Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Argentina: Watchman Allegedly Records Alien in Pasture




Source:www.cronica.com.ar and FAO
Date: 08.28. 2018
An Article by Jorge Fernandez Gentile


Argentina: Watchman Allegedly Records Alien in Pasture

Villa Maria is the third most important city in Cordoba as regards population and economy. Located at the heart of the province's territory, the customary occupations of its inhabitants are focused on agriculture, livestock and derivatives, tourism and regional products. In the middle of the Pampan plain on the soil of Cordoba, more than just one UFO phenomenon took place.

A watchman named Eduardo, who works for a private company, was startled by the presence of several lights on a neighboring field, and was nearly able to film at the same time a strange humanoid that appeared to stand up from the pastures to run away into the bushes upon being detected. All of this was recorded in a short video that shows the development of strange lights in the premises under his care. These lights left over ten small circles of burning grass and "something" that rises up out of the unknown.

This event was added to other sightings of strange lights that have taken place in recent weeks, aside from ground prints collected a short time ago, adding stupefaction and contradiction on the part of the former, who believe what is going on, and the latter, who are skeptics. Of course, the watchman's refusal to engage in further investigation made it impossible to delve deeper into this close encounter of the first kind, which shall almost surely remain unsolved, like many others.

Three Weeks Ago

As indicated in detail by Vision Ovni, the incident took place last Saturday, August 4, around five o'clock in the morning on the premises of the BPB company, formerly part of the Aero Club, located in the Ramón Carrillo district and the campus of the Villa Maria National University. The main protagonist is a security guard who saw some lights moving over the field behind the company for which he currently works, near a wilderness. Thus, and due to the strange activity, the decided to take a closer look. When he reached the site, 200 meters from his customary position, he first came across smoking burn marks on the ground, as if freshly burned.

"When my guard was over, I went out to patrol the wilderness in the bank. Since we have animals, we must look after them. But as I walked with the flashlight, I saw something burned in the grass. I started to feel fear, as this was out of the ordinary. When I looked up, I saw something moving. It was like an animal, something that hid. Something strange and out of the ordinary. I got scared and opened fire. I then phoned the factory bosses to tell them what had happened. That's what went on," he explained to several media outlets.

Eduardo's eyewitness account can be seen in video in several different digital media, but the most significant thing is that it dovetails with the stories provided by some locals, who claimed having seen strange lights flying over the neighborhood that same morning and time. What strikes their attention is that a few months ago, a local had recorded unexplained lights at Pereyra y Dominguez Park as they flew at high speed toward Barrio Carrillo, the new district of the major locality that stands between the old Aero Club and the college campus. A place where strange prints had been found earlier, and where the lights of aircraft could be seen in the skies. However, these seemed to issue from other flying objects that no one has hitherto been able to identify.

What the Video Shows

The video shows images of a dark early morning, pre-daybreak. A dog can be heard barking, not too far away, in the presence of something that appeared to come out of nowhere, which startled the watchman. Frightened, he opened fire and took off running. Hours later he said: "I saw something like an animal, but I don't think it really was. It was strange, something out of the ordinary," he explained.

Something is evident and certain: the man, no matter how much he wanted to find out what had transpired, was overcome by fear upon seeing the strange being that appered before him, scant meters away. The images recorded, enhanced by the Visión OVNI researchers to see the creature in the greatest detail possible (as far as the video's quality will allow), show an entity that appears to rise up from the ground, standing straight before vanishing into the darkness of the night, all very suddenly. In very few seconds. This leaves us questioning what it might have been. The lights seen in the background correspond to images similar to many other UFO sightings, which further the possible presence of a humanoid (or a hologram controlled from the craft?) supposedly investigating the area, the soil, or who knows what else.

Many Apparitions

The most incredible fact is that for some time now, Villa María appears to have been the focus of strange visits from what appear to be otherworldly craft. Thus, in recent motnhs, witnesses report seeing strange lights (UFO-shaped) in the area and phenomena such as cattle mutilations. On more than one occasion, animals with surgical incisions on several parts of their bodies have been found. Prestigious researcher Luis Burgos, president of the Fundación Argentina de Ovnilogía (FAO), who had visited the area days earlier, attemepted a field observation, joining forces with Juan Carlos Masiero (host of the "El Holograma Tierra" program, the only one devoted to UFOS and other realities in the city's radio history between 2014-16)

Masiero and Brugos visited the company and noon, and saw a idylic landscape with an artificial lake and a herd of carpinchos, something impossible for these parts, which surpised both. Then they met Eduardo, the watchman, who to their surprise abruptly said: "You cannot pass" when they asked to see the burned grass, and whose behavior was susbsequently evasive.

When asked by Masiero, Eduardo replied: "I don't have anything more to say. It happened back there, in the wilderness. I've nothing more to say." Eduardo walked away without raising the security barrier or waving goodbye.

Persistence

Obviously, the researchers did not give up. They walked around the premises until they reached the site, a virgin carob tree grove surrounded by a wire fence and a tersely worded sign: "Access Forbidden. Private Property." Both agreed that the man had seen something, but when he expanded on the experience, was subsequently a target of mockery by many, particularly those who do not have an idea of what might have happened, and a broader understanding as regards the meaning of the UFO phenomenon.

Case Unsolved

As a survey of the area by researchers is not possible, no analysis of water and animal samples has been possible. No chemical soil analysis, temperature readings or evaluation of the burned grass, measurement of the marks, verification of the absence of minerals and soil evaluation has been conducted either, with a view toward ascertaining if there was pressure on the ground - a way of learning how much a putative object would have weighted.

As researcher Burgos says in his blog, what Eduardo saw wasn't serendipity, but causality, as the lights were in the same area where others were seen. This is not the first time this happened. There is something "textbook" about Eduardo's experience that occurs in many close encounters. Cases in which UFOs land in places where water and animals are present, and at night to avoid detection, are numerous.

The marks could be the result of a laser or teleportation device - a technology we are unable to conceive. As to what the security guard might have seen, according to the researcher, it could have been a teleported extraterrestrial or a projection that descended to study soil and animals up close. Or perhaps it searched for water or some strange mineral they needed. He ends with a very comprehensie phrase: "In order to understand this, we must think holistically. That is, we must unplug from a 3-D perception. We must understand that ignorant human beings live on Planet earth, but for a long time, they have been abducting people and animals, experimenting on our bodies and our minds..."

VIDEO at: https://www.facebook.com/InexplicataTheJournalOfHispanicUfology/videos/334887313919592/

[Translation (c) 2018 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Luis Burgos (FAO) and Jorge Fernández Gentile]

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Argentina: UFO Reported in a Field in Sáenz Peña



Source: Chacoadentro.com and Fundación Argentina de Ovnilogía (FAO)
Date: 08.27.18


Argentina: UFO Reported in a Field in Sáenz Peña

A cattleman reported seeing "an oval-shaped object with many lights" in the early hours of the morning and asked for NASA's intervention.

A 65-year-old man reported an encounter with a UFO in the early hours of this Monday morning at his property in Colonia Napenay, located in the rural area of Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña. He requested the intervention of NASA or another competent agency.

According to the report filed with the 4th Commissariat, the sighting took place in the early morning hours. He was wakened by the sound of "his dogs barking a lot" and upon going to his backyard he saw "a sort of craft, oval-shaped, dark grey or black, with many lights, over the lagoon, some 100 meters from the house."

