights appeared in front of our car. By the time I looked through the car window, I saw some lights that split into four separate sources, engaged in a clockwise motion, then counterclockwise, and then spreading out and gathering into a single one and so forth. I told my boyfriend, he looked, and saw the same thing I was seeing. He began to feel panic and all he wanted to do was speed up to get that thing away from us.

The thing was accompanying us to our destination, but getting ahead of us. It later tried to get beside our car and then behind it; that was its trajectory. I tried to take a photo of it with my cellphone, but nothing appeared in the cellphone camera. I told my boyfriend to pull over, since I wanted to get a better look at it, but he refused to do so, since he was so frightened. Honestly, I felt very calm. If they wanted to harm us, they would’ve done it already, and that thing escorted us some 100 kilometers (62 miles). When we reached our town, it remained on the outskirts.

We ran to my parents’ house, since I was living with them at the time. When we got there, the first thing I told my aunt is that we’d seen a UFO. My aunt also believes in these things, so I led her out to the balcony and there it was. It was perfectly visible. It was enormous and the distance between lights was much greater than it had been on the road.

It was there all night. It was gone the next day and we never saw it again. What could it have been?

Points to Keep in Mind:
· Confirm air traffic in the area at the time.
· Search for possible news items in the local press.
· Attach weather report for March of that year.
· Witness confirms having no knowledge of this subject, although in her account she admits to believing in them, and so did her aunt (“...my aunt also believes in these things”).
· The object’s proximity and maneuvers with the witnesses’ car is notable, and almost supposes a near-landing and a sort of persecution or “game”.
· It is important to highlight the fact that the object finally remained static in the sky over Aguilas, the final destination of the witnesses.
· The object’s “illumination” appears to correspond to the “triangular UFOs” although the drawing tends to present it as disk-shaped.
· The fog was in the form of low clouds (high fog) which never touched the ground, unlike the classic fog banks that could reduce highway visibility.

Case Evaluation:

In due course, as the case is still under investigation.

Sources and References:
· Case under investigation by GEIFO
· GEIFO questionnaire with witness statements

(Translation (c) 2012, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Angel Rodriguez, GEIFO)

Shadow Worlds: Monsters in Our Midst

Shadow Worlds: Monsters in Our Midst
By Scott Corrales
(c) 2012

The concept of other creatures sharing our planet – creatures that do not fit into the accepted taxonomy – can be challenging under the best of circumstances. While it is true that great portions of the Earth remained unexplored, or poorly explored, these mysterious entities are not in the middle of the Guyana Highlands but manifesting themselves in our reality: in the farmland of Argentina and Chile, in rural North America, and even in the Pyrenean region between France and Spain. Sightings and encounters are so fleeting that they are best discounted as optical illusions or the product of active imaginations.

Perhaps the ancients had a better grasp of the situation. In polytheistic societies filled with deities and tutelary spirits, it was perhaps easier to find a place in the order of things for beings that deviated from the norm – hence the satyrs, dryads and nymphs and tritons of Greece and Rome. Yet even this freer order could be confronted by prodigies (“monstra”, from which the word “monster” originates) that challenged the wise. Some two thousand years ago, the Roman historian Pausanias had the opportunity to witness an unusual sight: the carcass of what was described as "a Triton" --one of the sea-god Neptune's helpers--allegedly slain after having come ashore to kill the cattle of the inhabitants of the Greek city of Tanagra. Pausanias reported the creature had "hard, dense scales and stank." Was the learned Pausanias describing a crocodile carcass, perhaps, or something that would even defy explanation today?

Winged Aberrations

On August 31, 1967, the city of San Luis Potosí in the heart of Mexico's minerals and metallurgy belt received the unwelcome attention of the national and international media due to a strange event which could have made a great X-Files episode thirty years later.

On the previous night, José Padrón, a construction site watchman on Mexico's Route 57, which connects San Luis with the city of Querétaro to the south, was getting ready to go to sleep within the cramped interior of the tin shack serving as guardhouse for the construction area. At around 1:00 a.m., Padrón was awakened by the sound of something large stumbling around the motor pool. Fearing vandalism, the watchman shook himself awake and went to investigated.

Years of surprising hooligans and thieves in the middle of the night could have never prepared Padrón for the site that now confronted him: an enormous shape was heading in his direction, taking prodigious strides. The monstrous being had enormous wings which Padrón would later compare with those of a small airplane. The sound being produced was apparently made by the creature's claws as it tried to take flight.
Verging on panic, Padrón ran back to the shack, cowering fearfully within the tin structure until daybreak when supervising engineer Enrique Rueda arrived on site. Rueda listened carefully to the badly shaken watchman and proceeded to measure the series of fresh footprints found near the watchman's shack. The prints were found to measure little over one foot wide and with a depth of six inches. The engineer's computations showed that whatever it was had made the impressions on the soil had weighed over six hundred pounds. Photos of the strange prints later appeared in the El Sol de San Luis newspaper.

