Sunday, September 27, 2020

Chile: 100 Kilometer Car Chase Involved UFO

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: PLANETA UFO (Argentina)

Date: 09.27.20

 Chile: 100 Kilometer Car Chase Involved UFO

 The pursuit took place in the Punta Arenas (Chile) region and was reportedly captured in several photographs.

 According to the UFO Noise Patagonia organization, a Honda driven by an adult male (whose identity was kept confidential) was pursued by a UFO on the morning of June 27th of this year as it headed toward Punta Arenas in Chilean territory.

 Patricio Frias, the director of said organization, noted that that the incident occurred when the car crossed the Rubens sector, located at Kilometer 180 of Route 9. The driver looked toward the southeast - Argentinean territory - and was able to see a very bright light in the sky which descended in a matter of minutes, placing itself at the same level as the driver, chasing him.

 The experiencer - a Chilean national from Puerto Natales, claimed having taken photographs of the UFO as it accompanied him for nearly 100 kilometers, during which the driver felt very tense.

 As soon as he reached Punta Arenas, the driver contacted the director of UFO Noise Patagonia. This organization was created in Puerto Natales in 1996 and undertakes the study of all manifestations of the UFO phenomenon, ranging from sightings to contact with alien beings.

 Frias added that the object traveled very quickly, constantly varying its position and elevation. At the start of the car chase, the light appeared spherical before making a radical change and becoming cigar-shaped.

 This is not the only case recorded in this region bordering Argentinean Patagonia.

[Translation (c) 2020 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Guillermo Giménez]

Argentina: The Night Aliens Threatened to Invade Neuquén

 


 

Argentina: The Night Aliens Threatened to Invade Neuquén

By Luis Burgos

 Many residents of Neuquén witnessed four flying saucers over their city in December 1973 (“The Year of the Humanoids”). It was the talk of the town for an entire week, and it all ended days later with a desperate, massive caravan of residents who set out to contact the aliens who had landed in Balcón del Valle.

Architect David Vincent was the sole witness to a UFO landing. He had seen a craft from another galaxy landing in a deserted, lonely location one evening. No one believed his story. Thus, his challenge would be to unmask the strange aliens who mixed among humans and whose only goal was to conquer the world. But how could he achieve it?

The architect was the lead character of “The Invaders”, a U.S. television series starring Roy Thinness and which caused a rage in the 1960s and 1970s worldwide. In those days, entire families and groups of friends would cluster around the T.V. set to watch the incredible program whose every episode proposed the same challenge: unmasking the aliens.

"The Invaders, alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination: the Earth. Their purpose: to make it their world. David Vincent has seen them. For him, it began one lost night on a lonely country road, looking for a shortcut that he never found. It began with a closed deserted diner, and a man too long without sleep to continue his journey. It began with the landing of a craft from another galaxy. Now David Vincent knows that the Invaders are here, that they have taken human form. Somehow he must convince a disbelieving world that the nightmare has already begun.” Such was the opening narration to the show, followed by a disquieting musical theme.

In those days, Neuquén was a city of little more than 40,000 residents undergoing a sharp growth spurt due to strong migratory currents from other parts of the country and from around the world. As in other urban regions “The Invaders” was also very popular in this corner of Patagonia, being broadcast once a week on Neuquén’s Channel 7 as part of its evening programming. It was a show that no one would miss watching, making it a television event, perhaps because at the time the subject of UFOs was fashionable and burgeoning.

Many media outlets constantly reported each and every UFO sighting reported from any corner of the country. The chance that an extraterrestrial landing could be real was a source of fascination.

One night in mid-December 1973, Edgardo Troncoso chatted with a group of teenage friends beside the canal that ran along San Martín Street. At the time, Parque Central was non-existent, barely being a sandy lot with some scattered trees. Nor were there tall buildings in Neuquén at the time, or abundant street lighting. For this reason, the skies offered a marvelous skyscape of stars, planets and small heavenly bodies that twinkled or moved slowly across the deep, dark Patagonian skies.

It all happened in a matter of seconds. Perhaps it was barely past midnight – no one could say for sure – but amid the vast ocean of stars, four ‘flying saucers’ appeared all of a sudden, bedecked with small multicolored lights, floating in the sky, noiselessly. The objects were flat, with a slight protuberance in their middles which also issued small flashes.