"The sky remained over the reservoir for a few minutes, and then took off quickly, skyward," said Juan D. Ortiz.

Finally, the cattleman, owner of a field measuring some 50 hectares (123 acres), devoted to raising livestock and cultivation, requested the intervention of "NASA or another competent agency, as a large red spot is visible on the [reservoir's] waters.

NOTE: Readers of Inexplicata will remember the community of Sáenz Peña from other reports, particularly the high-strangeness event involving diminutive entities http://www.ufoinfo.com/news/argentinastrikingimp.shtml

[Translation (c) 2018 Scott Corrales, IHU with thanks to Luis Burgos, Fundación Argentina de Ovnilogía]

Monday, August 27, 2018

Argentina: A UFO Over Berisso?




Source: Fundación Argentina de Ovnilogía (FAO)
Date: 25 August 2018


Argentina: A UFO Over Berisso?

Luis Burgos writes: After 23:00 hours last night, the cloud-covered sky began to clear in several areas of the province. At about 23:45 hours, with the sky somewhat cloudy again, Juan Naumovich, a resident of downtown Berisso (Buenos Aires) went to his backyard to witness, with astonishment, the transit of a flying object flying in a straight line from west to east, that is to say, toward Rio de la Plata. The artifact, with red, yellow and white lights, was flying at a moderate speed and average altitude, resembling "a rugby ball" seen at a distance. The sighting held his attention for one minute until it vanished from sight. It is very likely that it was seen from other locations in Buenos Aires. The transit of the International Space Station (ISS) and IRIDIUM satellites was discarded. Research is ongoing.

Argentina: The Boom of UFO Tourism



Source: Sputnik News and Planeta UFO
https://mundo.sputniknews.com
Date: 08.24.2017


Argentina: The Boom of UFO Tourism

Between 100,000 and 200,000 people a year climb Mount Uritorco in Argentina in search of extraterrestrial sightings. We will tell you what is so special about the area and what promotes UFO tourism in Soutn America.

Luz Mary López, a Colombian architect and instructor, is the director of the Centro Internacional de Ovnilogia (International Ufology Center - CIO) located in Capilla de Monte for the past 20 years. She told Sputnik about how Mount Uritorco became the premier destination for UFO buffs.

On 9 January 1986, an event known as "la huella de El Pajarillo" (The El Pajarillo ground mark) occurred, kicking off the tremendous UFO boom.

On that occasion, an object with red lights - seen by a 12-year-old boy and two elderly women- appeared over the northeastern area of Uritorco. The next day, their relatives reconnoitered the area and found a burn mark measuring 120 x 70 square meters.

Ever since then, many Argentinean communities have used the subject as a tourist attraction. The event gave rise to a sociological phenomenon tied to the place, a one-of-a-kind tourist attraction. Tour companies have promoted it as a niche market, a new way of attracting those interested in visiting the planet's exotic locations.

"We estimate that between a hundred and two hundred thousand people climb the hill [Uritorco] hoping for a thrill," says López.

"We have been carrying out a cultural exchange with Colombia, which is also interested in developing this sort of tourism involving the UFO subject. So the events at Capilla del Monte were the starting point for the whole subject.

Is it true that UFOs can be seen here? This is the question that brings visitor here and motivates them throughout their stay. The reach Capilla del Monte either because the subject is internationally renown or because they are people who have studied, and specialized, in the field and learned about the place.

"They are looking for anything branded as UFO, including flying saucers, alien spaceships, and subsequently, the leave saying that they saw a light, or had a special experience. They receive the outcome they were hoping to find," López states.

Geographically, tourists find themselves in a mountainous location in the middle of the Sierra del Uritorco, which has some of the highest summits in the region. While the environment is desert-like, its topography and vegetation have particular characteristics, as does the climate, which is "out of character" with adjacent regions.

"The experiences you get here are sensations, and people feel them. This makes them depart feeling a great affection for the site," explains the architect.

López's work is a continuation of the efforts of Jorge Suárez, the Argentinean director of the Centro de Informes Ovni Colombo Argentino. He authored books such as "Luces Sobre el Oritorco" (Lights Over Uritorco). Suárez edited the Uritorco OVNI magazine and the www.ciouritorco.org website.

He held conferences on the subject for sixteen years in Capilla del Monete and 11 international conferences in Colombia. As a tribute to him, Luz Mary is furthering the projects they built together.

Capilla del Monte is the headquarter of the Festival Alienígena, now in its sixth year. The program includes photographs, lantern-guided hikes to the Agua de los Palos complex, free movie sessions where "ET", "Alien covenant" and "Star Wars VIII" are shown, and presentation of the "Ciudadano Alienígena" (Alien Citizen) award.

The Congreso Internacional de Ovnilogía - 20 years old in November 2018 - is also held here. Some of the subjects discussed are: "On the footsteps of the gods", "Exopolitcs", "Going ot Mars" and "Humans as Extraterrestrials", among others.

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

Argentina: Impressive UFO Photographed over Neuquén.



Source: Crónica and Planeta UFO
Date: 08.26.2018


Argentina: Impressive UFO Photographed over Neuquén.

Paranormal Phenomena Chronicle: An oil worker in Rincón de las Cenizas saw the flying object and did not hesitate to capture a record of the shocking moment.

An oil industry worker took this crisp photo showing an alien spacecraft in the skies of Patagonia.

This UFO was seen in a wilderness known as Rincón de las Cenizas, 50 kilometers distant from Rincón de los Sauces in the Province of Neuquén.

The photo was submitted by a member of Whatsapp fan group, and subsequently posted to Crónica's Whatsapp section with the permission of Cronica Fenomenos Paranormales (Paranormal Phenomena Chronicle). We are sharing it with our readers so is aware - as with the Villa María case - that our national territory is visited by civilizations from other worlds. What might these visitors be looking for?

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

Friday, August 24, 2018

Night Wanderers: The Armies of Darkness



NIGHT WANDERERS: THE ARMIES OF DARKNESS
by Scott Corrales and Manuel Carballal
(C) 2002

Few of the simple pleasures of life are as satisfying as taking a walk through the woods: we can enjoy the subtle interplay of light and shadow, the calls of myriad unseen birds, the occasional glimpse of wildlife...but these sensory pleasures soon turn terrifying in the dark of night: sounds are magnified, the breaking of a twig underfoot jars our nerves, and "the fear of being caught and eaten," in the words of sociologist Enrico Canetti, becomes all too real.

The Herlethingi

Walter Map, the 13th century archdeacon of Oxford and author of De nugis curialium, a compendium of medieval odds and ends, and even more important work on the Crusades, made the following reference in one of his works to the Herlethingi, the "company of the undead", named after King Herla. According to Map, the peasantry of Brittany was accustomed to seeing the frightening nightly procession of "long trains of soldiers in dead silence," making their way through the night with wagon trains of spoils, beasts of burden, war horses and even camp followers. It was even possible, writes the archdeacon, to steal living horses and other animals from the unholy company and keep them, at the risk, however, of facing sudden, unexplained death. No description is given of the Herlethingi's arms or armor, so it is impossible to ascertain if they were the undead forms ancient Celtic warriors, Romans legionaries or Germanic invaders. Map informs his readers that the phantom soldiery was active in the first year of Henry II Plantagenet, going "to and fro without let or stay, hurrying hither and thither rambling about in the most mad vagrancy, all inceding in unbroken silence, and amongst the band there appeared alive many who were known to have been long since dead."