Fortean researcher Godofredo de la Fuente would subsequently make plaster casts of the entity's footprints, deducing the following details from his study: the creature traveled diagonally in a northeast-southeast trajectory, bordering a barbed wire fence at several hundred feet from the highway.

Unlike many one-off sightings of "winged weirdos", the San Luis Potosí graced the construction site with its presence a second time: it returned the following night with a similar creature -- possibly its mate -- and both entities left a considerable number of footprints. The watchman, while understandably scared, observed their maneuvers carefully. He would later state the creatures appeared to be headed toward the San Miguelito mountains, adding a curious detail: the ground trembled as the creatures flew off. According to a subsequent newspaper article, the watchman "didn't try to get close to them, since he lacked weapons with which to deal with a troublesome situation."

The renewed visit caused the supervising engineer to increase the number of watchmen. Godofredo de la Fuente would later write in his journal "Next to the last of the twelve footprints we noticed a broken mesquite branch which appeared to have been forcefully snapped off due to the passage of the swift mystery creatures. Only something having considerable physical strength could have snapped off a solid, spiny branch of the mesquite tree. Our inspection of the area did not yield any samples of hair nor feathers."

Fortunately, the story of the gryphon-like creatures did not rest solely on the testimony of the frightened night watchman. On September 1, 1967, a number of American tourists who had parked their campers at San Luis' famous Cactus Inn (a de rigueur stop for all travelers plowing the Texas-Mexico City route) claimed to have seen strange creatures with tremendous wingspans flying overhead. The Cactus Inn was less than a quarter mile from the construction site.

Puerto Rico’s Seventies Monster Flap

A truly mind-bending case involving a monster (and which falls into the “paranormal Bigfoot” classification, to the distaste of many a ‘squatch enthusiast) took place in Puerto Rico in the early 1970s during the ’72-’73 wave. It was first mentioned by Salvador Freixedo on the Jorge Saldaña television program in Mexico City and subsequently appeared in his book Visionaries, Mystics and Contactees (Illuminet Press, 1992). He writes the following on page 58:

The case, which took place in Puerto Rico on the outskirts of the city of San Juan, was recounted to me by a person connected to the event. Unfortunately, I have been unable to talk to the witness herself, as the shock of the event caused her to be interned in a nursing home. She has refused to discuss the matter since.

This was a woman whose house was surrounded by a sturdy fence, making access to the house impossible without first ringing the bell. She also had several rather fierce dogs which had the run of the garden and surrounding vegetable patch, keeping strangers out.

One day, the woman, alerted by the frantic barking of the dogs, went to the garden and was surprised to see them barking at a rather large ape which had climbed up to the very top of a palm tree in the garden. The tree was a very tall one, so there was no way the dogs could get at the strange beast. The woman was aghast, first at the thought that the beast had gotten past the fence and the dogs, and then because it looked so menacing.

For a while, it glared at her from the top of the palm tree, seeming to shoot flames from its eyes. The animal gradually began to shrink and acquire a spherical shape, taking on a fiery glow. This went on until it became a shining round mass the size of a basketball. The woman, her heart pounding, watched as the ball began to rise slowly, vanishing into the sky.

Understandably, the woman, who was a little impressionable to start with, was prostrated with shock at what she had witnessed.

As in many cases, the reaction of the dogs precludes to a great extent the possibility that the woman simply experienced a hallucination. It is a fact, however, that a dog’s master can exert a great influence on its mind, but there is a limit to which this can occur.

There were no further reports (published, at least) about the presence of this fiery, vanishing manimal. Sightings of other strange entities became common in Puerto Rico later in the same decade – diminutive Bigfoot-like creatures collectively referred to by the singular “El Cangodrilo” (literally “kangaroo-crocodile” but having the same effect as “jackalope” in English) were reported throughout the island. In August 1975, during the depredations of the “Moca Vampire” -- predecessor to the Chupacabras – reports of a “mysterious, 7-foot-tall giant appearing during the night and knocking on people’s doors” filled residents of Maunabo’s Barrio Emajagua with fear. Jacinto Leon, Civil Defense director for the Maunabo area, combed the area with members of the police force but found nothing. Despite official assurances that everything was normal, many area residents chose to move rather than take a chance with the unknown giant. Local residents claimed “seeing the giant descending from the hill belonging to the Melendez Neco family, but upon pursuing the entity, it ran away swiftly and jumped into the sea.” (The area sits above the towering cliffs that look over the Caribbean Sea, specifically the Roosevelt Roads – Radas de Roosevelt). After its spectacular plunge, the Cangodrilo was never seen in the area again.

