The Pulse of UFOs and the Paranormal: Two Decades Ago

The Pulse of UFOs and the Paranormal: Two Decades Ago
The Samizdat Newsletter, Summer 1997, Reissued.


A "word to the fore" becomes necessary to set the stage for the reader. Years before the inception of INEXPLICATA and the Instititue of Hispanic Ufology (IHU), news of anomalous activity in Latin America and Spain was conveyed to English-reading audiences through Samizdat: The Newsletter of UFOs and the Paranormal, a simple printed-and-stapled publication distributed through the late Bob Girard's Arcturus Books. Occasional special editions on certain subjects (the so-called "Special Reports") would focus on particular countries - Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Puerto Rico, Portugal - or topics, such as the paranormal. The printed version could not keep up with developments on the fledgeling World Wide Web and was eventually phased out, giving way to Inexplicata, which in turn abandoned hardcopy altogether to become an electronic publication.

It is interesting to see what concerned us in the summer of 1997, in a world that was largely at peace (except for the Balkan conflict) and mostly prosperous. Some of the researchers from those years remain active - Manuel Carballal, our first contributing editor, has gone on to become one of Spain's foremost authors; Moisés Garrido is currently engaged in compiling all of the scattered UFO information that circulated in Spain during the '90s; Luisseppi Quiñones in Puerto Rico went on to create a televised space for UFO research on the island. Also active are Rodrigo Fuenzalida and José Gregorio González. Others have sadly left us, such as the great Fernando Jiménez del Oso, whose interview was featured in this number; José Valdéz, my uncle and indefatigable one-man saucer newsclipping service, also transitioned.

Without further ado or nostalgia, here is the world we knew nearly twenty years ago.

-- Scott Corrales


Uruguay: Estancia La Aurora Closes Down

Estancia La Aurora, a private farm located in western Uruguay, became the UFO contactee Mecca of the 1970's due to the repeated UFO phenomena which allegedly manifested within its boundaries. Its owner, tired of the ceaseless pilgrimages of assorted "mystics" who among other thing caused severe damage to his property, has barred access to his estate. He has placed a large sign by the entrance which reads: "If you want to learn more about UFOs, go ask NASA." This statement brings to an end to the glory days of this saucerian place of pilgrimage, which attracted both serious ufologists and New Agers.

Estancia La Aurora's popularity began some twenty years ago, when a number of UFO incidents led hundreds of investigators to this remote region of Uruguay in hopes of evidence or, in the contactees' case, of meeting the benign space brothers. Its popularity decreases with the passing of the years as other saucer havens -- like Argentina's Mount Uritorco -- entered the picture. (CR: CIPNO)

Spain: Spontaneous Combustions in La Coruña

April 1996 witnessed a number of unexplained fires at a farm located near Silobre, in the Coruñan locality of Fene. Small spontaneous fires at this ranch led its owners to believe that a release of gases from their septic tank was the reason for the dangerous outbreaks. However, the phenomenon continued to occur well after the septic tank was cleaned out. Technicians from the Civil Government and the Xunta de Galicia reported that the possible existence of a gas pocket beneath the farmhouse accounted for the fires. "The phenomenon is energy-related and cannot be explained at present, at least from a scientific standpoint."

On the other hand, Carlos Muñoz, La Coruña's environmental representative, contradicted this learned opinion, stating that that the "energies" involved are concentrated in the area itself and produce the fires at random. Such phenomena have been thoroughly documented, although they remain unexplained. (CR: CIPNO)

Spain: An Alleged Poltergeist in Taboadela

A family from the Galician community of Pasadán-Taboadela is at the center of a number of incidents which commonly fall under the heading of Poltergeists. The phenomenon has also been accompanied by the activities of an unknown group of individuals who have performed unexplained rituals on the property. Flora, 50, and her sons Roberto and Oscar, 26 and 14 respectively, are the protagonists of this unusual story, which began on June 27, 1996 when something was thrown into the backyard of their house in Pasadán. After unexplained failures in the electric and telephone systems, objects began moving around the house on July 1, 1996. According to the witnesses own testimony, household objects would move around chaotically at night and would not cease their movement until morning. The Guardia Civil headquarters at Allariz visited the house on numerous occasions, but concluded that the phenomena only transpired when members of the family were at home. Since the strange events never abated, the family moved away from Pasadán on September 22, 1996. (CR: CIPNO)

Puerto Rico: Another UFO Captured on Film

According to an article which appeared in the March 27, 1997 edition of EL VOCERO, two students from the Lajas area -- Carlos Torres and Luiseppi Quiñones -- allegedly witnessed a UFO disgorge three smaller round craft which took off in different directions. The incident occurred over Cayo Margarita in the waters near Lajas. The witnesses later added that the unknown objects appeared in the vicinity the controversial "Aerostat" which has made world headlines since the early '90s.