On one occasion, the undead were seen marching in broad daylight, causing locals to arm themselves and make ready for war if the strange army did not lay down its arms. As the medieval peasants, accustomed to all manner of roving bandits and marauding foreigners, fired arrows and hurled spears at the Herlethingi, the entire procession dissolved into thin air. "From that day, this mysterious company has never been seen by man."

On this count, the archdeacon was wrong. Very wrong, for the Chronicle of Peterborough records the return of these ghostly nocturnal wanderers in 1127 A.D.: "Then soon thereafter many men saw and heard hunters hunting. The hunters were black and large and loathly, and their hounds all black...and they road on black horses and black bucks. This was seen in the same way in the town Burch and in all the woods from that town to Stanford, and the monks heard the horns blowing, that they blew at night. Trustworthy men who watched at night said that they thought that there may well have been about twenty or thirty horn-blowers. This was seen and heard from when the came thither all that Lenten-tide to Easter. This was its incoming; of its outgoing we cannot yet say."

The Wild Hunt

Germanic folklore gives us an even more sinister group of nocturnal wanderers: the Wild Hunt.

The Hunt's arrival is preceded by the sound of wind rustling through the trees event though the weather itself may be calm and still. A nightmarish apparition then occurs as the Wild Hunt, with its baying hounds, sweeps down from the dark sky: black, fire breathing dogs spurred on by ghostly hunters on horses having two or three legged horses command the road. The hapless traveler making his or her way across the land has two courses of action at their disposal--either to fall to ground and feel the icy paws and hooves of the Hunt's animals on their back, or be swept away by the hunt, running the risk of being deposited far from home in the Hunt's maddened gallop, or else slain during the sudden onrush of malevolent figures. Pierre de Ronsard (1524-85), author of numerous romantic poems and songs, composed his Hymn of the Demons (1556) based on an alleged encounter with the Wild Hunt during which he was almost swept away by the supernatural force.

The Master of the Hunt, also known as the Hunter, rides a black or gray stallion as it leads its army of the deceased, which includes those slain in battle or by misadventure, as well as the recently dead known to the unfortunate onlooker. Like Washington Irving's famous horseman, the Master of the Hunt may also appear as a headless rider.

This terrifying but highly visual nocturnal procession struck fear into the hearts of northern Europeans, becoming an integral part of Scandinavian, German and Swiss lore. Much like Walter Map's Herlethingi, the Wild Hunt was first seen in the 13th century, only a few years before the First Crusade, perhaps heralding the carnage of said military enterprise. Ordericus Vitalis (1075-1143c.), a Norman monk from Saint-Evroul who authored the four volume Ecclesiastical History, tells the story of a priest returning home after having administered extreme unction to a parishioner, beheld a procession of slow-moving, weeping and moaning shapes led by giant warrior. Following the shapes were pall bearers carrying coffins, and even more unsettling, women riding horses whose studded saddles glowed in the dark. The priest, according to the chronicler, had never believed in the Herlethingi, but after having seen people among them whom he knew to be dead, changed his opinion completely.



Known by different names according to the country in which the manifestation occurs, the Wild Hunt appears to have had a standard modus operandi, which consisted of disturbing the peace of the night with either the barking of hounds, the blowing of horns and beating of drums, or strange lights seen in the woods as the procession approached--some characteristics shared by other paranormal wanderers in southern Europe and even in the Americas.

In the 16th century, German chronicles mentioned that Wild Hunt or wuetten-hor was now also being seen by day in all of the European lands, consisting of soldiers who had died before their time. "Those who die before the time which God has set for them," writes Johann Geiler von Keiserberg, "and who enlist in the army and were stabbed or hanged or drowned, must therefore walk long after their death till that end comes," a belief that foreshadows sailor's tales about lost ships manned by ghostly crews who can never seek rest from wandering. Alas for the unhappy dead doomed to wander in such a way, but who was the strange warrior leading them? Some suggested that the armored figure was none other than the Devil, and that the hounds were fallen angels; others claimed it was the old Norse god Wotan, whose power was still strong even in Christian days, and accounts for the Hunt being known as the wuottes-her or odinjagt. Other regions suggested the Master of the Hunt was no less than King Arthur, which accounts for the Wild Hunt being known as le chasse Artus in the Auvergne region of France. Others have assigned the leadership of the Hunt to Sigurd (Norway, where the mad procession is known as the jolerei), or King Valdemar (Denmark) and even to Frederick the Great (Germany) and the Emperor Charlemagne. In Austrian tradition, the Hunt has the additional distinction of being led by a woman, Perchta, whose name is derived from that of a Teutonic goddess.

Other French traditions involving the Hunt say that a one-eyed giant warrior leads the dead who must wander the Earth for a twelve-day period from Christmas Day to New Year's Day during which the gates to the netherworld are open. Sir James Frazier's The Golden Bough adds that during this period of time "the Wild Huntsman sweeps through the air", causing the people of Silesia (modern southern Poland) to burn pine resin to keep these negative forces at bay. Latvian tradition adds that the devil and his cohorts wander the earth in wolf-shape during this twelve day period .

The Church also had its say in the distressing matter of the supernatural encounters with the Hunt (a simile might be made with official concern over UFO sightings in our own time) and promptly made an effort to explain the Hunt as being part of the "cycle of the punishment of sin," teaching that the Hunt consisted of infants who died unbaptized, suicides, murder victims and their murderers, adulterers, "those who have disturbed a religious ritual or not fasted during Lent." Medieval teachings on the punishment of the souls of the damned here on earth prior to extra-terrene damnation added another unpleasant detail--the bodies of those in the mad procession were mutilated and deformed by the demons and hellhounds that accompanied them (European Mythology.NY: Bedrick, 1987).

A Haunted Land

Scholars tell us that Julius Caesar, appointed governor of Farther Spain by the Roman Senate in 60 A.D., did not hesitate to initiate a military campaign against the little-known lands between the borders of his province and the sea. The conquest of Galicia was not as profitable as Caesar had hoped, since he expected to obtain treasure to satisfy both his creditors in Rome and the greed of his soldiery. But what the famous Roman overlooked was that he had just given the senate and the people of Rome control over what was possibly the most enigmatic and sacred corner of Europe. Steeped in the aura of mystery that envelopes all of the Celtic lands, Galicia represents a challenge to researchers, having paranormal mysteries that range from haunted caves (see "The Caves of Fear", FATE March 2002) to unidentified flying objects.

In this mist-enshrouded corner of the Iberian Peninsula, the Wild Hunt acquired unique characteristics which endure to this very day. While it is possible that the Hunt has been forgotten elsewhere in Europe, the Santa Compaña (literally, the "Holy Company") remains a clear and present terror to many--one that keeps people from roaming the countryside at night even in our time.

The Compaña appears as a procession of hooded figures, sometimes in single file, others in two rows led by another hooded entity bearing a cross. The silent figures often carry long tapers and are surrounded by otherworldly lights (some of these lights, it must be noted, have often led to their misidentification as UFO cases). Other traditions hold that a child leads the procession, and that looking into the child's empty eye-sockets will spell death for the person who encounters the otherworldly procession. Some popular beliefs state that this procession of the dead is led by a person known to be among the living, doomed to accompany the deceased, usually carrying the cross or a bucket of holy water, which it must bear until it comes across another unfortunate mortal to whom it can transfer these burdens. Otherwise, the cross-bearer will eventually become ill and waste away until his or her death.

