Inexplicata-The Journal of Hispanic Ufology

Mexico: Police Engage in UFO Chase

2012-01-25T03:24:00.000-08:00

Source: www.analuisacid.com and La Voz de la Frontera
Date: 01.24.2012

Mexico: Police Engage in UFO Chase
By Juan Galvan - Mexicali, Baja California

"A UFO with white lights, blue and yellow flashes" -- The first report was received from the airport area, and [the object] was even seen by C-4 operators manning the safety cameras that appear to have recorded it. The sighting prompted the mobilization of police officials. Martin Ruelas, supervisor of the western sector, was able to see it with his own eyes, but it was too fast and it was impossible to follow.

An Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) prompted an intense mobilization by elements of the Public Safety Forces of the City of Mexicali, arising from citizen reports about the presence of a strange device in the air.

Alejandro Monreal Noriega, general commander of Patrols in the Dirección de Seguridad Pública Municipal (DSPM) reported that the first news item was received from people living in the vicinity of the airport.

Even C-4 operators, responsible for urban security cameras, saw the object in their systems and it appears to have been recorded. Furthermore, hundreds of phone calls were received at the "066" number, reporting the flying object's presence.

It was seen around the airport and subsequently flying at dizzying speeds toward the new guard post after citizens reported seeing it over the Marán Industrial Park, and subsequently in the Rivera Campestre district and related areas.

Martin Ruelas, supervisor of the DSPM's western region, saw it and stated that it was a sizeable round white object with visible blue and yellow flashes. He added that the object was seen high in the sky and moved up, down and sideways at very high speeds, vanishing from sight after heading south from the valley of Mexicali.

Deputy Commander Medina, from the valley's southern area, also saw it and said it was too fast and impossible to follow, as it changed direction suddenly.

A "chase" by patrolmen ensued, but since the object changed position within seconds, they simply relayed its location in order to have the nearest unit continue the report. Unfortunately, it was impossible to obtain an answer.

Monreal Noriega stated that consultations were made with airport authorities and SEDENA, as well as their U.S. counterparts, and they awaited more information on the subject.

(Translation (c) 2012, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Ana Luisa Cid)

High Strangeness: Forgotten Humanoid Encounters

2012-01-22T04:26:00.001-08:00

High Strangeness: Forgotten Humanoid Encounters
By Scott Corrales
(c) 2012

In the fall of 1996 I began work on my second book, Flashpoint: High Strangeness in Puerto Rico, not realizing that many cases from the 1960s and 1970s se habían quedado en el tintero, as is said in Spanish, “left behind in the inkwell”. Some of these journalistic accounts appeared in magazines that have been out of print for generations; others were interviews on radio and television broadcasts that came to my attention years after Flashpoint finally appeared in print (1998).

Most of these cases involved a feature that isn’t present in contemporary cases anymore – eyewitness reports of humanoids (and not so humanoid) entities. Other authors have given much thought to the reasons why “occupant” cases have dwindled, or simply vanished altogether. In the second decade of the 21st century, much fuss is made of lights in the sky, the so-called “blurfos” and possibly hoaxed videos employing commercially available software packages. During the Year of the Humanoids (1973) such CE-Is would’ve been relegated to the back burner, or overlooked altogether.

But on to the cases.

The most intriguing of these goes back to the year 1973 – during the “Year of the Humanoids” – and it involves an anonymous truck driver from the city of Arecibo on Puerto Rico’s northern shore. Researcher Sebastián Robiou interviewed this unidentified witness in January 1974, so the details were still fresh in the experiencer’s mind.

The driver was on his way from San Juan to Arecibo, accompanied by an assistant, to make a routine delivery at a warehouse. At one point along Route 2, the old “military road” that links the cities of the northern coastline with Mayaguez on the west and Ponce on the south, the driver noticed a “weird star” larger than any of the planets. This unusual source of light appeared to be following his truck.

At 0400, the truck arrived at the warehouse behind the Arecibo Shopping Center, which was deserted at the time. Both men decided to unload the delivery truck themselves and sleep for a few hours before undertaking the trip back to San Juan. Just as they were drifting off to sleep, they heard the sound of approaching footsteps, and fearful of robbers, they inspected the surroundings before returning to their truck and finally getting much needed rest. Some time went by and the driver heard the footsteps again: he alerted his companion, who did not wake up this time. The driver decided to feign sleep and remained alert.

His watchfulness paid off, and to his amazement, he saw three “whitish figures” – according to the description given to Robiou – visible in the side view mirror on the passenger side. In his mind, he expected a confrontation with common criminals, not a brush with the unknown.

Still feigning sleep, he was able to see three strange beings peering into his truck through the passenger window, past his sleeping companion. This was the verbatim description of the incident: “They were identical to each other. They had close-fitting helmets on their heads, and a sort of crest projected from the front to the back. The beings were white in color, and normal but for a major detail – their noses were hooked like a parrot’s beak!”

One may wonder how the driver managed to remain calm in the face of this strange visitation. But the fact is that he remained still, looking at the unknown visitors through slitted eyes, and describing their behavior. The humanoids spoke to each other with a sound reminiscent of the squeaking of bats, and were clad in outfits covered in what appeared to be scales, as far as he could see. After their cursory look at the interior of the cabin, the parrot-men walked away, chattering among themselves.

After making sure they were gone, the driver stirred his companion and started the truck. He drove back to San Juan at once, reaching the city of Bayamón and dropping off the delivery truck at the company office. The driver returned home, and according to Sebastian Robiou, told his family that something very strange had happened to him. He immediately developed physical symptoms, including a high fever and headaches that afflicted him for two days (this brings to mind John Keel’s observation in The Mothman Prophecies (p.231) that UFO witnesses often come down with physical symptoms after encounters—some of them even similar to those of gonorrhea). The witness described feeling a sensation of cranial pressure as he looked at the parrot-men. “I felt my head was going to explode.”

The sensation of cranial pressure during an encounter with a non-human presence was also mentioned in another case that same year: the December 23, 1973 CE-III involving a humanoid with hollow black eyesockets and a housewife hanging laundry in Puerto Rico’s Barrio Limón in the city of Mayaguez. The case became famous as the first time that a hypnotic regression – carried out by Dr. Manuel Mendez del Toro -- was used on a UFO percipient on the island. The housewife chose to remain anonymous, but a transcript of the regression session was featured prominently in Sebastián Robiou’s works and later works by other major Puerto Rican researchers. It was also featured prominently in Contactos Extraterrestres magazine (1981). The case was also discussed on the airwaves, having been featured on Orlando Rimax's Otros Mundos radio show in 1976.

The witness, as stated earlier, was outside her home hanging the laundry when she became aware of a flash in the sky: an object she would describe as a smooth, silver hoop lacking windows or doors, was suspended in the air, tilting from side to side. Not particularly interested in such matters, and with more chores on her list, the housewife returned indoors. Within the walls of her home, she was assaulted by an intense buzzing sound that rose incrementally to the point that she felt that her head was going to explode – the same description offered by the truck driver who encountered the Arecibo “parrot-men”.

Compelled to walk toward one of the windows facing her back yard, the woman found herself staring at a human figure. Most of the details of her experience were recovered under hypnosis two years lager, including her description of “a tall humanoid figure with crossed arms, wearing a tight silver outfit, whose red face was the only part of the body not covered by the uniform.” Lacking a nose or mouth, the entity’s most prominent facial feature were the large, dark cavities where its eyes would have been.

Under Mendez del Toro’s guidance, the anonymous housewife also remembered “crying and screaming in fear, the entity commanded her to calm down and to come to him. Adding to the high-strangeness quotient, the entity demanded that the terrified woman give him an object: a stone she used to mash vegetables. In terror – and the transcript of the hypnotic session demonstrates this clearly – the woman proferred the stone, with the unexpected result that the bizarre entity recoiled from it, ordering her “not to look at him”.

What makes this bizarre 1973 case even stranger – as if it needed to be – is that the eyeless entity projected words into the witness’s mind, words that she understood as “cerakia ovint” and which were subjected to interpretation in a variety of languages, ancient and modern, without any results. Research conducted in 1975 by William Santana of the defunct CEOVNI organization showed that other neighbors had heard the buzzing sound at the time, but hadn’t seen the outlandish visitor from elsewhere.

In July 1977, Adrián Olmos, 42, became the protagonist of an incident that has been picked up in a number of UFO magazines and encyclopaedias -- an encounter near Quebradillas, P.R. with a strange, jetpack-equipped alien measuring less than four feet in height. However, little or no attention was paid to the highly disturbing follow-up to the Olmos experience.

In the event’s aftermath, Olmos had developed an uncharacteristic interest for the paranormal along with uncanny mediumistic faculties. While others may have been hesitant to relive an encounter with the unknown, Olmos made it publicly known that he would welcome a chance to see the strange creatures once again, since he would no longer feel so nervous the second time around. Perhaps someone should have advised him at that point to keep his wishes in check.

On October 20, 1977, Olmos, who worked as a distributor of veterinary medicine products throughout the towns in the islands interior, had largely forgotten the weirdness and excitement of his summertime encounter. While making a delivery near the town of Camuy on the island’s Atlantic coastline, Olmos began to hear strange squealing sounds that he at first thought came from his car, but then realized to his horror that they came from within his head.

“The sound was reminiscent of the shrieking of monkeys.” Olmos told a reporter. “I could feel the dreadful noise within my head as my heartbeats increased. This lasted for about five minutes, after which I continued making the scheduled deliveries on my route.”

But as soon as he had finished his next appointment, the shrieks returned with renewed intensity, giving him the impression that a record was being played at a furiously high speed (similar sounds have been reported in other UFO cases around the world). Olmos began experiencing a throbbing headache of such intensity that he began to fear for his sanity: the pain was accompanied by an inundating sensation of heat throughout his body. So overwhelming was the sensation that it forced the sick and frightened Olmos to pull over on the roadside and check to see if the car’s roof was on fire. At that point, as the shrieking within his head threatened to render him unconscious, Olmos noticed an enormous ball of light, thirteen feet in diameter, blocking the road ahead of him. He described the phenomenon as being composed of myriad hot, smaller lights.

“The lights gave off a sort of gas which coalesced into two small creatures, becoming more and more clearly defined. I realized that the pair were the source of the shrieks, and they appeared to be talking to one another.” Olmos continued. “The creatures had apple-colored faces and were dressed in platinum-white outfits, with diamond-like structures on the foreheads, held in place by black headbands. They resembled lizards, and long red tongues could be seen inside their mouths when they spoke.”

Despite his fear, Olmos was able to make an unusually detailed verbal portrait of the creatures. He noticed that both lizard-like beings had similar features, had four-fingered hands, and wore small boots made of an unknown cloth. One of them held a box in its hands, which Olmos felt was being used to monitor him. Gathering up courage in the face of an unknown situation, the sales representative challenged the creatures, demanding to know what they wanted of him. The creatures turned to him and shrieked, “as if wanting to explain something,” but they were quickly enveloped in a cloudiness caused by the lights and disappeared. The thirteen-foot wide light rose into the sky and eventually vanished from sight.

“I remained petrified,” Olmos added in his interview. “and started to pray. Once composed, I got back in the car and went home. I felt dazed and my body ached all over.”

Olmos’s life was never the same after the bizarre encounter in Camuy. He sold his house in Quebradillas (where he had witnessed the original incident) and moved to a smaller community. Olmos became prone to constant panic attacks and his wife attributed the changes in their household to satanic presences and barred her home to UFO researchers and journalists. Curiously enough, the percipient redoubled his interest in UFOs and the paranormal.

At this point it should be mentioned that these cases were looked into by a group of inquisitive minds that constituted the “UFO scene” of the time. The late Carlos Busquets, for example, was interested in the parapsychological aspects of humanoid encounters, everything from telepathic communication with putative non-humans to the sudden development of limited extra-sensory powers in experiencers, and poltergeist phenomena being reported in the wake of UFO sightings or encounters. Noel Rigau, an engineer, openly acknowledged as the father of Ufology on the island and a “researcher’s researcher” whose indefatigable work became the mainstay of Sebastián Robiou’s writings. William Santana of CEOVNI, an architect, mentioned earlier, provided the analytical angle to cases, while Salvador Freixedo expounded on the role of religion and belief as a whole in the subject of UFOs, developing the building blocks to what would become his landmark Defendámonos de los dioses (Beware of the Gods).

Cases involving non-humans would dwindle in the 1980s until the appearance of the “Greys” in the island’s case histories after 1987, when a new generation of researchers and writers would bring the bewildering stories of experiences into the public light once more.

Argentina: An Encounter at Tres Lagos (2009)

2012-01-18T06:54:00.000-08:00

Source: El Dragón Invisible & Planeta UFO
Date: 01.19.2012

Argentina: An Encounter at Tres Lagos, Santa Cruz (2009)
By Pablo Ramírez (Gobernador Gregores –Arg.)

Greetings. My name is Pablo and I’m writing to tell you of a UFO sighting that took place on 17 January 2009 along National Route 40.

I was vacationing in the city of El Calafate, a tourist destination in Patagonia known for its natural beauty. I live in the town of Gobernador Gregores, the provincial capital of Santa Cruz, some 200 kilometers distant from Puerto San Julián and Comandante Piedra Buena, and some 440 kilometers from the provincial capital of Rio Gallegos. I’m stating this so that you can place yourselves on the map.

And this was our sighting: on 17 January at 5:00 a.m I was heading out of El Calafate toward Gdor. Gregores, a 380 kilometer distance, along Route 11 and then some 32 kilometers along National Route 40 toward Tres Lagos, where a fueling stop is mandatory. We reached this location at 6:50 a.m., starting the journey once more at 7:00 a.m. We had covered approximately 4 kilometers when we began to see on our left, on the Cordilleran side, a shining form that was closing in on us very slowly. At 7:15 a.m. we thought it might be an Australian tank (water storage tank) or something similar, but we progressed, it became closer still.

It was at that point that I asked my partner what she was seeing, and she told me it was a bird. We kept driving, and the object was no longer anything resembling a tank or much less a bird. In a matter of minutes it was near us, and that’s when we realized it was nothing known to us at all. The object was aluminum-colored and it was shaped like a cigar. It had neither windows nor wings nor turbines, made no strange noises or smells. This was a truly unique thing for us, since never in our lives had we seen anything similar, nor did we believe in these devices.

In the end, the UFO flew in front of us at a distance of approximately 150 meters, at low altitude and speed – I figure at 70 kph – passing through the middle of a plain and losing itself in some very small hills found at that location.

The cigar-shaped object we saw had the size of a three four-door sedans with trunks. It shined intensely when the sun hit it and was opaque when it did not. This experience was truly incredible.

Friends of the unknown, I ask for your assistance in helping us study, if at all possible, the wave of sightings we are experiencing in this region, since sightings of paranormal things are common in this area, particularly along this road. This isn’t the first time it has happened. There are many witnesses to this phenomenon in the area. I think there must be a cosmic route that enables them to gain access to large water sources, etc. Let us not forget that the Cordillera has great natural and mineral wealth. If you are interested, I can mark the spot and aid you in studying this phenomenon, whose origin I’m convinced we will know very soon.

(Translation (c) 2012, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO and Carlos Iurchuk, El Dragón Invisible)

Electromagnetic Effects: CE-IIs

2012-01-17T12:29:00.000-08:00

Electromagnetic Mysteries: CE-IIs
By Scott Corrales

In 1972, astronomer and UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek created a classification system that while not widely mentioned these days, remains the general rule-of-thumb that governs descriptions of unidentified flying objects and attendant phenomena. This “taxonomy” constituted the backbone of Hynek’s landmark The UFO Experience: A Scientific Enquiry (NY: Ballantine, 1974), in which the author had the following to say about close encounters of the second kind: “The physical effects reportedly include tangible marks on the ground that can remain in evidence for days or even months, and come ostensibly from physical contact of the craft with the ground, scorching or blighting of things (particularly plants and trees), discomfort to animals as evidenced by their behavior, and such physical effects on the human observer as temporary paralysis, numbness , a feeling of heat and other discomfort.”

UFO historian Jerome Clark, on approaching the subject of CE-II’s decades later, has the following to say in his The UFO Book (Visible Ink, 1997):” By their nature, CE-IIs ought to be the most important of all UFO cases," (p.83) given the fact that the physical traces left behind by putative alien craft may actually lead to a better understanding--if not prove--the phenomenon's existence and origin.” Overshadowed by more compelling accounts of alien contact and abduction, CE-IIs have been relegated to "supporting actor" status and have played a minor role throughout the 1990s and into the first decade of the 2000s.

A notable – and overlooked – CE-II occurred in the city of Poza Rica, Veracruz, on 22 May 1992 and involved multiple witnesses (a detail of particular importance in a field in which “one witness is no witness at all”, or so it is argued): a teacher and the twenty children that excitedly made her aware of the situation.

Second grade instructor Zita Azuaria described the case to reporters from the Mexican tabloid INSOLITO, who covered the event. She indicated that it was a very warm, sunny day and that the time was 10:30 a.m., when all the children were enjoying recess by playing in the school's basketball court. According to Ms. Azuaria, a number of children soon approached her, claiming to have seen a bright flash produced by what they held to be a spacecraft.

"The children were telling me: "Maestra, it's a flying saucer!" but I paid them no attention. They came to find me at least two or three times and event then I paid them no attention. It wasn't until eleven o'clock, when we were heading back to the classroom, that I noticed all of them looking skyward. Once inside the room, I started assigning work, but noticed that a few students were missing."

Upon asking their whereabouts, Ms. Azuara was told by the other children that they were outside looking at the flying saucer. Intrigued, she decided to take a look for herself, followed by the students.

"It wasn't saucer-shaped," she told journalists. It resembled a wall-like structure, like a highly polished mirror, at least three meters tall. It was at least three kilometers away from our location, and there are small hills and a lot of vegetation in between."

Ms. Azuara detailed some of the children to inform one of her colleagues to witness the event. When the colleague arrived, the scintillating structure wobbled and appeared to have been sucked into the ground. It emerged once more to everyone's amazement, and then vanished into the ground once more. "Later that afternoon," she continued. "the authorities phoned me at home and asked me to retell my experience for the record. I insisted that it may have been nothing at all anomalous, but an experiment of some sort that was being conducted."

A number of strange circles were found on the soil at a nearby ranch known as "El Edén", which lasted eight days before being engulfed by the local vegetation. Ms. Azuara believed that the circles had been produced by the strange, shining object that her students had seen on May 22nd. Visiting the ranch personally, she complained of feeing a strange sensation within her body, leading her to suspect that there might have been some form of residual radiation in the area that no one had bothered to check. Other visitors to the ranch had indicated that the stones within the scorched circles appear to have melted and bubbled, as would a piece of metal heated to its melting point in a furnace.

Another multiple witness event sure to satisfy even the most conservative researchers occurred on October 7, 1993, when hundreds of people attending a fair honoring of St. Francis in the city of Pachuca, state of Hidalgo, were stunned to see a massive fireball streaming across the skies headed in a southerly direction. A group of musicians who were among the entertainers present at the event indicated that they had seen similar fireballs in the town of Valle del Mezquital, not far from the ruins of Tula. The musicians added that after the event, imprints allegedly made by the "landing gear" of a strange device were discovered.

Carried by the Light

This account takes us from Mexico to the Southern Hemisphere--namely Tandil, Argentina--where UFO activity restarted in earnest in early 2000, attracting national and international attention.

On Tuesday, May 9, 2000, Hugo Macías, 60, faced the task he had been performing--some might say heroically--for the past 37 years: delivering the city of Mar del Plata's La Capital newspaper to a number of locations along national highway 226. As he woke up in the pre-dawn hours to do his job, Macías began his paper route at the Gendarmería Nacional (national police force) building in Puerta del Abra on the road between Tandil and Mar del Plata. After dropping off copies of the paper, Macías drove on for a quarter of a mile when he felt a loud, unusual sound approaching him from behind. He stated that a cylinder of light "encircled" his vehicle, and placed the light's diameter at some 50 meters (160 feet). The unknown beam of energy "seemed to pierce the rooftop", according to the deliveryman.

At that point, explained Macías to an interviewer from the Diario de Tandil newspaper, his car radio inexplicably shut off, with the vehicle's engine and headlights following suit. Despite the engine shutdown, the cone of light transported the car an estimated 600 meters (1700 ft.) before abruptly disappearing and leaving the automobile by the roadside. "Everything came back to life," stated Macías, referring to his vehicle's electrical system, "and I found myself staring into a dark but starry night. In the sky above, [at an altitude] of some two thousand meters (6000 ft.). I could see a cylinder-shaped light heading toward a nearby mountain range...the whole ordeal lasted a matter of seconds, but they seemed endless. There were no other vehicles on the road that night: I may have passed two cars during the remainder of the trip."

Macías retold his experience to a group of friends and an Army officer. The duty officer at the Gendarmerie building later advised him that similar phenomena had been seen "five or six times" and that a burned circular shape had been found in a nearby prairie.

But the deliveryman was also made privy to a highly intriguing piece of information that appears to be a constant factor in Latin American UFO cases. The Gendarmerie, he was told by a local sheriff, discourages talk of UFOs out of a fear that stories "will attract NASA's attention, a fact which creates disturbances [given the fact] that NASA has an airplane with six scientists and an all-terrain vehicle which can go anywhere in the world to inspect different sites...many locals are troubled by the presence of such strangers." Stories of official-looking foreigners flashing NASA credentials and in clearly marked vehicles constitute a common experience in UFO cases from Mexico to Puerto Rico to the Southern Cone. Does the great esteem in which the U.S. space program is held outside the country represent a perfect cover for military or governmental investigators?

Hugo Macías cherished his brush with the unknown, and was proud of "having the satisfaction of having been contacted by something which many researchers would like to see and yet never have." His only complaints in the wake of the CE-2 were of a physical nature: while he felt no bodily effects at the moment of the incident, he came down with a migraine, laryngitis and a number of other ailments two days later. Such side effects have been reported in cases around the world: during a wave of "boomerang"-shaped saucers in Pennsylvania and western New York (1994), many eyewitnesses complained of similar physical maladies (cold or flu-like symptoms).

Out of Control in the Snow

Our friends at Grupo G.A.B.I.E. have submitted another fascinating account of strange events in Argentina – this time involving a electromagnetic phenomenon that could be construed as a CE-2 were it not for the absence of any discernible unidentified object or anomaly. Suffice it to say that Patagonia has always been a prime locale for high strangeness events and this is clearly one of them. The event occurred on 13 July 1988 in one of the southernmost communities on the South American landmass: Ushuaia, in the Argentinean province of Tierra del Fuego

While aboard Frigate Q-2 (ARA Libertad), a vessel employed in training Marines for the Argentinean Navy, Ocampo suffered injuries that would trouble him for the rest of his life, leaving him unable to use his left leg and hip and forcing him to walk in crutches. Since that time – the mid-1980s – he has lived in Usuaia, Tierra del Fuego, where he runs a food and beverage establishment on 25 de Mayo street.

In spite of his injuries, he was able to acquire a vehicle in neighboring Chile that was customized to his needs, allowing him to get around. During a particular morning in 1998, Mr. Ocampo boarded his vehicle to head to his business.

It was around seven o’clock in the morning when he drove along a snow-covered road, lined by many trees native to the area. He remembers listening to a local station when it dawned on him that he had forgotten his eyeglasses back home. He turned around and embarked upon the return journey – a distance of approximately 15 blocks – along open snowfields at the edge of the Olivia River.

At some point during the return trip, the radio suddenly went silent, just as the car made a sudden stop. Ocampo tried to re-start the car but obtained no response whatsoever. When he tried to use his cellphone, he found it was also out of order.

He tried starting the car repeatedly, wondering what was going on, until he finally succeeded. The radio died again, but the car remained in motion – only its driver had no control over the vehicle. The brakes and steering were inoperable, and it wasn’t long before the vehicle left the road, as if guided by an invisible force. It plowed through a snowfield until it came to rest before a stand of cypress trees. Ocampo experienced injuries as a result of this and was rescued by a passing motorist. A tow truck eventually pulled out his car.

A series of stunning discoveries were made when the vehicle was inspected at a mechanic shop the next day: the car’s battery had melted along with the entire electrical system. The instrument panel had been ruined as well. Not a single electrical device was salvageable. The battery of Ocampo’s cellphone – which had refused to operate the day before – refused to take a charge and was also declared ruined.

“We believe that several things are described in this report,” states Grupo G.A.B.I.E.’s report. “A clearly electromagnetic manifestation affected the vehicle’s electrical system and all of its devices. The action was directed at Mr. Hugo Ocampo. It should be noted that at no time was another vehicle – 300 meters away from where Ocampo’s vehicle drove off the road – was affected at all.”

UFOs, wrote Professor Hynek, appear to regard cars as creatures to be investigated, and the UFO Enigma contributes the following words of wisdom in this regard: “One remarkable reported physical effect involves interference in electrical circuits, causing engines to cease functioning temporarily, radios to cut out or exhibit uncommon static, car headlights to dim or be extinguished for a short while, and, on occasion, car batteries to overheat and deteriorate rapidly.” One can be almost certain that Mr. Ocampo would have wanted to hear something a bit more reassuring – if only to tell his insurance agent!

Electromagnetic effects on automobiles are not restricted to the Americas, either. In April 1974, a young couple strolling along the beach at Valdelagrana (Cadiz, Spain) noticed a luminous object a few hundred feet in the air and only several hundred feet away as it engaged in a slow descent behind a treeline. Feeling particularly adventurous, the young man and woman ran back to their car and decided to approach the alleged landing site. As they approached, they were rewarded with the sight of a static, luminous object some twenty feet off the ground. The unknown object gave off green and orange flashes from its lower section.