Torres and Quiñones, who identified themselves as members of private organization dedicated to UFO research, stated that the UFO incident was also witnessed by Eliza Negrón, secretary for the Centro de Investigación OVNI. "We were conducting research at the very end of Route 303 in the town of Lajas when we saw a flying object appear before us at around 9:20 p.m. Our position at the time was facing Cayo Margarita, an offshore island near La Parguera in Lajas." Torres and Quiñones added that the object then began moving from east to west until it reached the Cabo Rojo lighthouse. It later returned to the Lajas area, remaining "motionless" as if it were just another star in the sky. The first round object was "launched" at 9:26 p.m., and the remaining two were launched at 9:33 p.m. "One of the objects descended vertically into the sea while the other headed straight for Cabo Rojo," Torres explained. The young men informed the press that the information they have compiled will be given serious scrutiny. (CR: José Valdez)

Puerto Rico: More Chupacabras Activity?

The elusive Chupacabras staged a return to the community of Dorado on March 22, 1997. Eighteen hens, four geese and ten cockfighting roosters were the latest victims of the unknown predator, which visited the La Poza sector of Dorado's Barrio Higuillar after having reportedly perpetrated a series of mutilations in distant Venezuela. Police sergeant Rafael Rivera Marcano inspected one of the fighting cocks which miraculously survived the onslaught and delivered the unfortunate ones to the Department of Agriculture, which has promised to analyze the carcasses. (CR: José Valdez)

Chile: Spectacular UFO Abduction Claims

Claudia Fuentes, 19, a resident of San Bernardo, some 15 miles away from Santiago de Chile, claims having had contact with extraterrestrials for the past six years. The aliens, with long arms, wrinkled mouths and four-fingered hands, have never been seen by Claudia's relatives, whose home she shares. In the morning hours of February 1, 1997, Claudia's sister stated that "a warm rush of air entered the room, shaking my legs. My sister began to cry, and I tried to help her."

According to Claudia, she left her house at 1 o'clock in the morning and suddenly found herself walking down a long hallway in which she was met by a number of alien beings. "I was well treated and never coerced," she claims. They led her to a place resembling a hospital, removed the lower part of her garments and placed her on a stretcher. Although Claudia wasn't aware that she was pregnant, a six-foot tall creature extracted a fetus through her vagina, placed it inside a square jar filled with a bubbling fluid, and walked away with it.

Claudia also alleges having seen other creatures with similar features but measuring only three feet in height. She has no doubt that she spent well over three days in that place, although only three hours elapsed in normal time. When she regained consciousness, she found herself lying in the middle of her town square, where some witnesses claim having seen a sudden burst of light. The street sweeper who came across her described her as being semiconscious, frightened, weeping and with wet hair.

Recent UFO activity over Chile lends a certain weight to Claudia's claims: a UFO landed near Santiago on February 2, 1997, leaving burn marks on the terrain. There is a sanctuary devoted to St. Bernard in the area, but many more visitors flock to see the burn marks than the chapel. Sociologist Rodrigo Fuenzalida, president of the Agrupación de Investigaciones Ovnilógicas de Chile, has opined that Claudia's case shows "no signs of having memorized a previous case, and the young woman's hand gestures could be construed as a consequence of the experience she endured." Fuenzalida believes that the possibility of a neuropsychiatric illness must be ruled out before Claudia can undergo hypnotic regression. Althought the Chilean media dismissed the case as a confabulation; UFO researchers believe it merits careful investigation. (CR: AÑO CERO Magazine)

Chile: UFO Zaps Teenaged Girl in Punta Arenas

On or about February 25, 1997, teenager Maria Amparo Galvez was walking home from school in her hometown of Puerto Arenas, at the southern tip of Chile, when a glowing UFO suddenly appeared. According to Carlos Munoz, an investigator for Agrupacion de Investigaciones Ovniologicas (AION), Maria ran away and "was hit in the back by many small balls of light flashes that peppered her back." Maria remembers nothing else of the strange incident except "waking up at another location four hours later." On February 24, 1997, an odd "ring shaped OVNI"(Spanish acronym for UFO) was seen hovering above Lago (Lake) de Rapel in the Andes. The following day, February 25, 1997, Fuerzas Aereas de Chile's (Chilean Air Force's) crack aerobatics team, Los Halcones, was performing at an air show in Pucon when a UFO slipped into the restricted airspace. "The object was ring like," AION reported, "It looked like a ring of smoke but very bright. It turned on its axis and left the area very slowly (about 60 mph), moving east. The object was filmed by two different witnesses, one of them the air traffic controller at Pucon." [Many thanks to Joe Trainor's excellent SAUCER ROUNDUP for this information -- Ed.]