This procession of the damned receives a variety of names within the same region, much as the Wild Hunt has elicited different names throughout Europe. In southern Galicia, especially in mountainous Orense, it is known as a procesión das ánimas (the procession of souls) and in others as the hueste (host), the hostilla, (the enemy, derived from Latin) or the estatinga (a Latinized version of "Herlethingi"?). The folklore of these mountainous regions is clear as to the reasons for the procession's appearance: it wants the living to hold masses for their salvation, it wants to reproach the living for their sins or other offenses, or it wants to claim the soul of someone who is alive but will die soon. And like all popular traditions, there are myriad fascinating ways of warding off the Santa Compaña, such as carrying a black cat as a companion animal to throw against the leader of the grim procession, or to quickly draw the Circle of Solomon on the ground and step into it until the Compaña has vanished, or else make use of simple hand gestures, like the sign of the horns or else the figa (thumb inserted between index and middle fingers).

Scholar Elisardo Becoña Iglesias writes that not everyone is able to see this procession of the damned, and makes specific mention of a group endowed with the dubious talent: children whom a priest has mistakenly baptized using the oils reserved for extreme unction will be able to see the Santa Compaña when they are older. Others will merely be able to feel the macabre presence, often by detecting the smell of burning candle wax in the middle of the wilderness, while others may perhaps rely on the sudden fright experienced by dogs, cats and horses.

The procession of the damned, according to experts, is far older than medieval lore. Javier Alonso Rebollo, a Galician psychologist, has summarized it thus: "This myth encapsulates the classic characteristics of ghost stories in spite of having been influenced by other aspects of Galician folklore. One of the greatest legacies of the Neolithic era in this region is the belief in life beyond the grave, and the diverse cultural and heretical trends that reached Galicia brought the belief that communication with the netherworld was possible. This could also link up with given spiritistic beliefs. But the Santa Compaña has a precognitive feature by heralding the death of the person who encounters this procession, as well as allusions to the ensnarement of the unlucky witness's "astral body", forcing him or her to lead the procession without any hope of escape or a place to hide. Until the witness is able to transfer the cross to another living person, he or she shall leave their physical body at night in their sleep to wander once more with the dead."

While other experts believe that the coming of electricity to the rural areas has understandably resulted in a reduction of Santa Compaña encounters, eyewitness accounts would suggest otherwise.

In March 1982, Bruno Alabau witnessed the procession of the dead in the vicinity of Gísamo, in the province of La Coruña. "I was a boy scout and was camping with my friends for the weekend. After dinner, at night, me and my friends played a game of acecho, which is a kind of hide-and-seek. I decided to skirt round the campsite through the forest and go downhill toward the trail, when I noticed some lights. I thought it might be one of my companions, so I hid behind one of the trees to give them a fright. But I turned out to be the frightened one: don't ask me what it was, but I saw seven people in two rows of three led by another figure. All of them were dressed the same, wearing tunics that ended in hoods, like the ones worn during Holy Week. The first figure carried a large cross that seemed to be made of two flat boards, while the leaders of each row carried large tapers; the others were empty-handed. I just stood there, paralyzed, until they passed right in front of me and became lost among the trees. I ran back to the camp but didn't dare tell anyone about what had happened, since they'd only say I was crazy."

An even more startling tale comes from the town of Budiño, where Mrs. Sofía Pérez,42, told researcher Manuel Carballal of an experience she had had when she was eight years old. "I was eight years old when this happened. My mother and I had gone out to visit a friend and we were walking down a trail behind my house, near the graveyard. It wasn't very late in the day, but since it was winter, it became dark very early. Just as we reached the crossroads, I heard a strong sound of footsteps, as though many people were approaching. I asked my mother if she could hear it, and she said yes."

Mrs. Pérez described how a numerous procession came down the road, dressed exactly the same in long black tunics and hoods. "[My mother and I] were paralyzed. I was very young and didn't quite understand what I was seeing, but my mother was terrified. She held me close and told me not to make a sound...at the end of the long procession of the Compaña we saw a woman: "Tía Preciosa", one of our neighbors! She lived a few houses up from ours, and I recognized her way of walking, since she limped. We saw her clearly, though. She carried something like a stick in her hand and a kind of stone that looked like marble, but was very, very bright. She walked past us like a ghost, and went off with the Santa Compaña."

When asked if she was able to see the woman again in the world of the living, or even ask her what she was doing in the procession that dark winter evening, Mrs. Pérez shook her head. "We didn't have enough time. Four days after this happened, "Tía Preciosa" died. She was in her kitchen and a lightning bolt (ball lightning?) came in through the chimney and killed her. I think the whole thing was a warning...we all give warning before we die."

In August 1990, a brush with the supernatural was the very last thing on the mind of pharmacy student Elena Bermúdez, who had gone on a camping trip to the region of Cabourne (Pontevedra) with several classmates. At four o'clock in the morning, while they all slept in their tent, Elena awoke with a start. Unable to go back to sleep, she began picking up some odds and ends the group had scattered on the grass. As she looked toward a nearby hill, she saw a group of shadows approaching, followed by a dancing assortment of dim spherical lights. "The shadows," she explained, "were slender and appeared to be clad in the garb worn by monks, made of thick brown cloth. They came within fifty meters of where I stood, continuing down the hillside."

That was too much for Bermúdez. Gripped by bone-chilling fear, she ran toward her sleeping companions and admits having woken them up by raining blows on them. But after her fellow campers were awake, they could find no trace of the row of eight tall shadows. "It chilled our blood, and that very same night we decided to flee the area. I still remember the moments of hysteria as we tried to pack our gear, thinking that those sinister beings could come this way again..."

Land of the Bearwalkers

The Americas have been home to much paranormal lore, but there is nothing that exactly matches the "armies of the night" that swept across Europe from the middle ages to the modern age, and the persistent Santa Compaña. There are aspects of these European phenomena which have appeared on our shores, however: the most recent involves a mention in John A. Keel's Disneyland of the Gods of processions of cars driven by people who appear to be in a "somnambulistic state" -- a condition similar, perhaps, to that of the living who must march with the hooded figures until another unfortunate can rid them of their sad condition?

Again, even thought the details do not jibe exactly with European lore, in North America, the belief in swarms of individual lights or large fireballs moving through the woods at night is reserved to the belief in "bearwalkers" by certain tribes. To see one of these luminous swarms, or to witness the passage of a bearwalker, heralds the death of the experiencer or that of a third party.

In 1952, anthropologist Richard Dorson was the first to make the subject of skinwalkers known to the academic community. Dorson interviewed several Chippewa chiefs, who told the researcher that the skinwalker is almost always a sorcerer who receives the gift of assuming "shapes of power"--such as that of a bear-- to commit all manner of misdeeds. However, the casual observer making his or her way through the darkened forest will see blinding lights through the trees as opposed to the shape assumed by the magic user. At times, the swarm of lights will coalesce into a single fireball able to light the forest for hundreds of feet around.

Dennis Morrison's Secret Society of the Shamans (Global Communications, 1993) features the experience of Alec Philemon, a member of the Chippewa tribe who recalled an event which occurred in 1918: when he was a teenager, he went to visit an ailing woman with his mother and sister. At around 11:00 p.m., the three walkers saw a fire approaching them on the main road. "My mother and sister fell right over. I caught my mother. She said: That must have been a bearwalk[er], it was too much for us." Philemon's mother prophesied that he would live the longest--a grim prophecy, since mother and daughter both died shortly after in the influenza epidemic that swept across the world. "That woman we visited--about half an hour after we got home we heard the bell ring. That woman was dead."