The saucer squadron made no sudden moves; it commenced a slow descent before the surprise of the young men, who stood up and were petrified, unable to believe what they were seeing. The vessels remained suspended over that part of the city for an instant before vanishing at an amazing speed. The fellows were astounded at having become the unwitting spectators of such a sighting. All those episodes of “The Invaders” that were such a source of fascination to them, often prompting them to gather around the television set in a friends’ house. They could not believe it – flying saucers really existed.

After the amazing experience, each boy went home, thinking about what he had seen, wondering who might be at the helm of those mysterious vessels, and the reasons for their display over the skies of Neuquén. They went to bed convinced that they had been the only ones treated to the sight of the UFOs, but they were very wrong.

The next day, news of the flying saucer sighting was the one subject of conversation in the entire town, as many residents of Neuquén claimed having seen them. Over the ensuing hours, the young men learned of similar sighting reports from various cities in the Alto Valle and the region as a whole. They subsequently learned that the phenomenon had been visible as far away as Bahía Blanca. How was this possible? Were they truly flying saucers?

All manner of speculation arose in the following days concerning the strange sightings. Radio and television alike conjectured about the presence of the strange objects over Patagonia while the extraordinary phenomenon was discussed in offices, bars, schools and businesses until the subject was finally relegated to the background…but for a short time only.

If there ever was a popular radio show in Neuquén back then it was “El Clan de los Solitarios” (The Loners Clan) broadcast every night on LU5. Osvaldo Cabanillas, its host, was capable of conjuring lovely landscapes through his speech, as well as the classic songs of the time that he carefully selected to make his radio show complete. His listenership was solid, to the extent that thousands of ‘loners’ throughout the entire region would wait nervously by the radio as the last minutes of the day counted down to the start of the imaginary club that summoned the entire clan.

A few days after the sightings, Osvaldo began his nightly routine, talking to his lonesome listeners, sharing commentary adorned with fine music, filling the radio waves with the customary good feeling. The show progressed normally when the tone of the host’s voice changed suddenly, pronouncing some intriguing sentences: “Something’s happening right now in Neuquén, but it may not be prudent to discuss it…” he said. “I fear for the reaction it may have among those of you listening, but believe me, there is nothing to be afraid of,” he added, without giving any details of what was supposedly happening. At this point of the show, listeners had their ears glued to their sets. What happened? What was going on in Neuquén?

Osvaldo kept his audience intrigued for some 30 or 40 minutes until he finally issued the unexpected news. “I am being told that the flying saucers have returned to Neuquén and at this moment are landing in Balcón del Valle, where the cliffs are located,” he said. In a matter of minutes, the city’s downtown area became the gathering point for people about to embark on a desperate run to the highest point in town. Citizens of Neuquén riding cars, motorcycles – even bicycles – took off speedily so as not to miss the spectacle that was playing out over Patagonian skies yet again.

“The saucers are back and they’re landing at the cliffs!” they shouted as they progressed along the final segment of Avenida Argentina, which at the time was little more than an unkempt track of sand and stone. Some carried portable radios to follow Osvaldo’s unbelievable story; others tuned into LU5’s frequency on their car radios. A mixture of fear, but also intrigue and fascination, could be felt on the journey. Some had taken the news as a gag, but were going all the same ‘just in case’. Edgardo Troncoso, the young man who had seen the alien vessels with his friends only days before, grabbed his bicycle, pedaling desperately in an effort to repeat his incredible experience. When the crowd finally reached the highest point of the city, they scanned the skies that spread in majesty over the cliffs. But there was nothing more than starlight to be seen, and a bright moon lighting the valley and banks of the Neuquén River.

“Perhaps they’ve already landing and are hereabouts,” someone suggested. Others began wandering the deep canyons that wound their way between the cliffs to find the mysterious craft, but they didn’t find them. The more credulous among them conjectured that the flying saucers had perhaps landed and taken off quickly, as they had done the last time.

Disheartened by the frustrated alien encounter, the ‘loners’ descended along the avenue wondering what had happened. Some returned home; others stayed in downtown bars to continue chatting about the subject. Shortly after they would learn that the news had been, in fact, a prank by Osvaldo aimed at keeping popular fascination over the subject alive. Furthermore, it was Saturday, December 28, “The day of the innocents” (Translator’s note: December 28 is April Fools Day in the Spanish-speaking countries).

