Thursday, June 28, 2018

Peru: UFO Recorded Over Nazca Lines; Thousands Frightened



Source: Planeta UFO and La República (Perú)
Date: 06/28/2018


Peru: UFO Recorded Over Nazca Lines; Thousands Frightened

Shocking images. A UFO was recorded flying over the enigmatic Nazca lines. The video uploaded to YouTube has caused thousands to fear the worst.

According to the video's description, uploaded to YouTube by the Astroufoperú Channel, the images were recorded at Pampa de Socos in Nazca, Ica, Perú by journalist Rafal Mercado of the Peruvian Ufology Association (APU).

The images, which have been played back thousands of times on YouTube, show a tube-shaped UFO, similar to a zeppelin, that was recorded in a completely static position on June 9th.

Are we witnesses to a UFO sighting over the Nazca Lines? "Draw Your Own Conclusions" says the description of the vídeo uploaded to YouTube on June 23rd.

VIDEO AT: https://youtu.be/tm_ZxTCt4Yc

[Translation (c) 2018 Scott Corrales, IHU with thanks to Guillermo Giménez, Planeta UFO and the La República newsroom]

Ignacio Darnaude (1931-2018)



It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Ignacio Darnaude Rojas, one of Spain's foremost UFO researchers and a staunch defender to the end of the UMMO controversy. Mr. Darnaude's reach spanned continents and decades, being a friend and colleague to several generations of researchers.

His written works included Preguntas Metafíscas, La Vida Después de la Muerte, El Desafío Extraterrestre en el Siglo XXI, Libros Revelados y Síndrome Contacto E.T. and extensive list of articles and newsletters.

Despite the slow change of scholarly ufology into a more commercial activity, Darnaude never lost faith in his chosen field. In an interview with José Manuel García Bautista, he noted: [Ufology] has not become stagnant. There are cases wherever you look, but since they do not appear in the media, people have unplugged from the subject. There are UFO cases worldwide, there is a great deal of information, but it does not reach the public since there isn't any interest in publishing UFO stories. But the field is not stagnant at all."

Rest in Peace.

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Remarks on UFO Activity in Brazil, 1997



Remarks on UFO Activity in Brazil, 1997
By Scott Corrales
Inexplicata Journal #2 (1998)



A Tangled Web of Abductions


Mirassol, a city of a quarter-million souls near Sao Paulo, Brazil, was the scene of one of the most controversial alien abduction cases ever reported. Chronicled by the late Dr. Walter K. Buhler in his book O Caso de Mirassol, which appeared in 1984, the case centered around the hapless Antonio Ferreira, who had been 21 years old at the time when the events transpired in 1979.
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On June 28, 1979, while performing his appointed rounds as a night watchman outside a vast furniture warehouse, accompanied by a fierce police dog, Ferreira noticed a white light descending gradually from the dark skies onto the warehouse's property. Fascinated by the unusual sight, the watchman stared spellbound at the light, which turned out to be a solid vehicle. So entranced was Ferreira by the sight that he was hardly aware that three diminutive creatures -- wearing pressure suits and helmets -- were approaching him, perhaps taking advantage of the unearthly brilliance as cover.

Ferreira's police dog ran toward the intruders, growling and ready to pounce on the small figures. However, the dog was struck down in mid-run by an unseen force which paralyzed it. One of the creatures aimed a beam of light at Ferreira which immobilized him in a similar fashion.

According to Ferreira's story, the mini-men levitated his inert form to their glowing discoidal craft, and was in turn taken to a "mothership" and turned over to another set of creatures, entirely different from his original captors: short, swarthy beings with curly red hair, prominent slanted eyes, large mouths and wide noses.

The terrified watchman was assured telepathically that he would not be harmed and would be returned safe and sound to his home, but not before fulfilling the purpose for which he had been abducted: mating with a humanoid female. Ferreira's account differs radically from the well-known sexual experience of Antonio Villas-Boas in the 1950's, since he described the female alien as "ugly and foul-breathed."

While such interludes are scarce in American ufology, they are recurrent episodes in Brazilian UFO lore. In 1978, few months prior to Ferreira's experience, Jocelino de Mattos, an electrician, had been drawn up into a UFO through a beam of light near his home in Maringá and forced to sustain sexual relations with a talkative "space maiden" who informed the nonplussed human that she was a physician on her home planet. Hospital porter Juan Valerio da Silva went out to a fountain in the backyard of his home in Botucatú (near Sao Paulo) to get a drink of water in November 1982 when he was sucked into a UFO hovering a treetop level. Once inside the vehicle, he was ordered to have sex with a dark-skinned humanoid female, and told that both he and his son Reginaldo were the product of an alien hybridization program.

The Vargihnha (Brazil) Alien Encounters, 1996.

On January 20th, 1996, at 0100 hrs. a farmer outside the prosperous Brazilian city of Varginha was startled to observe a strange vehicle about the size of a small bus, hovering some sixteen feet above the ground. The silent, darkened craft appeared to have sustained damage to its fuselage and spewed smoke as it moved away slowly toward Varginha.