Their sense of adventure gave out at exactly the same moment that their car’s engine shuddered and died. Despite their best efforts, the engine wouldn’t turn over. Fear of the unknown washed over them as the object rose gently into the air, emitting a low, buzzing sound. Determined to drive away from the otherwise desolate location, the couple eventually got the engine to run, but noticing that it operated hesitantly. The battery was nearly drained, and the entire sighting of had lasted less than eight minutes.

Another intriguing Spanish case occurred during the Galician UFO Flap of 1995-1996. Andres Landeira, a resident of Galicia, Spain's northwestern corner, had no idea he was about to become a protagonist of UFO drama when on the night of February 26, 1996 he found that his car was unable to climb the steep hill which led back to his home in the city of Lugo.

The perplexed driver changed gears, but the sedan refused to budge. It was then that Landeira realized that the car was rising into the air. Panicking, he opened the door, hoping to jump to safety from whatever nameless fate awaited him, but he realized he was well over thirty feet in the air. "I held on to the steering wheel with all my might," Landeira would later tell UFO investigator Manuel Carballal, "I forced my back into the driver's seat and thought I was going to die, being taken to God knows where...Hell! I was really scared."

But the car was not spirited off into the black skies. Landeira observed that whatever had picked him up deposited him back onto the road just slightly ahead of his original position, but sideways. Aside from being badly frightened by the experience, the driver wasn't negatively affected. The only reminder of the event was the car's dashboard clock, which froze at precisely ten minutes before two o'clock in the morning.

Electromagnetic Effects in the Caribbean

Puerto Rican UFO researcher Sebastián Robiou, the tireless documenter of the UFO activity that overwhelmed the Spanish-speaking Caribbean in the early 1970s, looked into an alleged case of electromagnetic interference from an unknown source in his book Manifiesto OVNI.

In August 1973, a young man by the name of Antonio Jusin, driving a standard shift 1963 Impala, had no idea that he was about to entered in the annals of ufology. It was a Friday evening, shortly before midnight, and Jusin and a friend had set out from the town of Sabana Grande to Maricao in the southwestern corner of Puerto Rico – one of its most active areas for all manner of anomalies.

Driving his oversized car along the narrow mountain roads, Jusin noticed a light hovering over a nearby mountaintop. He made a comment to his friend, who dismissed it as a “beacon”. Wending their way through the mountains, they saw the object again – this time larger than before. Startled by the sight, Jusin put the car into second gear...but the Impala stalled. Its driver was unable to make it go backward or forward.

Something prompted the alarmed driver to turn on his high beams, and the unknown light responded with a blast of light that turned night into day for at least a mile around, according to Jusin. The object advanced until it hovered directly over the Impala and its now-terrified occupants, descending. Nearly blinded by the light, Jusin was nonetheless able to see that his car’s electrical system had died out – no lights, no radio. His friend struggled to keep him from abandoning the car and running for cover in the vegetation. Both men agreed to put the car in neutral and coast downhill to the nearest house; along the road, a friendly motorist in a Jeep offered to tow the stricken car back home.

“Upon arriving,” Jusin told Robiou during an interview held in May 1976, “I opened the hood and saw that the battery had melted down to chewing gum, a rubbery mess. It was completely melted. I could also tell that the wiring was burned, completely charred. The lighting system was damaged. The starter was no good; the alternator, the horn, nothing. Neither the radio nor the tape player worked, or the clocks. That object ruined everything.”

Argentina: More on the Luis Sánchez Case (Tucumán)

2012-01-16T04:53:00.000-08:00

Last week we shared the experiences of contactee Luis Sanchez with INEXPLICATA readers in the article “Argentina: A High Strangeness Event from 1986” and promised to follow up with any developments. Mr. Sanchez has since contacted Grupo G.A.B.I.E with again with not one, but two experiences that he has associated with the UFO phenomenon. We submit them for your consideration.

Mr. Sánchez’s 2nd Incident as told to Grupo G.A.B.I.E

Luis Sánchez, a follower of our website, has sent us this interesting life experience from the Province of Tucumán (San Miguel de Tucumán) that took place on 05 April 1988 – a new experience that he endured and is kindly sharing with us. As always, we request that reports on similar sightings in the area be sent to our e-mail address:

”This event took place on a night in April. It was my twelfth birthday, 05/04/1988. A summer day, very warm in Tucumán, following an afternoon in which my late grandmother indulged me with soda and a meringue pie of the kind I liked so much. I decided to go out at around 22:30 hours. In those days you could leave your house at that time, it wasn’t as dangerous as it is now. The sky was starry, lovely, with clear skies.

“I got on the new bike my dad had bought me. I remember that I couldn’t ride it, since it was larger than the old one. They were sitting by the doorway, and in the end I got on the old bicycle. I only had permission to ride around my block. Go to the corner and turn back.

“Riding around at full speed, upon heading home I could see that only my mother was waiting for me at the door; I figure it was 23:00 hrs. by now. The fact is that I rode up to her and asked, “Mom, please let me do one more round!!” She agreed and I reached the corner of my block.

“Everyone was asleep by now. I braked and looked heavenward to give thanks for such a great day, and I saw something that my brain interpreted as the Moon. But within seconds – since I was always a great observer – my mind told me it wasn’t the Moon.

“First of all because it was within the atmosphere – one could see that it flew, and stranger still was the fact that the object was enveloped in a white cloud, forming a halo of smoke. It moved, it wasn’t still. It didn’t zigzag...it was heading from east to west, judging from where I stood.

“It was a halo of smoke that lost its shape, much like the smoke rings people blow when they puff a cigarette. But this one didn’t come apart. I pursued it, and it moved even faster. I looked inside the halo, and it gave me the most astonishing pause I’d ever thought I’d experience.

“The object was like this: on the outside it was like a halo of white smoke, like a cloud, but on the inside it was a dark circle (looking at it from below, as I was), and it covered the stars as it moved across my line of sight. Something round inside the halo was being camouflaged. There was a disk in there. As it moved, it blocked out the stars.

“It was so fascinating that I followed it, shouting: “Mom! Mom! Come quickly!”

“She came over, and I said, look at that. She was confused as I was at first, as if that thing had been designed to stump the human brain. She said it was the Moon.

“Then I said: “Mom! The Moon doesn’t move like that, look at it again, the Moon’s over there!” and I pointed at the Moon that we all know, adding: “This thing with smoke around it isn’t the Moon, it’s black on the inside!”

“She said: “You’re right. What is it?” I replied that I didn’t know, and that I was going to follow it, pedaling away joyfully at full speed.

“The object vanished quickly toward the west, toward a wooded area. And the truth is that I wasn’t going to reach it on a bicycle. So I turned back and we went to bed. We never spoke about it again, and my mother never granted much importance to things like that.

“It always made me wonder. Perhaps I’ll never know what it was. But it was a real UFO to me.”

Mr. Sánchez’s 3rd Incident as told to Grupo G.A.B.I.E

“It was a New Year celebration – and according to some, it was the end of the world.

“There was much talk about the infamous Y2K error. A computer error which, upon the arrival of the year 2000, would caused computers to seize up due to programs that had not been updated, causing all systems to collapse. Others felt that certain prophecies would come true and everything would come to an end.

“That evening, we stopped at a friend’s house on the way from my home with my companion Sonia. She’s from Caballito and came to live here in Tucumán. They offered us everything. I don’t drink liquor, neither does she. We had something to eat, sat down and chatted with our friends. Some got up to the table to drink soda.

“I remained in the armchair on the outside patio, alone, while they continued talking tableside. It was 0200 hours.

“Suddenly, I felt ill, strange, odd, with the powerful sensation of being watched by someone. I looked sideways and there was no one. I looked ahead and was somewhat stunned, shall we say. My mind felt that that there was a strong connection, and I looked skyward.

“It was a beautiful starry night, but...I stared fixedly at a star, as though being watched from it. It was a like a telepathic connection. I only pointed at the star, felt they were watching me for some seven seconds. That’s when that “something” – a craft or whatever – realized it had been discovered. Then the unexpected happened.

“The bright star began to move, making long, slow circles, gaining speed in a corkscrew-like shape into outer space. I never took my eyes off it. I saw how it gained unimaginable speed, following the corkscrew-like motion, until it became lost from sight. It never stopped looking like a star. The farther it went away, the smaller it became.

“From that day onward, it confirmed everything I believed: that something or someone is watching us. There’s something in space. That thing was a CRAFT. Something non-terrestrial.”

(Translation (c) 2012, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Grupo G.A.B.I.E. and Luis Sánchez)

Puerto Rico: New UFO Program

2012-01-16T03:12:00.000-08:00

Canal EnfoqueTV announces a new program for 2012: Archivo OVNI (in HD)
A promotional video can be seen at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK9wxJWyd8M

Argentina: Anomalous Object at Tres Arroyos (Barrio El Molino)

2012-01-16T02:56:00.001-08:00

Source: Planeta UFO and LU24
Date: 01.15.2012

Argentina: Anomalous Object at Tres Arroyos (Barro El Molino)

A resident of Barrio El Molino approached LU24 (the Tres Arroyos radio station -- http://www.radiotresarroyos.com/) to consult about a photograph showing a luminous object in the skies of Tres Arroyos, which he had the chance to capture as he headed out of his home on January 1, 2012.

Jorge Omar D'Alessandro says that "around 20:25 hours, setting out with my wife for a stroll, I was able to see a luminous object in the sky toward the southwest which seemed odd to me. It was self-luminous and there were shadows above and below it. As it went away, it lost altitude, or at least it seemed so to me."

The map shows the location of the cities of Necochea and Tres Arroyos in the Province of Buenos Aires - places where the presence of the UFO phenomenon has been reported in recent days.

The distance between Necochea and Tres Arroyos is 142 kilometers.

(Translation (c)2012 S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO and LU24)

Argentina: A UFO Over Suipacha

2012-01-16T02:48:00.000-08:00

Source: Grupo G.A.B.I.E.
Date: 01.15.2012
Source: www.grupogabie.blogspot.com

Argentina: A UFO Over Suipacha, Buenos Aires

G.A.B.I.E. Case # 20111224

Hugo Pelatti, a follower of our blog, kindly sent us a series of photos obtained in the city of Suipacha, Province of Buenos Aires, on 24 December 2011. We thank Hugo for submitting his photos and replying to our questions.

Details: Description of the circumstances under which the photos were taken.

“...all photos were taken with the same Nikon Coolplix L1 camera. All photos were taken on 24 December 2011 between 16:30 and 17:00 hours. And as I told you, neither me nor my wife noticed anything at the time the photos were taken. We only became aware of it upon uploading the photos to our computer to view them.

“We were returning from Luján on the way toward 9 de Julio and since we had time and it was still early, we decided to go into Suipacha to take some photos (it’s our hobby).”

We received several images, selecting two for analysis:

The following photograph shows a diffuse object that perfectly shows the transit of a UFO. Following analysis and comparison, we reached the conclusion that it was possibly an insect flying by at the moment the photograph was taken. The camera is unable to focus on it and captures a blurred object. In this case it is a “Blurfo”.

Quite the contrary occurs with the next photo.
We can see a UFO, an object that we were unable to identify with anything known. It is not a known terrestrial craft, not a meteorological phenomenon and does not correspond to an astronomical phenomenon.

After subjecting them to a variety of filters – some shown in the analysis – we reached the conclusion that it is an object of considerable energy and very little mass, showing a very well-defined core. The object appears to be static.

As is customary in all our investigations, please point out any corrections or constructive opinions. If you recognize it as something natural, please advise us of the fact.

(Translation (c) 2012, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Grupo G.A.B.I.E.)

High Strangeness: Earth's Shadow Denizens

2012-01-14T12:59:00.000-08:00

High Strangeness: Earth's Shadow Denizens
By Scott Corrales
(c) 2012

On the last day of the year in 1968, an uncle and nephew were driving from the town of Isabela on the island’s north shore to a family get-together in San Juan, and were in very high spirits. They did not know, however, that their otherwise routine journey would become a landmark case in UFO history.

At seven thirty in the evening, both men had reached the city of Vega Baja when their car’s headlights lit up an object on the roadside. Thinking it was a motorist in distress, they slowed down, only to realize that the car was no car, and the figure standing outside was not an unlucky driver on New Year’s Eve: a small entity was standing right next to a light colored object that rose from the ground exactly as both men reacted in alarm. According to the nephew’s description, the diminutive figure had shining eyes “like a cat”, and that it reacted with the same degree of surprise that he and his uncle had experienced. Neither party expected to come across the other, it would seem, on a holiday evening.

While this event is generally acknowledged to be the first UFO landing case in Puerto Rico, incidents involving small humanoids reach back into the island’s history, and are quite common in the lore of the Caribbean and the countries of Mesoamerica and South America.

The “contemporary age” of the UFO phenomenon hadn’t even started when Luis Villafañe was a boy living in the town of Utuado in the mountainous heartland of Puerto Rico. But one morning in 1946, while his mother cooked dinner, Luis saw a small creature, some three feet in height, approach the door to his house. He recalls that the enigmatic being wore coveralls of a brownish hue, had large black eyes, and long fingers that reached down to its knees.

When he alerted his mother and siblings to the unusual presence, they were gripped by a sudden paralysis: the diminutive being regarded them for what seemed to be an eternity before dashing off at high speed into the dense tropical vegetation.

Villafañe states that his mother gave both him and his brothers "a sound whupping", believing that their childish pranks had attracted the attention of un duende--an elf.

A Persistent Belief

Beings of diminutive stature were not confined to the tropics, either: the native Americans living in what is now Connecticut believed in the Makiawisag, who would come into people's houses demanding food. If their demands were not met, these dwarfs would point their fingers and immobilize their targets, proceeding to ransack homes. An antiquarian, F.G. Speck, gathered such stories for presentation in a formal paper.

And the cases go on and on, from one country to another and spanning the centuries. That societies around the globe believe in impish creatures that can be good or bad, if not both, is certainly not new. The connection between these "little people" of human tradition and the UFO phenomenon has been the subject of many authoritative works, Jacques Vallée's Dimensions among them. In our times of saucer-flying "greys" this could hardly be something new, but the fact of the matter is that diminutive hominid creatures continue to appear throughout the world, particularly in Central America and the Caribbean, much in the same way as they did centuries ago.

In the Chiapas region of Mexico we find the chaneques, which are widespread in this jungle region south of the Yucatan. An investigator who spent some time in that part of the country spoke to a number of shy peasant girls, who described how the creatures, standing no taller than a hand, would have a good time playing in the water basin behind their homes: the elusive beings would cause the crockery left to soak in the basin to rattle. The chaneques were aquatic beings, swimming in and out of the basin through its drainpipe. It is also worth remembering that the ancient Mayan ruins of Uxmal, which are in the area, were founded, in legend, by a dwarf born to a witch. The jungles of Central America and the desertic coastal plains of Perú and Chile contain the ruins of structures which could have only served the purposes of diminutive creatures. The aluxoob or “aluches” of the Yucatan Peninsula are considered downright beneficial to the small farmer working his milpa in the water-scarce Yucatan, but others have declared the supposedly mythical entities an outright menace. Tradition describes them as the ultimate pranksters, given to pushing people out of hammocks at night (a very anti-social thing to do), throw rocks against structures and people in the dark of the night, and tormenting dogs, which they hate. The aluxoob can inflict illness, usually in the form of high fevers which are hard to abate. The Mayan farmer who is wise enough to have not forsaken the lore of his forefathers will take care of these entities much in the same way that their Celtic counterparts on the other side of the Atlantic did--by leaving small gifts of food outdoors at night as a peace offering. This will turn the Aluxoob from disagreeable to outright helpful, looking over the farmers crops and home, and even harassing burglars.

The study of elves, fairies and their kin leaped out of the pages of childrens' books and the oral traditions of rural folk into the realm of scientific study in the late 1800s, when Walter Evans-Wentz, who received the first doctorate in comparative religion, published The Fairy Faith in Celtic Country. On the other side of the Atlantic, Arthur Conan Doyle and Lady Augusta Gregory delved into the study of the elusive elves and fairies. Conan Doyle would often go to France to discuss the subject with astronomer/spiritist Camille Flammarion.

The descriptions provided by those who were witnesses to the arrival of small "spacemen" during the early days of the UFO phenomenon reawakened interest in the possibility that dwarfish "aliens" could merely be the creatures we called elves or fairies under a different guise.

What evidence we have that this could be the case is even less than circumstantial, but the testimonies continue to surface: In May of 1991, a few boys in the coastal town of Medianía Alta, P.R., attempted the capture of a "a little green man" during a crab-hunting expedition. Two of the boys indicated that they had chased the green creature until it disappeared into a sewer hole. The boys followed, but their quarry was gone. The creature was described as having "ugly red eyes, a pointy head like an ear of corn, equally pointed ears and thin long arms". One of the boys, Wilhelm Cordero, stated that the creature made sibilant noises and grabbed his arm. That action caused the boys to panic and run away. Other residents of the community had isolated encounters with the tiny "elf", which corroborated the boys' tale. The diminutive creature went as far as attempting to make contact with a child at the local kindergarten.

While advocates of the nuts-and-bolts origin of UFOs lend no credence at all to these reports, the fairy theory, as proposed by a number of authors, might possibly account for incidents involving "missing time" (a component of almost all the traditional fairy stories) and the strange foods and beverages given to abductees (such as the emerald-colored draught given to the Brazilian soldier José Antonio by the dwarves who captured him in a 1969 case). It has also been suggested that the UFO phenomenon as a whole is but an extension of traditional fairy mythology.

Some of these cases involving dwarfish beings border the unreal. In his book Ellos: Los dueños invisibles de este mundo, Spanish investigator Salvador Freixedo discusses the case of "Julio", a man known to him and living in Puerto Rico, whose life has been made a living hell by "imps".

According to the version appearing in Frexiedo’s book, “Julio”, a contactee since childhood, entered a landed UFO where he engaged in play with a human-looking girl. Before leaving, the girl gave him a present (the mythical overtones become evident) that would change his life: a box that produced ugly, simian little creatures, who would appear suddenly and disappear on command. The boy accepted this "fairy gift" and embarked on a path of ruin: he soon discovered that he was unable to put the imps back into their box (or, as the author suggests, the device which summoned them from their dimension into ours). The imps would then run away in a flash, disappearing into the wooded area in which he lived.

Over the years, Julio summoned well over fifty of these creatures to amuse friends and neighbors, some of whom still recall the initial fright they received from the imps. The story becomes even more mind-bending. Julio soon discovered that the imps, unable to return to their "box", turned against him, spying on him from the brush and racing up to touch him when he was outdoors. In his conversations with Freixedo, Julio stated a belief that many of the tragedies that had taken place in his rural area were produced by the imps. He believes that they still lurk to this day in a mountainous region in which he had hidden the box prior to destroying it. A number of unexplained deaths had occured in that vicinity.

In the late 1990s, Freixedo’s wife – Magdalena del Amo-Freixedo – reopened the case and provided some new insight into this high-strangeness event. “Julio” turned out to be Juan Rivera Feliberti, the son of a well-to-do landowner in western Puerto Rico. In 1929, when Feliberti was only nine years old, he decided to build a kite – seen as a rite of passage in those bygone days – and was testing his new contraption when he noticed the kite had become stuck to “something”, and the guideliene was perfectly stiff. “That thing was really big,” Feliberti told the researcher. “It gave off a lot of sparks and was very round. I couldn’t compare it to anything. That’s when they pulled me up to that place.”

According to his own testimony, an unknown force drew him up to the object – not merely to its exterior, but actuall through its seemingly solid surface. The nine-year-old found himself in an unknown environment, scanning the unfamiliar surroundings with more than a touch of trepidation. It was at this point that the original version of the “Julio” narrative dovetails with the new information obtained by Magdalena del Amo: standing before young Feliberti was a girl, who held his kite in her small hands.

“She was slightly shorter than me, like our six-year-old girls, and had bronzed white skin. She held my kite and I was very angry, enough to charge at her and struggle for [the kite], which was mine, but she wouldn’t let go. There was also a very big man, some six feet tall, not fat, but well-built and somewhat blonde. He loooked human, but didn’t do anything. I just wanted my kite back.”

At that point, the young female figure showed him “many toys” that were in her possession, some of them “with colored lights” (certainly not something one would expect to see in rural Puerto Rico in the late 1920s), and asked if he would like to play with her. But the headstrong boy wanted no part of her or the unusual wonders being profferred – just his kite. The girl touched some buttons on a box in front of her and spiral wisps of “smoke” began to form in the air, coalescing into a sort of monkey. She kept producing these creatures, which would then obediently return to their box as wisps of smoke again. The girl asked young Feliberti if he was willing to trade the kite for the object, to which he agreed. The rest of the story played out as in the original “Julio” narrative in Salvador Freixedo’s Ellos.

In September of 1977, Luis Sandoval, who lived on the outskirts of the town of Corozal, Puerto Rico, encountered an improbable creature that would have fit equally well in a modern Ufology book or in a turn of the century fairy text. Sandoval, who lived on a hilltop with his wife, was resting on a neighboring peak one afternoon, taking in a spectacular view ofthe island's northern coast, when he unexpectedly heard a loud report and huge ball of light hurtling down toward him. The light faded away to reveal a little creature with yellowish skin, large black eyes and unpleasant facial features, clad "as if for a wedding" in a grey tuxedo, yellow shirt with a white collar and a green cravat. Its head was covered by a helmet. Sandoval states that the being told him not to be afraid, for it was an "ultraterrestrial being". It then proceeded to check the stunned human's feet, knees and chest with a device resembling a stethoscope. The medical exam continued as the gaily-clad ultraterrestrial auscultated Sandoval's back and placed its hands on his temples and head. When the bizarre exam was over, the being turned around and was once again enveloped in the sphere of light that had brought him there.

The dog that had accompanied Sandoval "howled throughout the incident", a fact which frightened him the most, as he expressed a belief that dogs howl when the dead appear. The animal ran away after the encounter, and was found dead days later by its owner.

Gnomes, dwarves, elves and their cohorts have always been described as wearing colorful garments, and Sandoval's "ultraterrestrial MD" was undoubtedly dressed to kill. In a classic case which took place in Everittstown, NJ in 1957, John Trasco confronted a putty-faced little man who wanted to take his dog. The entity was sternly rebuked ("Get the hell out of here!") and promptly made itself scarce. It was described as wearing "a green suit with shiny buttons, with a green tam-o'-shanter-like cap, and gloves with a shiny object at the tip of each." It vanished in a brilliant egg-shaped object.

Far from Puerto Rico, in the Mexican coastal state of Veracruz, trucker Miguel Angel Garcia, transporting 50 sheets of asbestos and cement, had his own brush with the unknown on May 18, 1973. As he drove along Highway 95 from the towns of La Tinaja to Tierra Blanca, he found a knot of “very small men” standing in the middle of the lanes, flagging him down near the outskirts of the village of Cintalapa.

When he came within a hundred feet of them, he realized that the “small men” weren’t even human, but “chaneques”. The driver then decided to pull over, leave his vehicle, and pursue the small, fleet figures into the woods, coming up emptyhanded. Upon returning to his truck, he found that it was enveloped in blue flames, with even the flame-resistant asbestos burning to ash, according to contemporary newspaper accounts (Mexico’s Novedades tabloid, in June 1973). The losses were estimated at some thirty-five thousand US Dollars.

The Mexico Leyendas website (www.mexicoleyendas.com) includes a verbatim account by the confused truck driver: “I was driving along Kilometer 18 of the road from La Tinaja to Tierra Blanca, approaching the village of Cintalapa, when I suddenly saw a group of people standing in the middle of the road, and that’s why I slowed down. When they were a short distance from me, I could see that they were very small men, not even the size of a dwarf. They were strangely dressed. They looked like goblins or gnomes that had come out to meet me with their arms in the air. Once I got near them, I stopped the truck. It seems that upon descending from the cab, I startled the little men with my presence. They fled in a rush and became lost in the vegetation.

“After a fruitless search, I decided to return , and you can imagine my surprise when I saw the truck engulfed in gigantic blue flames. Even though I couldn’t feel the heat, the flames devoured the truck and its load, even though what I was hauling was cement and asbestos sheeting.” Some varieties of asbestos are flame-resistant to 5000 centigrade (9000 Fahrenheit) so the reported heatless fire Garcia reported was in itself an episode of high-strangeness.

Are these diminutive creatures in any way related to the UFO phenomenon? There is no clear-cut answer. Some of them have been seen emerging from odd vehicles while in other cases there has been no object present. They clearly predate the vast number of sightings of "Greys" which generally began in the late 70's, and their aims appear to be different from those of the latter. Perhaps we are waging a war on two fronts.

Costa Rica: Authorities Cannot Ascertain Source of Midnight "Explosion"

2012-01-09T12:37:00.000-08:00

Costa Rica: Authorities Cannot Ascertain Source of Midnight “Explosion”

Source: La Nación (Costa Rica)
Date: 09 January 2012
www.nacion.com/sucesos

San José (Hilda Miranda – Newsroom). The loud noise resembling that of an explosion was heard by dozens of people around midnight yesterday hitherto lacks any explanation by officialdom.

Neither the National Meteorological Institute (IMN) nor the OVISCORI (Costa Rican Vulcanology Observatory) have any records of a phenomenon that could have been responsible for the loud reverberations.

According to hundreds on the social networks, a powerful report -- lasting more than five minutes – was heard around midnight yesterday.