Frustration over not having seen the spaceships again, coupled with Osvaldo’s prank, did not cool the ardor of Neuquén’s enthusiasts. After all, the saucer sighting had indeed occurred, and it did not rest on the eyewitness accounts of one or two people. There had been many.

A week following that Saturday, thousands gathered around their sets to watch “The Invaders” again so as not to miss the thrilling plot of alien conquest. The episode’s viewership was as massive as it had ever been. Everyone paid close attention to the protagonist’s exploits and his efforts at convincing unbelievers that the world was in peril, although this time, based on the events in Neuquén, they felt the science fiction yarn wasn’t so far-fetched after all. Could an alien invasion take place? Was such a thing possible? Perhaps. But if such a thing were to happen, the situation would be different. Now, many would rise up and come to their planet’s defense.

 

[Translation © 2020 Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology, with thanks to Luis Burgos]

 

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Cuba: A UFO Photographed Near Cuba


 

 

 

 

 

Source: Planeta UFO
Date: 09/17/2020


Cuba: A UFO Photographed Near Cuba
By Orestes Girbau

On August 16, 2006, the late Australian UFO researcher Kathy Dickmann was flying to Havana. During the flight, with Cuba nearby and toward the left of the plane, among the clouds, was a strange object that she managed to photograph. Other passengers also witnessed the UFO for around 5 minutes - it vanished after producing an unexpected luminous effect. The noted ufologist made her experience known to the steering committee of the A.C.U. during a conference subsequently held in the Cuban Capital.

Photos courtesy of the our late lamented colleague Kathy Dickmann.

[Translation (c) 2020 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Orestes Girbau and Guillermo Giménez]

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Argentina: UFO Photographed in Claromecó


 

Source: Diario 4V.com (Argentina) and Planeta UFO
Date: 09.16.2020


Argentina: UFO Photographed in Claromecó

NECOCHEA - A young photographer from Tres Arroyos took this photo on Saturday from the sand dunes by the Claromecó Lighthouse, taking it to the communication media for dissemination.

The object photographed by Solano Alarcón using a Nikon Coolpix b700 camera shows a strange object that appears to be flying over the sea. The young man took a photo of the lighthouse and then became aware of the strange object's presence. It was then that he decided to circulate the image.

"I did not see a bird, or a drone, or anything at all. When I got home, I checked it and obviously had no idea what it was. I sent it to the person who is giving photography advice to see if it could be a digital error," said the young man to La Voz del Pueblo, Tres Arroyos's print media outlet.

The image was taken around 15:00 hours on Saturday. It was a clear day, and the beach was somewhat full. This was a source of doubt, as no one else reported the sighting.

In many instances, objects of this sort, appearing unexpectedly in some photos, can be insects or particles passing close to the lens at the moment the shutter is pressed. On other instances, no explanation can be found, and they are classified as unidentified flying objects. 

[Translation (c) 2020 Inexplicata with thanks to Guillermo Giménez]

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Mexico: Alleged UFO Over Puebla

 

 


Source: Tabasco Hoy (Mexico) and Planeta UFO (Argentina)
Date: 09.14.2020


Mexico: Alleged UFO Over Puebla

The event was recorded from the Angelópolis business district. Witnesses decided to capture it with their cellphone cameras.

PUEBLA - Last Thursday, social media users shared a variety of images showing an alleged Unidentified Flying Object over the city of Puebla.

The event witnessed in the Angelópolis business district, where witnesses decided to capture it with their cellphone cameras.

The images disseminated online show a hotel with some lights in the sky beside it.

Skeptics state the sighting only involved a drone, while others insist that it was really a UFO.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/IgAj4REpo8o

Friday, September 11, 2020

Mexico: Amateur Observer Records UFO Over Mazatlán


 

Source: Debate (Mexico) and Planeta UFO (Argentina)
Date: 09.11.2020
An article by Ivette Vazquez, 09.09.2020


Mexico: Amateur Observer Records UFO Over Mazatlán

Rodolfo Acosta aka Canelo managed to record a UFO while enjoying the cloudscape over Mazatlán.

MAZATLAN, SINALOA - A UFO was recorded by an amateur observer over Mazatlan following the passing of tropical storm Julio last week.

Rodolfo Acosta, aka "Canelo", managed to record an unidentified flying object while enjoying the cloudscape of the city, which heralded rain over Mazatlán. It was at that time that that he became aware of an unusual feature in the sky over the port.