At 08:30 hrs. the Varginha Fire Department received an anonymous phone call regarding the presence of a "bizarre creature" in the Jardim Andere neighborhood. Suspecting a prank, the firemen nonetheless responded to the call and were surprised to find a group of adults and children already hot in pursuit of the "creature," which was hiding in a gully within a small wooded area. The firemen managed to capture the creature by means of a net and dragged it out. The civilian onlookers would later inform investigators that the being offered no resistance to its captors, and was placed into a wooden box which was driven away by a truck belonging to the Brazilian Army.

Apparently there was more than one non-human creature on the loose, and a mop-up operation had been ordered by the military. Residents of Jardim Andere claimed having seen platoons in combat gear scouring the area, punctuating their actions with occasional bursts of automatic fire. Two more beings, unceremoniously dumped into bags, were allegedly taken away by the military.

At 1530 hrs. that same day, the Da Silva sisters, Valquiria and Liliana (ages 14 and 16 respectively) and their friend Katia Xavier, 22, were returning home from work and decided to cut across a field along a street not far from where the Varginha firemen had captured the first creature. As the threesome crossed the field, they suddenly noticed a "man" with bulging blood-red eyes, greasy brown skin and a bald head with noticeable veins and strange osseous protuberances. The strange mannikin was huddled in fear next to a brick wall, its hands between its legs. Astonishment soon gave way to fear, and the young women broke into a mad dash to reach the safety of their homes.

Exactly twenty-four hours after the presumably crippled UFO hovered over a farm on Varginha's outskirts, the Brazilian military was in possession of at least three extraterrestrial biological entities. At 0130 hrs., under cover of darkness, Army trucks moved their prized catch to Humanitas Hospital, apparently until a the fate of the alien creatures had been determined. Ufologists on the scene believe the creatures were subjected to a battery of medical tests, and at least one of them died at the hospital.

On January 22, 1996, the alien bodies were transferred to the refrigerated lab section of the University of Campiñas, where a number of distinguished pathologists would have had access to them. By all accounts, there was a considerable military presence on the campus.

The military's cover-up unraveled when an Army officer was interviewed on Brazilian television, discussing his role in the operations involving the transfer of the putative aliens to the hospital, where the initial tests were conducted.

But the Varginha story continued long after the initial events: On the evening of April 21, 1996, Teresa Clepf had gone out to dinner at a restaurant located within the confines of the Varginha Zoo. Mrs. Clepf had stepped out onto the restaurant's covered porch to smoke a cigarette when she noticed a figure moving in the darkness, lighting its way with blood-red eyes. She then returned into the restaurant to collect her thoughts before going out again: the creature was still there, staring back at her.

According to ufologist Claudeir Covo, a number of zoo animals died shortly after the creature was reported. Veterinarians at the Varginha Zoo diagnosed the strange deaths as "caustic intoxication," and discouraged any speculation that the animals may have been infected by an alien disease borne by the creature.

Earthquakes and UFOs?

From 1968 onward, seismic events were accompanied by the manifestation of immense greenish-blue bolides twice the size of the moon, described by local residents as being as bright as very large automobile headlights. Other descriptions classified them as being conical in shape and blindingly bright, moving silently over buildings or the countryside. Argentinean UFO researcher Roberto Banchs, writing in Las Evidencias del Fenómeno Ovni (Buenos Aires: Cogtal, 1976) notes that the strange lights of Pereiro were at one point seen on a regular basis and landing in the spiky, inaccessible “caatinga” vegetation that surrounds the area.

A reputable eyewitness – a local councilman – was riding his horse at night through the area in July 1968 when he encountered a green light that he first believed to be a truck, only to find it was an object hovering over the treetops. Other reports soon emerged of an enormous solid object accompanied by lesser ones, projecting a beam against the ground “like a giant spotlight”. This prompted representative Ernesto Valente to say: “Many UFOs have appeared over the skies of Ceará in recent months. The government should send observers to conduct an in-depth study to find out if UFOs are indeed related to earthquakes.”

According to Banchs, word was received from Pereiro a month later, stating that the manifestations of these luminous objects indeed precede seismic activity by a matter of hours, causing townspeople to remark that “the objects appeared to know when and where the earthquakes were going to come about.”


The 1996 UFO Wave

UFO activity erupted in Guarabira, a northern Brazilian community in the State of Paraiba, not far from Joao Pessoa on the Atlantic shore. In May 1996, Viviane de Castro, a student at Paraiba State University, had a close encounter with alleged saucer occupants who gave her a message which indicated that they had "returned to Earth to take care of it" after the senseless damage inflicted by humans. This event coincided with numerous sightings of star-like objects which routinely fly over the community at regular times (a characteristic of areas experiencing UFO flaps). Eyewitnesses to these celestial displays range from housewives to seasoned police officers. Oriel Farias, a ufologist who has transmitted his findings over the Internet, has also made mention of rumors concerning human disappearances in the area -- the victims of UFO abduction. One such incident, collected by the authorities, involved an abandoned automobile displaying "strange marks" on its roof. The whereabouts of its driver remain a mystery.

The curious nocturnal lights were not shy of the big city, either: reports of UFOs soon emerged from Joao Pessoa, a city of a quarter million souls. An enormous light was seen flying over the city's beaches by a number of witnesses, including the patrons of a drinking establishment who fled the place in a panic.

In mid-February 1996, after the carnival season was over, groups of observers throughout Paraiba state scanned the heavens with binoculars and photographic gear in hopes of catching a fleeting glimpse of the UFO phenomena.