As in all traditions involving death-related presences, and despite the awesome power irradiated by the bearwalkers, there are means of protection: one of the consists of letting the supernatural presence go past and then take a pinch of dirt upon which the entity has stepped on and place it on one's lips.

Morrison's work cites another case, that of Nancy Picard, who saw the lights of a bearwalker on the day of her father's death in 1914. When relatives went out to check, they were only able to see the bright light, but a wave of undescribable fear held them at bay (similar to the strange sensation of fear, perhaps, described by witnesses of the Point Pleasant "Mothman" in 1967).

Conclusion

Seeing an unusual, perhaps even non-human creature at night is distressing enough; to see an entire troupe of strange figures, whether Spain's Santa Compaña or northern Europe's nocturnal armies, would scare even the hardiest backwoodsman to death. While folklorists tell us that the belief in such things was largely founded on the Church doctrine of punishment on Earth, how do we account for the very physical encounters which have occurred over the ages?

Some popes and theologians would later dismiss the concept of terrestrial punishment in favor of the notion of Purgatory in a place beyond the confines of the world, but as we shall see, the phenomenon did not easily yield to papal fiat, remaining as powerful and terrifying as ever in other parts of the world, especially Galicia, in Spain's northwestern corner. The religious explanation is further tempered by the fact that in Greek myth, the goddess Hecate would roam the night with packs of ghostly black dogs on moonless nights, claiming the souls of the unwary.

But the last word in this matter, perhaps, belongs to biophysical researcher Fernando Magdalena, speaking as to why these nocturnal apparitions aren't quite as frequent as they used to be: "for us, it is due to the increased lighting and paving of rural roads. For the true believers, the reason is that more prayers are now being said for dead."


Argentina: Ojo de Agua Commissariat Receives Complaint Against a Cattle-Killing UFO (Santiago del Estero)




Source: www.nuevodiarioweb.com.ar and Fundación Argentina de Ovnilogía (FAO)
Date: 08.24.18


Argentina: Ojo de Agua Commissariat Receives Complaint Against a Cattle-Killing UFO (Santiago del Estero)

*** Goats and cows began dying in bizarre fashion after strange red lights appeared in the sky ***


Two local residents appeared before Ojo de Agua Station 31 on Sunday and Monday. Both live on the edge of Route 13 that links Sumampa and Ojo de Agua. The complainants, who live several kilometers from each other, complain having seen glowing red objects in the sky, considered to be UFOs responsible for killing cattle, according to their complaints.

On the day following the sighting, one of the complainants reported that seven of his sheep had turned up dead, their ears sliced off and with a sort of bite mark in the stomach area.



The other local resident claimed that three of his cows had died in circumstances similar to those reported by another local. The cows were missing their tongues and had a perforation near the anal region.

[Luis Burgos of FAO and ICOU has added the following substantiating note: This mutilation case has been CONFIRMED. I made contact with the local police and journalist Diego Nofal of the NUEVO DIARIO WEB portal. He confirmed that the photos on the web site are those of the mutilated animals. The events occurred in the wilderness known as La Maza at the "La Anochecida" property, reported by the correspondent in Sumampa. We are in touch with them should similar events take place during these days.]

[Translation (c) 2018 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Pablo Omastott, Fundación Argentina de Ovnilogía]

Monday, August 20, 2018

Argentina: Chaco Cattle Ranchers Report Animal Attacks



Source: TN24 Territorio del Nea and Fundación Argentina de Ovnilogía (FAO)
Date: 08.20.2018


Argentina: Chaco Cattle Ranchers Report Animal Attacks.

A family engaged in goat farming in [the town of] Enrique Urien has circulated the photo of a small mutilated goat. Recently, others confirmed similar situations affecting cows and horses displaying identical wounds.

The situation drew attention in recent hours and the popularly known subject of the Chupacabras became a matter of discussing yet again.

On this occasion, the case of the young dead goat found on Lot 12 of the aforementioned Chaco community came to the fore. The property's owners said this was the first time that something similar had been seen at that site, but various livestock farmers claimed having suffered the same problem, albeit involving other animals.

All of the dead specimens present the same condition: missing jawbone, cauterized wounds and the absence of certain soft organs.

SENASA (Argentina's National Agricultural Service) was consulted by the affected parties and they were told it had no answers to the situations.

[Translation (c) 2018 S. Corrales IHU with thanks to Fundación Argentina de Ovnilogía - FAO)

Argentina: A UFO in Downtown Salta?



Source: El Tribuno and Luis Burgos (FAO / ICOU)
Date: August 15 2018


Argentina: A UFO in Downtown Salta?

At approximately 13:00 hours today at the intersection of San Martín and Peatonal Florida, there were several witnesses to the manifestation of a UFO. Spectators were at first unsure if it was an airplane or a similar vehicle, crossing the limpid blue skies at noon. Later, given its strange motions, they realized they were face to face with a strange phenomenon.

Thus it was that some of these witnesses managed to record the object and its capricious movements on their cellphones. One of its sides lit up and turned off, as they noted and as can be seen in the video captures. At the time, the witnesses realized that it wasn't one vehicle engaging in the strange maneuvers but two of them. The event, which lasted 10 minutes, ended with both objects disappearing.

Soon after, another witness drew everyone’s attention to another two objects floating the sky, farther away and West of the city, moving slowly. These looked like diminutive balls of light that at times appeared to be static. Finally one of them disappeared and the other began to rise until it disappeared. The total estimated time of the sighting was 15 minutes.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/WIpiQvzqMGE

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

Saturday, August 18, 2018

Argentina: Strange Cattle Mutilations in Saldungaray



Source: www.noticiasreflejos.com.ar and Luis Burgos (ICOU)
Date: August 16, 2018


Argentina: Strange Cattle Mutilations in Saldungaray

The mystery of cattle mutilations in Saldungaray has given rise to of many news items regarding these events, which repeat at various points of the region. The media discusses the mystery of the mutilated cows - animals found dead from one day to the next in fields, sharing the same characteristic, a clean jawline, devoid of hide or flesh, missing tongue, udders and anus.

Each protagonist of these experiences has described them in the same way: incisions having a scalpel-like precision and cauterized wounds. There was talk at times of large water tanks emptied overnight.

Some countrymen have also noted "not even dogs approach the animal." A thousand stories with numerous protagonists and places, all involved in this aura of mystery. Popular imagination has invoked beings from other worlds, weaving legends, thousands of them. This time the animals appeared in the vicinity of this mountain community.

First it was in Chasicó and next quite nearby, in the Saldungaray urban area. The protagonist of this story begins his story by alleging having seen "in the company of his family, days earlier, on an overcast night, strange lights in sky flying at low altitude like a spotlight turning into multicolored lights spinning in a circle." He later claimed having seen beings walking under these lights at a distance of 500 meters.

The story could have ended with that anecdote about the experience. Days later, near where the he saw the lights, he found two dead cows betraying the characteristics described above. The production team of FM Reflejos radio went to the site to find the animals - a cow and her calf. The carcasses of both animals lay beside a creek, photographing to illustrate the investigation. But beyond what one can imagine and conjure up in the mind, being objective and seeking a scientific and logical solution, we consulted with a local veterinarian whose off-the-record explanation was this: "The ban on fox hunting and the high population of armadillos, to which chimangos can be added, are the causes for these injuries seen on dead animals. They all attack soft parts of the body for nourishment and go for the tongue and udders first. The chimango goes for the eyes and the armadillo enters the animal through the anus."