Another hirsute manimal was reported in June 1984 in the municipality of Villalba, north of the city of Ponce. A young man was allegedly attacked by “an enormous, hairy thing” which proceeded to jump on the fellow, who ran home screaming that “a monster was trying to grab hold of him.” Other locals complained to the police that some unknown animal was destroying their banana trees, shredded as if by powerful claws. Area growers noted another curious detail – despite an abundance of tropical fruit to be had in the area, the intruder was only interested in eating the fibrous hearts of the banana and plantain trees, but not in their fruit. Police officers visited the area and listened to detailed complaints from locals who were now “afraid to go out in the dark, in case that thing is around,” and as another neighbor added: “It has claws”.

A South American Monster Flap

Beginning in January 2004, newspapers in Chile and Argentina began reporting on enigmatic creatures in the wake of the “Chupacabras” wave that hit both countries in 2000-2001. These reports involved a beast with a kangaroo-shaped body and a muzzle resembling that of a wolf. One of the main locations for these incidents was peak known as Cerro Cullipeumo, whose abandoned gold mines were considered an ideal lair for what was dubbed the “Viluco Monster”, whose existence was known to old miners and local residents.

Two bus drivers, identified only by their nicknames “El Dinamita” and “El Fena”, workers for the Buin-Maipo Bus Company, told journalists that former employees of the mining company firmly believed in the existence of a strange creature lurking in the galleries of the forgotten gold mines. “Old timers who’ve worked there all their lives always say that strange stuff goes on in that mountain ...they even say that those who poke their noses in too deep never come back,” said “El Dinamita” to the local media, adding that shadowy presences could be seen running up the mountain’s slopes and vanishing into the mine for decades.

Alberto Urquijo, director of the paranormal research organization known as GEO, believes that the earliest reports on the Viluco Monster are from the 18th century, but the most recent sightings kicked off in 2000 with the Chupacabras wave.

“It was an animal I’d never seen before,” said one of the bus drivers with the Buin-Maipo line who had a chilling close encounter with the entity. “It was tall, well over a meter and a half, standing at least 1.80 (5 ft. 9 in.) and its eyes weren’t red (as local tradition maintained) but black. The driver had a seemingly endless 20 second opportunity in which to look at the intruder. “When I saw something had crossed my path, I hit the brakes. The animal was on the right side of my vehicle. Its muzzle was longer than that of a wolf, it had a small hump on the back of its neck and carried a creature in its maw. It looked at me, crouched in a fetal position, and then jumped, vanishing instantly.”

In early February 2004, Roberto Ayar and his wife Maribel would have a chance to see the Viluco Monster for themselves as they returned home early in the morning.

“It was horrible,” said Roberto. “I swear to you that I’d never seen anything like it. It wasn’t a dog, rabbit or any other known animal. It was halfway in the middle of the road, standing on two feet. It was completely covered in hair and had red eyes.” Maribel Ayar concurred, adding: “It was bent and had a hump on its back. It had the body of a kangaroo, with two small hands that it moved quickly, as well as deep set eyes. In fact, it looked at us, and seemed just as scared as we were! It ran off, jumping into the bushes.”

Meanwhile, thousands of miles to the north in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, dozens of searchers combed through the semi-tropical vegetation for a singular monster: a “wolfwoman” described as a hairy being, 1.5 meters tall (4 ft. 9 in.) with red eyes, “sometimes running on two legs.” Benito Canul, a local resident who had managed to fire a number of rounds at the entity as it brazenly stood outside his house, wasn’t sure if he’d managed to hit it. Describing the creature as “dog-shaped and with glowing eyes”, Canul joined the hundred-man posse organized by the commissariat of Huncuná to apprehend or kill the “wolfwoman”. No further reports on their progress were ever received.

Spain: Humanoids or Religious Phenomena?

Spain: Humanoids or Religious Phenomena?
By Angel Carretero Olmedo

Some time ago, arising from an article published in Misterios magazine, published in Huelva (http://www.fernandogarcia.or), the possibility of conducting a study on the presence of humanoids in Andalucía came about, and I wondered what type of phenomena should be covered this hypothetical study.

As I write these lines, I keep wondering about it, although I do believe I have a better idea now than I did then. The matter can be approached from two completely different perspectives: the study of objects with the presence of humanoids, or cases in which only entities are detected, without any objects nearby.

There is no doubt whatsoever as to the first of these possibilities: these would be cases that clearly fall into the field of ufology, but if we chose the second path, we may find ourselves studying phenomena related to parapsychology, religion, Marian apparitions and even folklore, and ufology must be set aside, in many cases.

As far as the province of Cádiz is concerned, I have catalogued up to five cases which are on the borderline of the two study possibilities outlined before. All of them took place in communities along old National Highway 340.

There are two researchers who have associated three of these encounters with infiltrators, involving an alleged foreign bus line and local hotels in the story. It is a rather complicated and far-fetched way to mix ufology with the local economy, to my taste. And what are we to do with given phenomena in Seville and Huelva? Where should these be placed in the study?