Guarabira eventually received more than it bargained for. By all accounts, a UFO "invasion" allegedly occurred on March 3, 1996 when a still-unexplained blackout plunged the community into darkness at 6:45 p.m., and 26 UFOs cruised through the skies unmolested. Wellington Santos, director of EPUC (Equipo Pesquisa Ufologica Guarabira), observed that "the UFO situation in Guarabira is one of a kind in Brazil and the whole world, since never have there been so many collective sightings involving people of all ages, sexes and occupations, having repeated sightings over a long period of time."

Massive cigar-shaped craft flew over the region of 23 cities. According to EPUG's report, a farmer went out in the middle of the night to fire a shotgun-blast at one of the smaller discoidal craft which came closer to the ground than their putative "motherships." His hostile gesture was duly reciprocated by the UFO, which aimed a beam of light at the assailant, inflicting third-degree burns. In Mamamguape, fifty-five miles from Joao Pessoa, one of the cigar-shaped objects (known locally as charutos) reportedly fired a gas weapon against a hapless man who was running away from it. On October 14th, three hundred Guarabirans witnessed another UFO invasion, which included a massive craft reportedly as big as a twenty-floor building. "Had this been a southern city," Santos noted ruefully,"journalists would be raining out of the sky."

Argentina: UFOs Also Kill Cows That Aren't Mutilated (1998)



The following article is taken from Issue #2 of the INEXPLICATA JOURNAL (Winter 1998). Our friend and colleague Luis Burgos of the Fundación Argentina de Ovnilogía (and later of ICOU as well) provided us with this interesting report on the sobering connection between UFO activity and cattle mutilations.


UFOs Also Kill Cows That Aren't Mutilated
by Luis Burgos

Introduction

One of the greatest enigmas of the UFO phenomenon began in the early 1970's when a number of states in the U.S. produced hundreds of reports on strange cattle deaths by mutilation -- their organs removed and their blood extracted. From that point on, the "cattle mutilation enigma" spread in a less virulent form to some Central American and Caribbean countries such as Puerto Rico, and with isolated episodes manifesting themselves in the Southern Cone, particularly in Brazil and Argentina.

With the passing of time, the hypothesis that cattle mutilations were in fact experiments by the U.S. Air Force, employing black, silent helicopters for purposes of bacteriological warfare against beef cattle, sheep and even horses, began to gain strength.

But just as the subject began to "retreat statistically" from the archives of ufologists, similar stories began to emerge with the presence of Puerto Rico's "Moca Vampire" and today's mysterious "Chupacabras", which has made startling appearances in the USA, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and perhaps even Brazil. All of these enigmas have a single point in common: the sightings of nocturnal lights in the vicinity of the events. In other words, UFO sightings.


Not All Are Mutilated

The purpose of this article is to enhance the statistics of "effects upon animals", cows in particular, but placing distance between itself and the "historically famous mutilations" which of themselves already form a monumental database and are the subject of independent analyses. I am specifically referring to animal deaths produced by the passing of a UFO. While such events are not numerous, they nonetheless represent a new aspect.

The Events

Correa, Province of Sante Fe (Argentina).
In October 1968, thirty-two UFO landing marks appear on a field owned by the Damiani brothers in Correa, Santa Fe province. The marks appeared after a fly-by of lights over the area which constituted Argentina's "first massive landing". Witnesses later found the body of a calf whose bones had been shattered precisely in the area of the landing marks.

Alegrete, Brazil
Toward late October, 1970, on a fine sunny afternoon, Pedro Machado,66, and his son Eurípides, 23, who were looking after the cattle in a farm on Alegrete's First District were stunned to observe a calf moving in a direction parallel to the ground at a height of one meter over the ground. The animal then began moving up into the air "as if absorbed by an invisible force."
It vanished out of the witnesses' sight some 3 to 4 minutes later. The remains of the calf were never found. Both indirect protagonists of this event were well thought-of in their community.

Estación Gil, Province of Buenos Aires (Argentina)
In the early morning hours of September 20, 1971, young Octavio D'Annunzio was heading toward his home in Estación Gil, Coronel Dorrego prospect, in the Province of Buenos Aires, when an unidentified flying object flew over the region at high speed, allowing many local residents to see it. The UFO's approach causes significant symptoms upon D'Annunzio. When military personnel investigates the events, they discover the presence of high levels of radiation, to the extent that film appeared clouded and a number of cows died in a standing position, with their tongues chewed. Carrion birds did not approach the area. This case contains details that are very important to UFO research.

Atalaya, Province of Buenos Aires (Argentina)
In late 1985, when I had the opportunity to investigate the spectacular events at Atalaya with my team from the FAO (Argentine Ufological Foundation), which set the world record in UFO landings, leaving 150 landing marks in a single field, we were able to witness the maneuvers of 4 UFOs over 45 minutes while they performed a veritable air show. A few days later, a completely burned and desiccated cow appeared at a site that had already been surveyed by a number of members. The animal did not appear to have been mutilated, but rather having been exposed to a great thermal source. Unfortunately, we had no way of transferring the carcass to a suitable place for study.