The time was approximately 10:00 a.m. at the intersection of Francisco Serrano and Angel Flores in the Centro district. Captivated by the view, he decided to take a photo of the clouds. But what he saw stunned him - it was an unidentified flying object suspended in the air. He hastened to photograph it.

It should be noted that aside from Mazatlán, a UFO was supposedly sighted the vicinity of Angelópolis, Puebla.

And so it was that after the unusual sighting, the images and speculation made it to social media, describing the UFO as an object with three luminous points that situated itself behind a well-known hotel in the area at a height that was impossible to reckon unaided.

After this event, a wave of comments and tweets flooded social media, speculating that [the object] was a UFO and should be analyzed by experts, while others said it was merely a drone.

[Translation (c) 2020 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Guillermo Giménez and Yvette Vázquez]

Argentina: "La Llorona" Terrifies Police Officer.

 

 

Source: Ambito (Argentina) and Marisol Roldán (Spain)
Date: May 21, 2020


Argentina: "La Llorona" Terrifies Police Officer.

A picture taken in Salta went viral on WhatsApp. The ghostly figure of a woman dressed in white can be seen behind the policeman.

The photo was taken during a patrol along Salta Provincial Hwy 5.

A selfie taken by a Salta police officer went viral hours ago, showing the presence of a ghostly female figure that was recognized by many as "La Llorona". Accompanying the image, which was shared through WhatsApp, was a series of audios claiming the police officer was admitted to a clinic "foaming from the mouth" following the incident.

According to the message, the agent was engaged in a COVID-19 health and safety patrol along Provincial Route No.5 near the "Carboncito" wilderness when he decided to take a selfie.

Upon noticing that "La Llorona" was in the photo, the audio explains: "The man felt unconscious to the ground and foam at the mouth, while one of his companions prayed and a third one didn't know where to run as a result of the fear and despair of hearing the heart rending screams of the wandering spirit." It ends by saying that the young man was admitted. "He is now in the hospital...and seems insane."

"La Llorona" is a Latin American legend whose origins can be traced to Mexico. According to the story, it is ghost of a woman who was in love with a Spanish knight at the time.

The young woman had three children with the man, but after insisting that they formalize their relationship, she was deserted and left to her fate. This broke her heart, and in an act of madness she drowned the children and committed suicide.

Due to this, her soul became a wandering spirit, haunting cities, rivers and roads weeping disconsolately while she looks for her children, haunting those she comes across.

Despite the fact that the Salta police has issued no statements about the situation, several officers of the area where the events took place reported anonymously that the photo had been tampered with using an app, while the audios were fraudulent.

[Translation (c) S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Marisol Roldán]

Tuesday, September 08, 2020

Where Monsters Gather: The Caribbean Bigfoot

 

 

 

 

 

Revered by hundreds of thousands of readers in dozens of countries, Robert E. Howard, a native of Peaster, Texas (near Dallas) made a name for himself as the creator of Conan the Barbarian and other fantasy heroes. Aside from his compelling descriptions of kingdoms in an imaginary terrestrial antiquity, populated by bold warriors, lovely women and sinister wizards, Howard made room for monsters - not dragons, but terrifying simian presences. The giant apes were found throughout the lands of mythical Hyboria, feared destroyers of armed warriors. In Conan the Conqueror, published in 1950, he writes: "It was a gray ape, one of the grisly man-eaters from the forests that wave on the mountainous eastern shores of the Sea of Vilayet. Half mythical and altogether horrible, these apes were the goblins of Hyborian legendry, and were in reality ogres of the natural world, cannibals and murderers of the nighted forests." Similar fearsome descriptions abound throughout his work. Had the author perhaps seen the inspiration for his creations in the woods of East Texas?

Further consideration of the matter will have to wait, as our journey takes us  to the Spanish-speaking islands of the Caribbean in search of other ‘goblins of the nighted forests’

In Search of the Cuban “Yeti”

A curious incident allegedly took place in the Caribbean island nation of Cuba, reportedly involving the presence of a “Type II” Bigfoot creature captured by the armed forces of that country after a search involving columns of soldiers and an elaborate ruse to capture it in a cave on Cerro El Labra in the location of San Ambrosio, Province of Pinar del Rio.