Reports from readers of La Nación on Facebook suggest that the reverberations were heard in parts of San José and in more remote communities such as Turrialba, San Ramon, Coronado, Heredia, Escazú and others.

According to the IMN, the atmosphere’s behavior in recent hours was normal. “Experts checked the satellite signal and no record of any anomalous situation was found,” stated Mario Sánchez, the agency’s press officer.

Similarly, the Observatorio Vulcanologico y Sismológico de Costa Rica (OVSICORI) informed that there was no record of any strong tremor that could have given rise to the loud buzzing.

Another version that made the rounds held that the explosions were from festivities in the town of Zapote, but the parties in charge of the celebrations dismissed this conjecture.

“The fireworks were normal. We are aware of that noise, but we don’t believe that it has anything to do with the festivities at Zapote, because people heard it in places far from [the community],” said Rafael Arias, an advisor to the San José city hall.

Arias further noted that the closing cannonade was at approximately 9 p.m., but that unauthorized parties discharged a series of “bomblets” around 12 a.m. “But it wasn’t a loud sound either,” he noted.

Some readers also stated that lights in the sky accompanied the loud noise.

(Translation (c) 2012, Scott Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Alex Astua)

Argentina: Seven UFOs Reported Over Resistencia

2012-01-09T07:25:00.000-08:00

Argentina: Seven UFOs Reported Over Resistencia

Date: 08 January 2012
Source: Diario NORTE
http://diarionorte.com/noticia.php?numero=77133

Strange flashes in the skies over Resistencia attracted the gaze of residents of different sections of the provincial capital, who reported the presence of numerous unidentified flying objects (UFOs) coming out of the south and heading north. The sighting occurred on Thursday noon, when the sun was at its fullest.

Residents of Villa San Martín spread the word so that several would be able to see the seven objects moving through the air unhurriedly, some of them flashing lights.

Availing themselves of the cellphones, some managed to capture images showing small circles in the sky. One of [the witnesses] recounted the episode to NORTE, claiming that it occurred once more yesterday.

While choosing to remain anonymous to avoid being laughed at by those who know him, the young man – who only managed to take a few photos – stated the following: “Along with other residents of Villa San Martin, we saw objects on 5 January, only a few minutes before noon. First there were three. They were triangular in shape and reflected the sun like mirrors. We could see them clearly, since they were flying relatively low and traveled north apparently very slowly. It was later possible to clearly see other similar ones, for a total of seven, moving at the same speed and heading.”

While some of the objects issued a very strong white reflection, at certain moments it was possible to tell that they “were shaped like boomerangs.”

“It all happened very quickly, and amid the astonishment, I was able to take a few photos. Unfortunately, under such conditions, one regrets not having had better equipment to show the objects in detail,” reported a neighbor, who approached us to discuss the events.

The incident was later subjected to comments through social networks in the hopes that other citizens who may have seen the UFOs may make their own remarks, and if possible, contribute new images.

In their own discussions, the local residents dismiss the possibility that the sighting may have been part of meteorological studies, due to the shape of the object. They also explained that they were following a given course and moved at a similar speed, never making any abrupt movements as has been described in many cases. In any event, while some skeptics are to be found, others claim that these are indeed UFOs.

(Translation (c) 2012 Scott Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)

Mexico: A Fireball over Sinaloa

2012-01-08T12:13:00.001-08:00

Source: analuisacid.com.mx
Date: 05 January 2012

Mexico: Fireball over Sinaloa

Local residents reported seeing a fireball in the sky that split into three parts before disappearing.

The phenomenon took place yesterday afternoon, Wednesday 04 January 2012.

Tatiana Kokima and Emiliato Terán, astrophysicists with the State Science Center (Centro de Ciencias del Estado), who form part of the search team, dismissed the possibility that it could be a meteorite given that the Sinaloa's Seismic Network did not pick up any impact.

Accoridng to the Civil Protection agency, it could be "space junk".

On the other hand, NASA confirmed detection of a heavenly body that entered the atmosphere at 18:50 hours on 04 January, and which could have crashed somewhere in the Sierra de Sinaloa on the border with Chihuahua, or in the municipalities of Salvador Alvarado and Mocorito.

No official story has been put forward.

(Translation (c) 2012, S.Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Ana Luisa Cid)

Argentina: A High Strangeness Event from 1986

2012-01-08T11:29:00.000-08:00

Our friends at Grupo G.A.B.I.E. have shared the following report from the mid-80s that suggests a possible abduction experience or at least a high-strangeness incident that is being made known only now, nearly 30 years later.

Narrative:
The event occurred on 24 December 1986
Experiencer's age: 10 years old
Name: Luis Sánchez
Location: Tucumán, Argentina
Source: Grupo GABIE grupo_gabie@yahoo.com.ar

"Christmas Eve, surrounded by family and after the celebrrations, time was 02:30 in the morning approximately -- that I'll never forget.

"The Christmas toast went by, people's mood was cheered by celebration - a lovely recollection. I finished launching the rockets that my father would buy for me while they were seated around the table, from beneath a gallery in front of the house. I headed to the door. We always had a large backyard with plants, trees, etc.

"As I stood at the door, I heard a noise, but I thought it was the sound of little bottle rockets. But the sound didn't stop - it was constant, like the sound of a cave with whistling wind or something like it, like a turbine. It was something that buzzed in my ears.

"I looked upward, as the sound came from above, and I saw something. It looked like a car without wheels, slab-shaped (its lower section, which was visible to me, had a rectangle similar to a small door). It also had color. It was a strange color, grey mixed with light blue, clearly visible in the part I could see. It had two lights in the rounded forward section; a light that wasn't painful, but was a beam of straight light. Upon seeing it, I was paralyzed for a brief moment. It was as if they wanted me to see them. I felt connected - and happy.

"It hovered above my house, going from the door to the back, crossing the entire house, at a height over the street light wires, the lamp posts, a slow speed that I can't estimate. It was like an old lady walking, very slow...it was really low, some 15 to 20 meters at least. I ran to the back of the house, since I supposed it would appear there. As I ran, I told my brother Eduardo, age 8, to come with me to see this thing! I was fascinated. He ran with me and we came out to the backyard. We covered approximately 14 meters (45 feet). I looked to the sky, thinking the object would appear.

"After that, I don't remember anything at all.

"That very same night, I woke up in my bed. I was in my room. Right next to the place where waited for the object. The time was around 4 in the morning when I woke up. I went to my mother, and asked her: "Where's Eduardo?" Sleeping, she replied. I never knew what happened. That's all that was left in my mind.

"The next day I asked my brother, and he told me he only saw a light, and remembered nothing else afterward.

"I don't know what happened, but strange events like this began to occur [in my life]. I will tell you more later on."

Let's hope that G.A.B.I.E.'s enigmatic correspondent indeed decides to share his subsequent experiences. We will keep our readers abreast of further developments.

Argentina: UFOs Caught by the Camera's Eye, Yet Never Seen

2012-01-07T05:48:00.000-08:00

Quequén (Necochea): UFOs Caught by the Camera’s Eye, Yet Never Seen
By Guillermo D. Gimenez, Contributing Editor, Inexplicata

On January 6, 1981, around 10: 45 a.m., a photojournalist named Juan Carlos Lima and a staff writer, both from the El Atlántico newspaper (Necochea desk) headed toward a residential district under construction in the vicinity of Quequén’s Irurzun Hospital for an article regarding the progress on housing erected for victims of the 1980 floods, when the great Quequén River overflowed as a result of torrential rains throughout Buenos Aires, flooding and destroying homes, bridges and sweeping away animals and an array of objects.

Having secured photos of the neighborhood and the newspaper article completed, they returned to the lab to develop the roll of film. At the lab, Lima noticed that one of his photos presented a spot. Thinking that it was debris on the film, he redeveloped it, but was startled to see that it wasn’t a spot. Rather, he had photographed a UFO without seeing it.

Analyzing the Case

The photographer, Juan Carlos Lima, took the negative to a photo laboratory with a wider range of equipment to confirm the identity of the object he’d captured, studying it under powerful magnification with a colleague. Both men were able to make out its contours, shape and the resemblance to two plates joined at their edges (or a hat shape). This is the circumstance that determined the reality of the photograph. He had indeed photographed a UFO.

The next day, “El Atlántico” published the photograph, but providing an entirely incorrect version and twisting the information.

Troubled by what was published, the photographer wired the newsroom at the TELAM news agency and on 08.01.81, Buenos Aires’s “Cronica” newspaper published the story supplied by Juan Carlos Lima under the title “UFOs Also Enjoy the Summer”. Over many long years of research, ufologists have detected that the press – on certain occasions – provide another form of dissemination that differs from the events that truly occurred in order to provide a more sensational slant to the story.

The Photo

The photo was taken with a Pentax camera, using a 21 DIN black and white roll of film. Shutter speed was set at 1/240 and an f8 stop. Most of the other photos had already been used in journalistic pursuits.

The distance between the photographer and the building under construction, visible in the photo, is approximately 70 meters (230 ft.) with the sun visible high in the sky (bear in mind that the time was nearly 11:00 a.m.) with some clouds on a full summer day.

The Witness

The witness was interviewed four (4) times throughout the length of this investigation by this author, as well as a colleague from Buenos Aires, and was perceived as an honest and sincere person. He displayed no interest in the subject, but firmly believed that he had photographed a UFO.

Juan Carlos Lima’s sincerity is further evidenced in his interest in providing the accurate version of the events upon seeing a completely false version published by “El Atlántico” in Mar del Plata (on 07.01.81), prompting him to write a news agency with the exact story of how he had come to take a picture of the object (“Crónica”, Buenos Aires, 08.01.81).

Similar Cases

Throughout worldwide photo case histories we have come across incidents similar to this one, with three mentioned by way of example:

1. April 1, 1970: Mr. Eduardo Stukert takes photos at Urca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Upon developing the roll, he notices the presence of four (4) highly luminous and cigar-shaped objects (mother ships). The photographer had not seen them.
2. April 21, 1973: Palmar de Colon, Entre Rios, Argentina. Ms. Zulema Martorelli photographs birds flying in an unusual way, startled by this incident. Upon developing the roll, the presence of a large object that had been invisible to her was revealed.
3. November 11, 1977: Near Montevideo, Uruguay. Photographer Escribana Alicia Volante de Zito captures another UFO on film that was undetected by her eyes.

Other Sightings

That very same day (06.01.81) several local residents approached the newsroom of “El Atlántico” to report on a strange tubular object, bright yellow in color, which flew over the city that afternoon.

In downtown Necochea, three other witnesses (whose information is on file) saw a UFO the size of a coin, yellow-white in color, heading west at around 21:30 hours on the 6th of January. The object made an abrupt descent to vanish from the sight of witnesses. The event lasted only a few minutes. When sources were consulted about flights on 06 January by helicopters and/or airplanes, they indicated that no flights other than those proper to the city’s air facility had taken place.

(Translation (c) 2012, S. Corrales, IHU)

Argentina: The New UFO Museum

2012-01-05T04:31:00.000-08:00

Source: Diario Victoria
Date: 01.03.12
http://www.diariovictoria.com.ar/2012/01/se-inauguro-la-nueva-sede-del-museo-ovni/

Argentina: The New UFO Museum (Museo OVNI)

Last night was the official inauguration of the Museo OVNI in the city of Victoria, at which provincial and local authorities were on hand.

This new site is located at Calle Sarmiento between Além and 25 de Mayo streets, being more centrally located and spacious than the former facility.

A more tourist-oriented approach is offered to visitors, including such amenities as, for example, being photographed while “traveling” aboard a flying saucer. It is also possible to find journalistic material, photographs, curios, information on cattle mutilations, crop circles and other strange phenomena.

The inauguration was presided by Ruben Dario Garcilazo, intendente (mayor) of the City of Victoria, who praised the efforts made by Silvia Pérez Simondini. “This is important for both Victoria and Silvia, a way of appreciating her research endeavors, which she has carried out with great seriousness. It pleases me that this result has been achieved,” beamed the mayor.

Furthermore, Garcilazo took the opportunity to add: “We hope that this helps to bring visitors to Victoria, and to this end, we shall be aiding and supporting this new attraction for the city, so that it may be declared of municipal interest and appreciated by tourists to Victoria.

The “Museo OVNI” is the result of years of virtually pro-bono dedication on the part of Silvia Perez Simondini, her relatives and friends, who came to Victoria as a result of public awareness of the phenomenon in the vicinity in late August 1991.

Raul Gonzalez, the provincial secretary of tourism, confirmed that the opening of the Museo OVNI in the “city of the seven hills” is a new alternative of great worth for tourism. “This is a new stage for family-oriented tourism visiting the city of Victoria,” assured the provincial official.

(Translation (c) 2012, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)

Argentina: A Landmark UFO Case from 1972 is Disclosed

2012-01-04T09:39:00.000-08:00

Marcos Barraza of Nuestro Pasado Extraterrestre shares with us this document from 1972 - the first official report by Argentina's "Gendarmería Nacional" concerning a UFO incident.

He writes the following in his blog: "It was on January 2, 2010, during the inauguration of the Nuevo Museo del OVNI (the New UFO Museum) in the city of Victoria that the research staff of VISION OVNI startled the authorities and the public with what is the FIRST OFFICIAL UFO DOCUMENT from Argentina's Gendarmería Nacional. It is important to examine this document with care. It includes the information, names and surnames, places and details of an encounter between a Gendarmería Aircraft and a UFO, but [particular importance must be given] to Page 4, which explains: "This form... and has the purpose of informing the senior ranks of the Institution for the preparation anf an orderly and updated file of phenomena of this nature (!!!)." Today, thanks to the VISION OVNI team, we are sharing with you this first document, corresponding to the Gendarmeria Argentina. Stay tuned for more!"

We would like to extend our thanks to Marcos Barraza for making us aware of this development on his Facebook page and to SYLVIA AND ANDREA PEREZ SIMONDINI for their tireless work toward ending UFO secrecy in Argentina.

Without further ado, here is the translation of this landmark 1972 sighting:

Supreme Army Command
Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
Information pursuant to the event:
Time of the sighting: 02 November 1972, 20:30 hours
2. Sighting location: Province of Buenos Aires - Campo de Mayo -- in flight.
3. Atmospheric conditions:
a) Skies: Clear and starry - Lunar altitude: Moon not visible
b) Atmosphere: diaphanous
c) Adjacent soil: Low and damp.
d) Soil under the observer: Observers were in flight.
e) Visibility: Normal nocturnal flight conditions.
4. Circumstances surrounding the phenomenon.
a) Activity being conducted before the phenomenon was observed: Nocturnal flying instruction since 19:20 hours.
b) Activity carried out at the time the sighting took place: Nocturnal landing and takeoff instruction from header 36 of the Campo de Mayo runway.
c) Persons accompanying observer at the time of the sighting: 1st Ensign D. Alejandro Urs Vogt, Gendarmerie pilot, reviewing the Flight Squadron, and Mr. Jorge Torrecilla, Gunnery Instructor at the Gendarmerie and of the Joint Senior Staff for "Police Training", also a civilian pilot.
d) Location with regard to the observer and the phenomenon.
1. Observer's geographic location: Over Campo de Mayo.
2. Relative position of the place the phenomenon occurred with regard to the observer and the cardinal points: 320 degrees with regard to Campo de Mayo (runway 36-18).
3. Representation of the initial position of the phenomenon observed in the panoramic display: See drawing attached in Exhibit 1.
4. Indicate in the display the phenomenon's trajectory using dotted lines, marking its progression with increasing numbers: See drawing in Exhibit 1.
Page 2
Indicate the distance from the observer: 35 to 40 approximately.
a) Angular altitude of the phenomenon with regard to the horizon, from 0 to 90 degrees: 25 degrees, approximately.
b) Angle of the vertical plane running through the observer and the phenomenon in an N-S direction: 320 degrees.

General description of the event:
a) Total observation time for the phenomenon: 40 minutes, approximately.
b)Total time it remained in the each position occupied: The object remained static, accompanying the movement of the Gendarmeria Nacional aircraft, registration GN 7E during a 10 to 12 minute period.
c) Physical shape and characteristics of the phenomenon or object witnessed: See drawing and description in Exhibit II.
d) Manner in which the sighting occurred: Plain sight and through the portholes and windshield of the single-engine Cessna 182 aircraft.
e) Description of the phenomenon. See Exhibit II, Part 2.
f) Attitude of the complainant with regard to the sighting of the phenomenon: The Flight Instructor of the pertinent Gendarmeria Nacional squadron, 2nd Commander D. Ramon Hector Flores, decided to head toward the phenomenon in order to observe it, requesting authorization to do so from the Campo de Mayo control tower.
6. Traces, evidence or clues that may have been left behind or taken.
a) Disturbances experienced (engine, radio, battery, etc.): None.
b) Marks, signs, or damage that may have been left behind in the vicinity (over homes, etc.): None.
c) Traces or clues arising from the event which may have been collected (material, etc.): None.
d) Photographs, films: None taken due to a lack of equipment.

III. Information Related to the Reporting Party
1. Personal information.
a) Ramon Hector Flores, Second Commander, Gendarmeria Flight Squadron, based out of Campo de Mayo.
b) Age: 35
c) Education: Secondary, Escuela de Gendarmeria Nacional, Escuela Nacional de Aviacion Civil (civil aviation school - 3 years)

Page 3
Obtained commercial pilot's license with rating for instrument and nocturnal flying, crop-dusting and flight instruction.
a) Work locations for the past 10 years: Campo de Mayo, Formosa and Flight Squadron.
b) Home Address: Tomas Edison 1076, San Miguel, Province of Buenos Aires 656-0302 and 656-0425.

2. General Information (psychological profile)
a) Has the informant witnessed objects or events of an unknown or hard to explain nature? (evil lights, wolfman, ghosts, etc.): Never.
b) Reading material, movies, magazines and television that he customarily reads or views: Reading material related to aeronautical subjects or current events.
c) Hobbies and specialties: Recreational shooting and sports.
d) What does he understand "the beyond" to mean?: The informant believes that he is unprepared to define the possibility of life on other worlds. Does not believe in spiritism and extra-sensory perception.
e) What was his opinion to this day of those who claimed to have had, or participated in, UFO experiences?: In most cases, they were stories from people who had truly seen something, not dismissing the possibility that psychological influences and the lack of technical knowledge may have lead people to believe they had witnessed alien spacecraft.
f) What does he think of his recent experience?: Personally, he believes that it has been interesting, yet unable to speak as to the nature of the phenomenon. He therefore restricted himself to providing an objective report of what was seen.
g) What was the reaction of his escorts?: The reaction of the informant and his escorts was one of complete calm, proven by the decision to try and ascertain the nature of the phenomenon by moving in for closer inspection.
h) Was he smoking, or were any of his companions doing so?: He does not smoke and his escorts did not smoke throughout the proceedings.

Signed
RAMON HECTOR FLORES 2nd Commander
Informant

Page 4

IV. Opinion of the commanding officer regarding the informant's personality: Brilliant and outstanding officer who has merited a grading of 90 points.
V. Opinion of the commanding officer about the facts reported: Bearing in mind the seriousness and professional and moral capacity of 2nd Commander D. Hector Flores, I fully accept his version of the events reported.

Campo de Mayo, November 5, 1972.
{SEAL- Commander in Chief of the Army - Flight Squadron- SHIELD - Gendarmeria Nacional]
Signed
Brig. Alberto Thomasset - Commander - Flight Squadron.

REMARKS: This form must be filled out by the immediate superior of anyone who attests to the sighting of an Unidentified Flying Object and has the purpose of informing the senior ranks of the Institution for the preparation anf an orderly and updated file of phenomena of this nature, observed by personnel of its branch. This is an authentic copy of the original in four pages.

5. General Description of the Event
c. Physical Shape and Characteristics of the Phenomenon or Object Observed:
At the time that the sighting occurred, the object looked like an enormous half-moon with an irregular bottom edge, with a small light with bluish edges apparently hanging from this bottom edge. It subsequently disappeared after Campo de Mayo tower gave permission for the phenomenon to be examined more closely. The crew ascended toward it.
At a distance of approximately 12 kilometers, it was possible to see the object more clearly. It had a nearly spherical shape and well-defined shape at the time (see drawing in Exhibit II, upper). The bluish light vanished and the object's reddish hue became dim (a shade resembling borravino). It maintained this shape and color until the observers came within 300 meters approximately. At this time, a left turn maneuver was executed to avoid a collision at 1600 meters to the southeast of the city of Campana, Province of Buenos Aires.

e. Description of the Phenomenon:
Proceeding with the description initiated in the preceding point, the observers added that with the intention of improving their sighting, they turned off the aircraft's instrument and navigation lights (statutory external lights).

While making the left turn, it was possible to see that the object was approaching the aircraft, bringing about the need for this maneuver, until the object in question remained behind the aircraft's tail (stern). As the aforementioned maneuver was executed, two or three lights became visible. These were small, average-sized and of even size in the object's lower third (see drawing in Exhibit II, lower section).
The referenced turn was terminated with an approximate heading toward Campo de Mayo. At that moment, Mr. Jorge Torrecilla (civilian escort to the pilots), who was seated behind the pilot, noticed that the object was located 10 degrees to the left of the airplane's tail (stern), acquiring a more muted tone, maintaining its shape and distance with regard to the airplane.

The crew initiated a new left turn to try to see the object in more detail, but it lost itself from sight momentarily.

Once the maneuver was completed, and unable to see the vehicle, information was requested from the Control Tower to ascertain its presence. At that time, 1st Ensign D. Alejandro Urs Vogt noticed that the object was directly above the aircraft, prompting the crew to make a pronounced spiral dive down to an altitude of 600 meters. Two course changes were made at this altitude with 90 degree angles. In spite of this, the object remained constantly over the aircraft. All of this was reported to the Campo de Mayo Control Tower, which ordered the aircraft to return to base immediately, while it cleared other aircraft in flight from the area to enable a prompt landing.

The crew continued its straight line descent to Campo de Mayo, getting ready for final approach.

During this maneuver, the onlookers temporarily lost interest in the object. When they tried to locate it again, they were unable to do so. They asked the Control Tower for more information.

The tower reported that they had stopped seeing the referenced phenomenon. The crew then requested authorization to make a 360 degree turn to try to place the object once more, which was not feasible.

Upon returning to the base, they were welcomed by Army personnel for debriefing.
Throughout the proceedings, the crew kept permanently in contact with the control towers at Campo de Mayo and La Plata, respectively, advising them of their radio-electric location, altitude and other required information. The crew was also able to listen - over the radio - that an Aerolineas Argentinas airliner reported having the phenomenon in sight. Aside from all this, pilots from the Morón Air Base operating in neighboring areas were also made aware of the circumstance.

(Translation (c) 2012 S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Marcos Barraza and VISION OVNI)

Spain: UFO Sightings in Seville (1999)

2011-12-29T10:22:00.000-08:00

Spain: UFO Sightings in Seville (1999)
By José Manuel García Bautista

The following is a list of UFO sightings in the province of Seville (southern Spain) and outlying districts during the month of September 1999. Fraudulent, erroneous, confusing or rationally explainable sightings have been removed from this list. It is this researcher’s intention to report on the following.

First Sighting:
Day: September 4, 1999 (Saturday)
Location: Cornisa del Aljarafe, locality of Puebla del Rio, 25 km. from Seville
Time: 21: 45 hrs. (approximately)
Witnesses: Juan Alcalde Moreno and Soledad Sánchez
Weather: Clear, good conditions. Pleasant temperature
The Sighting: Two residents of Puebla del Rio, province of Seville, were able to see a very bright light from their vehicle that moved in the sky in an northward direction (Gerena-Aznalcollar, El Ronquillo area, etc.). The light followed an anomalous trajectory. According to witnesses, “it took little skips” and maintained a constant greenish color. The object issued a bright light that contrasted with the Sevillian afternoon. It followed its course unswervingly, with the exception of the small “skips”. The sighting lasted approximately 30 seconds, at which time the luminous dot ceased shining and vanished. The possibility of a weather balloon was discarded.

Second Sighting
Date: September 8, 1999 (Wednesday)
Place: Mountains to the north of Seville, locality of Alanís (115 Km. from Seville)
Time: 23:20 hrs. (approximately)
Witness: Antonio Vargas
Weather: Mutable. Rather cool and somewhat cloudy.
The sighting: Mr. Antonio Vargas was heading back to Alanís along the road from a small farm on which he keeps animals and had gone to “take them out for some air”, that is to say, to care for them, and all went well. As he took one of the many curves along the road, our witness was able to see how luminous spots emerged on a nearby hill: three powerful lights of an orange hue that would have formed a triangular shape, had they been linked together. The artifact appeared to take off slowly and silently from the ground, rising above it and heading skyward at an impressive speed. After reconnoitering the land in person, and having benefited from a visit to the locality of Constantina (near Alanis) I must remark that there are no marks to be found on t the ground (although the rain may have played a role in this) and I completely dismiss the possibility of air traffic over the area.

Third Sighting
Date: September 9, 1999 (Wednesday)
Location: Retortillo Reservoir in the mountains north of Seville, near the locality of Las Navas de la Concepción (some 100 km. from Seville)
Witnesses: María José Rodríguez, Francisco Ortega, María del Robledo García.
Time: 17:55 hours (approximately)
Weather: Cloudy and cold
The Sighting: Three witnesses were able to see a strange cloudy formation of the so-called “lenticular clouds” – disk-shaped and of considerable size, between 400 and 600 meters, according to the witnesses’ calculations. The strange cloud formation was very luminous and moved somewhat erratically, although the direction of the wind in the upper layers of our atmosphere does not necessarily agree with that of the lower levels. I think this has a natural explanation and falls under an atmospheric phenomenon.