Having reached this point, I believe that the first step to be taken must be to compile all of the Andalusian cases in which the presence of humanoids has been reported. This compilation having been made, we must then discard phenomena studied from other perspectives, keeping only events directly related to ufology.

The second step must be establishing the time frame that this study should cover, without implying setting aside phenomena that – given their importance or effect – deserve the honor of being included.

Once this selection has been made, we will find enough elements with which to determine the study’s feasibility and the focus it should have. It is currently not underway. This is merely a possibility to be discussed in a perhaps not too distant future.

Unless I am mistaken, this is the first time I’ve used the term “infiltrator” here. I recall having employed it elsewhere, in a still-unpublished work that may prove to be a real headache to many, should it ever see the light of day.

This term sounds like military terminology to me, and more related to the intelligence services than anything else. An infiltrator is one who “goes behind enemy lines to spy or conduct sabotage.” Are those who make use of the term truly aware of its meaning? Personally, I don’t think so. When these researchers use it, are they referring to entities that are among us to study or spy on is? Do they realize that they are taking for a fact the presence of intelligent beings from other worlds in our midst?

The first question these characters should answer is related to the opinion the scientific community has of them. It is certain they will try to refute them before agreeing with them. It is time to set all sensationalism aside, be completely objective, and employ scientific working tools if we want science to approach us. Do they realize that certain individuals, fellow inhabitants of our planet Earth, seek shelter among these madmen to cover up activities of questionable legality?

[...]

Those who habitually read my works are hoping to come across the story of one of these three encounters with infiltrators and mentioned above. It is with deep regret that I say it was not my intention to make them known in this format. They have been set aside for another place and time. I promise that when the time comes, they will occupy center stage.

One of the most interesting encounters with alleged entities to ever occur in Andalucía has already been discussed here. I am referring to a teleportation or abduction event in November 1986 in Alcalá de Guadaira (Seville). Nothing new can be added to it; it remains under study and awaiting a psychological report. ( see http://inexplicata.blogspot.com/2012/04/spain-possible-abduction-or.html)

We are faced with phenomena as old as ufology itself. Within the national framework we have cased going back to the 1940s and 1950s. For this reason, I will discuss one of these older cases, taking place in the opposite end of Spain: in Vigo, in the year 1945, and in Orense in 1955.

At his mother’s request, a young boy named Julio F. went to get water at a public fountain inside a washhouse on his street in the city of Vigo (Pontevedra). Upon entering, he saw two strangely-garbed individuals in the back, speaking among themselves. The one furthest in was pointing with his right hand. He had very long hair and a scant beard, dressed in a tunic that made Julio think of Jesus Christ. The other being was completely bald, also dressed in a tunic, with eyes more pronounced than those of his companion.

Julio heard the whispered words: “it doesn’t matter – he’s a child.” Terrified, the witness returned home without the water, taking a long time to return there due to the shock caused by the event.

He migrated to Argentina and years later gave his experience a quasi-religious interpretation due to the resemblance of one of the two beings with popular depictions of Jesus, and also because it was the only frame of reference for events of this nature that he could resort to at the time.

We are faced with an event that befell a young child. The witness retold it many years later upon returning to Spain from Argentina. Julio adds that it did not influence his life nor change it in any way. At the time he took it as a religious phenomenon, an opinion he holds as he tells the story.

The other case, from 1955, took place a few kilometers from Vigo on 20 October in Sierra de Avión (Orense). Manuel Gonzalez Vázquez, a 45-year-old shepherd at the time, was in the company of a very devout Christian female neighbor, looking after the cattle.

They felt an earthquake that lasted a few minutes, and subsequently saw in the distance a poorly defined figure -- “like a screen” – and a human shape. Seconds later, they saw another figure that approached them flying beneath cloud level. It flew some three meters above the ground and looked like an 18-year-old girl, one meter tall. This encounter lasted half an hour, and was interpreted by the witnesses as a “divine apparition.”

These are events that took place over a century ago and beyond research nowadays, but they contribute very important information. I am referring to the interpretation given by the witnesses to their experience. They took it as something religious, in the absence of knowledge that my assist them in finding another explanation. One of them, unknowingly, contributes a bit of information that could perhaps be corroborated today. He says that on 20 October 1955, moments before the experience, he felt something like an earthquake in Sierra de Avión that lasted several minutes. I do not think it would be very hard to ascertain whether an earthquake occurred in the area that day.(a 7.9 earthquake occurred in Spain on 03.29.1954, and a 3.3 in Chauchinas on 06.17.1955 per the USGS. No information for the date in question -- SC)

Personally, I believe that these encounters, had they occurred in Andalucia, should not be included in the hypothetical study. They fall more completely into the religious considerations of rural, “deepest Spain”. If they had had an impact, they might have become a second Fátima or some miraculous event, accepted or not by the Catholic Church.