Chile Admits Current UFO Flap Is "For Real"

On Monday, March 31, 1997, at 12:55 a.m., three UFOs were seen by people working in the control tower at Aeropuerto Internactional de Chacalluta, just outside of Arica, the northernmost city in Chile. According to the eyewitnesses, the UFOs were hovering just offshore, over the Pacific Ocean, near Morro de Arica (hill) and remained there for two hours. At about 3 a.m., the objects "flew away at very high speed," heading for the Andes. Airport director Julio Schettner said the UFOs hovered "at an altitude between 3,000 and 4,500 meters (10,000 to 15,000 feet) and emitted blue, red, green and yellow lights which made them clearly visible to the naked eye." Schettner added, "In our tower, it was not possible to track them on radar, so we contacted control towers in (Arequipa) Peru and Santiago (de Chile). None of them had flights registering in Arica at that moment." He added that he "had been doubtful about the existence of UFOs but not anymore," adding that they left Arica "at an astonishing speed." (See the newspaper La Tercera de Arica for April 1, 1997) On Wednesday, April 2, 1997, the Direccion General de Aeronautica Civil (DGAC), Chile's civilian aeronautical ministry, announced that the three UFOs in Arica had been confirmed on radar. DGAC radar and Fuerzas Aereas de Chile (FACh) air force radar tracked the Arica UFOs "travelling at speeds of up to 12,800 kilometers (8,000 miles) per hour." In the capital, Santiago de Chile, a DGAC spokesman said, "Chile is experiencing OVNI (Spanish acronym for UFO) sightings. The phenomenon is real. It is not meteoric or climactic." [Again, many thanks to Joe Trainor's excellent SAUCER ROUNDUP for this information -- ed.]

South America's Cyclopean Ruins
By Scott Corrales

Known as a place of great danger and beauty, the South America has had its share of mysteries, running the entire gamut from UFOs to strange monsters to explorers who vanish without a trace, victims of either accidents (Colonel Fawcett) or Man's inhumanity toward Man (John Reed). But of all these mysteries, the one that holds the greatestallure to this very day involves the very real existence of ruins that hint to one or more "lost civilizations", H.Rider Haggard-like, crumbling amid the lianas. Unlike the other mysteries, the ruins cannot be dismissed as mere fabrications of the pulps--they have been documented first hand by a number of authorities. One the unlikeliest comes from the pen of President Theodore Roosevelt, who recounted his Brazilian adventures in Through the Brazilian Wilderness (Chas. Scribner and Sons, 1914). While shooting the rapids of a formidable river in the Matto Grosso, the former president's attention was drawn to a most unusual sight: By these rapids, at the fall, Cherrie found some strange carvings on a bare mass of rock. They were evidently made by men a long time ago. As far as it is known, the Indians thereabouts make no such figures now...They consisted, upon the upper flat part of the rock, of four multiple circles with a dot in the middle, very accurately made and about a foot and a half in diameter; and below them, on the side of the rock, four multiple M's or inverted W's. What these curious symbols represented, or who made them, we could not, of course, form the slightest idea. It may be that in a remote past some Indian tribes of advanced culture had penetrated to the lovely river, just as we had now come to it...Colonel Rondon stated that such figures as these are not found anywhere else inthe Matto Grosso, and therefore it was all the more strange to find them in this one place on the unknown river, never before visited by white men, which we were descending.

Perhaps the hero of San Juan Hill would have been disappointed to learn that 80 years later, the enigmatic runes and indeed many other archaeological features of Brazil remain a mystery. The Marajoaran Culture, which developed in the crocodile-infested island of Marajó, on the mouth of the Amazon, and the cyclopean ruins found at the heart of the state of Bahía still defy explanation. The unexplored swampland of the Isle of Marajó may turn out to be a repository of secrets that will help us unlock the riddle of these lost cultures. From the surviving evidence, the Marajoans were master potters, creating unusual, highly ornamented ceramics which can be found to this very day, nurtured by a small number of craftsment. Comparisons have been made to the ceramics found along the Andes, suggesting a possible relationship. Massive underground chambers linked by tunnels are further testimony of the Marajoarans' skill.