Refuco, Chile
At 9:00 p.m. on August 2, 1988, Luis Viveros and his wife Rosa Angulo, along with their 6-year-old son Rodrigo, witnessed "a red light that descended from the sky. The night was stormy although it was not raining, and thunder could be heard in the distance. Suddenly, a powerful detonation caused all the windows in their house to shatter. Frightened, the Viveros opted to head for a neighboring farm. The following morning, when Rosa went to check on the cows, she noticed that the wire fence has been downed, the trees were broken and that her house had become uneven due to disruptions in the terrain. But the most perplexing discovery had to do with two of their cows: one of them was dead, as if frozen, an the other was alive but rigid, also giving the impression of being frozen, for which reason it was necessary to slaughter it. UFOs were seen over the region that evening at La Unión, close to Osorno. Reports from the Argentine Patagonia were also received.

Victoria, Province of Entre Rios (Argentina)
During the media-reported events in Victoria, province of Entre Rios, which started in 1991, some ufologists noticed the presence of field animals which had died in strange ways, including a number of cows. These events were associated with the UFO sightings made in the area.

Realicó, Province of La Pampa (Argentina)
A strange phenomenon took place in Realicó, province of La Pampa, beginning at 10 p.m. on the stormy night of Sunday, August 7, 1994. During the course of almost three hours, dozens of cows and horses ran around as if "frightened" by something. 60 millimeters of rain fell during the night and a powerful thunderclap rent the air while a strange buzzing sound made itself noticed. On the following day, ranchers faced a horrifying scene: a number of cows and horses had torn through barbed wire fences and died due to the injuries received during their mad stampede. The causes of the incident were never ascertained, but a number of local residents insisted on having seen a "flying light" over the fields.

San Manuel, Province of Buenos Aires
Shortly after the incident in the Pampas, in 1994, we have word of a smaller case having similar characteristics when the residents of San Manuel became aware that animals had suddenly become spooked after the passage of a UFO, with serious consequences for some of the bovines.

Monday, June 25, 2018

Argentina: UFO Allegedly Recorded in the Sierra de Córdoba



Source: PLANETA UFO
Date: 06.18.2018


Argentina: UFO Allegedly Recorded in the Sierra de Córdoba


Images went viral on social media and they show a circle with white and red lights. Startled witnesses could not understand what they were seeing and decided to record the images on their cellphones.

CORDOBA - Residents of Las Rabonas believe they hayve recorded a UFO in the La Viña Reservoir area. The video shows a strange object crossing the sky.



The images went viral on social media, showing a circle with white and red lights.

Startled witnesses could not understand what they were looking at and decided to record the images on their cellphones. What do you think? Have you ever seen anything like it? Do you believe there is life on other worlds?

[Translation (c) 2018 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Guillermo Giménez]

Editor's Note: Additional text was found at the El Diario de Carlos Paz website, dated Tuesday, June 19, 11:30 a.m.


Valeria Beltramone is a resident of Las Rabonas who recorded a strange object in the Cordoba mountains. She shared the video on social media, prompting a wide range of speculation.

During an interview granted to El Diario de Carlos Paz, the young woma claimed this is not the first time her family has witnessed a "phenomenon" of such characteristics in the sky.

"My father went out for wood on our proeprty and we're always looking skyward because we feel a particular curiosity for this phenomenon. He called me and told me to pay attention to a light he had seen and was different from stars," Valeria said yesterday.

"I went outside and realized it was huge. I grabbed the cellphone and started recording, and that's what came out. I zoomed in on it for a closeup and spent about ten minutes recording it. I went back inside as it was very cold. I came out ten minutes later and the object was much smaller, then it vanished. This was around the La Viña Reservoir in Las Rabonas and it disappeared toward the west," said the young woman.

"The movement you see in the video is the object, because my cellphone was still. Its strength was impressive. It seemed like it was coming right at us."

VIDEO AT: https://youtu.be/5rY7arq940s


Costa Rica: CE-2 - UFO Kills Car Engine, Tampers With Odometer and Clock, Leaving Numbers 3-3-3 Behind



Source: www.lateja.cr (Costa Rica) and Planeta UFO
Date: 06.25.18

Article by Franklin Arroyo

Costa Rica: CE-2 - UFO Kills Car Engine, Tampers With Odometer and Clock, Leaving Numbers 3-3-3 Behind

Architect Alejandro Sáenz had a very strange experience, one that would give the hardiest soul goosebumps. He was heading to inspect a construction project in his car when the vehicles odometer and clock were inexplicably tampered with, leaving both synchronized with the number three on their respective screens.

The alleged culprit for this disquieting incident was an unidentified flying object.

The startling experience occurred on May 11 at San Isidro de Heredia. As Sáenz drove, he was overcome by a strange sensation that caused him to stop and look at the sky.

Sáenz has the luck, virtue - or whatever name you care to give it - of seeing UFOs frequently, and that day was no exception. When he pulled over and looked up, he saw a blue object in the skies over Heredia.

Sáenz further adds that the object was spherical and flew at considerable speed, but he was nonetheless able to see it.

"At the moment it disappeared, the car died. I tried, but the battery wouldn't go. Several minutes later, the dashboard came to life without my having touched anything," he said.

Moments later, the architect became aware that the odometer that marks the kilometers elapsed, as well as the digital numbers of the clock, had been altered and now read - in both cases - the number three, repeated three times.

Sáenz photographed the uncanny event and returned home. It was 9:30 in the morning.