[Translation (c) 2012, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Angel Carretero, Andalucía Misteriosa]

Spain: A UFO Case from 1935

Source: Andalucia Misteriosa (Angel Carretero)
Date: 08.15.2012

Spain: A UFO Case from 1935?

Date: 04.05.1935
Time: 19.30
Location: Azlnalcazar
Province: Seville
Witnesses: Mr. Mora
Object: Round object with humanoids around it
Available Documentation: “Fenómeno Aterrizaje”, V.J. Ballester Olmos, Pg. 291, Ref.5
“La Punta del Iceberg”, J.J. Benítez, pg.58
Researcher: Manuel Osuna (1971)
Miscellaneous: The date is approximate; object descended some 450 meters away. Case involves a humanoid flying around a sphere.
Phenomenon located at the “Haza-Ancha” Farm
Witness speaks in terms of “a vision in which God had wanted to reward him.”
Guidelines to Follow: Study possible religious relationship based on the witness’s statements.

09-10-2000: e-mail sent to Pepe Ruesga requesting information.
09-11-2000: Reply received from Pepe Ruesga.
Notes: Pepe Ruesga reports that “Manuel Osuna’s [material] is purely anecdotal.”

Details of the event as they appear in “La Punta del Iceberg” (Pg. 58)

SIGHTING OF A ROUND LUMINOUS OBJECT AND HUMANOID AROUND 19:30 HRS. ON 5 APRIL 1935 in AZNALCAZAR, (SEVILLE)

Around 19:30 hours on 5 April 1935, Mr. Mora, a farmer was working at the “Haza-Ancha” farm within the municipal borders of Aznalcázar (Seville) when he saw a large, shining, round object that descended some 450 meters away.

The object remained right over the ground, and some strange diminutive beings appeared to move around it.

The witness believed it was something “supernatural”. A vision with which God had chosen to reward him, and it remained his main subject of conversation until his death.

Researcher: Manuel Osuna (1971)

Remark by Scott Corrales: It should be noted than in “La Punta del Iceberg”, J.J. Benítez draws a comparison between this case and a similar one that took place in 1967 in Cussac, France: Four “children” were seen standing next to a large sphere; one of them seemed to be carrying an object in his hands. The first three “humanoids” flew to the top of the sphere and vanished within it. The fourth one followed suit, but returned to the ground to collect the shining object he had earlier been holding in his hands. He then flew up to meet the departing orb, which was now fifteen meters over the surface.

[Translation (c) 2012, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Angel Carretero, Andalucia Misteriosa]

Argentina: Mass Cattle Mutilations in Formosa

Source: Planeta UFO and VISION OVNI
Date: 08.14.2012

Argentina: Mass Cattle Mutilations in Formosa
By Andrea Pérez Simondini

We had barely emerged from the commotion caused by cases in Entre Rios when news of a mutilated calf found in Formosa caught our attention.

We are facing a case that suggests many others being hitherto concealed, due to cattlemen’s fear of being exposed to public scorn and ridicule.

Technical Information:

Location: Fontana – Formosa Province
Animal Owner:
Case 1: Roxana Sanchez
Case 2: Neco Canesin
Case 3: Neighboring Field (NN)

Animals:
Case 1: 1 calf
Case 2: 6 cows
Case 3: 9 cows

Incisions:
Case 1: Extraction of eyes and tongue. Animal missing its tail, testicles and reproductive organ.
Case 2: Tongue missing up to the hyoid bone. Extraction of the ocular organ.

The first news item on the case appeared on Radio Siete 93.7 FM with the following title:

“A Chupacabras Report from the Fontana Area”

Cattlewoman Roxana Sanchez reprots that nearly a dozen animals were attacked, expaining that she witnessed – along with her son – how a calf “was being eaten from the inside while still alive, missing its eyes and tongue, but still making sounds.” The animal was missing its tail, testicles and reproductive organ.

She noted: “Over the past year, five calves [were mutilated] in our own property, but six cases involving cows can be added to them. There nine cases in a single night in a neighboring field. There are people who do not believe, and when one tells them [what happened] they look at us as if thinking we’re crazy. So one no longer wants to discuss such matters, since no one will believe.”

“We had our first case last year. One day we woke up at five in the morning because my husband had to go to work. One of our calves was lost. It reappeared at night, and when we went out – just about to get out of the pickup truck, we saw large fluorescent green eyes, but couldn’t tell what animal [they belonged to] but it was very tall. When I went to see what it was, it vanished. When we returned by midday, we found it [the calf] without eyes or tongue,” explained the witness.

She stressed that “the last calf to die had been on the ground for four hours. It was my husband who picked it up. It walked around like a zombie. We then took it to pen and kept it under observation. We couldn’t see any crows; we could tell they were around, but they didn’t fly until four days later, and the dogs won’t come near.”