In step with the tradition of the fierce female warriors that gave the planet's greatest river its name, the Marajoaran artisans were women: they alone possessed the secret to the molding and baking of clay. The motifs found on the ceramics depict pregnant women, lunar cycles and other items pointing to a uniquely feminine tradition. The pioneering work of Marcel Homet, conducted in the postwar years, unlocked many of northeastern Brazil's secrets. Homet discovered carved inscriptions, petroglyphs and native traditions which pointed to the existence of an organized civilization or civilization at some point in the distant past in the Amazonian jungles. Foremost amongthese oral traditions are those of the Makuschi tribe, from the foothills of the Pakaraima Mountains, who speak of a lost city "with golden (sandstone?) walls and rooftops, dedicated to the worship of the Sun. Homet links this tradition to that of Manoa and even Atlantis. His conversations with the chieftains of the Makú hinted revealed the existence of another cyclopean city in the unexplored Pakaraima Mountains. The chieftains allegedly told him that such a place existed in the upper reaches of the Uraricoera River. A large boulder covered in petroglyphs marked the way to a ruined city with streets and the foundations of houses. If the prospective explorer continued in that direction for two days' travel, he would reach a wall in the mountains with an arch that would lead to an even greater stone city underground. Ten years earlier, Latin American novelist Alejo Carpentier was inspired by the prospect of these forgotten megalithic cities, as evinced by the following descriptions of a such a jungle-girt metropolis in his book Los Pasos Perdidos : "That which I beheld was a titanic city--one of multiple spaced structures--with cyclopean stairways, mausoleums high in the clouds, immense esplanades commanded by strange obsidian fortresses without towers or portholes, defending the entrance to some realm forbidden to man." In the early 1600, Portuguese explorer Feliciano Coelho made his way to the region surrounding the modern city of Joao Pessoa, where he discovered an impressive and completely unexpected object: a monolith of greyish stone, carved in bas-relief, known as the Stone of Ingá, whose carved characters match no writing system known in the Americas. Asking his native guides about the marker, which is some seventy feet long by 10 feet tall, Coelho was surprised to learn that they knew not a thing about it. There exists a mountain at Havea which bears the likeness of a bearded man crowned with a conical helmet. It has been suggested that wind erosion wore the mountain face down before human hands added the finishing touches. Strange inscriptions reminiscent of those found on the Canary Islands have been found on the same mountain, and no explanation has been proposed for them.

Amazonia does not have the monopoly on strange ruins. The uninhabited grasslands and mountain ranges of the state of Goias, southwest of Brasilia, have secrets of their own: the remains of fortresses, colossal sculptures and walls whose architects and purpose are shrouded in mystery. The cyclopean statues, reminiscent of Peru's Marcahuasi, represent stern human likenesses and animals endemic to the Goias region. The statues are considered part of the Cidade de Pedra (Stone City), formed by oblong blocks of dressed stone that served as the foundations of buildings. The layout of the streets and buildings suggest "a South American Mohenjo-Daro", in the words of an archaeologist. A wall made of granite blocks, some thirteen feet in height and four feet wide, runs along a valley at the bottom of the Serra de Gales near the city of Jandaia. To the northwest of Goias lies the Serra do Roncador, which has managed to make a name for itself in esoteric lore. This mountain range, named after the thunder-like noises heard along its length, allegedly houses a subterranean city whose inhabitants are descended from survivors of the destruction of Atlantis. The fact of the matter is that the Roncador contains a vast network of caves, some of them spacious enough to hold thousands of people. The existence of such speleological wonders could well have fired the belief in the Brazilian "Atlantis", a mainstay of South American theosophical doctrinessince the early 20th century. As a rule, civilizations do not exist in a vacuum. Neighboring states play a central role in their economic and political lives: it can be assumed that the wall running along the foothills the Sierra de Gales represented, if not a defensive wall, at least a line of demarcation between ancient empires, sometimes far beyond the effective sphere of influence of the particular state: In the northern Sahara, the Romans built the massive Castellum Dimmidi far beyond the limes, or border, of its African possessions, along with other defensive emplacements which can still be found in Algeria and Tunisia, in an effort to protect its interests against the raids of desert tribesmen. Such fortifications can also be found in the Syrian Desert, far beyond any present human habitation. Might we not speculate then that these forgotten Brazilian cities could have belonged to the far-flung empire ruled from the ur-city of Tiahuanaco? The walls and ruins of southern Brazil are not unique: in his book Not of This World, author Peter Kolosimo drew attention to the "Great Wall of Perú", discovered by the Johnson expedition of the early 1930's--a rampart similar to Hadrian's Wall in England, running along some of the most forbidding territory in South America. This, along with complexes of palaces and temples, are vaguely labeled as "Chimú Culture", "Chavín Culture", and other terms that salve the archaeologist's conscience. The vast stadium or amphitheater known as El Enladrillado--located at an altitude well in excess of five thousand feet near Alto de Vilches, in northern Chile--also belongs on the roster of cyclopean ruins. The sheer dimensions of the structure suggest that it was built for the use of veritable giants: cubic blocks of stone some 16 feet tall and 26 feet long went into its construction. How the stones were transported across the yawning Andean precipices to a site at an altitude of almost a mile has never even been speculated. As if the stadium weren't enough, El Enladrillado also boasts a track half a mile long by two hundred feet wide, made up of 233 colossal stone blocks, each with an estimated weight of 22,000 pounds. Marcel Homet believed that the forebears of the present inhabitants of middle and lower South America migrated there as a result of the ruin of the civilization to the north--perhaps after the collapse or exhaustion of the builders of the Cidade de Pedra and the other cyclopean ruins. He went as far as to say that these were people of Caucasian rather than Mongoloid stock, a statement supported by the existence of the Lake Titicaca region's denizens and the famous "white Indians" of Lagoa Santa in Minas Gerais.