He immediately told his wife Cindy Picado what had transpired, as she has also had her share of UFO experiences. "The situation was bizarre and beyond any understanding," Alejandro added.

Sáenz tells us that he felt the UFO's presence in his house, and he went out to the balcony to see if he could watch it again.

"As I recorded, there were strange dots that I couldn't identify and they only appeared in the recording at the time. After a few seconds, an unidentified object similar to the first appeared.

Sáenz recorded the entire experience on vídeo and uploaded it to a web site.

Regarding the odometer, we checked with Hans Jiménez, a master mechanic in the Jiménez Auto Shop, located in Llorente de Tibás.

"Not anyone can tamper with an odometer. You need a special tool, a scanner, and anyone attempting it has to have computer skills," he said, adding that electronic parts can fail, although this seldom occurs.

VIDEO AT: https://youtu.be/-TBUCC3Fle4

[Translation (c) 2018 S. Corrales with thanks to Guillermo Giménez, Planeta UFO]

Operation NOA: The Catamarca Mini-Zone



Source: Luis Burgos ICOU
Date: June 15 2018


Operation NOA: The Catamarca Mini-Zone

One of the 12 most noted sites in Argentina when it comes to frequent UFO activity is located in the province of Catamarca on Route 38 between the communities of Chumbicha and Capayán. This "mini-zone" came to life back in the 1960s and in our own time is still a source of surprises - luminous apparitions that are well-known to the locals.

It all began between June and August 1968.

The time was 16:25 hrs, on 18 June. Ruben Andrawos and Jorge Scassaa, flying a Cessna 182, were flying the Cordoba-Catamarca route at an altitude of 2300 meters when they saw a grayish-blue cigar-shaped object. They thought it might be a U-2 or an Avro, but the intruder stopped for a moment and wobbled, heading north. They tried to establish contact with the Catamarca control tower in vain, due to interference. The only response received was from Aerolineas Argentinas Flight 713.

In the early morning hours of 20 June, taxi driver Juan Fedell and three passengers were returning to Catamarca along Route 38 from La Rioja. 60 kilometers away from their destination, between Chumbicha and Capayán, they managed to see a very large, luminous flying object suspended 5 meters abover the surface. The vehicle stopped and the unknown artifact gained altitude, flashing as it did so.

Three businessmen from La Rioja were aboard a truck in the vicinity of Capayán around 02:00 hours on 29 August when they became aware of the presence of a disk-shaped object, silvery pink in color, along the edge of Route 38 at a distance of 12 meters. The object was described as having "four lower extensions" (medusa?)and was motionless, suspended 2 meters over the ground.

[Translation (c) 2018 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Luis Burgos]

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Peru: A Mysterious Flying Object over Miraflores (1950)



Source: PLANETA UFO and El Comercio (Peru)
Date: 06.13.2018
An article by Miguel Garcia Medina


Peru: A Mysterious Flying Object over Miraflores (1950)

The enigmatic subject of UFOs is no stranger to the pages of the El Comercio newspaper, as evidence by a copious amount of articles in our files.

The year 1950 records considerable information about unidentified flying object sightings in many parts of the world. There is one that stands out from the rest given the place and the witness associated with the sighting. "A flying disk has been seen in the skies over Lima," says El Comercio in its 15 March 1950 edition.

"There were numerous witnesses to the strange object that was seen flying from Chorrillos to El Callao," says El Decano. "The mysterious fireball stopped over Parque Salazar in Miraflores before heading northwest, vanishing behind San Lorenzo Island."



Following the enigmatic events at Roswell in the U.S., oftentimes called into question but remembered to this day, the presence of beings from other worlds here on Earth became a matter enshrouded in mystery. We are referring to the event that took place in July 1947, when an alien spacecraft allegedly crashed into our planet on American soil.

This incident brought the matter of UFOs to the first pages of newspapers worldwide, and it is therefore not surprising that events linked with extraterrestrials multiplied in the print media.

To this day, sightings worldwide, including Peru, are in the thousands, although only a few have a documentary record (photos, videos, etc.) and many more have remained as mere witness accounts, such as this one published by El Comercio over 65 years ago.

This is a strange event that took place on Saturday, 11 March 1950 in Lima and was described in detail to the newsroom of this publisher by Julián Gardol, an airport engineer with Panagra -- Pan American Grace Airways. The story has a special turn to it, as the witness was an official who was well-versed with aviation, and his story is framed within the prior knowledge that adds greater likelihood to his story.

"It was more or less 8:20 in the evening," Gardiol explains, "when the strange sighting occurred," adding: "There were many people strolling and chatting around Parque Salazar. The sky was dark and moonless. Suddenly a luminous orange sphere, larger than any star, appeared over Morro de Chorrillos."

"At first it was thought that it could be a heavenly body of considerable magnitude, or a meteor flying swiftly through space. It was later ascertained that this was not the case. The object traveled to where we were, passing over Chorrillos, stopping for five minutes, remaining motionless, only to quickly head out to sea."

[Translation (c) 2018 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Guillermo Giménez]

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Mexico: UFOs of the 1960s



Mexico: UFOs of the 1960s
By Scott Corrales
[Excerpt from "Forbidden Mexico", Institute of Hispanic Ufology Press, 1999]

In spite of the considerable number of UFO sightings during this time period, it wasn't until the following decade that the UFO phenomenon would add itself to the other events which stirred the national consciousness, such as increased political radicalism among the young, the massacre of innocents at Tlatelolco in 1968 and the troubled '68 Olympics -- events which mirrored similar developments in France and in the United States.