She finally added: “The calves become paralyzed from back to front. This lasts between 24 to 48 hours until the calf is completely paralyzed. It doesn’t move at all, doesn’t kick, nothing. No blood is spilled.”

The other case involved local cattleman Neco Canesin, bearing the title “Local Rancher Displays Dead Calf Oddly Slain in its Pen”, where he remarks on what happened to one of his calves.

Neco Canesín remarked in a video on Facebook that he found one of his calves dead in its pen. “There are no marks, nothing at all. Something removed its tongue and even the torso,” says the video. “The incision is like a burn; the bones are white.”

“It’s a mystery to me,” says Neco, his face displaying astonishment and surprise. “I was in Formosa and then I found out about this. I never believed in this stuff, until it happened to me.” He is astonished by what happened on his own property, being unable to find a logical answer to the case, to which other animal deaths in Formosa can now be added.

Source: Canal 7, Ibarreta

[Translation (c) 2012, S. Corrales (IHU). Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO and Silvia and Andrea Perez Simondini, Vision OVNI)

Chile: Original Recording of the Corporal Valdes Abduction (alleged CE-3)

Source: NOUFA (Noticiero Autonomo Ufologico - Chile)
Date: 03 August 2012

Chile: Original Recording of the Corporal Valdes Abduction (CE-3, 1977)
From a recording by Pedro Araneda

We transcribe below the recording made by Prof. Pedro Araneda only hours after the events that took place in Pampa de Lluscuma, Chile (1977)

It should be noted that this professor worked in the vicinity of Putre and was a corresponded for the "La Estrella de Arica" newspaper at that time. The recording is hard to understand at certain moments, because all of the recruits speak at once and in a disordered manner -- an understandable situation, since the recording was made during an altered emotional state, many times repeating facts, confusing words and details.

Professor Aranda, a witness to all this, commanded respect and full social credibility. As can be seen from the recording, there is a military man or bureaucrat present: the bureaucrat surnamed Flores? Supposedly, members of the army were in Putre at that time by chance. The presence of a soldier with the last name of Roca is also noted, who also recorded at that time. The full recording has duration of 180 minutes.

"The light was pestering us all night. No one knew what it was all about." This is the expressive remark with which the recording kicks off. The voices sound anxious; words are stumbled over and are uttered quickly.

Professor Araneda: Around what time did you see that light?

Soldier: At around ten minutes to four (on 25 April)

Araneda: You, Rosales, were pulling guard duty and were the first one to see it. What did you see? (Question is addressed to recruit Pedro Rosales)

Rosales: First I saw a light coming down, then another, then two. One of them landed on that side of the mountain and another to the other side. One of them was around where you can see that yellow spot, more or less where the trees are...up there...there."

(Voices of the patrol members become mixed and confused, explaining the sighting)

Araneda: In other words, it was over by the pirca (stone wall) and the canyon, and mountains are over on the northeastern part of the Pampa (confirmation is discussed)

Corporal Valdés: When we saw that, we grouped together and assumed a combat stance, shoulder to shoulder, and said: "Don't anybody move...if something happens, it'll happen to all of us."

Araneda: Then you saw the light vanish?

Soldier: I was on guard, watching it, and it didn't go away...it only went away when the sun vanished from sight.

Araneda: You calculated...the light's magnitude?

Soldier: It was as round as a ball, somewhat oval, increasing and decreasing, it seemed to approach us...it seemed to be messing with us (1)

Araneda: How many men were in your squad?

Corporal Valdes: Seven men. We all saw the same thing together. That's when I got lost, according to them. They called me, they looked for me, and then I vanished and fainted. They say I had spasms. I don't know...I don't recall a thing.

Araneda: Were the lights more or less parallel, one higher than the other?

Corporal Valdes: No, the first light intensified when Rosales summoned me, and it later descended slowly over the hill. The other landed in front of us like this....as if calling to us, trying to intimidate us, like so...

Araneda: The perimeter lit up the cultivations, the grass, and the mountains?

Corporal Valdes: The hill was lit up, and we could see its outlines and the cultivations. Despite the fact that the night was darker because there was no moonlight, it was even hard to us to walk in the dark. And when a light came down, the first one descended behind the mountain with a tremendous brightness, while the others are here before them. There was a flash, a very large glow, like a fire.

(The corporal's words are corroborated at every step by the remainder of the recruits that made up the patrol)

Araneda: I will now ask you to identify yourselves by rank and name.

Second Corporal: Armando Valdes Garrido
Recruit: Julio Enriquez Rosas Suarez
Recruit: German Riquelme Valle
Recruit: Juan Rojas Rivera
Recruit: Pedro Rosales Arancibia
Recruit: Humberto Rojas Bell
Recruit: Raul Salinas

The recording ends here and the continues at the moment that the eight (8) protagonists of this phenomenon discuss the reappearance of Corporal Valdes under strange circumstances.