Beyond these scientific explanations we find ample personal beliefs and deeply held convictions stemming from experience, imagination, or popular belief as a whole. We all look skyward in the night in search of strange lights and make up campfire tales to deprive us sleep, astonishing listeners with our story, adding to the details whenever the subject is brought up. Skeptics will argue that extraterrestrial life is impossible and the UFOs do not exist. Others believe in them and claim having had some sort of contact. Photographs pile up day after day of objects that are out of kilter with the ordinary - an object hovering over a warehouse, filled with strange marks made with the precision of an engineer and hence, a million alien symbols. Beyond photographic evidence or astounding stories, there is a core of ufology that rejects any evidence adduced. The matter will remain as a rumor in the streets, corner bars, nighttime stories, gatherings where more than one believes in these things. Meanwhile, we add yet another story that involves the magical, mysterious world that our mountain community encapsulates.

[Given the sensitive and upsetting nature of cattle mutilation photos, we are providing the links to the photographs in the article. All copyrights FM Reflejos]

http://www.noticiasradioreflejos.com.ar/noticias/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/vaca-777x437.jpg
http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1771/43364000094_87dbc6e8d9_z.jpg
http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1779/43176194165_46b11dbbe0_z.jpg
http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1793/43176195305_a6d3b80bdc_z.jpg
http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1812/43176193125_703b2bf0b5_z.jp
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[Translation (c) 2018 S. Corrales IHU with thanks to Luis Burgos, ICOU]

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Spain: Francisco Franco's Flying Saucers



Source: Planeta UFO
Date: 12 August 2018
An article by Jaime Noguera


Spain: Francisco Franco's Flying Saucers

On Saturday, 18 December 1971, Francisco Franco was spending some days with his family at Mudela Castle in Viso del Marques (Ciudad Real) when four unidentified flying objects hovered above the palatial residence. The Spanish "caudillo" was about to perform a minor electrical repair, consisting of fixing a plug, but he was sabotaged by aliens who left him in the dark (perhaps they were red, that is to say, from Mars).

The mind-bending story that appears below was collected in the book Franco Top Secret (published by Temas de Hoy) by José Lesta and Miguel Pedrero. According to the project, this near-close encounter of the third kind occurred thus:

Franco, accompanied by his wife Carmen Polo and his son-in-law, the Marquis of Villaverde and other guests, was relaxing and shooting game at the place where La Mancha meets Andalucía. Protecting the dictator, his friends and guests were members of the 6th Guardia Civil Company, guarding Mudela Castle, provisional residence of the Franco family. Armed officers were stationed at four different points. In the event of an attack, a secondary protective ring had been set up with other members of the armed forces. Half of the state police was looking out for their leader's safety.

On Saturday, 18 December 1971, the busy dinner party turned into a lively social gathering that lasted until eleven o'clock in the evening. At that time, Isidro Pradas Toledo, the estate manager, left the palace to head home, some hundred meters from the building. Something strange appeared in the sky (as he recounted to author J.J. Benítez).

"...suddenly, as I walked home, I saw that thing. Four lights. The flew overhead, slowly and not too high up. They were silent, flying in perfect formation. Two in front, two in back. The space between them wasn't too large. They glowed intensely, with a significant white light. I stared at them, stunned. They went by slowly, unhurried, heading toward Almagro. I saw them drop around the farm we call Casa Lato, and then they vanished. Fifteen minutes later, I returned to the castle, rather troubled. I recall remarking about it with the Caudillo's driver and to Federico Pajares, the engineer. They were playing cards, but apparently no one had seen a thing. Then something strange happened. Franco had requested an electrician, as his bedroom's overhead light had just blown out. Equipped with my tools I went up to General Franco's rooms. Mrs. Franco was in bed, reading. Franco asked me for a screwdriver and tried to loosen the outlet's faceplate. He wasn't able. I asked him to let me try, and I couldn't do it either. Then the lights went out. To tell you the truth, the blackout never made any sense to me. In the end, the Caudillo put his arm around my shoulder and said: "We're quite the experts!"

It appears that J.J. Benítez found another witness to the sighting: a Guardia Civil captain who was part of the Caudillo's security detail in the palace.

"I had just stepped into the enclosure that surrounds the palace when a corporal came out to meet me, saying: Nothing to report, my captain, other than we have company. He pointed skyward and following the direction indicated, saw the lights. Four of them, motionless overhead. Two were larger than the others. They were white and very bright. The guards, I was told, had witnessed their arrival earlier and there they remained, silent. We lit cigarettes and discussed the matter, never averting our gaze. That's what we were doing when suddenly, two of the lights became larger, leading us to interpret that they had descended..."

Possible Explanations to the Event

1. According to some saucer buff websites, there has been speculation that [the event] involved a test flight of some military aircraft belonging to one of the two superpowers in the year 1971: the USSR or the USA. But of course, what were they doing over Franco's palace? Were they listening in on the Caudillo's sexual activity? What American or Soviet secret military aircraft could fly from the USA to Ciudad Real in the 1970s and short out Franco's fuses before returning home? Was it worth spending a fortune in fuel just to plunge the head of state into darkness for a while. Was it a first notice, a payment due message?

2. Other saucer buff websites, of course, opted for an alien explanation. Gentlemen from other galaxies, perhaps newly arrived from the planet Raticulín (*) and with vast economic and technological resources to invest in fathoming the eminent mind of Francisco Franco. Perhaps after putting all the guests at Viso del Marques to sleep, the dictator was beamed onto their spacecraft to undergo all manner of tests. Then they returned home with a load of fine Almagro eggplants. Could they have been dwellers from the depths of the newly-discovered Martian lake? What were some Martian prawns doing spying on the dictator?

3. The third possibility is that given the long day and the wine consumed during the banquet, the estate manager and the civilian could have mistaken a street lamp for planes in formation, shooting stars or car headlights with alien spacecraft.

4. The fourth is that a journalist with an interest in UFOs could have made it all up.

(*) A planet conjured up by the mid-90s contactee Carlos Jesús, who believed himself to have a parallel existence on that world, as well as being a reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

[With thanks to Guillermo Giménez, Planeta UFO and Jaime Noguera]

Thursday, August 09, 2018

Argentina: Mystery in Santa Fe - Seven Mutilated Cows and Locals Speak of the Chupacabras



Source: Todo Noticias (TN.com.ar) and Fundación Argentina de Ovnilogía (FAO)
Date: 08.06.2018


Argentina: Mystery in Santa Fe - Seven Mutilated Cows and Locals Speak of the Chupacabras


[Animals] found with incisions to their tongues and genitals. No trace of blood.

The town of Colonia Durán, located in the Department of San Javier in Santa Fe, is still at a loss for an explanation. This morning, seven pregnant cows were found mutilated in the middle of a field, with precise incisions to their tongues and genitals. Without a trace of blood, the incident was a cause of uncertainty among local residents.



Norberto Bieri, one of the affected cattlemen, described the situation as inexplicable. "Veterinarians have come and no one can tell me how something like this can be done. That is to say, there is no scientific answer. It all seems as though cut with a laser. There is no trace of blood and the missing parts of the animals cannot be found," he told the Reconquista newspaper.

But this wasn't all that drew his attention. According to the cattleman, the carrion animals did not come near the dead cows, nor did flies.