One of the most impressive photographs of a UFO during this period was the 1965 snapshot taken by Juan David Mateos. According to the photographer's testimony, he was driving along the road from Villa Ahumada to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, when he saw a dark, oval shaped craft approaching at an altitude of less than twenty meters and a distance of only sixty meters. Mateos stopped the car and clicked away at the unknown object, earning himself a place in saucer history.

On July 10, six residents of the city of Chilpancingo, capital of the state of Guerrero, were left spellbound by the maneuvers of two large, glowing objects in the darkened skies over their community--a two-hour performance which would be replayed later that month over Mexico City, where another pair of brilliant objects remained suspended at treetop level before shooting off into the sky.

Two students at Mexico City's Instituto Nacional Politécnico would become the protagonists of a still-debated "close encounter of the 3rd kind" which would be among the first of its kind in the country. The brothers Yayo and Payo Rodríguez achieved national prominence when on the morning of August 19, 1965, at eight o'clock in the morning, they claimed having witnessed the landing of a sizeable glowing disk on an open field near the Politécnico's campus. The otherworldly vehicle allegedly charred vegetation as it settled to the ground on its tripodal landing gear. As if the landing of this spaceship, drawn straight from My Favorite Martian, wasn't enough, the Brothers Rodríguez also claimed that a pair of diminutive beings wearing respirators of some kind emerged from the craft and walked up to the terrified students, depositing at their feet a metallic object. The dwarfish "away team" returned silently to their conveyance, which took to the air in a matter of seconds.

The Rodríguezes delivered the putative extraterrestrial fragment to the campus laboratory, where it was apparently subjected to analysis by investigators. According to an article in Mexico's El Gráfico newspaper (defunct) a few days later, a number of journalists and photgraphers from different media organizations visited the site, where burn marks were plainly visible and where traces of a curious liquid, characterized as "fuel" were found. Despite the good physical evidence, Yayo and Payo were not considered credible witnesses. Even Dr. Santiago García, in his landmark book OVNIS Sobre México, would headline his chapter on the Rodríguez case as "¿de cual fumarían?" ("which did they smoke?").

The age of the great UFO-induced blackouts was about to begin during these troubled years. As a foretaste, perhaps, of what would happen later on across the northeastern U.S., the city of Cuernavaca, some fifty miles south of Mexico City, would suffer three separate power failures on the night of September 23, 1965. The Ultima Hora newspaper indicated that the blackout had been caused by a large luminous flying saucer which crossed the heavens over the city--an inverted soup-bowl device which was seen not only by thousands of citizens but by city mayor Emilio Riva Palacios, who was attending the opening of a film festival with members of his cabinet. The lights went out during the showing, and upon going outside, the city fathers were treated to the sight of the massive object's glow, which reportedly filled all of Cuernavaca valley.

But the force behind all these aerial phenomena appeared to be enamoured of la capital, Mexico City, with its juxtaposition of massive colonial structures, modern skyscrapers and ancient ruins: it chose the 16th of September, the one hundred fifty-fifth anniversary of Mexico's independence from Spain, to manifest half a dozen luminous objects over the city's skies, casting downtown Mexico City into unbreakable gridlock as drivers left their vehicles to take a better look at the phenomenon. Newspapers reported that aviation authorities had received in excess of five thousand telephone calls from people asking if they had also seen platillos voladores. On September 25, a citizenry weary of craning their necks skyward endured another leisurely display of the unknown as a vast luminous body passed overhead, remaning motionless for a while before shooting out of sight at a terrific speed. Only days later, two smaller objects would buzz the gilded dome of Mexico's Palacio de Bellas Artes, a turn of the century structure that dominates La Alameda park. The early evening sighting was witnessed by a few dozen people waiting at a bus stop; they described the objects as "enormous luminous bodies with intermittent sparkling lights."

By this point in time, some of the world's major newspapers had picked up on Mexico's saucer situation. Paris's Le Figaro reprinted an editorial from Italy's Corriere della Sera on the subject: "Mexico City International Airport has officially recorded, of late, some three thousand cases of mysterious apparitions described in detail. At nightfall, people gather on the terraces and balconies of their homes to search the skies...a clamor of voices can occasionally be heard, saying: "There goes one! Can you see it?" Invariably, what follows is this: traffic is paralyzed on neighoring streets, since drivers also want to partake of the spectacle. The roadways grind to a halt, leading to monstrous traffic jams. After a while, witnesses to tho the event are willing to swear that the presence of platillos voladores causes engines to stall and plunges homes into darkness. Throughout Mexico, the number of blackouts has been inexplicably high..."

[At this point, the reader will allow me to insert a personal note. These mysterious blackouts continued well into the Seventies when I lived in Mexico City. My family's apartment overlooked busy Avenida Insurgentes--the artery that sections the city from north to south--and every room had a wall-to-wall, ceiling-to floor window offering an unlimited view of the avenue, the houses and buildings on the other side, and the mountains in the distance. It was not at all uncommon for the light to brown out and then black out completely, leaving people stuck in elevators and snarling traffic for hours at intersections. But the common denominator to all these blackouts, in my eight-year-old mind, was the bright yellow light that could be seen without fail crossing the sky in the horizon. Was it indeed a UFO? Who can say?]