Fourth Sighting
Date: September 15, 1999 (Wednesday)
Location: Route C-432 on the expressway between Seville and Cádiz and the locality of Lebrija in Seville province.
Witnesses: Rosa Montero and Pilar Castillo
Time: 15:30 hours (approx.)
Weather: Good. Agreeable temperatures and good visibility.
The Sighting: Our two witnesses from Seville were able to see an elongated, “sausage” or “cigar-shaped” object suspended in the sky over a golden field near the locality of Lebrija. The object did not appear to move and if it had any movement at all, it was imperceptible. Our witnesses placed its length at 100 meters. They lost the object from sight after continuing on their way; the object did not move or change its position at all. There is the curious note that there are numerous sightings of this sort along the entire length of this road, covering the communities of Lebrija-Trebuena-Sanlucar de Barrameda-Chipiona-Rota (the last four belonging to Cádiz)

Fifth Sighting
Date: September 18, 1999 (Saturday)
Location: Aznalcóllar – El Castillo de las Guardas, Seville (some 40 km. distant)
Witnesses: Francisco López and Agustín Baena
Time: 22:00 hrs. (approx.)
Weather: Poor. Strong winds and rain. Unpleasant temperature.
The sighting: The two witnesses were returning to Seville from Sierra de Huelva when they noticed a highly luminous and strange shape in the sky. It emitted lights that alternated between green, light blue and orange-yellow. It followed an irregular trajectory, as it made curious angles between 75 and 90 degrees, much to the amazement of the witnesses, who at first attributed it to the bad weather and atmospheric instability. The object appeared to head eastward (that is to say, from Huelva to Guardas). It was swift, as it took some 40 seconds to cross the witnesses’ line of sight, taking its brightness into consideration as a reference to its distance. The road was empty due to the inclement weather. The phenomenon could have been attributed to a heavenly phenomenon or perceptive error on the part of the witnesses, particularly due to poor visibility, but the area’s reputation as a UFO haven leads us to think that there could have been something more to it, since there are many such reports in the area, and many witnesses claim having seen these strange objects – among them renowned ufologists such as Joaquín Mateos and Ignacio Darnaude.

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology (IHU)

Spain: Strange Phenomena at the Bobadilla Army Base (2002)

2011-12-28T17:33:00.000-08:00

Spain: Strange Phenomena at the Bobadilla Army Base (2002)
By José Manuel Garcia Bautista and Rafael Cabello

The Bobadilla Military Facility is located in the province of Málaga, which was an operating military base with considerable activity for a long time, but it is still not known for sure why the Spanish army stopped making use of it, at least as far as public opinion is concerned. Given that it is under the control of the EA – Spain's “ejercito del aire” - the air force) and its activity is completely zero, many wonder the reason why the Ministry of Defense insists on keeping it open, even when it has no use whatsoever, in theory.

In the 1970s, while this air base was operational, a strange UFO event took place within it. Toward the end of the decade, a fleet of unidentified flying objects was photographed by a group of UFO buffs from the lovely province of Málaga who decided to look into the sighting, requesting permission from the highest official in charge to secure information on sightings in the area. The officer-in-charge placed a sizable file on the surface of his desk and named a price for it. In spite of this, and the materialistic interest in the subject, the base has been and remains the subject of phenomena related to the UFO phenomenon.

Those of us who are fortunate enough to know the site where the Bobadilla Base is located can say that it is in a mountainous area that can be reached on N-342 highway, following a well-marked detour. Nearby is the river that empties into the Guadalhorce Reservoir and the railroad lines that vanish into the heart of the base. This is the spot where even today a considerable number of sightings are reported. There is a particular interest for the mountainous area that surrounds the military base. It is not unusual to record and see strange lights in the dark of night over these mountains; a UFO was even seen to land in this location. As a witness to that event, we have Jose Luis Pelaez, a renowned researcher from Málaga who belongs to the EDENEX group.

Events related to the UFO subject are not restricted to mere sightings or even landings: there have been frequent encounters with strange creatures of unknown origin, as is the case involving two young soldiers from Seville who were on duty at the railroad facility in the tunnel under the base. One of these young men discussed his experience with us:

“While standing guard during an unloading of munitions from a military merchandise train to the platform within a well-lit tunnel (bulbs staggered along its length), my companion (another soldier) saw a strange shape standing 1.20 meters. It was black and descended to the train tracks in a dynamic, easy and agile way, covering a 3 meter distance. When we took the safeties of our rifles, intimidated by the creature's behavior and presence, the strange being turned around and looked at us both with menacing red eyes, Next, in response to our unflinching conduct, the creature leaped and vanished. The hypothesis that it could have been an animal or a rat was dismissed immediately, and we asked ourselves if we'd seen the same thing. Our observations matched 100 per cent.” What was that thing? It is said that very strange things have taken place in that military base. The soldiers reported the incident to their superior, who replied with a laconic: “You've seen nothing at all.” Odd behavior on the part of an officer being given the news that the base has possibly been infiltrated. Or was he aware of this being's presence?

This has not been the only encounter involving beings of this appearance. There are many stories of young soldiers who claim having seen a small being, standing 1.20 meters, with large red eyes and a sort of crest, wandering around the bushes, appearing to emerge from a strange and sudden green light.

Collecting stories and conducting research, the case surrounding the events at this base, a soldier assigned to this location once said that a strange animal had been captured. “My companion, who'd studied veterinary medicine and was more of a country boy than Huckleberry Hound, had no idea what it was. It was different from anything we knew. A sort of reptile, yet without being so, and making some very strange noises. Given its zoological importance, we took it to the base lock-up and put it in a cage until the duty officer turned up and took it into custody. We were astounded to see a dark, unmarked helicopter landed at night. As fellow servicemen told us later, three military men descended from the craft, took the cage and went off with the animal. There was no log of the strange “visitor's arrival”. The critter looked like a reptilian penguin with strong mandibles and claws, but it must've been a cub, as it was very small (some 35 to 40 cm.).”

Strange black helicopter sightings are also common (remind you of something?) and fly over the area with total impunity, and with tacit acceptance by the military.

Strange luminous spheres have often been seeing flying at low altitude by base authorities. They are roughly 90 cm in diameter, float and wander around the inside and outside the base at will. They make no noise, but stand out in the dark of the night. The next day, after inspecting the places where these orbs have transited, all that can be found is the mute testimony of some charred vegetation, whose damage remains unexplained.

It is not unusual to see strange shadows and lights in the barracks – even strange luminescent human shapes that have caused sentries to very nearly open fire against them. These events remind us of the events that occurred a long time ago in 1976 at the Talavera la Real Base, or the more recent 1998 case at the Morón de la Frontera base.

There are still many who wonder why this base remains open. It is only employed as a magazine or military warehouse today, with railroad access and a protective tunnel. “KEEP OUT” signs bar access to some locations, restrictions that apply even to military personnel on duty. What is going on in Bobadilla? Cases such as Morón de la Frontera have only served to open Pandora's Box for these two researchers on the unusual events that take place in Southern Spain's military facilities, where there is still considerable secrecy and concealed activities that have not yet been made known to the public at large. Our country has a specific number of facilities that constitute a single body of UFO experiences, kept down by the weighty slab of official silence...

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU)

1978: UFOs at the Brink of War

2011-12-23T13:40:00.000-08:00

“The reason for publishing this account,” writes Carlos Iurchuk, editor of Argentina’s El Dragon Invisible, “so soon after having received it is in the hope that it may be possible to contact some of the other people who participated in this event.” We do not know if Mr. Iurchuk was ever able to get hold of any other witnesses to the event described below, which was sent to his publication in e-mail form by one of the percipients.

On September 27, 2005, a man identifying himself only as “juanperez 19” submitted the following e-mail to El Dragón Invisible. After introducing himself, and promising that he would tell his story step-by-step, he described his experiences at length:

“It was 1978, and Argentina was on the verge of going to war with Chile. Along with thousands of other soldiers, we were stationed and trained in less than eight months to face this contingency. And that’s how we learned to live – armed to the teeth, sharing our lives stoically in a hostile, unforgiving environment. In one of our forays (to Quilcha, less than three hundred meters from the border) we spent many nights on watch. Observation was our number one priority.

“I should remark that the locals, whether Chilean or Argentinean, treat seeing “lights” in the same way we deal with passing automobiles. They are unflappable in this regard. It may be that they have a very simple, cold manner of weighing matters. Useful/not useful, good/bad, aggressive/non-aggressive, and our visitors are anything but aggressive. I would say that in any event, some are more curious than others. They have the luxury of watching us in the same way we look at them: with a measure of astonishment.

"You should see my gestures, and my alarm at seeing lights floating in the darkness, and the locals (chatos) replying: “Hey, what’s all the fuss about? It’s a disk, they’re always there!”

After my initial sighting on the skirts of Cerro Otto (my company was below, CA-ING-MON-6 and the Andean Instruction School, Kilometer 10, facing [lake] Nahuel and next to the Balseiro Atomic Center, there was something floating slowly over the mountain, changing from red to yellow lights. Nothing was ever the same, by the mere fact that no-one ever thought to reply to its signals, including our superiors. What was it? Aside from its exasperating slowness, time appeared to stand still. Eight to ten minutes, and it appeared to fall down behind the other side of the mountain, from which only a flash could be seen. It blended with an extremely moonlight night, so bright that it seemed like day.

“Later on, in the open countryside, while demarkating routes, we found ourselves at Cerro Leones, fifteen hundred meters from the airport. Using your wristwatch face as an example, the airport was at 12 o’clock, the ancient train station and our bivouac at :17 minutes. It was an enchanted place, where I once saw beautiful red deer drinking from a stream, while searching for sustenance, which was scarce on more than one occasion.

“Across from us was a smal canyon, with a significant depth. It acted like a funnel at one of its ends. Average length, fifteen hundred meters; width, five hundred. These are approximations.

“On nights of full moon, this wilderness was always DARK, given its shape and depth. With my rifle beside me, I stood guard yet another night, when the canyon suddenly lit up with a glowing yellow light. The time? 0200 hours.

“I woke up my tentmate and told him I’d seen a tremendous light, but it had now gone out (may I remind you that these were the signs of an imminent war).

“XXX, which is the name of my companion and driver, told me to stop drinking so much wine and to quit fooling around. I insisted and said: “You blockhead, what if its the Chileans? Who’s going to warn the patrol? Come with me or I’m going alone.” I harbored doubts about what that thing could be, but I couldn’t take the luxury of interrupted my comrades’ well-deserved sleep due to something that I wasn’t completely certain about.

“XXX got up and grudgingly accompanied me to what was basically a ledge. We were discussing things in hushed tones, and there was no sign of the light. Suddenly everything turned bright again. We speculated that it could have been a truck or conventional vehicle, but our knowledge of the area screamed at us that this was impossible.

“These flashes had a duration of seconds, like winks of the eye, but the light was incredible. In the middle of all this, we decided to contact our superior, nurse corporal YYY, who for some reason did not refuse and got up like a firefighter. When he arrived, the moon was shining over the airport and nearly causing the Andean Pre-Cordillera to cast a shadow. We were facing the moonlight, the canyon was in shadow, and we told him that we saw lights below, and then nothing at all. Suddenly, stuck to the slopes of the facing mountain (like a refrigerator magnet), we saw the light and its source: a greysh disk with the approximate size of three large automobiles together (some ten meters long). Without making any noise, it had risen from the base, nearly at our own height. No buzzing noises, no smells, nothing. Only silence.
“When it varied its position we could see it only a few seconds in profile. It was as tall as a house (3 meters), its center was motionless, and it gave the impression of having hatches like an airplane, changing colors. These colors were not conventional for the time, as far as their luminosity was concerned. They resembled LED lights, that is to say, somewhat cotton-like (sic) and changed from yellow to red, then to green or purple, swiftly and fleetingly in a manner of seconds, extinguishing themselves just as fast.

“After it went off, it would appear in another second of the same slope, as though playing with our search. At this point, corporal YYY called the patrol leader, the entire patrol, and together they decided to summon First Lieutenant ZZZ, the base commander, along with all of the older soldiers like myself, who reported to see the strange new development with their FAL rifles in hand.

“When the big boss arrived, he asked us: “What’s going on? This had better be for real, or there’ll be hell to pay.”

“We all pointed at the darkness. And it happened. It lit up, and to our surprise, moved around illuminated, with a broken, abnormal flight pattern, like a zigzag, flying over us at about three hundred feet. It was really fast, like nothing we’d ever seen before. When it was overhead, First Lieutenant ZZZ, bellowed: “Load, damn it!” and the thing moved vertically, turning into a point.

“The worst part of this is that there’s something neither my comrades nor myself can recall about that night: what did we do later? Did we sleep, go dancing, etc.? One of them (and I seem him regularly, he lives over in Tigre) doesn’t remember the event, just fragments, like the clouds.

“Something happened that night, and I still can’t manage to recall what it was.

“My name is Carlos Letteri. I enlised as a recruit with Mountain Engineer Company 6, known today as the Juan Domingo Perón Regiment. I served as orderly, gunner and launcher. As such I took part in survival forays and “Vivac” due to the possible war with Chile over control of the Beagle Channel. This took place in the year 1978 – right in the middle of the Argentinean World Cup games. It lasted for nearly two years until Pope Wojtyla (John Paul II) mediated. We were the class of 1959 and it amalgamated with the class of 1960.

“The events involving UFO sightings occur in the Cerro Leones wilderness and the old Ferrocarriles Argentinos Train Station. At this point in time, soldiers of the class of 1960 spent nearly 50 days and nights together. It should be noted that the ones with knowledge of these sightings were members of the trained forces, who also had the most autonomy.”

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Carlos Iurchuk, El Dragón Invisible)

Victoria, Argentina: UFOs, Bridges and the Unexplained

2011-12-19T12:19:00.000-08:00

Victoria, Argentina: UFOs, Bridges and the Unexplained
By Silvia Pérez Simondini, Vision OVNI

The passing of the years has not caused the UFO phenomenon to dwindle at all over Victoria. Quite the contrary, each passing day brings a new sighting, a new eyewitness account.

We often believe that we are going against what is commonplace in other locations, where sightings occur at given times of the year, following schedules, only every so often etc.

None of this applies here. There are no case histories that resemble those that we have heard other analysts of the phenomenon bring up. It’s as though they lived here, much like any one of us. They come and go as they please, when the feel the need to do so.

Our research has a strong focus of interest, and it is the river. A subject that has earned us our share of headaches, but a number of researchers have done no less than prove us right. The intelligent behavior of these lights, as they enter and leave the river’s waters, puts their structure on display – a kind of small probe, but with the great possibility of making themselves appear as large as they wish.

At first it was very hard to make people take notice of what was going on in the water. Who could think that what we were showing was anomalous?

Surely they all thought that we could mistake these lights for the activity of fishermen. But after witnessing this activity 365 days a year, seeing what they do – for example, a single light splitting into two, three, four or ten lights at once, shifting from red to green with ease, standing one on top of the other in threes, one of each color, plunging into the water, the pilings, dry land with the same ease in which they float in the air – who indeed can dispute what our eyes are seeing?

It doesn’t mean that they are this or that. The same thing happens in Norway, where scientists have already formed the famous Hessdalen Project, giving them the name earthlights, almost certainly by virtue of lacking another parameter by which to describe them.

We have some. We have noticed after several tests, for example, that when white lights are stimulated in the hope of receiving a reply, no reply was ever received (unlike fishermen, who immediately return signals flashed at them). However, using a red laser light, we have obtained a reply in a single instance, a clear sign that no further reply should be expected. What is the reason for this? Can they not see the white light, but are able to see the red one?

While this may seem like science fiction, another matter we’ve ascertained is that Saturdays are the day on which this manifestation occurs the most. Why? We have managed to record them from very early until late in the evening. It would seem as if they collected a certain element and deposited into another light, one that is white and motionless. They emerge once more to perform the same work.

If we had to specify where these lights emerge from, we would have to say that they come from below, from the river bottom. This is what we can see. But we cannot be certain of it, since they appear to handle matter and anti-matter. Another detail to keep in mind is that on moonlit nights, no light is ever visible on the river. When they have done so, it’s as though a filter had been slipped on the light. It never appears white, but may be red, yellow or green.

This has been going on for the longest time in Victoria. Our team picked up on it seven years ago and today, with the construction of the bridge from Rosario to Victoria, the workers involved in the project have confirmed what we have been saying for so long.

These are a few things that have taken place in this construction project:

Case No.1: “Where’s the dredge’s strut?”

When construction began on this bridge – so anticipated by residents of Victoria for over a hundred years – we felt disheartened. Not about the bridge, but about our subject. Everything would become filled with lights and noise; the phenomenon would almost certainly disappear; we wouldn’t even have the chance of finding out what it was. But we were wrong.

Not only did it *not* disappear, but it increased, causing concern not only to us, but to those involved in the construction work.

One of the first thing that happened startled everyone by its unexpected and mysterious nature. A Dutch company was in charge of dredging the river. Two support frogmen were involved in the project, monitoring the dredge’s work underwater. One of them came to our radio show (broadcast on FM Puente 102.1 on Saturdays from 1 to 2 p.m., know as Visión Ovni) to tell us what had happened. No explanation has been found to this very day.

He told us that one of the struts on the larger of the dredges had broken – something that while not very likely, is not uncommon. But what cannot happen is to have the dredge’s strut vanish altogether. In these cases, the frogman’s job consists in going down, digging a meter or more, hooking the strut and signaling the surface to hoist it. In this instance, despite digging a considerable depth, the strut was never found. The element in question measures 18 meters long by 50 cm in diameter, weighing 6 tons. An echo sounder swept the river bottom, but nothing was ever found.

This case reminds us of an event that occurred in 1993, when a research team belonging to an official agency, together with the Argentinean Naval Prefecture, engaged in a survey of the notorious Laguna del Pescado. To the astonishment of the specialists, they obtained an echo sound reading in excess of 30 meters, went far beyond the average depth of the site (which is between 2.50 and 3 meters). It was believed to be a technical error at first, but it was later ascertained that the readings were correct.

Such evidence allows us to gather elements that enable us to prove that activity completely unknown to us is taking place under the river’s waters, without giving it the qualifier of mysterious. This is one of many cases that took place, and which we can confirm.

Case No.2: “Not until I see it with my own eyes...”

Argentinean contracting firms like Puentes del Litoral, and some European ones – like the Dutch firm mentioned earlier, in charge of dredging operations – have become a presence in the area due to the construction of the Rosario-Victoria Bridge. Victoria was “invaded” by engineers and technicians who while aware of UFO phenomena in the area, never took into account as a factor to take into consideration. However, it would have a bearing on future work activities, as we will see here.

JR, the chief engineer, a Dutch national, unable to deal with his uncanny experience and the rationality imposed by his professional training, approached our group to tell us a story that left him sleepless for several nights. Amid statements of doubt, he told us that he was told of the UFO subject when he came to Victoria, but given that he did not believe in the phenomenon, paid it little attention. With nervous gestures, he started telling us his experience. “One night, around 11:30 p.m., I saw a green light a little over 10 meters over one of the bridges under construction...it suddenly turned red, rose some 50 meters and turned into an orange ball that rotated, giving an impression of fire. At that moment all lights went out. All motors stopped, even those of the barges supporting the project.”

To this day, the engineer is unable to come up with a logical explanation for the event. Believe us when we say that he has endeavored to do so since then, but comes up empty-handed.

Case No.3: “Those men are walking on water.”

José M. was about to leave his job, which consists of aiding technicians at work on the new bridge’s platforms. Like he did every day, he took off his jumpsuit and loosened the laces of his work boots. Within half an hour (7 p.m.) he would be aboard the boat that would bring him closer to the head of the bridge. When the boat was reaching the end of its journey along the coast, he saw a human-shaped light, standing no more than 70 or 80 centimeters tall, appearing to walk on the water. In his own words, he thought he was “seeing things” and never thought he’d witness such a sight.

It needn’t be said that he was terrified by all this, and his co-workers had to force him to return to work the next day, as he refused to do it on his own, given the shocking nature of his experience.

Today, a year after that experience, he remembers that his first remark about the experience was: “Esos hombrecillos caminan sobre el agua” (those little men walk on water), which gives us a better idea of what he saw at the time. Energy forms in humanoid shape?

Aside from this there are countless narratives from the workers who have had similar experience. It reached the point that many of them requested a change in their work hours to avoid having to deal with the lights that emerge from the water. What is important, beyond these experiences, is that researchers are always on the lookout for eyewitness accounts from professional people, since we wrongly believe that he/she is more qualified by their level of education. It just so happens here that both professionals and laborers are sharing the same experiences, the difference being that the latter fear they will lose their jobs, and choose to keep silent about their sightings.

The UFO phenomenon is showing itself assiduously. But why? We don’t know. It’s a source of concern for us. It’s as if they were no longer concerned about being seen, and not just in Victoria. We hear about important events happening in Chile, Mexico and Brazil. Does this mean we’ll learn more about them soon? If so, I hope it’s for the betterment of humanity, and not to end up as thralls to an unknown civilization.

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO and Carlos Iurchuk, El Dragón Invisible)

Argentina: Humanoids at San Antonio de Areco (1975)

2011-12-12T08:42:00.000-08:00

Argentina: Humanoids at San Antonio de Areco (1975)
A Report by PROYECTO CATENT (catent2002@arnet.com.ar)

Location: San Antonio de Areco, Province of Buenos Aires
Date: Winter 1975
Witnesses: Daniel Pignalberi and Eduardo Ramos
Ages: 20 and 16, respectively

The Investigation

These were the tough days of our friend Hector Antonio Picco’s illness in the winter of 2002, from which he is fully recovered today, pursuing what he enjoys the most, his work and trying to earn enough to earn his sustenance. This great researcher organized a series of conferences in his own home. In attendance at one such event was a gentleman, accompanied by his son and some friends. Daniel had learned of this event through Mr. Horacio Fadel, and he told us that the had witnessed a not-so-unusual event (as we have come to see) that involved the presence of strange humanoid entities. We exchanged e-mail addresses and agreed to meet.

During the first conference, he spoke of the existence of another witness to the same event – his cousin Eduardo Ramos, who we met days later. The result of these meetings is the report transcribed herein.

Transcript of the Interview with Daniel Pignalberi

Interview by researchers Mariela Verónica de Tomaso and Miguel Angel Gómez Pombo, members of Proyecto CATENT, on Wednesday, 24 July 2002.

The conversation started with a discussion about how most people treat these subjects with little seriousness, and Daniel tells us he’s afraid he won’t be believed. He had a series of UFO experiences in Mar del Plata at age 15 along with his family. He tells us he’s currently 48.

“The real impact it had in my life, and truly intrigued me and caused me to read up on the subject happened when I was 22 – of this I’m sure, because I got married at 23. At the time, when one was that age, we went backpacking a lot. We were a half of a group, because we would board a bus with our backpacks and get down on a given highway, heading to the same place. We’d go other places, but in general to the same one: Kilometer 110 on Route 9, where a tributary of the Parana River flows, known as the Areco river. It’s a stream that can be crossed at a stone’s throw.

“We’d get off on the road and walk diagonally until we’d reach a certain point. It was a long walk, but we were young and could do it.”

How long did you walk?

About an hour and change, to reach the interior (it is somewhat longer than that – Interviewer). Not sure if an hour and twenty or thirty minutes. Consider that we were carrying weight, and the encumbrance slows you down. We had to cross barbed wire fences. The problem is that 15 meters on each side of the river is municipal land, and the landowners cannot challenge you. We’d camp there, within the 15-meter stretch. We went dozens of times and continued to go there after these events. One night, we’d gone with my cousin Eduardo Antonio Ramos, who is 4 years my junior. He must’ve been 18 at the time. Let me tell you that this is a flat plain. If you see it, these are flat fields, no hills, no mounds, and few trees except for our campsite, which had five or six trees. We would throw a tarp between them for shade. That night we put up the tarp. I’m a big fan, so we set up the kindling for the campfire and stepped away to go fishing or something. The time was 22:00 hours. Can’t tell you the date.

Was it Summer?

No, of that I’m sure. Because there were a lot of bugs in the summer – horseflies and mosquitoes! We’d always go in the fall or in the spring. Well, at any rate, we went fishing. It was a dark night. No lights whatsoever. We had two flashlights, one each, of the tracking type with five or six batteries. We used them only as necessary. We stepped away, we had a little camp lantern with us, but not sure if we took it along. The thing is that we’d gone fishing and felt hungry at around 22:00 hours. We started walking, left the campfire going by the tarp. Some campfire! Because we’d always leave a hole through which we’d insert the kindling and it gave of a tremendous amount of light. In an open field, with that amount of light, we were able to walk back without turning on our flashlights. We were going by the firelight, and as we approached the tarp – some 80, 70 or 60 meters away or so – I saw two persons. Two guys, two men. One was standing beside the fire and the other was to the left, crouching. I thought he was stirring the fire. I could see the fire moving. The first thing that came to my mind was...we stopped cold and I told him: “We’re being robbed”. We nearly said at the same time. Two guys in the middle of the night, and in the dark.