Supernatural theories did not take long to appear. Some residents spoke of 'strange lights from the sky that are not stars' while others ascribed it to the mythical Chupacabras, a figure from popular culture that attacks animals.

Veterinarians took samples to analyze in a laboratory, but the results yielded no answers as to what befell the cows. There were no signs of poisoning or electric shock, according to studies.

"Some say its the Chupacabras, aliens or mice. But the fact is that the animals are dead and there are no answers," Bieri concluded, explaining that this is not the first time something like this has happened, since there were similar cases in Los Laureles and San Javier.

[Translation (c) 2018 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Fundación Argentina de Ovnilogía (FAO) and Todo Noticias]

Argentina: No Chupacabras - Authorities Disclose Cause of Santa Fe Cattle Mutilations



[Editor's Note: As usual, officialdom dismisses the cattle mutilation epidemic by blaming the usual suspects - the red muzzled mouse, vultures and foxes. Argentina is experiencing a repetition of the events of 2002, which were 'explained away' at the time by SENASA, the government's agricultural service]

Source: Todo Noticias (Argentina) and Pablo Omastott (FAO)
Date: 8.7.2018


Argentina: No Chupacabras - Authorities Disclose Cause of Santa Fe Cattle Mutilations


TN.com.ar received an explanation from SENASA - animals feed off corpses by eating soft tissue.

It wasn't the Chupacabras. It wasn't a Martian or a giant bat, as local residents had it half-seriously and half in jest. The suspects responsible for mutilating seven cows in Colonia Duran, Santa Fe, were local predators.

This was confirmed by Juan Dalla Fontana, animal health coordinator of the SENASA regional center, to TN.com.ar "This is a critical period of winter. The cold and drought we're experiencing was the worst in 50 years, causing animal deaths. Fauna begins to degrade the carcasses - it's part of the natural process," he explained.

After the cows' deaths, different theories made the rounds as to the reason for their mutilations. All of this was made clear by the expert. "When an animal dies, it lies exposed and is attacked by predators, which are numerous in the Santa Fe region, for example, wild pigs, vultures, foxes, the red-muzzled mouse and pumas," he added.

There was a similar situation 12 years ago in the Province of Buenos Aires. Experts also reached the conclusion that carrion animals were responsible for eating the dead animals' remains.

So the myth of the Chupacabras or paranormal phenomena is discarded. At least for now.

[Translation (c) 2018 S. Corrales IHU with thanks to Pablo Omastott)

Monday, August 06, 2018

UFO: Saucers of the Colonial Era



UFO: Saucers of the Colonial Era
By Scott Corrales
[Abstracted from the book INEXPLICATA - UFOs in Latin America and Spain]


It’s hard for us to imagine what crossing the Atlantic in a Sixteenth century sailing ship must have been like. Creatures of comfort that we are, the privations and unsanitary conditions of a galleon or caravel would be the stuff of nightmares, and the risk of shipwreck on an unfriendly shore, with scarce hopes of rescue, equally hellish. Yet explorers set up in vessels that were small and fragile—from our perspective-- across the vastness of “the Ocean Sea” to explore and conquer new lands, fuelled by dreams of glory and a good wind at their backs.

Our textbooks, revisionist and status-quo alike, agree that islands, landmasses and bodies of water were discovered and named; species of fruit, roots and tubers were sent across the ocean to a land that had never seen them before, and deadly illnesses were exported and imported from the so-called “new world”. Yet mariners and soldiers, whether headed to the mountain-girt glory of Tenochtitlán or the lofty mansions of Macchu-Picchu, encountered phenomena that clearly exceeded their understanding, and even that of the highly educated natives of the new lands they had come to conquer and explore.

In an age where literacy was the exclusive province of the clergy and the notary, it was a great boon to posterity that the early explorers, sea captains and navigators, were able to convey their findings in their routine log entries. With a potentially mutinous crew, fearful of monsters and the endless seas around them, Christopher Columbus allegedly kept two sets of logs – an actual one and another that showed different times and positions. Although we may perceive this as trickery on the seaman’s part, it enabled him to allay his crew’s fears until landfall was finally made on Guanhaní (supposedly Watling Island in the Bahamas) on October 12, 1492.

But Columbus’s log includes other information that is of great interest to us. On September 15,1492, nearly a month away from his historic landfall, the mariner reported a “long tongue of flame” falling into the ocean, noting it thus in his log. This event, seen as an ill omen by the crew, very nearly caused a mutiny. While it is perfectly naturally that a meteorite or bolide could have been the cause of this phenomenon, it cannot be proven. In subsequent weeks,

Columbus and one of his men, Pero Gutierrez, witnessed “a light shining at a considerable distance” from the deck of the flagship “Santa María” – a light that reputedly vanished and reappeared several times that evening, bobbing up and down. This light was seen only a few hours before Rodrigo de Triana shouted from the crow’s nest that land – America – was in sight. Years after Columbus’s fateful discovery, an expedition of five hundred men set out from the island of Cuba to conquer Mexico. At their head was Hernán Cortés, a ruthless but educated man who had been a notary. His letters to Emperor Charles V represent some of the first perspectives on Mesoamerica by a European. However, in his expedition was Bernal Díaz del Castillo another man with writing skills, and his chronicle Historia de la Verdadera Conquista de la Nueva España includes the first sighting of a UFO by a European in the new lands that had been subjugated by blood and fire. “The Mexican indians,” writes Castillo, “claimed having seen a sign in the heavens which was green and red, round like a cartwheel; beside this sign was another line, headed toward where the sun rises, and which had come to meet another red line.” Later on, the chronicler himself would see strange activity in the Mexican skies: “This is what I saw, and what was seen by all those who would see it, in the year 1527. There was a sign in the night sky resembling a longsword, [located as if] between the province of Pánuco and city of Texcoco. It did not move from the sky, neither hither nor thither, for more than twenty days.” A comet? Possibly. But comets—frightening harbingers of future mishaps that they were—would still have been identified as such by someone of Castillo’s level of education.



At this point it should perhaps be mentioned that Aztec Mexico had undergone a series of unexplained events between 1509 and 1519 – mysterious fires, encounters with strange and frightening creatures, and sightings of UFOs – for at least a decade prior to the arrival of Cortés and his band of adventurers.

Nor was this paranormal activity restricted to Mesoamerica: Nicolás de Martinez Arzanz y Vela described the strange recorded a compelling UFO sighting of the colonial era involving “two suns seen in the morning sky”.

The following account appears in the chronicle Imperial History of Potosí, an account of the governorship of General Hinojosa, a royal official in charge of the silver wealth of the Potosí Mines of “el alto Perú” as Bolivia was known then. Any official with oversight of the continent’s greatest single source of silver was bound to make enemies, and Hinojosa was no exception. Two of his rivals, Sebastian of Castille and Francisco Girón, conspired to bring him down, and this is how history records the event: “…at the moment when Sebastián and Girón were preparing their troops for the insurrection, there appeared over Porco, threes suns and two moons appeared in the midst of a circular halo, and within the latter two blue and red arcs. On January 13, 1553, 52 days before General Hinojosa was killed at 7 o’clock in the morning, a great circle was perceived in the sky above Porco. it was entirely white, with a thickness of one span. The natural sun was somewhat reddish, almost blood colored, and the two lateral ones were very red and bloody, so that the sheen and the fire blinded onlookers. The two frontal moons (sic) resembled white moons with a reddish cast…the two arcs were blue and red, as they seemed. This prodigy was witnessed for seven consecutive days over the rich summit of Potosí, followed by two other arcs, one of them looking like polished silver, the other blood-red and bright as fire. One end of this arc terminated in a sort of spiral ray, the color of blood…these signs were seen [at both] Porco and Potosí, causing the Spaniards to discuss future events. Don Sebastián de Castilla and Francisco Hernández Girón asked the natives what these signs meant…the Indians, amazed, covered their eyes and spit into the air, saying aucca, aucca, mayccan apihuañucca, which means some ill omen, abominable action or hideous ruin…” The Inca oracles were right – the bizarre, moon-like lights had indeed heralded the success of the insurrection and the death of Hinojosa, the royal official.