Spanish ufologist Antonio Ribera, who kept careful tabs on the Mexican scenario, indicates in his book América y los OVNIS (Posada, 1977) that foreign sources as unlikely as Kenya's Mombasa Times were carrying stories about the situation: On October 2, 1965, a fourteen year old girl in the city of Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, ran away screaming in fright when a flying disk some twenty feet in diameter dropped out the heavens to hover directly over while issuing a soft, whistling sound. The object was surrounded by multicolored lights which appeared to dangle from it. After this daytime apparition, the object was seen over the same city again at night.

The coming of 1966 gave Mexico a respite from its ufological experiences, but it was to be a brief one. 1967 would rekindle the frenzied activity of the preceding year.

On Saturday, February 11, 1967, a Guatemalan Aviateca airliner managed to avoid a near-collision with a UFO as the airliner prepared its final approach to Mexico City's saucer-plagued airport. The airliner's pilot, Col. Alfredo Castañeda, radioed the tower that a silvery round object, with what appeared to be "a reddish ball" on top of it, had suddenly crossed the airliner's path as it flew over Oaxaca. His co-pilot, the flight attendants and many of the passengers had also been witnesses to the unusual and possibly hazardous phenomenon. Mexico's airport limited itself to saying that the intruder "could not have been a weather balloon."

Stories began to circulate on March 30, 1967 regarding the collision of a spindle-shaped object against a hillside near Mezcala, state of Guerrero. A reporter for Ultima Hora indicated that at least a thousand residents of the village of Xochilapa had seen the object plummet earthward and heard the deafening explosion which inevitably followed. Many of the villagers agreed that the heavenly bullet had been roughly cigar-shaped and emitted a blinding light, "making it impossible to confuse with a meteorite." An infantry unit of the Mexican Army was allegedly dispatched to collect the object's remains, but nothing else was heard about the event.

Between 8:00 and 8:30 p.m. on May 7, 1967, the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Hidalgo, Veracruz were visited by a veritable celestial armada of UFOs: at least twenty individual blue, yellow and red lights flew in formation over the heads of thousands of bewildered onlookers. The formation was spearheaded by a colossal red saucer and leisurely appeared to be following a northwesterly course. Newspapers in these four states carried the story but no photographs of the formation. A similar occurence took place on August 6, 1967, when the citizens of Poza Rica, Veracruz, were treated to the sight of several "waves" of unidentified flying objects -- each wave having its own color -- as they flew overhead to become lost over the Gulf of Mexico.

While the Poza Ricans gawked at the spectacle, Captain Angel Fojo of Aeromexico Flight 145 was facing a similar prospect: at an altitude of twenty thousand feet over the state of Guanajuato, his DC-9 was running into a formation of three glowing disks an estimated 30 miles away from the airliner. Captain Fojo's best estimate was that the speeding objects crossed the horizon in a matter of thirty to forty seconds.

The late Jim and Coral Lorenzen of APRO documented a considerable number of cases occuring in Central and South America in '67, and while Mexico's UFO activity during this particular year was by no means as significant as the "fleets" (to use the Lorenzen's own expression) that were engaged in a show of force over Argentina and Uruguay, APRO's files nonetheless contained a few cases of great interest regarding our southern neighbor.

As indicated in their book UFOs Over the Americas (Signet, 1968), APRO's founders were on their way to visit a number of South American locations and took advantage of a layover in Mexico City to meet with their correspondent, Jesús H. Garibay, who briefed them on the most important cases at the time. One of them involved two witnesses (a father and daughter) to the landing and takeoff of a UFO, with the added benefit of the photographs taken of the event.

"The principal witness," wrote Coral Lorenzen, "is a mechanical engineer, and the other is his daughter. On May 6, 1967, the two were driving between Durango and Mazatlán. At 11:00 a.m., they spotted a disc-shaped object on the ground off the highway. They stopped the car and took three photos as the object was taking off. The first shows the object at the level of the treetops, partially hidden by a tree. Two parts of its landing gear are clearly shown. The second shows the object apparently in flight against the clear sky: no landing gear are visible in this exposure. The third photo showed nothing. APRO is still on the track of this set of photos, and not knowing if the principals want publicity or not, we have decided not to release any names at this time." (p.65)

The remainder of the year and the beginning of the following one would simply be a repetition of sightings until December 30, 1968, when a mountain rescue team on the slopes of the Popocatepetl volcano witnessed the maneuvers of a strange object conducting maneuvers over the summit of the nearby Iztaccíhuatl volcano. The artifact moved deliberately toward the mountain's eastern glaciers before flying toward Puebla, vanishing from sight. The object would come into view once more during its return trip to the mountains at 8:00 p.m.

Carlos A. Guzmán of Mexico's CIFEEAAC, happened to be one of the researchers in this early case. His group's findings indicated that the mountain rescue team's sighting was corroborated by a number of reports from the city of Puebla at the time: the newsroom of the city's El Sol de Puebla was swamped with phone calls from all over the city, reporting the maneuvers of "a strange white object, as bright as the planet Venus, flying noiselessly over the city." One witness, Francisco Martínez, claimed to have seen not only the object itself, but the various lights which composed it; Reynaldo Ponce, a student at Puebla's distinguished school of architecture, observed the UFO through a theodolite and was able to make a sketch based on his sighting. The entire report was compiled by APRO correspondent Jesús Hernandez Garibay and forwarded to that organization's Arizona-based headquarters.