The event occurred sometime in the year 1987 and was reported by young recruit known only as “Mario”, who described how news of the pursuit of the strange entity made its way to the battalion in which he served. The entity had been caught in the Sierra de los Oréganos, a densely forested area, and taken to a military hospital to treat the injuries suffered during the capture. In an interview with the late researcher Virgilio Sanchez Ocejo, “Mario” said the strange capitve was remanded to the Medical Sciences Laboratory at his base.

“This fact,” said the young recruit, “caused a commotion, as it was said the captive was an animal. I did not see it up close because we were not allowed to approach it.”

The restriction notwithstanding, Mario was able to get enough of a look to provide the following report. “It looked more like a man than an ape, although it was taller than a normal person. It was naked and hair all over its body. It also had a broad nose and the skin on its face had pores and small black spots. Its hands were very long. I wasn’t able to see its feet, but it issued guttural sounds. A technician took photos and it was given a name taken from a book, but I cannot remember it. They said it would be employed for research purposes. That is all I know.”

Researcher Ocejo adds: “Unconfirmed rumors were later circulated that the Bigfoot had been sent to Havana aboard a military truck.”

This intriguing bit of information is followed by a lengthier report concerning another creature (referred to as ‘el yeti’, given that the nomenclature used for the abominable snowman has been extended to its cousin the Americas in Spanish sources) also in Sierra de los Oréganos.

A Cuban academic by the name of Manuel Iturralde, a renowned speleologist and geologist, mentioned in his book Aventuras en el Mundo de las Tinieblas (Adventures in the Realm of Shadows) published by Editorial Cientifico-Tecnica in Havana, 2001, that the quest for exploring larger cave systems in Cuba led him to join the Marianao-based Grupo de Exploraciones Cientificas, which had ventured into vast caverns containing river systems in the village of Sumidero, nestled in the Pica Pica Valley (Pinar del Rio).

Iturralde goes on to say that his expedition in the year 1962, consisting of eighteen men and two women, ventured to the remote island valley and accessed the Pio Domingo cave, an immense opening on the side of a local hillside. Their guide, local explorer Perfecto Hernández, told them that “el Yeti” had been prowling the vicinity in the dark, giving his son a fright. This creature had never been seen in the area before; it was described as strong and hairy, light brown in color, going about on two legs and all-fours. Colorful local accounts followed: how a man had been attacked by the creature and lost one of his arms in the process, how others had seen it tear a pig apart without any difficulty. Dogs would whine if they could feel its presence, and Perfecto’s son had gone to investigate the commotion. The youngster had been so overwhelmed by fear that he was left mute. Later he was unable to utter a single word about his experience. On a subsequent instance, another local was able to run the intruder off with gunshots, and it tore its way through branches and vines as it fled the torrent of rounds.


 

But the Caribbean odyssey becomes even more compelling. Iturralde writes: “In a separate instance, twenty men gathered together in order to surround the Yeti and capture it. After an extensive search, they reached a cave known as Los Soterráneos. It seemed that some of these creatures lived within, and they fled upon smelling human beings. Inside, they were able to ascertain the presence of large, new Yeti prints as well as an abundance of droppings. The footprints allowed us to ascertain that the animal had large claws that dug deep into the mud.”

Iturralde would have his own experience one evening in the valley, as the temperature dropped to a very un-tropical thirty three degrees. His slumber was interrupted by a sharp howl that sent a chill through his body as everyone else in the camp woke up to the eerie, echoing sound.  “The possibility exists that the strange creatures had formed part of the menagerie of a prominent zoologist from Pinar del Rio, whose specimens from other countries had escaped.”

Cuba is known worldwide for its spectacular cave systems, and the Santo Tomás and Cueva del Indio sites welcome visitors year round. Fossils from the Holocene Era are found in abundance, as well as pictograms from the island’s ancient inhabitants. The presence of the diminutive figure known as “Guije” in Cuban folklore hints at a possibility that non-human entities also shared space with primitive humans, competing for resources until finally driven away by Homo Sapiens. During a visit to Cuba in 1803, Alexander Von Humboldt toured the area and was impressed by the similarity between the Jura Mountains and the Cuban formations - both of a karstic nature, like the 'mogotes' of Puerto Rico. The 'Guines caliche' enabled the formation of these vast cave systems.

Although mentioned in passing earlier, further discussion is warranted about the diminutive figures known as Guijes, a staple of Cuban folklore, standing three to four feet tall, black-skinned and hairy, and gifted with amazing strength. They were also associated with ponds and pools of still water, and its presence was considered an ill omen. One is tempted to associate it with the ‘aquatic apes’ or ‘merbeings’ mentioned by Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe's The Field Guide To Bigfoot, Yet and Other Mystery Primates Worldwide.