Nearly thirty years later, on Sunday, February 7, 1580, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, an envoy of the Spanish viceroy of Perú, was charged with the mission of exploring the southern coast of modern Chile and attempting an eastward penetration of the Straits of Magellan aboard his vessel, the San Francisco. His own log entry records the following: On this night, at one o’clock, looking south-southwest, we saw a round thing emerge from [the sea] which was as red as fire and shaped like an adarga [a small leather shield] that rose through the skies or was borne by the wind. It tarried above a lofty hill, and being like a tall lance above the hill, it acquired [the shape of] a half moon, between red and white…” Gamboa and his crew watched the phenomenon dispassionately, at no point assigning any supernatural significance to it. Only a few days later, Gamboa and his crew would successfully reach the Straits of Magellan and complete their mission.

Many years before Gamboa’s mission, between 1515 and 1516, Juan Díaz de Solís, another Spanish explorer, had sailed down the Atlantic coast of the South American landmass and discovered the River Plate. This landmark discovery aside, Argentinean paranormalist and author Gustavo Fernandez believes that he made an even more important discovery – he discovered strange metal, an alloy of possible non-human manufacture, around the necks of the friendly natives who dwelt along the banks of the Paraná River. Startled by the lightness of these metal “charms”, for want of a better description, and readily identifying them as not being silver or white gold, Solís asked his interpreters to find out where the odd material came from. According to Fernández, he received the reply: Mba e verá guasú – which translates roughly as “collected from the big shiny hut”, which the author interprets as a possible crashed UFO whose remnants were picked up and considered a “gift from the gods”. He further suggests that Yaciretá, an island on the Paraná River famous for its massive hydroelectric dam, features beaches of vitrified sand that could have been the result of some massive explosion at some point in antiquity.

UFO sightings during the Colonial Era were not circumscribed to the Latin American viceroyalties. Only nine years after having arrived in Massachusetts Bay at the head of a large number of Puritan settlers, John Winthrop, the colony’s first governor, became unwittingly our country’s first ufologist. With the lives of over nine hundred men and women under his care in a new, unknown country, the strange event that befell one James Everell in 1639 as the settler crossed a river in a boat at ten o’clock at night. According to Winthrop’s Journal, Everell, “a pious, sober and highly considered man”, saw an enormous flaming light in the sky directly above the Muddy River. This light, described as a rectangular shape measuring an estimated 8 to 10 feet across, sped away at a velocity unimaginable by 17th century standards only to return zooming back to the spot it had originally occupied, leaving Everell astounded. The object continued to maneuver above the Muddy River, repeating its earlier behavior of rapid starts and stops ornamented by the occasional zigzag. Everell and the other men aboard the boat lay flat on the bottom of their vessel in terror, “unable to row or punt”.

According to Governor Winthrop’s chronicle, a curious physical phenomenon was also observed after the intruder had vanished to parts unknown: the boat found itself further upstream than when the object had initially appeared, as if some unsuspected force emanating from the apparition had prevented the Everell’s boat from drifting with the current, in fact pulling it upstream.

Five years later, another light would rise above the horizon to trouble the rest of the early colonists: In January 1644, a luminous object described as comparable in size to the full moon was seen by residents of Boston. Another that came in from the east soon accompanied this unexpected light.

“One would approach the other,” wrote the governor, “then they would separate and approach again. This they did several times until at last they plunged behind the hill of the island and disappeared.”

This early CE-1 also had a curious high strangeness component to it. Apparently, some colonists heard a voice in the night sky that terrified them with the following utterance: “Little one, little one, come, come.” Winthrop records that similar calls were repeated “twenty or more times” from various directions. The witnesses to this phenomenon claimed that it voice appeared to come from a considerable distance away. A week later, the same aerial phenomenon repeated itself and the voices were heard again.

The voice booming in the darkness of colonial New England brings to mind another terrible voice mentioned elsewhere—that of Moyohualitohua, the terrifying voice emanating from a nocturnal cloud or object that terrified the subjects of the Aztec Empire in 1492 and which allegedly appears in two ancient codexes. What strange force paraded over the skies of ancient North America, addressing humans below in their own language? We will never know.

Viewers of the 1985 production “The Mission” will be familiar with the presence of Jesuit missionaries in what is now the Argentinean province of Misiones, located by the borders of Brazil and Paraguay. Native Guaraní-speaking peoples were trained by the Jesuits in a number of trades and professions. On August 10, 1631, an unnamed member of the Society of Jesus made the following entry: “At the reducción of San Ignació de Ipané, between six and seven o’clock in the afternoon, a luminous sphere of strange grandeur was seen to rise from the east, flying unhurriedly over the town, like a full moon. Toward the east it gave off a great number of sparks, and put forth greater light, which it later dimmed, and the amount of time it takes to recite the Apostle’s Creed, it made a tremendous report, like a thunderclap. Argentinean ufologist Antonio Las Heras, who records this case in his book OVNIS-Los Extraterrestres Entre Nosotros (Buenos Aires: Edad, 1992) suggests that the loud report or explosion conveyed in the Jesuit chronicle represents a perfect description of an object that is breaking the sound barrier – something impossible to describe in a 17th century account.

In the year 1816, well toward the end of the Colonial period, as the South American colonies struggled for their independence from Spain, an early newspaper, the Gazeta de Buenos Aires, reported an interesting involving a thoroughly unexplained phenomenon near the town of Rojas, in the province of Buenos Aires, which many have associated to the UFO phenomenon.

“At three thirty in the afternoon, on a rainless day, a very hard piece of ice was seen to fall out of the skies, with an approximate weight of two pounds, and it split in four. Immediately, toward the south, a tornado accompanied by a sort of tremor was reported, along with a fall of numerous fireballs. These have been blamed for setting fire to pasturelands, the wood of some buildings and enclosures. The fireball headed toward the largest part of the town with the most extraordinary effects. One building next to a cart was left untouched, while horses were seen carried in the wind at a distance of four blocks from their location; a heavyset woman was also spirited out of her house and taken south some two blocks…the phenomenon withdrew then thirteen blocks toward the north…”A super-tornado accompanied by strange effects? A devastating prairie fire similar to the great “Peshtigo Fire” of the 19th century in the United States? Possibly. But it must be noted that during the last century a UFO was seen to cause similar high winds and conflagrations elsewhere in Argentina. In August 1982, the region of Catamarca, in Argentina, was set ablaze by the maneuvers of a fire starting UFO that hurled a gout of flame in an empty field near the city of Londres, an action witnessed by two stunned policemen from the safety of their squad car. Apparently, the strange vehicle had waited for gale-force winds to begin before expelling its fire, causing it to spread voraciously through the vineyards and tree groves of the agricultural region. The story appeared in Buenos Aires' Clarín and La Crónica newspapers.