At that point we started sauntering with our flashlights off, leaving our tackle on the ground, and we sauntered over to get there faster. At a distance of a few meters, my cousin lit his flashlight all of a sudden. And when he lit them up, I slapped my own flashlight – don’t ask me why, I guess I wanted to shock them. But when I lowered my flashlight, the [figures] vanished. I’m telling you it was like something that was there, and then was gone. Like something disappearing. Of course, at that moment, when those people vanished, well...we can say vanished, but at the time you don’t interpret it as a disappearance. You’re not prepared for such a thing. At the moment you’re grasping for an explanation to what’s going on, and it’s not that we discussed the disappearance, either: “Where the hell did they go?! How could we have lost them?!” So we turned on the flashlights and scanned the treetops, scanned the river to see if they’d gone into a boat, if they were hiding behind the tarp...we lit up the empty fields with those flashlights. The guys had vanished before our very eyes!!

Of course, at this point we faced the fact that these guys had disappeared. “Did you see what I saw?” I asked my cousin. I’d seen it. Nowadays I tease him, because whenever we meet a few times a year, I bring up the subject and I’ll say, “I know what I saw, but what about you?”

I was left with the doubt of whether I’d hallucinated it all and my cousin was fooling me, because you can speak for yourself, but not for the other person. The fact of the matter is that we were so scared, out in the middle of nowhere, that we climbed a tree and spent the night up there. It’s not because there were two people out there. The fact is that there was something that I haven’t told you about. These two guys – and I realized this as we got closer – were strange. Strange guys, because they were all dressed in white. Completely white, with white coveralls, like white jumpsuits, completely white. They wore broad belts, black or dark, visible in the night. I could tell that they had very straight hair, swept back, as if combed with brilliantine. Both were identical. At that time I was able to see them make a motion like this (a gesture to turn around, a half turn, as if noticing the presence of the witnesses). But I couldn’t see their faces due to the fact that my cousin had switched on his flashlight. Maybe if he hadn’t, I’d have been able to see them. I don’t know what would’ve happened after that. There are people, scholars of the subject, who have told me, no, that “...things happened after that, it’s just that you can’t remember them.” What do I know? I can only tell you what I recall. We were so shocked that we stayed up in the tree, and even peed from the treetops, since we weren’t willing to come down.

In the morning, we left at first light, leaving behind our very expensive camping gear, by the standards of the times. We left a lot of things behind, since we were so desperate to get away. The problem is that one isn’t ready for this – maybe you are, since you’ve heard so many things (referring to the interviewers) and they’ve told you some many things, so your head’s ready for it. But imagine that you’d never been interested in the subject, or imagine the 1970s, when the movie ET hadn’t been released yet and Hollywood’s special effects weren’t as good as the ones nowadays, and you’re suddenly faced with this situation. It’s tough. It’s really hard to face a situation like the one we faced in the middle of nowhere.

Didn’t you feel motivated to take everything apart at night before leaving the site?

In the dark? No way! Then again, those guys dressed in white...they were like torches in the night! You cast light on people like that and see them – it’s terrible. You know how you’re driving along at night and your headlights illuminate the roadside posts? Imagine two guys in white. They couldn’t have gotten away from us in fractions of a second. They vanished on us. So what was it?

Did you notice anything odd the rest of the evening?

No. But what we saw – and much I never discussed, and I’ll tell you why. I think that maybe you heard Eduardo at some point (turning to his wife, making reference to his cousin) say that we went back, to the same place on a night not too long after, but we saw three lights moving in the sky. But three lights moving very far away...and I could see them moving, but I couldn’t tell if it was an optical effect caused by looking at a distant little light. It looked like three lights moving, but you’re always wondering. Look, I told you those two things and I’m telling you: if you hook me up to a polygraph, I’d always question whether they were real or not. You know how it is. I can tell you what I saw, but I can’t speak for others.

Why do you mistrust what you saw?

No, in this case it was just two of us. It the first case there were many of us [translator’s note – interviewee is referring to an earlier case]. I have no doubt that it was a flying saucer but years later, I wondered, since detractors of the UFO phenomenon say that one could mistaken by gaseous effects in the sky.

And the second one?

No, not the second one. Let me make it clear that on that night we were not drunk, and this one (referring to his wife) can tell you that I’m into water. I was never much of a drinker or smoker, nor was I...you get me. We were two kids who were laughing at life, fishing, we weren’t talking about witches or scary stories, not that day, no. What’s more, that day we’d laughed a lot because we were out fishing.

Well, that’s what happened to me. It was very clear.

The first time you saw them, as you came up the river...how far away were they?

I’d say about less than a block away.

Who realized this?

No, it was both of us at the same time, because we swatted each other like this, at the same time. He was on my left. I remember this clearly, and we slapped each other as if warning ourselves. We’re being robbed, dude – two guys are robbing us.

So what did you see at first sight?

We dropped our fishing rods and began sauntering.

To get closer?

Our course. Not running – sauntering with our flashlights off. Since we know the ground, we were walking right beside the barbed wire fence. It’s a low municipal fence that can be crossed without climbing. We sauntered for less than a block. I’m not sure how much faster we got there by sauntering. I figure some 60 meters more or less. I could see them well.

How could you see them? The only light was that of the campfire.

Fire, dark night. Try it sometime. It’s like lighting a huge floodlight.

And what color could you see them? Were they the color of the fire?

No, what I recall is seeing them the color a person might have. Consider two things: the shock I felt at the moment, surely there are a thousand details I’ve forgotten, a thousand details that my brain didn’t capture or a thousand details I may have changed over time. I tried, but they can get mixed up.

They wore belts?

Yes. Broad black belt, dark footwear.

You could see their shoes?

Yes. Since they were crouching, I could see them. That I remember.

They were both crouching?

No. One was standing like this (makes the gesture of standing up) sideways looking at the fire. The other one was like this (crouches). I could see him moving and that the fire moved, like when you’re roasting something.

Hair color?

Hair was dark. It struck me. Imagine two people in the middle of the countryside. You expect to come across “Don Zoilo” (a typical gaucho name) with his gaucho pants. Not far from there is a ranch of people I knew, since they were my dad’s neighbors. What struck me was to see two people in the wilderness dressed like that.

Strange noises?

None. There was no wind, no weird buzzing, nothing that told us what was about to happen.

Were you startled by anything else?

Nothing. Everything was normal. I didn’t see any lights in the sky. Didn’t taste anything odd. That’s how it was. It was striking to see something like what we’re looking at right now (lifts a flower vase from the table) and suddenly it’s gone. At that moment, when it vanishes, you don’t say: “oh, it’s vanished!” You take a while. There was a flower vase there...maybe it slid off the table...no, it vanished. Especially if it makes no noise. Now you see it, now you don’t. And it isn’t that there was a flash of lightning when it vanished, or it became transparent like with the transporter devices in Star Trek. No. It was there, now it’s gone. You don’t react at time. And what’s more, if it had happened to me today, and I’d give anything to have it happen again, I now think that my head’s better prepared for it. And nothing ever happened again, you get me?

And when they disappeared, what happened with the two of you? Did you talk?

No, no...at the time it was more like: “what do you mean they’re not here, where did they go, didn’t we see two guys, where are they. Look behind the tent, shine your light upward.” In the silence of the night, if a guy gets into a boat in the stream, he makes noise with the wood, and every so often we’d see people boating there, but it’s very shallow. In the middle of the river, the water comes up to your heels, or the water can cover you in some spots. I must have photos of the place (asks his son to find photos to show us).

So when you turned on the lights, what did you see?

When we turned on the lights is when I remember them doing this (gesture of turning their heads to where they were) and that’s when I slapped my flashlight. I don’t know why I did it. My intention was to surprise them, but in fact they weren’t doing anything, if they were people from the area. But I don’t know...

You thought they were thieves?

You know why? We had some very expensive gear with us. Fishing rods that were worth a fortune.

What were you fishing for?

Trash fish. Catfish...we were just having fun. The joy of spending the night out, having cookouts, feeling at one with nature for a few days.

How many days would you spend?

Normally the weekend. We’d leave on a Friday and return on Sunday night. On long weekends we’d spend four days.

Could we speak to your cousin?

Sure. I called him and asked him I could give him your phone number.

(Conversation is interrupted as photos of the site are shown)

So what do you think it was? Did you associate it with anything?

What did you ask me? What? (distracted, looking at the photos). See, I have a notion that the two things that happened to me weren’t of this world, and I’ll tell you why. The first thing I go by, and many people have said so and I’ve thought this, is that there are terrestrial UFOs. I’ve no doubt that there are terrestrial UFOs. But in particular, I say that this thing came out of the sea at the time when it happened, and the way that it flew...I think it wasn’t [a terrestrial UFO]. I thought maybe there are terrestrial UFOs, but they don’t have the technology to move like that in flight (continues discussing the UFO he saw in Mar del Plata. He returns to the second experience, the one that concerns us here). I also think it could be something that isn’t from here...(goes back to looking at the photos)...I was 22 years old in 1975...

After the fright you had, did you return to the site?

Yes, yes...to the very same site. But were we restless.

But you went anyway.

We’re more brothers than cousins. If you talk to him, and he starts discussing me, anything I do, to him I was the smartest guy in the world, the best looking, the best dressed, the one with the best girlfriends...when I play guitar, I’m Paco de Lucía. He plays very well, but he’s Cafrune. And he always says to me: “You know how much I love you Daniel, you know what you mean to me”. He adores me. I’m the cousin, the big brother. Furthermore, I always thought that despite me being older, I gave a lot of space in my life.

And you saw their clothing as white in the firelight?

Yes.

Is that normal, or did it have to do with...?

Can’t tell you if it’s normal. I can tell you that I remember it as white. Light is light.

When you turned off the flashlight – what happened? Were they gone. When he turned on the flashlight, at what point did they vanish?

Less than a second. Nothing. Now they’re here, now they’re gone. Like that.

Footprints or marks?

I didn’t look. We didn’t look. We were trying to answer the question: where the hell did they go? Three was the tent, and the first thing I recall, I’m not sure which one of us did it, was to run around the tent. Where the hell else would they go? We looked in the trees, in the river. These guys vanished to our faces. That’s the answer. You’re ready to see a number of things. An airplane, for example, but imagine that you suddenly see me become transparent. At the time you’re not going to say: “I saw you become transparent.” You’ll try to find an explanation for it. Furthermore, today we see many movies with a lot of information, but I don’t think they were around at the time. What was the name of the series about the guy looking for aliens?

The Invaders.

Not sure if it was around....

Yes, yes it was. You were saying, “how this changed you”. What changed?

It changes your entire head. Imagine that what changed me the most from that moment onward was...despite the fact that I have, or had religious training, I changed in that regard. I went to a religious school and they stuck a bunch of things in my head that the Church puts there. The Catechism. So from that moment on I changed. I started to see things a bit more from here, rather than from there. It’s like seeing the world standing here, not above, not the other side. You see it through different lenses.

How?

You realize that you’re not alone, we’re not alone, there could be a ton of things, don’t know if we’re spiritual or will be...I started to think that maybe we’re persons or beings that are being manipulated or watched. Or when I believed that we – Adam and Eve, God came and separated the waters from the earth, dispelled the darkness – that was my notion. Years later I didn’t believe the Adam and Eve thing. I think it was a poem to say something lovely to ignorant peoples who couldn’t be told something like Darwin’s theories, get them to follow the religion of your choosing. Of course, there’s marketing in selling religion. So it changed me. That changed me. I also felt anguish at times.

Why?

Anguish at the fact that I cannot find answers to these things. You see? You can’t solve them, except for the other day when Picco was speaking (referring to the day that he witnessed one of the presentations given by researcher Hector Antonio Picco) and he said: “I was speaking to a being that vanished before my eyes.” I love that. I was also watching Infinito (TV channel specializing in mysterious subjects) and people spoke of similar things. So it calms me, but doesn’t define anything for me. It offers no solutions. Many told me that this will be explained, it’ll happen in the year 2000, E.T.’s will land and tell us: “Here we are, this is what we are.” So 2000, 2001 and 2002 went by, and here we are. Still nothing. Not even the world ended, as so many claimed.

So what were those beings doing there? Do you have any theories? Were they there because you were there? What was your impression?

I thought they were going to rob us. That was my first impression.

So when you saw them vanish, what did you think?

What I think if you ask me to play out my imagination, well...what I like to think is that those guys must’ve come down from somewhere, or sent from somewhere, and were looking into something about the site we were camped at, and were startled and removed from the scene very quickly. That’s my notion. I’d rather think they were E.T.’s instead of ghosts. It scares me less.

It’s interesting.

Yes, yes. I think that dealing with the concept of spirituality is harder than that of E.T.’s. Maybe because I saw that massive object (at age 15 in the city of Mar del Plata).

Did you become interested in these subjects from that moment on?

No. I read about it as just another thing. It was discussed when I was a boy, but I didn’t have an opinion about them. I don’t recall. The first time, when I was 15, from that moment on, I really got into what people were saying on TV about it. I listened to them and thought: those guys are telling the truth, regardless of whether it’s real or not, they experienced it and they’re being mocked...

Would you like to relive the experience out of curiosity?

To collect information and certify that the experience was real. What I thought and what I actually experienced. It would confirm my life. I discussed it with Eduardo (cousin and fellow witness) and I tell him: “Do you remember?” to which he recalls, “Of course it happened”. It’s important to me. It changed me greatly. We are not alone. I believe in God, but I’m not sure if there is a God, or just extraterrestrials.

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology (IHU). Special thanks to Carlos Iurchuk, El Dragón Invisible)

Argentina: UFOs...or UAVs?

2011-12-01T08:45:00.001-08:00

Earlier today, Eduardo Grosso posted an interesting comment on Contributing Editor Guillermo Giménez's Planeta UFO site regarding the very likely terrestrial origin of the strange object(s) being reported over Argentina at this time.

"Since June 2011," says Eduardo, "the Argentinean army has been testing the LIPAN III UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) over the Campo the Mayo region and the INTI. It is possible that what is been seen are the navigation lights of this small unconventional device. There is considerable information regarding this Army project as well as the prototypes being tested by the Navy (Proyecto Guardián) and even others by the Air Force (hitherto secret and unnamed)."

"Based on informal conversations with witnesses some time ago, the descriptions lead me to believe that the UAV is the most reasonable explanation."

It turns out that the Lipan III has been around for quite a while, forming part of the "Unmanned Tactical Air System" of the Argentinean Air Force, with the first units being assigned to the 601st Intelligence Brigade. Initial nocturnal flights of the Lipán M3 took place in July 2008 from the Army Aviation Aerodrome in Campo de Mayo, with a total of four units expected to be in service by 2010.

This UAV's potential is being refined and augmented: military sources speak of the "XM4", having greater range and endurance than the Lipán M3, fully capable of automatic landing and takeoff.

Photos and more information at:http://utic.inti.gob.ar/proyectos/sabercomo/tracking.html

Argentina: A Second UFO Report out of Jáchal

2011-11-30T05:58:00.000-08:00

Source: Diario de Cuyo
Date: 11.30.2011

Argentina: A Second UFO Report Out Of Jáchal
By Favio Cabrera - Diario de Cuyo
http://www.diariodecuyo.com.ar/home/new_noticia.php?noticia_id=492731

The first time it was in Gualcamayo and now over Route 150. There is commotion in Jáchal because there have been two cases in less than a month involving people who made public their photos of UFOs crossing the northern skies.

On this occasion, a native of Jáchal living in Buenos Aires states that he photographed one while he and his familly drove between the mountains on Route 150. The photos were taken by Héctor Daniel Godoy, a "jachalero" residing in Quilmes who had gone back to visit his home town.

Several days ago, Héctor, his wife and a cousin decided to tour the upland valleys of Iglesias. On the way back, the party took several photos of Route 150 without noticing anything strange in the sky during the drive. The surprise came that evening, when they downloaded the photos to their computer and discovered that a brown, oval shape -- suspended in mid-air -- appeared on two separate photos.

On one photo, the object is visible between the mountains and behind a blind curve on the road; in the other, the shape contrasts clearly against the sky. "We realized something strange was going on when we downloaded the photo. Upon magnifying it, we couldn't believe it. It surprised us and startled us," explained Godoy.

Thus, the subject of the alleged sightings became the talk of the town in stores and confectionery shops, as well as in the local media. "People have been phoning the radio shows and commenting a lot. They're wondering what's going on in Jáchal, why so many cases are ocurring one after the other, and others revisit the fact that the area has a tradition of seeing strange things in the sky. There is true commotion," stated journalist Hugo Herrera from Radio Nacional.

The previous case involving an alleged UFO photo became known on November 15 of this year, when a miner went public about a strange object photographed with his camera as he drove over a track in Gualcamayo.

Curiously enough, the oval shape was exactly like the one recorded three years earlier by some 20 operators from the Gualcamayo mine. During this sighting, all of the machines on site ceased to operate, according to the stories told.

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)

Spain: El Ojo Crítico No. 69

2011-11-29T04:57:00.000-08:00

A holiday season surprise! Manuel Carballal and Grupo FENIX have sent us the most recent edition of their El OJO CRITICO publication, clocking in at whopping 73 pages (let no man call this a 'zine). The fearless crew at EOC tackles the subject of skepticism vs. "pseudo-skepticism", stories of bat-men and other winged humanoids (a perennial favorite here at Inexplicata), atheism, a report on 60 years of UFO literature...in short, now's the time to put your Rosetta Stone Spanish to the test and dig in to a wealth of information!

DOWNLOAD FROM: http://ojo-critico.blogspot.com/2011/11/proximamente-en-el-ojo-critico-n-69.html

VISION OVNI - "We're Facing a UFO Flap in Victoria"

2011-11-28T09:32:00.000-08:00

Source: Diario La Capital (http://www.lacapital.com.ar/)
Date: 11.28.2011

Argentina: VISION OVNI - "We're Facing a UFO Flap in Victoria"

A "UFO Flap" is drawing researchers from throughout the country to the city of Victoria.

"We're facing a UFO flap in Victoria," explained Visión Ovni's Andrea Pérez Simondini, discussing last week's intense activity which ended with the discovery of an "oval-shaped imprint" at the Laguna del Pescado wilderness. As La Capital mentioned in today's edition, on-site research endeavors will take place this coming weekend.

A strange imprint was also found in a wheat field several days ago, near the site where the skywatches are to be held (displayed in the photo, courtesy of Visión Ovni)

Researcher Andrea Pérez Simondini, a member of Visión Ovni, the organization founded by her mother Sylvia, explained this morning in a conversation with "La que se viene" on Channel 8 that a skywatch will be held on December 3rd due to the conisderable number of lights reported over the area in the past ten days, and to "request the declassification of UFO archives in Argentina."

"We're calling a flap precisely due to what's been going on for the past 15 days, which ended in the discovery of an oval imprint (not the typical circula kind) measuirng 14 meters long in the Laguna del Pescado wilderness, which dovetails with the site where lights were reported in the evening. We're saturated with our investigations and even took samples of these imprints," explained Pérez Simondini, regarding recent events that merit having a skywatch in Victoria.

Pérez Simondini added that the intention is not to convince disbelievers about the existence of alien life. "We understand doubters, because people who research the subject of UFOs are ordinary people whose interest arises from a personal experience. It's a matter of belief, and sometimes one has to see to believe. We do not stress convincing people. We try to make a very responsible communication based on scientific evidence, to the extent that it's possible," she explained, adding that her personal experience begins with her mother's experiences. "My father was an oil man. We lived for a long time in Caleta Olivia, in the South. My mother was the first to see an object explode and turn into five smaller objects that headed out to sea in broad daylight in 1968. This was seen by the entire population of Caleta Olivia. Just recently I came across a newspaper article discussing the event." She added that many years later she herself saw an objct resembling "a flying freight train".

"For some years now," Andrea notes, "the media have treated the subject with greater respect."

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)

Argentina: Are UFOs Flying Over the Mountain Ranges?

2011-11-28T09:22:00.001-08:00

Source: El Diario de Carlos Paz (Carlos Paz, Argentina)
http://www.eldiariodecarlospaz.com/ampliar_noticia.php?id_noti=3596
Date: 11.22.2011

Argentina: Are UFOs Flying Over the Mountain Ranges?

VILLA CARLOS PAZ, ARGENTINA - The UFO phenomenon has not ended over the mountain ranges of Cordoba and the world's attention is drawn once more to the phenomenon after a couple of tourists from Buenos Aires and a businessman claimed having taken photographs of possible sightings. The first of these cases took place weeks ago in the locality of Capilla del Monte; the second involved a real estate agent from the town of Mendiolaza, who also claims having recorded the movement of a flying object in the sky.

According to the images displayed on the C5N television channel, the photos taken at Valle de Punilla show a black spot over Mount Uritorco which prompted investigation by a local UFO group. Meanwhile, an image circulated through several Internet portals, taken by a real estate salesman, who claims having detected "a spaceship" as he downloaded a photograph of a property for sale.

These last two cases are added to the number of stories that attribute the properties of an "intergalactic portal" to the region, a point of constant access for vehicles. The fact is that the mountain ranges hold magnetic properties that make them a unique enclave, according to those who specialize in this type of research and who study the collected materials.

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)

Argentina: Triangular UFO Videotaped Over Ituzaingo

2011-11-28T09:10:00.000-08:00

Source: El Intransigente
http://www.elintransigente.com/notas/2011/11/26/forma-triangular-capturado-video-ituzaingo-114083.asp
Date: 11.26.11

A triangular UFO was recorded on video at Ituzaingó at approximately 21:30 hours on Thursday, when a resident of the city of Ituzaingó was able to record the moment at which the strange object made its presence known in the area.

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA -- a resident of this locality in the province of Buenos Aires was able to capture an image, videotaping the moment at which an unidentified flying object with red lights appeared in the sky.

On Thursday night around 21:30 hours, approximately, a resident of the city of Ituzaingó was able to record the moment at which the strange object made its presence known in the area. The witness lost no time at all and started recording the situation when the UFO appeared. The object emitted bright red flashes and the color of its lights did not resemble airliner beacons.

This could be a vehicle of extraterrestrial origin, given the type of maneuver and what it is capable of performing in flight.

Several residents were also able to capture the spectacle on their respective cameras or cellphones, making it clear that the occupants were willing to have fleeting contact with beings of the third world (sic).

VIDEO URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xpW2z8Ei9MY

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)

Argentina: A Happy Summer Skywatch

2011-11-28T09:03:00.001-08:00

On Saturday, November 5 2011, members of the Fundación Argentina de Ovnilogía (FAO) met by the banks of the El Espinillo creek (Atalaya, Buenos Aires) for a skywatch. The location, known as "one of the 10 most active regions in the country", holds the "world record of UFO landing prints (1985)" -- a total of 150 scattered in surrounding fields. FAO members from La Plata, Capital Federal, Quilmes, Chascomús and Magdalena, portrayed above, met for the event.

J.J. Benítez: UFO Buzzed Chile's Pinochet Before '80s Coup Attempt

2011-11-16T06:21:00.000-08:00

J.J. Benítez: UFO Buzzed Chile’s Pinochet Before Coup Attempt

Mexico’s NOTIMEX news agency published an interesting news item yesterday: a statement by Spanish UFO researcher / novelist J.J. Benítez suggesting that former Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet’s estancia was visited by a UFO on September 7, 1986.

The object hovered over the property and was seen by “the General and all of the Police forces,” said Benitez, author of the millon-selling Caballo de Troya series of novels (a mixture of religion, science-fiction and ufology) and the landmark UFO books Encuentro en Montaña Roja and Tempestad en Bonanza, among dozens of others.

Benítez made these remarks in Santiago de Chile on a visit to the International Book Fair (Feria Internacional del Libro) to the Publimetro website. “A day before the coup attempt against General Pinochet, a UFO hovered over his estate and was seen by all the Police forces, his entire escort, the Carabineros – everyone, both inside and out. Weapons were drawn and bedlam ensued.”

The Notimex article goes on to add that on September 7, 1986 a commando raid by elements of the FPMR group (Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez) ambushed the dictator’s motorcade as it traveled through the Cajón del Maipo region outside the capital city of Santiago. Five escorts were killed during the attack, and Pinochet himself sustained injuries.

“This case, while not very important, as seeing an unknown object over a site is not uncommon, is nonetheless relevant given the stature of the political figure involved. This case has never been declassified and I doubt it ever will.”

Quoting Publímetro, the Notimex article adds that Benítez has been very critical of UFO declassification efforts, even with what has gone on in Chile. “People will never learn the truth unless the Pentagon or NATO, its errand-boy, wants them to.”

Source: http://www.provincia.com.mx/2011/11/visito-un-ovni-a-pinochet-un-dia-antes-del-atentado-j-j-benitez/

Argentina: Another UFO in Gualcamayo?

2011-11-16T03:23:00.000-08:00

Source: Diario de Cuyo (San Juan, Argentina)
Date: 15 Nov 2011

Another UFO in Gualcamayo?
Favio Cabrera - Diario de Cuyo

11.15.11 - JACHAL - "I always go around with a camera because I enjoy taking pictures of everything. And this one of the weird object I discovered in a matter of hours, because at the time we saw nothing strange in the sky," said Nicolás, a worker at Jáchal, the Gualcamayo mine. The miner photographed an ovoid shape crossing the sky over a summit near a mineral conveyor belt. And the alleged UFO in the area was reminiscent of the sighting reported in 2008 by some 20 equipment operators -- an event that coincided with a loss of power to the equipment, according to witnesses.

Nicolás (who chose not to reveal his surname due to work-related matters) was traveling in a truck with a friend who asked to borrow the camera. The person held it through the open window and took a shot a random. "At night I looked over the photos and saw that strange thing. I zoomed in with the camera and it seemed like a moving object. I think that it went by very quickly and that's why we didn't see it, but the camera picked it up," said the worker. According to Nicolás, only a small group of his co-workers at Jáchal saw the image, but then his wife uploaded it to Facebook where it gained popularity. "Those who saw the photo at work were frozen, and no one dares say that it isn't a UFO," he said, adding: "what you see there isn't a spot on the windshield, because the shot wasn't taken from the inside of the truck. It isn't a spot on the camera lens either. I never saw anything like it before, and to tell you the truth, I have no idea of what it could be."