Perhaps one of the most significant crypto archaeological finds in South America were the strange pyramids photographed by a Landsat satellite in 1975. The photo showed eight apparently artificial structures along the foothills of a mountain range in the Peru's Madre de Dios province. Closer inspection by helicopter revealed not eight but a dozen such structures. The severity of the environment--unfriendly natives and dangerous wildlife--has precluded a closer inspection of the site. If these mounds are ever confirmed to be pyramids, it would be nearly impossible to write them off as "Inca ruins", as has occurred with so many other discoveries in the region. Remains disputing the antiquity of human life in the Americas were also found in the Mato Grosso highlands. A tribe of cave-dwelling people, with knowledge of the bow and arrow, slash and burn cultivation and possibly even animal husbandry, existed in Brazil a staggering onemillion years ago--a slap in the face of the conventional chronologies which place human occupation of the Americas at no earlier than 25,000 years ago (the figure has since been revised to 49,000 years). Scientist Maurice Chatelain suggests an even more unorthodox and interesting chronology: the location of the Earth's equator 90,000 years ago bisected a number of places which harbor the ruins of lost civilizations--Tiahuanaco, the Isle of Marajó, the massifs of Hoggar and Tibesti in the Sahara and the Indus valley--which chose to establish themselves in said areas in an effort to escape the glacial ages affecting the northern hemisphere at the time. The equable climate would have proven ideal for cultivation, and the lowered sea-level would have facilitated navigation and commerce between the existing cultures. It follows that as climatological conditions changed, the foci of the respective civilizations moved elsewhere, or disappeared altogether. The cyclopean ruins of South America pose a challenge to modern man, as do the myriad unexplained structures across the globe. In the words of Teddy Roosevelt: "The vicissitudes of the history of humanity during its stay on this southern continent have been as strange, varied and inexplicable [...] as the history of the higher forms of animal life during the age of mammals".

The Beast of Borbotó: An Unsolved Mystery
by Francisco Máñez, Iñaki Docio and Jacques Fletcher

Not far from Valencia (Spain) in the county of L'Horta, one finds the municipality of Borbotó, a quiet rural community whose repose was shattered in 1990 when a strange marauder appeared in the region. Claw marks on trees and unusual paw printswere found in the neighboring towns of Moncada, Burjasot and Godella. Six years after the events, the locals still refuse to accept the official verdict that the bizarre prowler was merely a wild dog.

When we discuss the manifestations of strange beings, one gets the impression that such things only happen in remote places, but this one happened right next to where we live. The Beast of Borbotó was one such creature, impossible to identify, which prowled the Valencia's outlying communities during many long months in 1990.

The townspeople began to experience a very real fear of the entity. Fieldworkers went about their duties uncomfortably, particularly at night, since the chances of encountering the unknown creature increased exponentially. The uneasiness increased even more when the creature's claws shredded the bark of a lemon tree outside Borbotó itself. The fear of an attack upon humans prompted the police to step in. The creature had caused serious damage to the trees: its powerful claws inflicted deep furrows in their trunks and even sliced off thick branches. Mutilated trees could be numbered in the dozens. Fear of ridicule kept the townspeople from discussing the matter openly, but as the incidents increased, a formal complaint was lodged with the Burjasot Police Department, which referred it to higher authorities since it lacked the equipment needed to search for such a creature.