A year later, on September 18, 1968, Antonio Nieto-- a cab driver plowing the city of Coatepec's main avenue -- thought that an otherwise slow night was coming to an end when he pulled over to pick up a fare, or so he thought: his would-be passenger turned out to be a black-clad figure with glowing hands and enormous cat-like eyes that glowed eerily in the taxi's lights as it stood on the curb. The terrified cab driver stepped on the gas and put as much distance as he could between himself and the frightful apparition.

As chance would have it, he ran into a fellow cabdriver who had also been hailed by the nightmarish apparition. Leaving one cab behind, both men set off in the other vehicle and went in search of a local journalist, who accompanied them to the spot where the improbable creature had last been seen. Their effort was rewarded by a third encounter with the entity, which now held in its glowing hands a crystal wand which emanated a radiance that hurt the eyes. A staff writer for Mexico City's Excelsior noted that in spite of the ufonauts' vaunted ability to cross space, they encountered the same difficulty as Earthlings when it came to hailing a cab.

High Strangeness could also be found in the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. On February 17, 1969, an unknown animal washed up on Veracruzan shores at a location known locally as "El Palmar de Susana" between the fishing communities of Tecolutla and Hautla. The authorities were dumbfounded by their find: the creature's head weighed approximately a ton, measuring 6 feet across and 4 feet from top to bottom. Scientists who at first thought they were dealing with a decomposing whale carcass were startled by a 9-foot long "beak" that projected from the skull. The creature's hide was described as "wooly" and resistant to all manner of knives, machetes, axes and saws. Biologists Sergio García, Martín Contreras and Daniel Yutch were entrusted with studying the cryptid without reaching any conclusive results. According to Dr. Rafael Lara Palmeros, the mystery remains were purchased by the University of California, and their final whereabouts are equally enigmatic.

Monday, June 11, 2018

Argentina: Operación NOA - The Infiernillo Lights



Argentina: Operación NOA - The Infiernillo Lights
By Luis Burgos

The wilderness of El Infiernillo is among the twelve most mentioned places where UFO event play out regularly. It is located in Northwestern Tucumán at 3042 meters above sea level in the midst of the Valles Calchaquíes on Route No. 307, linking the provinces of Salta and Tucumán. The case histories have repeated with the same likeness and behavior: Lights that issue from the mountains, some of them pursuing vehicles, others that land in the middle of the road, etc. The question is the same that we ask about the other eleven similar sites in Argentina. What is there in that region that is so attractive to them? For the time, all we have are hypotheses. Let's examine some of the best-known cases of their time:

On the night of November 4 1962, Pier Livio Quaia, a trucker, was driving along the Salta-Tucuman route and paused when he noticed an oval-shaped object in the middle of the road. It measured some 12 meters in diameter and was red, white and green in color and surrounded by windows. The object flew over his truck, causing it to shudder, and making a strong whistling sound. The trucker fired shots at the object.


In early November 1962, young José Torramorel and Hernán Caverlotti were riding in a motorcycle along the route that links both provinces. In the vicinity of El Infiernillo, an incandescent, spherical object measuring some twenty meters in diameter landed at the same time the motorbike pulled to a halt. Two other cars also slowed down in the vicinity. Another similar object touched down on a hillside. After a while both devices lifted off and the bikers ascertained that their machine was unusable and that they now sported burn marks on their arms.


On August 10, 1970, another truck driver reported that while driving along that desolate stretch of road, he witnessed an oval-shaped object, measuring 20 meters in diameter and issued a dull buzzing noise. This object accompanied him for a fair stretch of road until it took off, leaving a blue wake in the sky.

[Translation (c) 2018 S. Corrales, IHU]

Monday, June 04, 2018

Argentina: Residents of Chos Malal Reportedly See a "Flying Saucer"



Source: lmneuquen.com and Luis Burgos
Date: 06.04.2018


Argentina: Residents of Chos Malal Reportedly See a "Flying Saucer"

The phenomenon occurred in recent hours. One local told LU5 that it descended in a field scant meters from her home.

A resident of Chos Malal reported a strange phenomenon that took place in recent hours in a rural of the Northern Neuquén locality.

Marisa San Martín told LU5 that an unidentified flying object (UFO) startled her relatives in a field 30 kilometers distant from the town. "It was 50 meters from the house, lighting up everything, causing my mother astonishment," said the woman.

The vehicle, seen by its light from the Chos Malal urban area, did not get to land. The situation took place on Tuesday night at around 20:30 hours, but had already been seen on Monday.

"It was about 6 meters in the air and remained for some 20 minutes, then it took off," said Marisa, who added: "Something similar occurred two years ago."

She denied that it could be a drone since the area where the "flying saucer" was located has no vehicular access that would have allowed anyone to enter and pilot the object. It wasn't a car either.

"Many took it as a joke, but several people saw it from Chos Malal itself," insists Marisa, adding: "My mother was left in a state of panic and fear, because we don't know what it might be."

[Translation (c) 2018 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Luis Burgos, ICOU]