This isn't the first time that something strange has been reported in the skies over Gualcamayo. In 2008, an object was reported that looked curiously like the one photographed days ago. On December 20 of that year, on the day of an intense earthquake that affected the province, some 20 operators belonging to a mining company were returning to their shanty from the work area and saw a strange object in the sky. They followed it by sight until remained motionless, vanishing from sight later on, according to reports.

Simultaneously, but in the drilling area, workers remarked that a powerful buzzing sound could be heard while the UFO was in the sky and that all machines stopped working at the same time. That year, another sighting -- this time at Pie de Palo, Caucete -- was added to the one in Gualcamayo, and was also picked up by cameras.

(Translate (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)

Voyage to the Land of the Living Dead

2011-11-12T08:43:00.000-08:00

Voyage to the Land of the Living Dead
By Manuel Carballal

[This article, which graced the splash page of the old Inexplicata website from 1998 to 2000, is among the finest we've ever offered to our readers. It comes from the masterful pen of contributing editor Manuel Carballal, summarizing one of his most perilous brushes with the unknown.-- SC]

The scene could have been derived from any suspense film. Manuel Delgado instinctively held on tightly to his television camera as we clutched our machetes. Our vehicle was being surrounded by a dozen ebony-skinned Haitians. The blancs, as they derisively call Europeans, are not welcome in Haiti and we had been warned that under no circumstances should we venture into the shanty towns outside Port-au-Prince where, we were told, "there exists a 90 per cent chance of being mugged." We ignored this sage advice, of course.

After endless minutes of waiting, our guide allowed us to emerge from the car. Monsieur Balaguer, an important bokor -- a voodoo high priest -- would allow us to visit his hounfor or temple. The hounfor consisted in a humble wooden shack whose center contained the peristyle, the indispensable central column of every voodoo ritual, by means of which the gods or loas descend to earth. A filthy light bulb and seven candles enabled us to see the disquieting form of Monsieur Balaguer, a tall man with sparkling black eyes, who covered his head with a Stetson.

While our guide stated all the arguments at his disposal in order to have Monsieur Balaguer allow us to film his "she-devil" and his "zombie", we were startled by a sudden blackout. The dirty light bulb was extinguished, plunging us into the shadows, illuminated only by the seven candles around the peristyle. Balaguer greeted his "she-devil" -- supposedly located behind a mysterious metal door -- by rapping on it a few times. From the other side, "something" responded with brutal blows against the door, causing the entire temple to shake. Suddenly we were told that the bokor had to consult the loas: we looked on as Monsieur Balaguer fell int a sort of trance, being "ridden" or possessed by Bravo, one of the loas who shares the lordship over death and cemeteries with Baron Samedi and Baron La Croix. Subjecting us to a sort of "trial," exchanging a curious combinations of handshakes to which we instinctively responded to, Balaguer drank rum through an ear as he smoked a cigarette through one nostril.

The fact of the matter is that in Haiti, Western patterns of logic become fragile in the face of the unpredictable, incomprehensible and irrational voodoo cult -- vodú in the native tongue -- which originates from the Fon language of Dahomey, meaning "deity" or "spirit." This is the precise nature of voodoo: a spirit that envelops Haiti, influencing each and every cultural or social manifestation of this small country, the poorest of the Americas.

Voodoo Reaches the Presidency

No single cultural manifestation is longer-lasting or more influential than a country's religion. In Haiti's case, this influence becomes particularly apparent. In late 1995, when President Bill Clinton visited Haiti to supervise the "changing of the guard" -- American troops being replaced by UN peacekeepers, more than four thousand Haitians converged upon the square in front of the Presidential Palace in Port-au-Prince to witness the event. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, restored to power thanks to the intervention of twenty thousand U.S. troops in October 1994, would preside over the event.

Bill Clinton had barely finished his conciliatory speech concerning military intervention in Haiti when a white dove landed next to his microphone. Immediately, thousands of Haitians roared their approval and applauded in the light of such an unequivocal "sign of approval" from the gods. The Voodoo loas had accepted Clinton. This "innocent coincidence" made thousands of Haitians--and more importantly, secret societies like Bizango, who had promised to protect the country against foreigners through magic--put aside their anger against the new white invaders, respecting the wishes of the gods. Voodoo is the main power in Haiti: no one would dare contradict the wishes of the loas, or what is interpreted as their wishes.

From the days of Macandal, the pioneer of independence in the 18th century to the times of General Raoul Cédras, no Haitian ruler has forgotten to acknowledge the all-powerful influence of voodoo in Haiti. President Aristide was no exception. In spite of having been a Catholic priest, after an interview with several houngans (priests) and mambos (priestesses) on July 19, 1995, Aristide officially announced the construction of a great Voodoo temple within the capital. In this manner, the president equated the Voodoo religion with other "accepted" religions, granting Voodoo practitioners a "cathedral" similar to the Baptist churches, Masonic temples or Catholic parishes which are so numerous in Haiti.

Warlocks in Charge

But there was one Haitian ruler who knew how to make use of Voodoo as a political tool: the mythical and shadowy "Papa Doc," François Duvalier. In 1954, the legendary "Papa Doc" published (with Lorimer Denis) a monograph entitled L'Evolution graduelle du vaudou (The Gradual Evolution of Voodoo). The knowledge of Voodoo displayed in this book was evidently utilized during his political career.

As a young man, along with other Haitian intellectuals, Duvalier published a nationalist newspaper called Les Griots. At a time when the government torched the sacred Voodoo drums and other objects of worship as a sign of loyalty to the Catholic church, Les Griots revindicated Voodoo as a religion and as rebellion against American colonizers. It isn't surprising that "Papa Doc" gained the support of the traditional secret societies, and that during his 1957 campaign, the hounfour or Voodoo temples were utilized as his local party headquarters.

Immediately after rising to the presidency of Haiti, Duvalier named the feared bokor of Gonaives, Zacharie Delva, as commander-in-chief of the army, and began to revindicate Voodoo as the official religion. His personal bodyguard, a sort of "esoteric police," were the Volunteers for National Security (VSN), the feared Tontons Macoutes who spread terror throughout the island (the name Tontons Macoutes refers to an old Haitian folk tale of the "men with the sack". Misbehaving children were warned that their tonton -- uncle -- would take them away inside a macoute, a sack). All the hounfor who were not aligned with the Duvalier regime were locked up and rebels were persecuted. According to his biographers, "Papa Doc" ordered a special airplane to bring him the head of former rebel captain Blucher Fhilgénes. The man was decapitated and his head was placed in a bucket of ice. According to the rumors filtering out of the Presidential Palace, Duvalier would spend hours contemplating the head and consulting its spirit in secret rituals.

"Man speaks, but doesn't act. God acts, but doesn't speak. Duvalier is a god." This was the thought echoing through the streets of Haiti. Papa Doc had woven around himself a terrible magical legend thanks to his knowledge of Voodoo, a legend that none dare question, and which allowed his dictatorship to flourish for decades. In fact, many peasants believed that "Papa Doc" was an incarnation of the dreaded Baron Samedi, lord of cemeteries. "They cannot have me. I am an immaterial being," Duvalier said during one of his speeches in 1963. The fact is that his legend exists to this day, and many believe that Duvalier has become a loa, a spirit of the Gede family that can still manifest itself in certain rituals...

Blood, Rhythm and Possession

We were engulfed by frantic drumbeats. The convulsive dancing of the hounsí --Voodoo initiates--bewitched us, and the markedly African chants and litanies overwhelmed us. The entire montage of the Voodoo ritual we were witnessing in Cachimán, near the border with the Dominican Republic, created an almost dreamlike atmosphere within the confines of Voodoo priest Manuel Sánchez Elie. Without a scrap of hesitation, one of the houngan's assistants delivered a powerful blade-stroke on the neck of a ram, abruptly decapitating the animal while its blood showered everyone present. The ram's head was torn from its body and offered to the gods, while two acolytes stripped the body, which would be served to the participants later. Voodoo religion is an imprecise mixture of blood, music and esthetics.

Voodoo, like Santería, Umbanda, Candomblé or Palo Mayombe, is the product of synchretism between African religions and Christianity. The ancestral beliefs brought by African slaves to the New World as their only treasure was forcibly mimetized with the saints of the Catholic onomasticon. The orishas and African loas were disguised as saints, mystics and martyrs in order that their worship could survive in a hostile world, which was that of slave-owning whites. This abstract mixture of witchcraft, paganism and christianity survives to this day.

It is said that on July 16, 1843, the Blessed Virgin materialized on top of a palm tree near the town of Ville Bonheur. The palm tree was very close to the precipices in which the Tombe River dissolves into the mist in a cascade known as Saut d'Eau, a sacred site for generations of voodooists. The Catholic Church recognized the location as a site of Marian worship, but to the Haitian people, it was really Erzulie Freda, goddess od love and beauty, who had materialized there. Since then, every July 16th, thousands of pilgrims visit Saut d'Eau to pay homage to the goddess Erzulie, although christian priests and pastors would rather believe that the pilgrimage is a form of Marian worship. The fact remains that Haiti may be 85 per cent christian, but it is 110 per cent voodooist.

In Saut d'Eau, as in any other Voodoo celebration, there is an indispensable element: possession.

A sociological study conducted on 486 societies around the world revealed that 360 of them believe in some form of possession. Haiti is a prime example. In the words of ethnobiologist Wade Davis, "Voodoo is a democratic faith par excellance. Each believer not only has direct contact with the spirits, but really receives them within his own body." Unlike other religions, the Afrocaribbean ones do not require intermediaries between gods and believers. When the gods introduce themselves into the devotees' bodies, anything can happen: voice changes, attacks of hysteria, walking on hot coals, eating broken glass...

Haitian voodoo admits three kinds of possession: rada, gede and petro. The last two are the most spectacular. Petro Voodoo is the most brutal, violent and dangerous kind. The violence of such possessions has even caused the death of some worshippers who have been "ridden" or possessed by the powerful loas of petro Voodoo. This kind of ritual, among the least accessible in Haiti, reflect the rage, the pain and humiliation of the people, who for generations were subjected to the indescribable cruelty of slaveowners.

Haiti's Secret Societies

"A fellow diplomat was named as a witness in a trial against one of the secret societies that proliferate in the country. When he reached the courthouse to testify, there was an exhibit table upon which he could see a cauldron brimming over with the head and arm of a girl sacrificed in a magical rite by the society. My friend had to run out of the courtroom to vomit." This was the story told to us by Juan Blázquez, Spain's consul in Port-au-Prince for five years and a scholar of voodoo. Throughout his years in Haiti he had heard of many secret societies, but had also learn that penetrating them is almost impossible.

The study of Haitian secret societies represents an arduous task for anthropologists and sociologists alike. In the summer of 1976, Haitian anthropologist Michel Laguerra met several peasants who had belonged to different secret societies, but who had later converted to Protestantism and were now willing to divulge certain information. According to his sources, there are secret societies running the length and breadth of the country, each controlling a given region.

Some of these secret societies are especially feared and respected in Haiti. The Zobop terrorized the population by kidnapping in the dark of night anyone considered a traitor to the community in order to "bring them to justice" in a cruel fashion. Others, like the Bizango, uphold a sorcerous tradition that goes back to the dawn of time. Its rituals mix ceremonies extracted from old texts on witchcraft, such as the Petit Albert or the Red Dragon (which reached Haiti during the colonial period), Masonic ritual and African magical practices.

Its rules are strict, and those who betray them are harshly punished. The Bizango society, for instance, has a taboo known as "the Seven Crimes": ambition, excessive material wealth gained at the expense of relatives or subordinates, disrespect toward fellow members, seducing another man's wife, slandering others or affecting their well-being, harming the members of someone's family, and any action that impedes others from tilling the soil. An infraction of any of these could cost a Bizango member his life...a particularly cruel and painful death by means of the poisons known for ages by Voodoo houngans and bokors.

Poisons and the Living Dead

The discussion was becoming more heated by the moment. We were trying to convince an important Voodoo priestess to let us record a gede Voodoo ritual in her temple. We knew that we were not welcome and the haggling about the price was adding heat to the surroundings. On another occasion, a similar discussion at another temple almost cost us our lives when nearly a hundred Haitians barricaded the door to the hounfour, warning us that we would not get out alive unless we paid them a thousand dollars.

While one of us argued with the mambo, a tall, fierce looking young man toyed with a rubber glove. He would put it on and take it off his hand with a smile on his lips. We knew exactly what he meant: at any moment, a yellowish powder could appear on his right hand, to be blown in our direction. It would represent a terrible doom--zombification. As a measure against this fate, we had drawn up a special policy which stated that in the event of dying in Haiti, no autopsies were permitted and that our bodies should be returned to Spain immediately. Death in Haiti can be far more perilous than anywhere else on earth.

Anthropologists, missionaries and industrialists who have come into contact with traditional African medicine have discovered its wonders. The knowledge of herbs, plants and jungle poisons possessed by witches, sorcerers and shamans is surprising, and this fascinating wisdom reached Haiti on the slave ships. Ethnologists and biologists who have analyzed the "magical recipes" employed by Voodoo houngans and bokors have discovered fascinating aspects, such as the substances created based upon the root of albizzia versicolor, used in Africa to create ibok usiak owo ("medicine to make people talk"), a sort of native truth serum. Or Zawda dust, employed to cause marital discord; Yoyo dust, used for the "Evil Eye"; Patchouli dust, used to cause infidelity and wreck marriages, and a hundred other "magical powders" with a number of uses and functions. But among them all, one is particularly fascinating: Pudre or "zombie dust."

Zombie Dust
It is impossible to discuss the mystery of zombie dust without mentioning the pioneering book by Harvard anthropologist, ethnobotanist and biologist Wade Davis, entitled The Zombie Enigma, a project that earned Davis his Ph.D and inspired the film The Serpent and The Rainbow, describing a scientist's quest for the living dead. Wade Davis began his own search for zombies in April 1982. In spite of the skepticism and even repugnance which scientists, even Haitian doctors, expressed for the myth of the "living dead", Davis and his sponsors were able to fathom a truth of great scientific interest concealed behind the veil of mystery and superstition. It wasn't the first time that a case of zombification was medically documented, but on certain earlier occasions, pretentious scientific despotism had quelled interest in such cases with derisive qualifiers such as "trickery" and "popular hogwash." If a death certificate was found for a person walking through the streets of Port-au-Prince, it was always attributed to confusion, hoaxing or medical error. After all, everyone knows that it's impossible to return from the grave...

But the clinical histories and death certificates were not the only items in existence. Relatives and neighbors recognized the zombies. After making contact with Haitian houngans and bokors, Davis obtained access to certain Voodoo secrets, among them the making of zombie powder.

Far from being the product of strange esoteric ritual, zombification is the result of an exceptional application of natural chemistry on the bokor's part. Zombie dust is a compound based on a number of vegetable, animal and human material, which combined in the right amounts produces the most fascinating poison of Afroamerican witchery. Extracts from plants, human bones, tarantulas, poisonous toads, worms and other no less picturesque ingredients form part of the dust whose main active ingredient is the tetrodoxine found in the Haitian blowfish, which we were able to localize and photograph with underwater cameras after various dives into Caribbean waters. The substance is a masterpiece of chemical artistry --- if improperly mixed, it will have no effect whatsoever or will cause instant death.

Once prepared, the powder is deposited on the floor of the victim's home, so that it will penetrate his skin upon stepping on it with bare skin. Otherwise, the bokor will blow it into the hapless victim's face. Shortly after, the future zombie "dies" and the bokor "steals its soul," containing it in a bottle. After burial, the bokor and his assistants go to the graveyard and retrieve the zombie from the tomb in order to sell him as a slave on the other side of the island.

Our travels took us all over Haiti -- a hellish voyage between the Dominican border and Lake Peligros that took over twelve hours by motorcycle, crossing rivers and mudholes. We were thus able to prove the horror of the possibility of being zombified, a fear that forces the decapitation of corpses, or else the nailing of corpses to the casket to impede their removal. On the road to Lake Peligros, we found that many tombs and family crypts were built directly across from the relatives' homes, in order to keep the bokor from tampering with the deceased's body and soul.

In Haiti, death is not final. Death isn't even an antonym for life. In Voodoo, both death and the dead form part of daily life, of religion, and of society. Death itself is another form of life.

A Word from the Editor

2011-11-12T05:43:00.001-08:00

Readers of Inexplicata may wonder at the sudden appearance of older material from the INEXPLICATA Journal (issues 4, 5 and 6, to be precise) and from our long-forgotten SAMIZDAT newsletter of the 1990s. We've engaged in some light housekeeping, removing a number of articles and replacing them with some that our newer readership may not be familiar with. Some recent synopses of UFO cases on video have also been added to the mix.

-- Scott Corrales

Spain: A UFO Crash in 1899?

2011-11-12T05:31:00.000-08:00

Juan Carlos Victorio remarks on an article appearing in Spain's Mas Allá de la Ciencia magazine (October 2011, No.272) discussing a UFO crash in Spain a full forty-eight years before the birth of the contemporary "flying saucer" age.

The article, written by Alex Muniente, asks: "Was there a conspiracy to cover up an extraterrestrial crash near Barcelona in 1899? In the late 19th century, a mysterious aerolith exploded over the skies of the "ciudad Condal" (the city of Counts, as Barcelona is known) creating astonishment and confusion throughout the city."

Victorio's take on the phenomenon is less than positive: http://misteriosdelaire.blogspot.com/2011/10/un-estrellamiento-ovni-decomononico.html

Argentina: Unknown Lights Over Ituzaingó

2011-11-12T05:19:00.000-08:00

Eduardo Ghio, Nelson Morales, Diego Durán, Gaby Montura and Adrián Nicala were engaged in a skywatch in a field on the western section of the Buenos Aires suburbs, hoping to witness the apparition of some strange object, of the sort that tends to frequent the area. At 1:58 a.m., when the cameras that were to capture the images were already back in their cases, Duran exclaimed: "Look at those stars moving. How odd."

The fact is that Duran was mistaken. Evidently, whatever was moving in the sky was not a star. Without thinking twice, Nicala - director of Testimonio Ovni - opened the kit and quickly photographed and recorded the dark sky. Thus, he captured the moment at which two spheres (or Foo Fighters, as they are dubbed) descended slowly toward the Monte Grande area, vanishing within a matter of seconds.

Video at: http://24con.elargentino.com/conurbano/nota/59934-ituzaingo-es-una-especie-de-triangulo-de-las-bermudas/

(Translation (c) 2011 S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)

Peru: Earthquakes and UFOs (Video)

2011-11-12T05:15:00.000-08:00

Alex Sender shares a video on the most recent events in Icá, Perú, that suggest a connection between earthquakes and UFOs - namely, the most recent seismic event in that country, which reached a 6.9 on the Richter Scale.

Video: http://astroufoperu.blogspot.com/2011/11/noticia-sobre-ovni-en-ica-peru-27-oct.html

Argentina: Ghost in Birthday Party Video

2011-11-12T05:06:00.000-08:00

Source: El Tribuno.com.ar
Date: November 3, 2011

Daniel Ubaldo Padilla sends us this link to a video clip featured in www.eltribuno.com.ar. The text reads: "The images of this home-made video broadcast this morning in the Arriba Salta program on Channel 11 -- recorded on a cell phone -- do not clearly show who is singing the song. Howver, the strange voice of a boy singing the Happy Birthday melody can be heard, although changing the lyrics of the world-famous tune.

The new lyrics speak of a beloved teacher and a moonlit night.

The journalist also said that "the birthday girl's relatives could not account for the enigmatic voice, as no one in the room spoke English. Technicians have inspected the audio and determined that it was impossible to falsify."

Hoax? Misinterpretation? See for yourselves: : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjQPO-JRVxk

Spain: An Embarassment of Humanoid Riches (2000)

2011-11-11T13:44:00.000-08:00

An Embarrasment of Humanoid Riches
by José Manuel Duran

We sometimes complain that the subjects of our interest seldom receive the attention they deserve, and we're even forced to acknowledge at some point that mystery appears to follow its own undefined, aimless path.

We complain that Ufology (which is the subject we are discussing now) is simply not credible to the rest of the mortal world, and if we cast a light glance over what is currently on the burners, we will be forced to admit defeat.

Are They here? Regardless of their provenance from Outer Space, other levels of existence or from the very innards of our minds, it is fitting to provide answers to thse questions, since we have spent more than 50 years playing with the same details, changing their colors and adapting new terminology, but which in the final analysis is the hated "more of the same" situation. We should be able to explain, at least, what they're like and what they want. These answers are not very clear to the vast majority of researchers and the statements made by the boldest among them are so ambiguous as to be worthless.

Few of us doubt that the devices we have chosen to dub UFOs or Flying Saucers are manned and that bizarre-looking beings (at least non-human looking) come and go with relative ease. When discussion first began on such strange things, it was said that the crewmen--the humanoids--were here to sneak a peek at us humans, much like tourists. However, there soon appeared cases in which these beings were seen to steal (?) rocks, grass, or a deer now and then. Were they covering such great distances to gather samples? How absurd...although, that's exactly what we did when we went to the Moon.

But a question rapidly emerges once we accept the possibility that They are here. Are they aggressive? Merely explorers? Peeping Toms? Invaders? Who can tell? After years of case studies, it would seem as if They have lost interest in the things that our planet has to offer and have arrogantltyy passed up on fish, water, and power stations to concentrate a little more on human beings...the allegedly intelligent species that misguidedly thinks it rules the world.

On a personal note, I would like to know what these UFO crewmen are like: what they look like, if they have ears and tails, noses, mouths or teeth. I'd like to know if their feet smell, if they sneeze, need to use helmets, if they blink, if they can see colors...but researchers, those who have consecrated their life and efforts on this accursed crusade, are not able to devote solid answers to these questions.

Millions of eyewitness accounts; humanoids all over the world whose descriptions vary in an alarming manner. Does this give ufology greater credibility, or does it undermine its health?

What are they like? How many fingers to they have? Are they ugly? Do they have shape? Genitalia?

At first, the variety of occupants was such that the enormous differnces between them were illogical (or at least, didn't seem logical to us). If these were extraterrestrial visitors, why were so many diferent species visiting us? The broad zoo of ufology gave skeptics reason to laugh (and it still does), since they're aware that there's no way of grappling with these invaders: Humans, monsters, apes, tall, short, blond, hairy, hairless, speaking, grunting, telepathic...They're either stealing pebbles or arranging their vehicles in the shape of...hell!... everything from eggs, irons, tourines, dishes, balloons, triangles, squares...there are as many types of humanoids as there are craft in which to carry them. I sincerely doubt that there could be as many rubberneckers on this planet. No space civilization could be intelligent if they stopped to look at human beings at the drop of a hat. Could we be dealing with a crude, vulgar hoax? Is it all just a deception, or a fraud? Are the documents obtained over all these years of research at all reliable? Of course they can be reliable. Perhaps--as was observed by earlier reserachers into the mystery--they are only showing us a disguise that conceals their true intentions. Maybe. Perhaps this could just be an explanation to justify the variety of creatures and spaceships...maybe it's an attempt to avoid insisting on why everything is so absurd, on why everything is so complicated. Why won't the pieces of this jigsaw puzzle fit?

In any case, we cannot overlook the small evolution that the UFO phenomenon has undergone in itself. Even today, we continue to see vehicles of many different characteristics, but saucerlike craft remain alarmingly dominant, along with spherical objects and the ubiquitous triangular objects which have caused so many headaches in recent years. The "intentions" of the alien astronauts (?) have also varied, and far from making repairs to their vehicles in remote and deserted fields, or taking samples of rocks, vegetation or dirt, they have concentrated their efforts upon animals and above all, humans, whom they supposedly abduct.

This humanoid taxonomy has also spit out a pattern known as the "Greys" or "EBEs", who majestically dominate the ufological scene. Perhaps this is the alien race that visits us with malevolent intentions? Or is it still just another element in this UFO free-for-all? Perhaps they represent a logical ingredient in the illogical soup of ufology, or another joke for the sideshow we have been witnessing--the irritating theatre show of hair-raising incongruities which mock human intelligence. Maybe there are just too many saucers, too many humanoids...maybe so. But for some reason or another we must remain in the breach, which promises to be the only we we shall ever understand this phenomenon some day. It's almost certain that we aren't wasting our time.

(Translation (c) 2000, S. Corrales, IHU)

Spain: Humanoids in Galicia (1999)

2011-11-11T13:41:00.000-08:00

Humanoids in Galicia
by Grupo FENIX

The UFO wave remains in full force throughout the northern par to the country and some very well documented cases are becoming known. ENIGMAS magazine has visited the locations which have been in the news lately to present new data regarding the strange visits being reported in certain parts of Galicia, as told by the witnesses to this event.

On Thursday, February 20th, the village of Paradaseca (Orense), belonging to the municipality of Chanderxa de Quiexa, found its usual peacefulness disturbed by a strange visit. Local shepherd Heliodoro Núñez, 76, was the hapless protagonist of an incident involving a number of 3 meter-tall entities. "It was around four in the afternoon, more or less, when I was with the herd in a field located some three kilometers from the detour on the Chandrexa road, along the Devesas River. Suddenly, the dogs started barking and staring at a point behind me. At first I thought I might have to do with wolves, but when I turned around and saw those tall, weird "things", I realized they were no wolves..."