The best opportunity for capturing the creature didn't take very long to present itself: one day at lunchtime, a group of workers was sitting at a bar near the Burjasot slaughterhouse when the beast suddenly appeared, leaping over the wall of a parking lot belonging to the township and walking leisurely toward a ruined farmhouse. The men shouted at it, but it didn't even so much as turn around. When police officers inspected its footprints, they estimated the creature's weight at some 50 kg. (110 lb.). The feline hypothesis was not the only one. Prior to appearing as a panther-like animal, community members had already described it as a wild dog. In fact, all witnesses coincided in describing it as a four-legged animal covered in black fur which walked along the ground with a sunken back very close to the ground, and endowed with a long tail. Nonetheless, the feline hypothesis did not match the descriptions, since the witnesses believed that its head resembled that of a dog and its movements in no way resembled those of a large cat. This gave rise to still another rumor: that a black bear roamed through the orchards of Valencia.

On June 24, 1990, local newspaper Las Provincias provided thorough coverage of the beast's escapades. On that very day, we approached a number of witnesses who had seen the beast wandering through the groves or owned trees which had been destroyed by the creature. They assured us that elements of the National Police and the Guardia Civil had made a thorough search of the ruined farmhouse using teams of dogs. The witnesses later took us to see some of the ruined trees -- the deep gashes in their trunks were clearly impressive.

The Burjasot police department was outspoken in its descriptions of the fruitless search for the "Beast". One of their cruisers constantly patrolled the area in hopes of coming across the elusive creature. The police believed that animal raided the local slaughterhouse, and they had made an interesting observation: since the Beast's appearance, a sizeable number of local cats had disappeared, but since their carcasses were never found, it was assumed the felines had run away from the area out of a sense of fear.There were reports of missing dogs, particularly those of smaller breeds.

We were told that one of the farmhands at the Rosario farm had had a personal encounter with the creature. This is how we met Teo, a man accustomed to participating in hunting expeditions and in tracking animals by their prints. Teo had been raised in Sierra Morena at an estate belonging to the Marquis of Urquijo. One night, he informed us, the dogs on the farm began growling in a totally unaccustomed manner. Intending to go out and have a look, he was taken aback by the sound of very heavy footfalls and the sound of deep breathing. The sound of claws scratching the wooden posts of his door's frame frightened him.

In subsequent days, Teo had a chance to examine the fresh prints on the soft ground. He could immediately tell that it wasn't a lynx, much less a bear, since a lynx lacked the strength that this creature had in its claws (at one point he thought the creature would break down the door), nor did he recognize any other kind of animal whose prints matched those of the strange beast. "I'm sure that it was nothing normal," he assured us.

As in many other places, Valencia has been visited by these "impossible creatures" throughout its history. In all cases, questions have piled up without ever finding an explanation for them, and this is exactly what happened to the Beast of Borbotó: it disappeared from the stage as suddenly as it arrived, without leaving any traces that could be followed. The press echoed the belief that a number of people -- driving a red automobile -- had gone out to search for the creature, but what appeared to be a clue turned out to be a description of our own car. We were able to witness the irrational fear that produced by the unknown in both policemen and villagers. None of them had ever heard anything about cryptozoology orimpossible animals, and there were occasions in which the word "demon" surfaced in conversation. In many instances, the apparitions of these strange creatures coincide with anomalous phenomena, ranging from thunderstorms to the large luminous objects with multicolored lights, but none of this apparently happened in the area temporarily occupied by the mysterious marauder. "Oh, you mean that dog..." replied a resident when we reopened the case in 1996. He changed the tone of his voice. "Dog...or whatever." Because the major question that remains unanswered is what exactly was the Beast of Borbotó. Six years later, it is still impossible to find an answer. (CR: Manuel Carballal)

Mexico: A Catholic Crusade Against The New Age

Mexican archbishop Norberto Rivera Carrera has sent out a pastoral letter calling for a crusade against the movement known as the "New Age". According to Mexico's Catholic hierarchy, the New Age "is neither a sect nor a religion, science nor philosophy. It is not a single entity and does not follow established doctrines, although it covers itself in pseudoscientific arguments and confusing discourses." The 16-page document points out that "within the New Age framework, the revelation of God in Christ Jesus loses its singular and unrepeatable quality. It disfigures the person of Jesus, downplays His mission and ridicules his redemptive sacrifice, aside from denying that the unrepeatable event of his resurrection, supplanting it with the doctrine of reincarnation..." adding a litany of further criticisms. The document exhorts all Catholics to engage in a crusade against the New Age movement by refusing to deal with companies oragencies identified with the New Age; boycotting their products and writing letters to prominent politicians against the movement. Some sectors of Mexican society have been quick to take up the challenge: certain bookstore chains have removed all New Age material from their shelves. Reactionary Catholicism may consider this a victory against what it perceives as its greatest invisible foe, but its ultimate triumph is uncertain as long as television programs such as Vibración Cósmica (Cosmic Vibration) continue to enjoy the support of vast audiences throughout Mexico. Pyramid worship is at an all-time high, and politicians like governor Cavazos Lerma reconcile their membership to Freemasonry with praying the Rosary and channeling. (CR: Dr. Rafael A. Lara)