The legends of the town of Sagua la Grande, compiled by Gómez de Avellaneda, include this colorful description of the Guije’s behavior: “It is said that in that place near Barrio de Guatá, where the river is at its deepest, there is a pool which popular fantasy has assigned as the dwelling place of a monster that devours anyone who dares bathe in its waters, leaving no trace but a splash of blood on the surface. And what might this monster look like? To those who have seen it, it is a mixture of man and ape, with powerful claws and sharp teeth.” The mention of bathers who are apparently slain in the water is reminiscent of accounts from Oklahoma Salyer Lake, involving swimmers and boaters apparently taken by an aquatic Bigfoot.

Hairy Monsters in Puerto Rico

“And you expect people to believe that?”

That was the reaction of a fellow paranormal researcher to my monograph on the elusive Chupacabras (The Chupacabras Diaries) but not about the paranormal predator itself. His reluctance had to do with an incident that took place in December 1995 involving a reported sighting with a Type I Bigfoot in the island’s southwestern corner. Winged bloodsucking monsters were one thing, but a Caribbean Sasquatch was asking the reader to suspend disbelief a little too much. Regardless, this was the information presented in the monograph:

“Human nature is curious. Many of us prefer to carry out certain tasks at different times from others; therefore, no one should be surprised by the urge to wash a car at 2:50 a.m., which is exactly what Osvaldo Rosado was doing on December 23 -- just hours after our visits to the Gómez and Sánchez residences.

“Rosado, a resident of the city of Guánica, where the Chupacabras had already made its presence felt earlier in the month, had allegedly finished hosing down his vehicle and getting ready to disconnect the hose when as strange hairy creature approached him from behind and gave him a bear hug so strong that wounds appeared on the victim's abdomen. Rendered speechless by panic, Rosado was finally able to scream and struggle with the entity until he managed to break the deadly embrace. Turning to face his assailant, he was doubly shocked to find that it was a simian creature, much taller than his own six-foot height. The shaggy embracer turned tail and ran away from Rosado's backyard. Neighbors responded to his screams, and eventually took the badly shaken victim to a hospital in Yauco to have his wounds treated.

“Conflicting stories circulated for a while. One newspaper blamed the incident on the Chupacabras, but the victim claimed never having spoken to the reporter who wrote the story. The creature in no way matched the descriptions given of the Goatsucker, and was certainly not winged--Rosado believed that the assailant must have been at least two feet taller than himself.”

Four days later, a local researcher phoned a radio program to provide an update on the "Bigfoot attack": As fate would have it, the creature that attacked Osvaldo Rosado had been seen by people in the vicinity of Guánica, offering corroboration for the intruder's girth and height. To compound matters further, the researcher added that hairy creatures of lesser stature had been reported in the vicinity of the Laguna Cartagena aerostat facility, the base of a drug-interdiction balloon that was a source of popular discussion at the time.

Two years later, in a series of conversations with Willie Durand Urbina of the Puerto Rican Research Group, the long history of hairy hominid sightings on the island emerged.  Reports had been featured in the island press as far back as 1979 regarding creature sightings in the heart of the island – the municipalities of Cayey and Aibonito being named most frequently. The entities were bent on destroying plantain and banana groves; witnesses described them as humanoids with long, drooping arms and large red eyes, making guttural noises likened to ‘a mute person trying to talk’. The locals did not take to the predation kindly, and firearms were deployed freely but to no effect. On their part, the creatures did not take kindly to being peppered with lethal ammunition – a case was mentioned in which a hairy creature vented its fury against a home, banging against the concrete walls and steel jalousies covering the windows, leaving them badly dented.

According to Durand, these improbable creatures retreated for a few years and re-emerged in the mid-80s when a young man was attacked by what he described as “a large hairy monster” that pounced on him in the dark. Much like in the 70s, the destruction of banana and plantain cultivars was a common factor, but the entities were not interested in eating the fruit – rather, they tore plants apart to eat the their hearts. This gave rise to the moniker “Comecogollos” (eater of plant hearts) to describe these hirsute intruders.