Several Voices: Then the corporal reappeared, he was laughing and saying: "you'll never know who we are or where we come from, and we're coming back again..."
Araneda: And was the corporal speaking in his normal voice?

Voices: Of course...the voice he always had...but a bit more hurried...altered...and when he passed out and came back gain, he looked at us as if he didn't know us and rocked his head back and forth, saying "the light, the light"...

Another Soldier: Later on, he fainted and woke up again and spoke. We tried to cover him and he'd say: "Let go of me, let go!" and he'd struggle.

Another Soldier: And what he stared at the most was the light...he looked at it with his eyes wide open...

Araneda: How long was the corporal lost?

Mixed Voices: The corporal was gone for some fifteen minutes...we approached the end of the rock wall and call his name...four of us went out to look for him and then the other three went.

Another Voice: We walked along somewhat...we shouted...called him by name...and the light was there...

Another Soldier: And we didn't hear his footsteps when he came...like when a person approaches, you can hear them in the still of the night. (3)

Araneda: How long was he in that trance?

Soldiers: He was like that for some ten minutes, reacting...sometimes he would recognize some of us and then faint...he would wake up and not know who we were...then he quickly slipped into a peaceful state. (4)

Araneda: And you, Valdes, don't recall why you wanted to step away from your men a few meters to take a closer look?

Valdes: All I can say is that something called my attention. Something was attracting me. It was like an internal communication with the light. I could even feel it, when we all got together and assumed a defensive posture. I'm unsure whether it was a truly wonderful or awful sensation. It was extraordinary and I'm telling you that we are seven minds...eight minds. (5)

It's one thing for a single person to suffer a hallucination...an apparition...but to have seven people say the same thing? The problem is that I don't remember what happened. I only know what they've told me. What I do recall is that when we saw the light at first, we wanted to move to find shelter, but something made us stay back...as if something was holding us back to see the light....I remember that I didn't separate more than three or four meters from you guys...from that moment on I have no recollection. They say I vanished as if by magic. The most surprising thing is that I appeared as if by magic. (6)

Araneda: Do you recall what you did in that time period?

Corporal Valdes: No. The only thing I remember is...what appears in my mind is like when I feel sleepy, and I disappear down a deep well...like that...something round, like an abyss or so...from that point onward my brain is empty...my mind can't fathom what happened...I can say it was something like a warning...as if saying that this isn't the first time we'll see each other...or that I shouldn't get involved in things that don't concern me. I don't know...I wasn't spoken to in words...if those beings truly exist. There were even sheep walking near us, and rather than running away, which is what they do when they feel something strange, they remained still. They grouped in perfect silence. This disconcerted us even more. Our mascot dog, "Huamachuco", as they call him, also remained quiet near the stone wall near the campfire (7). There were was no sound to be heard. It was deafeningly quiet. And I invoked God and told the light...go away...I command you in God's name. We were ready for anything at that moment. We would die together, but no one was going to separate us. We even took an oath to remain together.

Several Voices: Before the corporal got lost, he told us to snuff out the fire with a blanket.

Corporal Valdes: Yes, it was as if the fire drew their attention, much like a child is drawn to a fire...as if "they" felt the fire drawing their attention.
Soldier: Next the corporal ordered us to remove the blankets, and I saw him go off to the end of the stone wall. I thought he was going to relieve himself, but five minutes went by more or less and he didn't return. We went looking for him and he was gone. I remember that when he reappeared he shouted: "Guys!" -- it was like a cry for help.

Corporal Valdes: Of course...you insisted that I was calling you "from beyond the grave"...as if trying to escape from something.

Recruit: And when the corporal spoke to us upon returning, he said: "Guys..." and his voice was odd. That's when he fainted and I reached to pick him up. He regained consciousness and grabbed on to us. It was as if that fake star wanted to take him away. He stared at the light.

Another Recruit: At that time all we did was stare at the light. It was like a magnet...a magnetism that attracted our eyes...the light suddenly grew and forced us to back off.

Several Recruits: And when he passed out we settled him on the ground, and the corporal would laugh loudly and then settle down...he also called out to his family, crying for help, saying they were taking him away...

Araneda: You remember returning to them?

Corporal Valdes: No. I remember nothing more than waking up...around 4:30 a.m.
Recruit: When he was in the trance, we would hold him like so and he'd say: "Leave me...let me go...don't hurt me."

Another Conscript: And when he asked us not to hurt him, he covered his ears, as if not to hear anything at all.

(Two more guard recruits join the recording -- Pedro Rosales and Juan Reyes)

We had been seeing something odd for some time. It was like stars flying across the sky. Just like a spaceship, like they call them, leaving a trail of light from here to there.