An Interview With Paranormalist Fernando Jiménez del Oso

Fernando Jiménez del Oso, a psychiatrist and specialist in paranormal phenomena, kicked off his fascinating career with an program on Spain's TVE network entitled Todo es posible en domingo ("All's Possible on Sunday") which was well-received by the public. A subsequent program, Punto de encuentro con lo desconocido ("Rendezvous with the Unknown") was also broadcast in Latin America. He has also directed and produced a number of programs for private television networks.
Q: You're an authority on UFOs. Don't you think we're having an unusually high number of sightings this year?
FJO: The UFO phenomenon has its ups and downs, and it could be said that we're currently riding the crest of a wave. Most of Spain's sightings are taking place in Galicia and the north country.
Q: Why would that be?
FJO: No one knows. We can merely speculate. We only know that the phenomenon exists, but we're in the dark about the strategy of their occupants.
Q: When did the first sightings occur?
FJO: The first cases reported by the media took place in June 1947, but there are many earlier cases.
Q: Where do they come from and why?
FJO: There's no single answer for that question, but I'm absolutely certain that we're being visited.
Q: Is it true that defense departments all over the world, Spain included, have covered up UFO related manifestations?
FJO: All of them have lied shamelessly about this subject.
Q: Why?
FJO: It is an extraordinarily important matter. We must also keep in mind that we're dealing with a technology radically different from our own, more advanced and based on different principles. The more information a certain country can gather on these objects, the greater the probability that it can incorporate this technology to its own benefit.
Q: Are there many abduction cases?
FJO: Very many. At this moment, abductees can be numbered in the thousands. Unfortunately, very few of these cases ever receive media attention. Q: Have you ever had a sighting?
FJO: Yes, once. It was at Naveta de Es Turdons, on Minorca. Quite impressive.
Q: Doctor, please tell us about the powers of the mind and the relationship between it and the body.
FJO: Our concept of body and mind is erroneous, since we aren’t dealing with separate units, but with a single unit that integrates them both. The body influences the mind and vice versa. There's an interrelation.
Q: Does the mind have the means to heal itself.
FJO: No doubt about it, since it hasmore than adequate resources to heal the body or to preserve its harmony.
Q: Aside from known risk factors, what causes cancer?
FJO: Any oncologist will tell you that suffering, tension and a series of psychodynamic factors are involved in the genesis of cancer.
O: Can a deathly ill person refuse to die by means of their mental mechanisms?
FJO: It's hard, but someone who paid no attention to his illness, let's say AIDS or cancer, and continues to live normally, planning for the future and living as if he weren't ill, has greater chances of survival that another person who lowers his or her guard and feebly gives in to destiny. For that reason, the diseases of which we speak should be treated not only from an organic perspective, but from a serious psychological approach, since the patient's attitude is of the essence. (CR: C.E.I.P.U.) S

Spain: New UFO Incidents in Huelva

UFOs continue to plow the skies of the city of Huelva (southern Spain). According to information provided by Spanish researcher Moisés Garrido, a strange luminous blue sphere was reported on February 9, 1997 as it crossed the heavens at low speed and altitude over the coastal towns of El Protil and El Rompico. The event occurred at approximately 9:00 p.m. According to Garrido, this region has been visited by the phenomenon since the beginning of February, and the characteristics of each sighting have been identical. All reports coincide in describing blue spherical objects moving on fixed paths through the night. Garrido believes that the Huelva region is an important UFO enclave, particularly the territory located between the towns of Mazagón and Avamonte. Since the early 1970's this portion of western Andalusia has been visited by countless numbers of unknown "craft". (CR: C.E.I.P.U.)