These initial sightings had been circumscribed to the central and southwestern parts of the island, but were now being reported elsewhere.  A family visiting the Caribbean National Forest had an encounter with a five-foot tall hairy entity at Coca Falls, one of the most visited tourist spots in the area. The creature was caught in the act of rummaging through the vegetation, and was reportedly as startled to see the humans as they were shocked by its presence. The encounter ended peacefully as the humans retreated to their vehicle and dashed off at high speed to notify the park rangers of their experience.

There was an unexpected sequel to this event, according to researcher Durand.  Prompted by this and other reports of ‘simians’ in the rainforest, a brash young martial arts expert had driven to the site with two of his friends to seek out the hominids and beat the living hell out of them.  As the popular adage suggests, ‘be careful what you wish for’ – the humans were soon confronted by four hominids with glowing eyes.  One of the creatures seized the would-be ‘karate kid’ and bashed him into a tree, ripping off his shirt in the process. His friends deserted him as the night degenerated into a frenzy of panic, to the extent that one of the monster hunters cut himself badly with his own machete. Heroics, one may conclude, are best left to the silver screen.

The situation involving the man-apes went on into the early 1990s, to judge by newspaper clippings thoughtfully provided by Mr. Duran. One such news item, dated July 26, 1991, bore the headline “Alarm Spreads Over the Comecogollos”, reporting that aggrieved members of the population were demanding decisive action from the Department of Natural Resources to go after one or more of these intrusive species.  The manimals had caused significant damage to local growers, who were further confused that more luscious tropical fruit was being ignored by the prowlers. A subsequent news item featured an interview with Manuel Rivera from the Lagunas district of the city of Aguada on the island’s western coastline.

“We have been affected by this animal for 90 days now,” fumed Mr. Rivera. “This animal has knocked down our plantain trees and killed one of our dogs. It has also killed goats, as I’ve been told by customers who come to my store.”

The planter went on to say that the nights were filled with ‘strange noises’ and suspected the mystery killer could be ‘a sort of mandrill’.  An unnamed local woman told reporters: “We have many children here and there is concern that something bad may happen. This animal seems to have gone wild. It destroys everything in its path.”

Conclusion

We have to assume that all the information presented above is valid, or as Merv Griffith once said “we’ve got nothing here.”  Assuming the presence of Type I and II Bigfoot, manimals, apemen, merbeings or any other handle we wish to apply to them, we must wonder how they got there, or if they were always part of the scenery.

The Caribbean was one of the last regions of the Americas to be settled, with separate waves of migration between eight and five thousand years ago, more than likely from the Yucatan Peninsula to Cuba. The thought of these early settlers bringing their pet Guijes along for the ride would make for a great comedy routine, but how did these entities – we are assuming them to be physical for this discussion, any reference to a paranormal origin has been set aside – get there?

Perhaps there is more truth to the possibility of populations having been brought in from elsewhere, as in the case of the nameless naturalist Iturralde mentions in the 1962 expedition to the Pica Pica valley. Could this person have brought creatures from Florida (i.e. swamp apes) or Louisiana (the ubiquitous boogers) and then let them loose?  The fact that specimens were still being captured as recently as the 80s would lead us to believe that breeding populations endured since that time, hidden in the mazes of caves throughout Cuba.

But what about Puerto Rico? This becomes a thornier issue and brings us into the realm of military/political and even UFO conspiracy.

In the early 20th century the U.S. military was allowed to operate freely on the island, using it for experimentation purposes. Agent White (the arboricide Picloram) was tested in the Caribbean National Rain forest 1963, as well as radioactive experiments by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) as part of Project Plowshare that rendered part of the forest inaccessible in 1961. Similar tests in Bosque de Tabonuco (Dacryodes excelsa) date as far back as the 1940s.

In the 1930s, a scientist named Cornelius Rhoads visited the island to conduct research on pernicious anemia, but reportedly injected his patients with cancer cells with a view to treating them with radiation. Although an article in the New York Times (Feb.15 1932) says Rhoads was exonerated of all charges, belief in his unethical testing persists.

Given this pattern of unrestricted experimentation, one could be tempted to envision a scenario in which creatures were brought from Stateside locations – whether the Pacific Northwest or the Southern States – and let loose on the island to see how they would react in a controlled environment. As reports diminished in the media, we can only assume that the beings were rounded up and disposed of, or news outlets were discouraged from reporting on them. As of 2020 there have been no outbreaks of creature attacks and depredations similar to the 1980-1991 period, to the best of anyone’s knowledge.