On the days following the event, members of La Coruña's Grupo Fenix visited the scene. The aged witness assured them that he had been able to see with great clarity two enormous beings looking over the hedges. They stood in excess of three meters and [their heads] were covered by something similar to a strange "mortarboard" or "luminous bishop's mitre". The whole--the two beings, who were like "Siamese twins" and their curious headgear--changed color in unison, acquiring various shades of red, blue, yellow and green...

"It was otherworldly," stated Heliodoro Núñez, "and the fact is that I began to pray when I saw the apparition." The fear this man experienced did not go unnoticed by his closest relatives over the following days. Heliodoro's wife told ENIGMAS that "he arrived home feeling very, very scared. He prayed for a long time and spent two sleepless nights afterward, unable to eat anything. I can't tell you what he saw, but it scared him very much."

Aside from Heliodoro Núñez, our companions found another witness to this spectacular event. Juan González González,42, a resident of Casteligo (also in Chandrexa de Queixa municipality) claimed that on the very same day and time, and at the same place where the humanoid encounter occurred, he saw a deep red light motionless over the treetops. Given the distance separating him from the man from Paradaseca, he was unable to see the "two giants". He did confirm, however, that when he came across Heliodoro, the man was "running with this goats in fear." Forty-eight hours later, Juan González told Orense's La Región newspaper: "At first I thought it was a fire, but no smoke rose from it. I also thought it was a tractor, but it couldn't be. It could've been a balloon, but it didn't move at all. I don't know what it was, but it easily measured three meters."

The investigation is ongoing. Members of Grupo Fenix have found some metallized spheres at the site which are being subjected to analysis to identify their nature.

Almost simultaneously, Heliodoro Núñez's son began experiencing night terrors and pronounced ocular irritation. It would seem that the 25 year old man appeared in his parent's bedroom the night before, carrying a mattress and fully ready to spend the night with them. According to his account, he was afraid of sleeping in his room since "strange lights were appearing before him."

Newsflash!

The incident in Chandrexa de Queixa municipality is by no means the last one. In the early morning hours of Saturday, March 15, a rhomboidal object was filmed from the top of the A Espenuca hill in the town of Betanzos. The object consisted of five and six lights, alternately. The aerial phenomenon was caught on film at 04:13 hours while a group of youngsters followed the progress of comet Hale-Bopp. A day later, at 19:00 hours, a couple and their son were driving along the Alto de Sesta highway near Abadín (Lugo), when they were able to see a spectacular celestial event they compared to Fátima's "dance of the sun".

The Galician flap doesn't seem to have ended yet, as can be gleaned from these cases. Contributing Editor Manuel Carballal gives us the following information.

"Ultima Hora" (Newspaper), June 2, 1999
Four Residents of Laxe Claim Having Seen a UFO for Over 2 Hours
by Cristina Viu -- Newsroom

Around eleven o'clock last night, Antonio Toja swept clean his bar in the port town of Laxe while his wife María Elena and son Roberto viewed the last chapter of Mareas Vivas on TVG. He suddenly noticed a very bright light suspended in the sky. Although startled, he proceeded with his task until half an hour later, during the intermission of the televised broadcast, he remarked about the incident to his family. They then reached for a pair of binoculars and realized that the object was nothing "customary."

Around that time, they summoned a neighbor, José Manuel Pato, president of the Yacht Club, to act as their witness, because according to María Elena: "Whenever I saw these things on TV I thought [the witnesses] were people suffering hallucinations." The three men decided to venture to the graveyard in order to get a better view of the object.

The sighting lasted two hours until the object moved downward and to the right to shine with even greater intensity around 1:30 a.m.. The case has caused a stir in Laxe and there were people scanning the skies yesterday.

No Explanations or Confirmation

The sighting could not be confirmed by the control tower at Lavacolla Airport nor by the Regional Maritime Rescue Center. Neither of these two agencies, according to their spokespeople, had any information--whether directly or indirectly--regarding a strange event on Monday night in the Laxe area.

The A Coruña Meteorological Institute stated that no strange phenomena occurred on Monday which could have been mistaken for a UFO, and did not hazard any guesses. On the other hand, the astronomical observatory in Santiago explained that no extraordinary events had been envisioned for time, but ventured a hypothesis involving the planet Venus, which came undone when the object's movements were explained to the investigator. In any case, he advised that a sky watch should be kept over the following days. In none of the cases did the parties consulted betray any surprise while explaining the phenomenon allegedly seen at Laxe.

"Ultima Hora" (Newspaper), June 5, 1999
"Living Stars" Over Laxe

On Sunday night, they show X-Files on TV, but its more fun watching it live. This can be done without any problems in Laxe, and it happened again last Thursday. At first, only five or six people were involved. When things got serious, all the cellular phones came alive as word spread throughout the area. That's when things got started. Enthusiastic spectators (though not all) followed the maneuvers of a luminous "signal" which appeared and disappeared in the dark skies. Four local residents had seen it two days earlier.

There were close encounters of the third kind in Laxe. Third, because people had already met twice: the first time involved four residents, successfully; the second was washed out due to the clouds and rain.

It all started at 11:50 p.m. José Manuel Pato, president of the Laxe Yacht Club; the four crewmen of an Irish merchant vessel, along with a couple of residents and a journalist noticed that something funny was going on up there.

And, what was it they saw?

A light-- similar in size and intensity to what three Venus-sized planets could produce in their maximum evening glory--hung quietly in high above the horizon. Nothing unusual up to this point. The problem, to give it a name, is that the light suddenly dwindled in intensity until it remained a mere point of light. Again, nothing unusual here, except that the light began glowing again with renewed intensity...and this is really unusual.

The most spectacular part of the event lasted barely twenty minutes, up to 12:10 a.m. more or less. The light decreased gradually in intensity and began doing strange things in the measure that curiosity seekers reached the top of the hill. The astronomical equation remained thus: plenty people, little glow. And little faith.

Cars began arriving at the spot near the cemetery. One of them carried the cast of Mareas Vivas with the shellfish gatherer, the doctor and the clients of Petróleo's bar. "Doctor" Carlos Blanco was in charge of livening up the proceedings; an incredulous girl stated that [the light] was only an airplane. "Be quiet, Scully," Blanco told her, alluding to the skeptical agent in the X-Files. There was no point in breaking up the mood, anyway.

At another point, the actor indicated that the light could very well be an item of extraterrestrial political campaigning, such as "Vote for XTY of the M-35 Galaxy" or some such.

The worst part is that the light became increasingly lazy and would not reappear, even when called upon to do so. And when it did appear, the shouts of:"Here, Hey! Over Here!" would, of course, make it turn off. At least it was captured on video--from where it can't get away.

(Translation (c) 1999 S. Corrales, IHU)

Mexico: The Mystery of the Forgotten Stones (1998)

2011-11-11T13:38:00.000-08:00

Emiliano Zapata Municipality: The Mystery of the Forgotten Stones
by Dr. Rafael A. Lara Palmeros, CEFP (Mexico)

Since the end of December 1998, a series of insistent rumors had come to our attention: a broad swath of virgin forest had been semi-discovered by some peasants 24 kilometers away from Jalapa, the state capital of Veracruz, within an area contained in the municipality of Emiliano Zapata. The region, covered by exuberant semi-tropical vegetation, shelters a considerable number of unusual stones -- approximately 123 in number --sculpted with handsome petroglyphs which have remained in excellent conditions in spite of the passage of time.

On Thursday, February 25th, 1999, Lic. Marino Leal Trujillo, Ms. Virginia Hernández and the author of this article headed for the zone which was under the protection of the region's inhabitants, since it is their belief that this and many other locations are sacred. After discussing the matter with the leaders of the local cooperative farm, we were allowed to enter the region, having to make a 150 meter (400 foot) descent following a tortuous trail filled with dense vegetation, mosquitoes and poisonous snakes known as "nauyaques" in this area. Upon reaching our destination, we were able to look upon a number of stones scattered throughout the ground, covered in moss, dust and vegetation. Once these were removed, we found a considerable number of petroglyphs in a variety of shapes and sizes. The size of the stones was approximately 4-5 meters in length by 3 meters long, having irregular, eroded borders and some of them apparently having been dressed.
The following designs were found:

Spirals
Circles
Wavy Lines
Crosses
Tranversal and Horizontal Lines Similar to Stairwells
Humanoid Shapes.

With the cleaning of the stones out of the way, we proceeded with measuring the petroglyphs as well as making rubbings of the most representative designs on manila paper using crayons. In this regard it is worth noting that our attention was drawn by a cross composed of squares, each measuring approximately 4.5 cm long and 4 cm wide. Each of the cross's "arms" were composed of two parallel lines having 4 squares each. We were intrigued presence of a humanoid figure dressed in a sort of helmet and having two small, spindly legs, and whose upper body appeared to be endowed with utensils and/or equipment. It also possible to observe semi-undulating lines, apparent representations of hills or the trajectories of certain lights which can be seen in the area. To the vast majority of prehispanic societies, the spiral plays a predominant role. A variety of authors have sought to attach different meanings to it, and we thus find that some believe it represents the snake, while others suggest cosmic forces and still others claim it depicts the presence of spacecraft. The spiral was represented in nearly 50% of the stones studied during our investigation.

Another interesting petroglyph involved the presence of transversal and oblique lines, apparently representing flights of stairs (it is very possible that this region once housed some kind of pyramidal structure). It is also possible to find, to a lesser degree petroglyphs shaped like spiders, jaguars, monkeys and certain fish--animal forms which are currently hard to find in this location.

Given the characteristics of this area as well as their relationship with others which are also known, it is possible it once harbored primitive Nahoa and/or Totonaca tribes, who became the basis for these cultures as they are known today. It has been hitherto impossible to classify the area discovered according to a corresponding historical period (Lower Preclassic, Upper Preclassic, etc.). Authorities having competence in the matter, such as the Instituto Veracruzano de la Cultura (IVC), the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) itself, or the School of Anthropology of the University of Veracruz, have all paid little or no attention to this find, arguing that they lack sufficient funds to embark upon an investigation of these considerable treasures, and fortunately, the region's inhabitants are opposed to the presence of the misnamed "competent authorities", since it is widely known that these are engaged in ransacking the archaeological sites and selling their discoveries to U.S. and European collectors, mainly from Germany and France.

A curious fact bears mentioning: this area is very close to a mountain range which forms part of the Eastern Sierra Madre, which includes the well-known Tepeapulco Hill, as site of intense UFO activity. This phenomenon has intensified since 1993, resulting in a considerable number of photographs being taken. This author has obtained important photographs and videotaped material which has been found to be genuine by other researchers.

My hypothesis is as follows: since the area is highly magnetic, the ancient occupants of the place settled there and captured a variety of phenomena on their petroglyphs. Given that the presence of UFOs is common at every archaeological site, and it is still possible to see them in our day and age, the only question that remains to be answered is the following: could the humanoid figure, obtained by means of rubbings, represent an unknown visitor? Personally, I lack the knowledge to answer such a question.

I would like to extend my gratitude to the inhabitants of the area, keeping my promise not to disclose the precise location of the area investigated.

Mexico: An Interview with Captain Raul Romero

2011-11-09T10:51:00.000-08:00

Source: www.analuisacid.com.mx
Date: 08 November 2011

Mexico: An Interview with Captain Raul Romero
By Ana Luisa Cid

Good afternoon, Captain Romero, thanks for your kindness. To kick things off, how many years of aviation experience do you have?

51 years as a pilot. I worked for some very important companies such as Aeroméxico, the ICA Group, Banco Nacional de México and Gen. Miguel Enriquez Guzmán, among others.

In your extensive career, have you encountered unidentified flying objects?

Yes, on two occasions. The first was in June 1970, flying from Guadalajara to Hermosillo at 11:00 p.m. at 20,000 feet aboard a Beechcraft turboprop belonging to a construction firm. The sighting took place 40 miles south of Hermosillo. A rather sizeable and bright light appeared out of nowhere, and I asked my co-pilot: “Hey, what’s this? Is it a train or what?” Because it looked just like a locomotive’s headlight, the only difference being that trains can’t fly at 20,000 feet, right?

Did you report it to the control tower?

At that time the Mazatlan Center was in control. I didn’t want to interrupt communications or break into the frequency to request information, but before they changed my frequency, I did it myself and changed to the Hermosillo Tower’s frequency to ask them if they had any traffic in their sights. They said no. The only traffic was a Mexicana de Aviación Comet, to which I replied: “Roger, understood”. Then I reported 40 miles south of Hermosillo and they told me: “take leave of Mazatlán Center and stay on this frequency.” I didn’t want to say what I was seeing, because they might have thought we didn’t have our heads on straight and could have even ordered a medical checkup.

They didn’t see it?

They asked me themselves: Are you seeing a light to the northeast of your position? To which I replied “affirmative” and kept flying. That was exactly what I was seeing. Next they said: “Please report any movement it makes, because it’s also in our sights here at the Control Tower.” I took advantage of this to tell them: “By the way, this was really the reason I switched frequencies before the prescribed area.”

You mean to say there was confirmation by the air traffic controllers?

Yes, they also had visual contact with that light and confirmed it when I was handed over to the control tower.

Captain, is there any sort of censorship when it comes to discussing this subject?

Not exactly. It’s more of a self-censorship, given the nature of our work.

What was your second UFO experience like?

The second visual encounter was flying over the Valley of Morelos, just last year. On that occasion, I took off from Toluca toward my base, which is Atizapán de Zaragoza in my own plane, a Cessna 182. I flew along the lowest part to find an entrance to Mexico Valley, heading toward Chalco, when around Mt. Tepozteco I came across a spherical flying object some 6 of 7 meters in diameter. At first I thought it was a promotional balloon that had gotten away from some company. Out of curiosity and since I was in no hurry to reach my destination, I tried to reach it but was unable to do so. It turns out that this object was flying at the same speed as my plane, as it always remained at the same distance from the aircraft and did not allow me to reach it. I then began to suspect that it wasn’t a balloon.

At what altitude and speed were you flying your plane?

11,500 feet and flying at 200 kilometers per hour.

Had it been a balloon, would you have reached it?

Certainly. I could’ve reached a balloon because at that altitude I wasn’t going to face any currents. What’s interesting is that the object always flew at the same speed as the airplane, at an approximate distance of 3 miles. Most surprising was that it suddenly increased its speed as it ascended, and vanished amid the tops of some cumulus and stratocumulus clouds. It went away and I didn’t see it again.

Have you had other kinds of sightings?

Yes, there have been cases in which the control tower reports traffic that I have been unable to see physically. That happened on a flight from Obregón to Mexico, when they asked me if I had any traffic to the right of my position, to which I replied: “negative”. It turns out that they could see it on their radar screens, and were questioning me, even when I couldn’t see it.

To what do you attribute such phenomena?

It’s hard to explain, but I do think that there could be a technology more advanced than our own. We do not really know if life exists elsewhere, but why not consider the possibility of beings more intelligent than us? Or at least with greater technical development, able to go wherever they want. Why not? I think we shouldn’t be so selfish as to think that we are the only ones in this infinite universe. It should be noted that I was a skeptic and didn’t believe in the whole UFO thing until I experienced it. So I don’t seek to convince anyone. I only recommend that they analyze the situation thoroughly and take it into consideration, hoping that my experiences may be of some use.”

Thank you very much.

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO, and Ana Luisa Cid)

UFOs and Blackouts in Southern Spain

2011-11-08T06:34:00.000-08:00

UFOs and Blackouts in Southern Spain
By Jose M. García Bautista

It promised to be a normal day. The date was November 24, 2002 (a Sunday) and it was daybreak throughout the entire Guadalquivir lowlands, from Coria del Rio to Sanlúcar de Barrameda on the coast. It was barely 7:30 a.m. when two strange reddish lights became visible over Seville’s Aljarafe district. Standing out among the first lights of the day, the two odd lights shifted their colors two a pronounced green. They were visible for a seemingly endless number of minutes over the facilities of the Sevillana de Electricidad – Grupo Endesa power company, yet no one knew of their origin or provenance. It was simply certain that they could not be of human manufacture, to judge by their angular and oscillating movements. The lights were perfectly visible in the sky, executing a strange dance over the place, motivated by very particular and unknown circumstances. Diego Fuentes, 59, a restorer of historic Seville and restaurateur, said the following to Año Cero magazine: “It could be no later than 7:30 in the morning and I was on my way into Seville when I clearly saw two oval lights with a very strong red hue over the transformer unit that supplies electricity to the Coria del Rio, Palomares, Puebla del Rio and other areas...they were clear and executed a circular movement over the area. They must’ve been high up – some 2000 meters – and must’ve been large. It was shocking to see the strange way in which they moved...they remained over the site for a few moments, perhaps a minute or a little more. I called my wife from my cellphone and asked her if she could see something from our home, and she was also able to see it, wondering what they could be. The fact is that I’ve never believed in UFOs or anything like them, but I think those things were either classified in nature or completely unknown...”

Our witness’s sighting – and those by others in the area – would have been merely another UFO event in an area as important as Seville’s Aljarafe district, had it not been for the blackouts that occurred throughout the entire Guadalquivir region: blackouts that affected a segment of the population of these communities to the astonishment of Sevillana de Electricidad’s technicians, who were not recording any anomalies whatsoever as the causes of the power outages.

At 8:00 a.m., two enigmatic red lights were seen in Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz) which were also visible from the neighboring town of Lebrija. Juan Huertas and Emilio Durán had arrived in Sanlúcar that morning on business when they saw the following near the facilities of the electric utility: “We got to Sanlúcar at around 8 in the morning, as we had a business appointment at 9 a.m. and it’s always best to arrive early and have a leisurely breakfast. We entered the town and could see two strange red lights moving in circles over the transformer units. The lights pulsed slowly, changing from red to a light shade of blue. It was nearly daytime and it could be that their hue was even more blue. When they were red, they stood out clearly. They were over the place and could be seen from afar, from the road that links Trebujena with Sanlúcar. As you approached the town, though, it became more evident that they were directly over the place. They were circular, although somewhat elongated, perhaps some 3000 to 4000 meters from the surface, but could be clearly seen. They oscillated, but made abnormal straight-line movements every so often that were startling. It was all very weird. The whole thing lasted some 8 to 9 minutes at most, using the time from the highway (C-441) and entering the town as a reference. It was a Sunday, with very few people about. Just us and our car, on our way to an untimely appointment on this day of the week. No sooner did we hit the downtown area than the streetlights went out...we entered a bar and the lights were out. The time was about 8:15 and no power at all. It simply went out.”

Truly, and according to official sources, the lights went out at 8:08 a.m. on November 24 in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, affecting nearby communities such as La Jara, where the entire town lost power. Technicians began restoring electricity to the city an hour later, around 9:11 a.m., with the service being fully restored at 11:00 a.m. without the failure being ascribed to any particular reason or apparent technical cause. The CCR officially considered the power outage corrected at 11:20 a.m. without ever really establishing the cause...although the lights over the transformer units in the town could be a suggestion of a UFO activity that played a decisive role in the “abduction” of electricity from local towns. They can be classified as “unidentified” in the sense that all possible explanations used to reach a rational answer to the phenomenon have proven inapplicable (atmospheric, meteorological (weather was fair), astronomical, military, aviation...)

There appears to be a strange cause-and-effect relationship between UFO sightings over power plants or transformer units and subsequent blackouts. A strange cause that sucks the facility dry without knowing how or why, but whose consequences are faced by entire communities. An addiction, a need for extra energy or electrical experiments? As in so many other occasions, we have more questions than answers. Only one thing is certain: the unidentified were there.

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology)

Spain: Cases from the UFOCAN Database

2011-11-07T09:42:00.000-08:00

Spain: Cases from the UFOCAN Database
By Angel Rodríguez
GEIFO – Grupo Español de Investigación del Fenómeno OVNI

Date/ Time: December 1965, 0230 hrs.
Object: Unknown, flying parallel to the aircraft
Location: Flying over the Province of Seville (Spain)
Witnesses: Crew of the AVIACO Convair 440 airliner
Case Name: “Correo Aereo” (Air Mail)
Miscellaneous Info: Detection by the Constantina Radar (Seville)

Captain Vicente Roa was flying an AVIACO Convair 440 with Alfonso Gonzalez as his co-pilot, flying the Madrid-Seville-Malaga mail delivery route on an evening in December 1965.

They were flying over the province of Seville at around 0230 hours and were advised by the Constantina radar (Seville) that they were being followed by an unknown object flying parallel to the aircraft’s starboard.

Immediately, the cabin’s occupants looked toward where the radar suggested and were able to see a domed, disk-shaped object twice the size of the airliner, lit like a neon tube and with a blurry outline, flying some two kilometers from the airplane.

After having landed in the Seville Airport, the pilots went to the control tower to see – along with 15 others – the “fluorescent tube” that was now suspended 10 meters over the runway. Minutes later, the object rose into the air and changed location.

The aircraft needed to resume its flight, and after taking off toward Malaga, the pilots decided to point the nose of their plane toward the strange artifact. It accelerated and vanished, as they subsequently confirmed with the Constantina radar.

Date/Time: 10 September 1965, 0326 hrs.
Location: San Pablo Airport (Seville)
Object: Two luminous objects at an altitude of some 200 meters
Witnesses: Airport staff and radar operators of the “Bolero” radar facility (Seville)
Case name: “Aeropuerto de Sevilla” (Seville Airport)
Miscellaneous Info: Military File No. 650910, Declassified.

This case is featured in a small declassified military file – No. 650910 – in which the traffic officer of Seville’s San Pablo Airport reports that the controller on duty had seen two luminous objects flying from north to south and to the east and west of the airport on 10 September 1965 at 0326 hours.

The controller calculated the speed of said lights at some 150 km/hour at an altitude of 200 meters.

Both lights descended in a manner similar to a helicopter, but a greater speed, diminishing the intensity of the lights until they were extinguished.

Contact was made with Bolero (the radar facility at Seville) and with the Control Tower at the Morón de la Frontera Air Base. Bolero confirmed a visual contact of two luminous objects flying slowly to the south of Morón.

However, the Morón Air Base did not report any sightings or anomalous occurrences in the skies.

Date/Time: 31 December 1958 / 2400 hours
Location: Sanlúcar La Mayor (Seville)
Object: Two unknown objects taking off
Witnesses: Rafael Salas and the driver of his truck
Case name: “Las Doblas”
Miscellaneous Info: n/a

On 31 December 1958, only a few minutes before midnight, Rafael Salas was heading toward Seville, on his way back from Huelva in a rented truck with a load of salt.

Shortly before reaching Sanlúcar La Mayor and before ascending the slope of Las Doblas, he ordered his driver to stop the truck on the shoulder to have eat the “lucky grapes” (*) that mark the end of the year.

They turned off the engine but not the headlights, which cast their light beyond a barbed wire fence. At that time, a meter and a half to the right of the truck, a pointed cylindrical object, two meters tall and thirty centimeters thick, took off into the sky.

The driver did not move, and when Rafael made an effort to open the door, a second object took off, making a noise similar to that of an electric saw, and at tremendous speed.

(*) Spain has the custom or tradition of welcoming the new year by eating a grape for each of the twelve last bells of the year. These are known as the “lucky grapes”.

Date/Time: 1958, early morning
Location: County road from Algeciras (Cádiz) to Ronda (Málaga)
Object: Landing of a disk-shaped object of unknown origin
Witnesses: A married couple, the husband’s father and a friend.
Case name: “Caso Algeciras 1958” (1958 Algeciras Case)
Miscellaneous Info: n/a

UFO reported on the county road linking Algeciras and Ronda.

The witness was in the company of his wife, father and a friend, driving along the road in the early morning hours, on their way to a hunting spot. Upon reaching Cuevas del Becerro (Becerro Caves), they began to see a light that they at first thought might be a Police vehicle.

As they approached the light, they noticed that it was an object squarely occupying the middle of the road. It was a circular artifact, similar to a fiery soup dish, with a dome on its upper section, lighting its surroundings. It measured approximately 7 meters in diameter by some 2 meters tall.

The driver halted his vehicle some 200 meters away, waiting for the object to clear the road.

After a while, seeing that the object was not moving, the driver approached it slowly. The UFO began to rise, very slowly, until it reached an altitude of some 1000 meters. It flew over the car and landed again, some two hundred meters behind them.

The object’s behavior filled the vehicle’s occupants with curiosity, so they turned around and tried to approach it a second time.

On this occasion, the artifact also rose silently, but unlike the time before, it made quick zigzag motion and flew off at top speed.

Date/Time: August 1958, 1930 hrs.
Location: Sierra Nevada (Granada)
Object: Tapered object
Witnesses: Three friends, not determined
Case name: “Sierra Nevada, 1958”
Miscellaneous Info:

Three friends were enjoying an evening in the country in August 1958 at Sierra Nevada (Granada).

At 19:30 hours they were at the summit of the “Mojón Alto” mountain, looking toward the Genil River, they saw a tapered, conical object resting on three legs at a distance of some 4 kilometers.

The object was some 8 meters tall by 3 meters wide. Its surface, resembling stainless steel, was shining in the sun.

They didn’t pay much attention at first, thinking it was a pluviometer, but when they looked a second time, what they took for a pluviometer was floating and rising slowly into the air. At a given moment, it gained speed, passed over Mt. Mulhacén, heading south toward Africa.