Scientists Confirm Existence of Magnetic Anomalies in Canary Islands
by José Gregorio González

On May 6, 1996, and amid the wave of strange and UFO-related phenomena which has affected the Canary Islands over the past few months, we secured access to highly important information issued by respected scientific sources. The geomagnetic map of the Canary Islands prepared by the National Geographic Institute (IGN) was presented on that day to the Civil Government of Santa Cruz de Tenerife along with the conclusions of a detailed study which has been over three years in the making. It points to the discovery of a region, located in the marine straits which separate the islands of Tenerife and Grand Canary, with powerful magnetic anomalies, with an apparently different polarity from other magnetically anomalous areas on the islands. Preparation of the map entailed the use of an airplane crammed with scientific instrumentation and the coverage of 32,984 square kilometers. A variety of tests allowed researchers to detect magnetic anomalies of varying intensities in known volcanic areas, although the scientists were surprised by the "powerfully" anomalous spot detected between the two islands. According to the IGN's geologists: "It may well be that the most important feature of the map is the great anomaly which appears between these islands. Its sizeable wavelength, along with the distance separating the magnetic sensor from the seabed (approx. 6000 meters), leads us believe that the cause or source of this anomaly is at a tremendous depth and may be tectonic in origin..."

It is no doubt highly significant that this anomaly was detected precisely in a region that has featured a considerable number of UFO sightings. The highlighted area also includes some of the supposed UFO bases in the region. This scientific discovery poses the following question: is this the explanation for the strange light phenomena which have been reported in that part of the Canary Islands? Or are we witnessing the scientific community's acknowledgement of the existence of special zones, dimensional portals which produce these phenomena by means of unknown mechanisms?

Greys, Mad Cows and Science Fiction

Strange or outlandish though it may seem, the fact of the matter is that there is a connection to be made between Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and possible extraterrestrial activity, which has even been suggested in the popular X Files TV program.

In 1990, French science fiction author/ufologist Jimmy Guieu published the novel Ebe Alerte Rouge, which would be translated a year later into Spanish as Alerta Roja EBE (EBE Red Alert). The science fiction novel's plot is centered on the alleged pact between the U.S. Government and an alien civilization collectively known as "the Greys", integrating a number of factual data taken from UFO research in the United States, such as cattle mutilations, the Men-In-Black, etc.

Page 196 of Guieu's opus includes a highly interesting scene set at a ranch in Dulce, New Mexico, in which the cattle appear to be afflicted with a strange disease which, according to the storyline, had already been detected in Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma -- locales the author uses to place anumber of UFO-related cattle mutes. In the novel, a veterinarian explains the characteristics of what he calls BSE to one of the ranchers, indicating that it is an illness potentially transmittable to human beings and whose cause probably lies with a protein or glycoprotein, making the illness all the more strange.

As the plot unfolds, it turns out that "Mad Cow Disease" is a retaliatory move by the Greys against the U.S. government for having broken the agreement which allowed them to roam the planet at will in exchange for technology. (Reprinted from Frontera Científica No.8)

The Illogical Extraterrestrial UFOs
by Manuel Carballal

An air traffic controller suddenly notices an unidentified echo on his main radar screen. A number of pilots immediately notify the control tower that an unidentified object has crossed their paths. The mysterious echo cavorts on the screen prior to disappearing, dropping to a level far beneath the radar's coverage. At that very same moment, a lonely motorist driving along a rural road sees a discoidal craft descending from the starry skies. His car's engine stalls (the driver probably unclutched out of sheer fright) and the flying disk lands scant meters away from the road. A hatch opens on the UFOs side and a four-foot tall humanoid descends via a luminous ramp to take soil and plant samples. Shortly after, he returns to his vehicle and it takes off. When ufologists research the scene of the event, all they find is a scorched circle of grass at the site where the discoidal vehicle allegedly landed. A humble Geiger counter, hastily borrowed by one ofthe investigators, records an increase in radiation across the burn mark.

The case would later become the centerpiece of the next UFO congress or the main feature of any publication in the field. This case, similar in most respects to dozens of cases described in books and articles on ufology, would possess many more requirements than those usually demanded by ufologists to declare that the traffic controller, the pilots and the hapless driver had encountered an extraterrestrial presence.

Elementary critical reasoning would lead us to consider the following: • How is it possible that alien technology still hasn't developed invisibility to radar, which is currently being developed on Earth, and has been since the 1940's? • Do UFOs employ internal combustion engines? Any scorching of the terrain would be caused by combustion. Are there gas stations for UFOs in space? • How is it possible that alien technology has not managed to avoid radiation leaks in its spacecraft? • Anthropomorphic ETs? With the complex environmental conditions required for organic life to evolve on this planet, to suggest similar factors on a planet orbiting another star is truly hard to believe.

No, the truth of the matter is that to suppose that UFO incidents involve manned alien spacecraft is hardly admissible from a logical standpoint. (Reprinted from El Ojo Crítico #1)