Araneda: And this was early...at around what time?

Both Conscripts: Around 10:30 pm and it repeated all night until those two descended...

Conscript: When both lights descended, we tried to find an explanation to it. I told the corporal, maybe it's a star on the horizon that's reflected on the ground...but it was impossible, because the light intensified and lit up the sector...

Corporal Valdes: Now then...one thing that I'm clear about...when the light appeared in front of us and were shoulder-to-shoulder in a battle stance...I was clear that "we were us"...but something happened. I had only just stepped away and it grabbed hold of me...like they say...when our minds were all thinking about the same thing and united, nothing happened, as if that force couldn't affect me at all.

Araneda: Along with the void in your mind, there was a stretch during which the watch stopped. Isn't that so?

Corporal Valdes: It stopped at exactly 4:30 a.m. on 25 April 1977.

Araneda: What I find odd is that the wristwatch shows a date of [30 April] right now and no one has tampered with it or changed the time...

Remarks and Considerations on the Recording Presented

It should be mentioned that the transcription was made by journalists Luis Aturana Carter and Luis Daroch, special correspondents of "La Estrella de Arica" at the scene of the events. We can collect some details that are remarked by these experts, and which drew their attention at that time, setting them down on this transcription that we have endeavored to give you in its entirety and verbatim.

Among the redeemable facts of this document -- "the only one in existence when the events were still warm and with all of the recruits present" -- Pedro Araneda left his own impression on a highly peculiar event to which he was a witnessed. He saw that Corporal Valdes's beard was rather grown, confirmed by Raul Salinas in our own investigation, and who provided all of the elements needed for his superior to shave on the night of the events.

Pedro Araneda said the following on the recording: "There is something very strange here. The corporal has a dense growth of beard and naturally, he was clean-shaven...it's very strange...to have such a dense growth of beard in such a short period of time.

Notes:

(1) [...]
(2) Some sources at the time mentioned "eight soldiers" showing the emergence of confusion from the very start of the case. The names of Ivan Robles Riera and one Juan Reyes are mentioned in other newspapers of the time. The nearest source of this we believe to have been provided by Cpl. Valdes himself, when he was asked who the members of his patrol were within hours of the event, and his military rank. His recorded response, edited in this work, is the closest in time to the events and the closest to the truth, which is logical. Where did the other names come from? Even in the recording itself, the journalists say "two recruits join the conversation", issuing opinions. One of them is Pedro Rosales Arancibia, the other is the mysterious Juan Reyes, who at no time mentions Corporal Valdes in his recorded description. Who is in error? Could he have been mistaken for Juan Rojas?
(3) A very different version from the one provided by recruit Raul Salinas, who says that Corporal Valdes appeared stumbling out of nowhere, from the other side of the stone wall, or bodily from above.
(4) At no time is it stated that someone struck Corporal Valdes to calm him down. Other versions include this detail. Omission, confusion, where does the truth lie?
(5) Again, the confusion of seven or eight people, now stated by Corporal Valdes himself.
(6) In this remark, Valdes does not clearly state if he fell from above the stone wall, from the other side of the wall, or was walking along...
(7) Not everyone recalls the dog "Huamachuco". Raul Salinas does not remember him at all in subsequent conversations.
(8) Copta: A military cape or poncho with a head cover, used particularly for outdoor campaigns and suited to the cold in the area.

Sources:
La Tercera de la Hora
La Estrella de Arica
Archivos NOUFA Chile

[Translation (c) 2012, Scott Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to NOUFA, Noticiero Autonomo Ufologico]

Argentina: A Strange Creature Reported in Salta Province

Source: El Tribuno (Salta, Argentina)
Date: 04 August 2012

Argentina: A Strange Creature Reported in Salta Province

Police in Rivadavia say it's a sort of gorilla

A woman identified as Pascuala Alzogaray, who lives in El Divisadero in Rivadavia, in the middle of the Saltean "chaco", rode her horse 25 kilometers in the middle of the night to request assistance from the police officers at the small community of La Union, since, as she claimed, all local ranchers are frightened by the recurring presence of a strange, hairy humanoid of considerable size.

Alzogaray claims having seen the creature and described it as a sort of gorilla, covered in hair, walking on two legs and with the aspect of "an accursed being."

"Something must be done about it, it's the Ucumar," she told police officers at the barracks, located 500 miles north of the provincial capital.

Pascuala Alzogaray states that she saw the strange creature along with other members of her family, and that fear prompted them to leave the vicinity until the police do something.

"All the ranchers at El Divisadero and vicinity are afraid. This Ucumar," she says, "roams through the night, steals farm animals and makes noises. When we go out to investigate, we feel him jumping through the tall treetops. It's a monster and something must be done about it. Those of us who live in the area, creoles and natives alike, are very afraid," stressed the complainant.

(Translation (c) 2012, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Marco Reynoso)