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology (IHU), Special thanks to Angel Rodríguez, GEIFO)

Argentina: The Rio Negro Blackouts (1998)

2011-11-07T06:50:00.001-08:00

Source: El Dragón Invisible
Date: 11.06.11

Argentina: The Rio Negro Blackouts (1998)
By Carlos Iurchuk – La Plata, Argentina

Sunday, April 12, 1998

The lights went off at 19:45 hours. Repairs were undertaken by technicians from the Cooperativa Eléctrica Bariloche (CEB) who detected an interruption in the medium-voltage line from [the town of] Fernandez Beschtedt to La Paz after the Cipresales transformer was left out of commission, “leaving practically have the city without power.”

Engineer Claudio Campo of the electric utility confirmed that the CEB had ascertained “a consumption of electricity five to six times higher than usual” and this overvoltage – whose possible origin could have been “a three-phase short circuit” or a “power demand” – managed to blow the electric grid’s cables.

“We didn’t find a short circuit,” Campo noted, assuring that the second alternative was that “something had drawn power.”

Technicians state that the weather conditions could not have brought about the blackout. No one could explain the phenomenon that resulted in peak consumption of 1050 amperes on the electric lines.

“At 22:11, three minutes after service was restored, a new blackout occurred that prompted repair crews to conduct a detailed scan of the city’s power lines,” stated the CEB, stressing that the search was conducted from “post to post” without any evidence suggesting the reason for the blackouts being found. Neither the National Interconnected System nor short-circuits, much less acts of vandalism, could account for the blackouts. “Surveys by repair crews enabled us to determine that no acts of vandalism had occurred on conductors or isolators, and furthermore, the favorable weather conditions dismissed the possibility that the problem could have been brought about by powerful winds.”

No technical explanation justified the successive interruptions and brown-outs recorded throughout the city [of Bariloche].

At the same time that a sizeable part of the city was plunged into darkness, residents of the city’s eastern section saw very bright lights flying swiftly over the mountains in the sector near the airport.

One witness even said that a “mothership” – larger than the rest – led a formation over Cerro Leones and that smaller ships pulled into it, producing sparks s they did so. He pointed out that the maneuver occurred at least twice, coinciding with the successive brown-outs and blackouts all over the city.

This hypothesis appears to be confirmed, with some differences, by Gustavo and Beatriz Riveros, who saw two lights fly by – one from Cerro Carbón – and that “merged” over Cerro Leones.

Other witnesses noted that the sighting took place over several minutes and that they were able to see strange lights over Lake Nahuel Huapi and toward the south. They agreed that the size of the larger vessel was twice that of a streetlight, and that the objects emitted bright flashes of light with red, yellow and white tones.
Andrea, Natalia and Carolina Caparro, of the Nicolás Lavalle district, told the TELAM news agency that at 22:30 hours that evening they had seen “a sort of saucer with red, yellow, green and white flashes of light, and another object, slightly larger and elongated, with red and yellow lights.” The luminous objects “remained suspended in the air for several minutes before heading off toward the lake sector.”

Although their sightings began around 23:30 hours, relatives and neighbors “had seen it much earlier.”

“These were lights of various colors and at low altitude. They made no noise whatsoever, and whenever a bright white light appeared, the power went out,” said America Jara, a witness to the sighting.

Several residents of the city’s higher section got in touch with radio and TV stations to report seeing [objects resembling] stars that moved and gave off red, yellow, green and “glowing white” flashes of light between 22:30 and 23:45 hours.

The lights moved back and forth in a straight line until “another object, elongated and the size of a small soda bottle” appeared, and they docked with it, according to locals.

This docking maneuver took place “with a great flash, like a burst of electricity, and lights immediately went out all over the city,” said a woman who asked to remain anonymous, like other residents of Bariloche.

Residents of Dina Huapi, the downtown area, the IPPV districts and other parts of the city also contributed eyewitness accounts.

The CEB also received information from a well-known resident of the San Francisco district, who claimed seeing “something like a red ball” descending in a zigzag maneuver at full speed at the long pedestrian stairway at Tiscornia. In this case, of course, the structure is located under a medium voltage line and could have easily been an electric discharge or loss of power.

The local airport reported that but for the power interruption, an inconvenience remedied by the repair crews, “no strange events were reported” in that district.

“They were private planes arriving for the weekend and took off at the end of the day on Sunday. Furthermore, there were also nocturnal flights,” explained an official with the local weather office.

Problems continued – without repairs being made –“ until 1:34 a.m., without any evidence suggesting an explanation for the occurrence. Power was restored to the lines as from that moment without further inconvenience.”

Tuesday, April 14, 1998

A new electric blackout occurs with no official explanation being offered. A sizeable part of the city was left completely in the dark.

Julio Posse, a resident of Barrio Melipal, said: “...a very bright glow was seen to the east of Cerro Otto. My family witnessed it from inside the house. My children said: “Daddy, the UFOs!” and I replied: “Yes, the UFOS...”

The storm that punished the city that night may have accounted for not as many reports as on Sunday, when the sky was completely cloudless.

Luis Baigorria, a spokesman for the CEB, noted that Tuesday’s power loss went “...from Kilometer 1 of Bustillo Avenue to Puerto Moreno. A few minutes after the power was lost, the lines charged up again, but protections appeared again and the problem repeated itself in the same area...”

“...Yet again, no evidence was found to determine that the interruption was due to deliberate reasons that affected the lines, or any logical circumstances that could have affected the supply of electricity,” Baigorria concluded.

Engineer Claudio Campo explained: “What happened on Tuesday was identical to Sunday, but there were no records in this case, since the Puerto Moreno transformer station isn’t there, and no succession of events was recorded...”

Wednesday, April 15, 1998

Around 22:30 hours, Adrian Zuber, an employee with a transportation company, captured the maneuvers of a strange and bright light in the direction of Cerro León with his Sony camera. The recording showed a vast black background on which a light can be seen to glow “intensely and incessantly” with red, blue, yellow and green flashes. These flashes can be seen more clearly when the zoom function is applied, but the shape cannot be seen clearly, although a halo can be made out.

“It was very shocking”, said Zuber. All day he received calls from all national and foreign media, including from Germany and the United States.

The local resident traveled some 15 kilometers from his home, near the 255 School, to the intersection of Routes 23 and 237, where he made the recording. The last flight recorded from the local airport was a little after 20:00 hours, over two hours before the recording was made. Local Channel 6 broke the story and broadcast the images.

SOURCES:
· América Noticias – 14 April 1998
· "Diario Popular" – 14 April 1998
· "El Vocero" – Puerto Rico – 20 April 1998.
· "La Mañana del Sur"
· "Río Negro" – 14 April 1998
· "Río Negro" – 17 April 1998
· TELEFE Noticias – 17 April 1998

Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology (IHU). Special thanks to Carlos Iurchuk, El Dragón Invisible.

Argentina: Villa Huidobro - Another Interrupted Journey (1983)

2011-11-07T04:26:00.000-08:00

Argentina: Villa Huidobro – Another Interrupted Journey (1983)
By Lucio Daniel Rossi and Norberto L. Medina
Grupo CONEX – Rio Cuarto – Córdoba
(from the “Contactos ET” Bulletin published by CONEX, 1997)

During the first minutes of Christmas, 1983, a family from Rio Cuarto traveling from Villa Huidobro to Huinca Renancó was intercepted by a vast luminous vessel. While an abduction event occurred during this incident, it will not form part of this report, as is still being researched. The remainder of the experience is nonetheless very interesting, and while not a current case, it is being published for the first time, as it was only made known to CONEX by the experiencers after having kept it secret all these years.

The Sordi Family, made up of Armando Sordi, his wife D., his eldest daughter F., his youngest daughter M. and his mother-in-law, H. (the family currently includes a new daughter born years after the incident) decided to spend Christmas Eve, 1983 at the home of some relatives of D., who lived in Villa Huidobro (a small town located in southern Córdoba, near the border with the province of La Pampa).

As they dined outdoors, a strong wind kicked up, heralding a Christmas storm. However, D. could not see that likely storm. At the same time, M. (three months old at the time) was upset, as if not feeling well, a symptom that had been for a number of hours earlier.

The little one’s state was a concern to her parents and grandmother, and they decided to have her checked out by any doctor in Huinca Renancó (which is a few dozen kilometers from Villa Huidobro, localities set out in a straight line parallel to the northern limit of La Pampa).

Therefore, around 12:30 and 12:45 in the morning, the family set out to Huinca Renancó in Armando’s Ford Falcon. Armando was at the wheel with his wife to his right, holding M. in her arms. In the back seat were H. and F., asleep on H.’s lap.

They went along the dirt road and immediately reached the highway, passing by a large tree grove on the side. Armando drove his Falcon urgently, remarking on the darkness of the sky to D., but his wife, strangely enough, was unable to notice any difference.

However, D. was able to make out a glow in the distance, to her left. In that direction, something resembling “a large communion wafer” – translucent and white – appeared in the air. It rose quickly into the air “with the movement of a balloon being released” before stopping again.

At that moment, the object acquired a yellowish cast to its outline. It was no longer as luminous as before, but “very nearly transparent.”

From that moment onward, the circular object began moving toward them with a strange motion that D. defined as “halting, as though something were pushing it from behind. For that reason it looked increasingly larger and flying very low.”

Despair gripped the family. H. screamed in terror, weeping and shaking her arms “as if to make that thing go away”. F. remained asleep, Armando and D. were nervous and M. remained with her mother.

Faced with this situation, Armando pulled over to the road’s shoulder and got out of the car. It should be noted that Armando does not recall having gotten out of the car, a detail that D. remembers clearly, as she had leaned over M.’s little body in an instinctive and maternal act of protection. And from that position, she remembers seeing only her husband’s leg and foot beside the car.

The UFO remained at the vehicle’s left, flying at low altitude and only a few dozen meters away. It was reddish in color, but giving off a powerful white glow. “I suddenly heard Armando say that it was flying over us and stopping over some eucalyptus trees that formed a long curtain to our right,” says D., who from her huddled position could only move her head to look.

“I was able to see it clearly. It was immense and rotating at an alarming rate. It was noiseless and moved like a hummingbird, one moment here, and another there,” added D., who notes that the UFO brushed over the tree boughs, or in her words, “caressing them”. Armando and D. agree that the “device’s” measured some 25 meters in diameter. It changed colors (from red to orange, yellow, white and green) and always irradiated a powerful white glow that flooded the surroundings. “It looked like daytime; we couldn’t even see the car’s headlights,” Armando stressed. They also noticed that the UFO had dark spots they described as “portholes.”

After a few minutes, the object flew over them again, placing itself in the position it had originally held, that is to say, to the automobile’s left, slightly beyond the train tracks that run parallel to the road.

As it remained there, the couple noticed that another car was heading toward them on the opposite lane. This reassured them, as they believed the UFO would be seen by those aboard the car, and that they might stop. Mysteriously, the UFO vanished, “turning itself Off”, and the other car sped by, probably without its occupants noticing its anomalous presence.

Once the car took off, the UFO “lit up” again. The family then decided to continue its journey and get away from that “device”, retaking the road to toward Huinca Renancó. Even more surprising, the UFO also began to move, parallel to the paved road, following them at the same speed and at low altitude (almost over the electric cables), lighting the areas over which it flew.

Whenever Armando slowed down, the UFO did the same. It even rose into the air to dodge the facilities of an abandoned refrigeration plant, otherwise it would have crashed into it. From that moment onward, it maintained the same altitude, making a zigzagging motion before reaching Huinca Renancó, ascending at a prodigious rate of speed, and remaining in the sky as a small red dot, then vanishing altogether. The family would have further sightings after this incident.

Carlos Alberto Iurchuk of El Dragón Invisible managed to meet Armando Sordi at the Rio Cuardo UFO Convention held in November 1998. Sordi agreed to be interviewed. (available at www.dragoninvisible.com.ar)

Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Carlos Iurchuk, El Dragón Invisible

Mexico: Airliner Tailed By Two Spheres

2011-11-07T03:33:00.001-08:00

Aeromexico pilot Antonio Herce describes the manner in which two objects -- flying at 850 kmh -- escorted another Aeromexico airliner out of Hermosillo, Sinaloa. Captain Herce was able to see the luminous spheres after making sustained radio contact with the pilot of the aircraft being "tailed". An exclusive interview with Ana Luisa Cid on the La Sobremesa program. Video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A3VSjTriLM

Argentina: An Absurd Morphology

2011-10-27T09:15:00.001-07:00

Source: Gaceta OVNI (Argentina)
Date: N.A.

Argentina: An Absurd Morphology
By Daniel Lopez

Being able to attest to the wide variety of behaviors and shapes that manifest in active UFO zones, such as the Valles Chalchaqui, is truly remarkable. But this trait, a characteristic of the UFO phenomenon, cannot be superficially appreciated to say that the variety barely has anything to do with the abundance of shapes and behaviors that would respond to a multitude of active elements, acting independently as elements of a sub-set, or rather as the identification of entities, presences and places of orgin, if not purposes or models created for a specific task.

Contrary to what is commonly believed, diversity would respond to a much more complex variation in functions and purposes exhibited by one shape or another. This is, without question, an overall phenomenon whose visual perception by witnesses can be the result of a perceptual interaction with a transmutative capability that has been outlined several times in world case histories, but which has been considered as exterior and independent of the witness.

There is the possibility that the UFO phenomenon has an exterior epicenter, one that is physical, tangible yet able to acquire or respond to the viewer’s perceptions as a result of the bizarre characteristics that its manifestation places in human memory.

In referring to an interaction, we are not only describing the precise moment in which the visual stimulus occurs, which translates more clearly in people. Interaction broadens the horizons on the witness’s perceptual and physical qualities to relate to the ones emanating from the phenomenon, its physical nature, and all stimuli or observer-manipulated intervention. That’s where the phenomenon suggests a control of the event, including the observer in the theater of operations. It can also, hypothetically speaking, display a series of morphological adaptations that do not have to be tied exclusively to a problem that is proper to dynamics that motivate it, but in the presence of the putative witness. Can this be possible?

An interesting case took place in the Valles Chalchaquies on the 5th or 6th of January, 2001 in a region near Pueblo Viejo, a wilderness on the way to La Poma, 25 kilometers north of Payogasta. Sara Guanuco de Bonifacio, 44, has lived in this area for 25 years. Her house is located a few hundred meters from the Calchaquí River on the edge of Highway 40, at an elevation of a few meters. Toward the east can be seen the eroded shapes of the sandstone that forms an extensive wall over the edge of the canyon through which the river flows. Beyond that, toward the east and west, the great pre-Cordilleran ranges can be seen to guard a horizon silhouetted by their sinuous, spectacular silhouettes. It need not be said that people here lead a peaceful life. Yet this is an area highly frequented by luminous phenomena.

Sara recalls that one of her earliest experiences was between ’72 and ’75 when she saw a huge moon crossing the fringe of sky that the mountains allow her to see, following a south-to-north trajectory.

More recently, some 2 or 3 years ago and for three straight nights, she clearly saw a fireball leaping from cactus to cactus along the river, dancing the night with astonishing precision among the upper parts of these cacti. While it leaped, making broad curves in the air, its size increased and decreased. Another experience that shocked her was in late January 2001 around 11:00 p.m., as she hanged freshly washed clothes on the line outside her house. It was her daughter who informed her of the transit of an enormous light – very bright and pinkish – coming out of the east and headed due west.
Both say it was so bright that they could not identify a shape. It flew at low altitude, barely a few meters over the rooftop, projecting beams against the ground, tinting the night a luminous pink. The phenomenon occurred two weeks later, but this time with two green lights, also very bright, crossing the sky slowly and projecting “beams of light” from east to west.

However, the event she best remembers took place in broad daylight. It was in the middle of the afternoon under the sun’s brilliant rays and with cloudless skies. She was outside, tending to the flock whose pen is only a few meters from the house. Something made her stop and look. There was a strange object 400 meters away, in the eastern part of the canyon: it resembled two vessels joined at their edges, no bigger than two meters wide and two meters tall, flying horizontally at low speed, ascending slightly. What struck her the most was an appendage to the structure that struck her as ridiculous: a jointed tubular protuberance that she described as a “smokestack”. The similarity is made even closer, as the appendage emits steam, a semi-transparent smoke similar to that of chimneys when there is cooking going on inside, or when the structure is being heated with firewood.

It made no noise. The entire observation lasted over three minutes, enough time to capture it in her memory and marvel at the fixture attached to such a strange object. Sara does not recall any event in her life as strange and intense as this; and the first thing that appears in her description is the contradictory element that she would have never imagined in such an object.

It’s evident that the detail she described has acted in such a way that the experience was burned into her mind. At no time did she feel disquiet or fear, nor was she upset in any way. To the contrary, she openly states that the ridiculous aspect of her sighting has kept it fresh in her memory.

A steam-powered UFO? No, an associative element that eliminated her disquiet, replacing it with amazement and bewilderment. An appendage having nothing to do with the means of propulsion employed by these objects, bur rather a stimulus created by the effect of the interaction itself in its effort to relate to the observers.

This is merely a possibility, barely a working hypothesis. But it is worth elaborating on. In the meantime, no one can dissuade Sara Guanuco of the belief that what she saw was real, and the strangest thing that fate meant her to see.

(Translation (c) 2011 S.Corrales, IHU)

Expediente OVNI - Second Issue

2011-10-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

Expediente OVNI No. 2 – An Editorial by José M. Echeverría

[Contributing editor José M. Echeverría has posted the latest issue of his new publication Expediente OVNI. This second issue (Vol 1. No.2) tackles a subject that may seem conspiracy-minded, but is documented fact: the extent to which human experimentation has been conducted in Puerto Rico with by government agencies and by private companies--SC]

Puerto Rico is currently undergoing one of the most critical stages in history. Aside from the fact that the current political system isn’t working and the ones that follow it will have a hard time facing the government’s current status. Much work must be done to face rampant crime, corruption, high-energy costs, and political scandal. Economic collapse is imminent. Factories are shutting down and leaving the island. Unemployment has reached alarming levels, and many times these things reach such a level that the human psyche seeks an escape valve, in many instances creating phenomena and perhaps distractions to avoid waking up and facing what the not-too-distant future holds for us. Secret experiments, experiments involving human beings in our society, contravene scientific ethics, making us the victims of a group of fascists – elite racists – within a hidden government that is killing us little by little. The sheep cannot see beyond the pen in which the allegedly feel “safe”. But some of these sheep have seen beyond the pen, and know what is going on in their surroundings – things that the masters do not want them to know, and knowledge is power.

People live within the comfort of government aid, creating a number of parasites within society, undermining the true purpose of assistance tendered to persons in real need. Some of the country’s media have given full rein to individuals seeking recognition, completely ignorant of cases that take place in our country by chance, and creating a bad impression of the true researchers who muddy their boots in the field. What would our ancestors say of the level we have achieved? Anthropology, which studies human beings and past cultures, may give us the key to survive our sorrowful current reality. The planet Earth is in constant change – cyclical changes that each being on this planet must be aware of and in tune with. Those who resist these changes are affected by them in one way or another, and for that reason our forebears lived in harmony with nature, abiding by the natural harmony between man and Mother Nature.

[The full issue is free for download at http://es.calameo.com/read/000971868da3fb5f8babf?sid=cf76e109beb2389a75e300ff084fa27b]

Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU.

Chile: UFO Photographed Over La Serena

2011-10-27T06:46:00.000-07:00

Source: NOUFA (Noticiero Ufologico Autonomo)
Date: 10.26.11

Chile: UFO Photographed Over La Serena

On October 22, 2011 at approximately 15:00 hours, this photo was taken by Magdalena Montserrat Rivera Tarifeño using a Blackberry 9800 with a high resolution camera. The location was near the village of Tongoy. We have no further background information to share regarding the image, for example, whether this source of light moved...was it static, did it spin, did it make noise, etc.or any other similar detail.

While the photo is very clear, as well as the sky behind it, we will not hazard a guess as to its nature without prior analysis, to be conducted in coming weeks. Also, and as is our custom, if any reader can contribute other details seen at that time, they will be most welcome.

NOUFA extends thanks to Mr. Jose I. Rivera Pellegrini and Ivan Vorved for sending us this photo and authorizing us to share it with our readers.

PHOTO AT: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oozl0en8Pc0/TqhvHUJFaAI/AAAAAAAACjg/uGmEWGIQsAw/s400/IMG-20111022-00029.jpg

(Translation (c) 2011 S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to NOUFA)

An Abductee Goes to Court: The Godoy Case (1998)

2011-10-26T06:34:00.000-07:00

An Abductee Goes to Court: The Godoy Case (1998)
By Luis Alberto Reinoso
Courtesy of El Dragón Invisible (Carlos Iurchuk)

Note from Luis Alberto Reinoso (lar769@hotmail.com): The following is the verbatim copy of the criminal complaint for the Godoy Case, presented before the Office of the Prosecutor for the Provincial Courts of Rosario (Argentina). The conclusions, research and analysis will appear in my upcoming book, “New world order, globalization and the UFO phenomenon”. All photos are property of the EDOVNI files.

Presentation before the Office of the Prosecutor. Criminal Complaint:
Provincial Courts of the City of Rosario

Dear Sir:

ESFREN GODOY, Argentinean national, married, businessman, bearer of ID No. XXXXX, having actual residence at XXXX in the city of Rosario, by my own right and with the sponsorship of Dr. Luis Alberto Reinoso, having legal residence at Sargento Cabral 591, 4th Floor, office 8 of the city of Rosario for all legal effects, appears before the Hon. Prosecutor and respectfully submits:

1) Consideration of an event that occurred against my will, and to give it the seriousness it deserves, I have come to make the Hon. Prosecutor aware of the following facts, from which may arise the commission of the crime of unlawful privation of personal freedom (Art. 141 of the Criminal Code)

II) Competence:

As will emerge from the presentation of the facts, it is believed that ordinary justice is competent.

III) FACTS:

On October 22, 1998, at 13:45 hours approximately, I left my home at XXXX street and headed for my daughter’s hair salon on Corrientes and Montevideo streets. When I reached Ituzaingó and Juan Manuel de Rosas, someone asked me very kindly if he could help me cross the street. A young man, 25-30 years old by his voice. I said yes and I placed my hand on his shoulder. We crossed Ituzaingó Street. Upon reaching the other side, I thanked him and he asked: “How far are you going?” I replied that I was on my way to Corrientes and Montevideo. Then he said: “I’m headed that way. Would you mind some company?” “No, quite the opposite. It would help me, as I could go faster holding on to your shoulder.” We kept walking and made small talk. He said the he has a relative who is also sight impaired. I recall asking if it was a close relative, and he replied: “No, a relative by affection more than anything else.” We reached Pasco, crossed it, and went another block between Pasco and Cochabamba, always along Juan Manuel de Rosas Street. I suddenly felt ill. I felt that I couldn’t keep walking. It’s the first time that it’s ever happened to me. I never felt like that before. Then I stopped, and without a word the young man took me gently by the arms to steady me against a wall. That’s the last thing I recall. I felt something against my back, something metallic. That’s the last thing I felt. I don’t know if I passed out or fell over. I didn’t feel anything else. Time went by...when I felt him supporting me as if I was about to fall over, he pushed me back slightly and I felt metal against my back. It was a gate, that’s what I say. That’s when I felt contact: my back was leaning against something. I recall nothing more.

I regained awareness. I don’t know how much time went by, but I felt as though I was in an operating room. Why do I say it was an operating room? I’ve been in an operating room four times, twice for eye problems. Then, I slowly became aware of where I was. I thought that something must have happened to me on the street. Was I about to be operated on? Is this right. So the first thing I feel, without hearing a noise, is that my feet are being inspected. The sensation reached my knees, and that’s when I realized that there was nobody touching me. But I knew I was being checked over. Something kept creeping upward, but there was no physical contact. No one was touching me. The sensation kept moving up my body, up and up, lingered around my stomach, my abdomen...I could hear something soft in my right ear, a shhhh sound. When they reached my right ear, I was able to ask if they were going to subject me to eye surgery. I spoke my first words: “Are you going to operate on my eyes?” but no one answered. Then I asked: “What happened to me?” and they say: “Everything is fine. Relax.” That was the reply of a doctor, in my opinion, an older person with a calming voice. So then I say (realizing that I’m more freely able to speak): “Are you going to operate on my eyes?” And the voice says: “No” (always softly). Then I kept quiet and realized that they’re checking my eyes, even though my eyelids are closed. There is no pressure exerted to open them, but both my eyes are checked out. Then I ask: “Will I see again?” A few seconds go by and the voice says: “No”. I ask: “Will you be operating? Is there any cure?” And the voice says: “Yes you will see.” “Are you going to heal me?” “No, you must heal your own ailments.” “But, how will I see again?” “Yes, as long as there has been prevention in the case.” I didn’t quite understand what he meant with prevention in the case, and I only retained that I would be seeing again. And my joy was enormous. Don’t forget that I was able to see until the age of 45. Since I’ve had heart problems, I asked: “Is my heart working well?” The voice answered: “All is well.”

The inspection continued, this time downward again, and I asked: “what’s going on? and was told: “What happens to you is something that your people must solve. Your people have everything they need to live well, and live poorly because you don’t know how to live well. It is all within the reach of your hands, and you do not use it because you do not know how to live.” The best thing is that this was recorded at the police station. Each section chief transcribed it at least ten times – once – and I had to repeat it. They all had to type it. It was fresh in my mind; I could see it as if it was a film. I said everything verbatim. When I asked: “what’s going on?” I was answered by a second voice, with a totally different ring to it, as if younger, but always softly. They sounded like professional people speaking in soothing tones. What I forgot to mention that when they reached my eyes, I realized that the voice was not coming from the outside, but rather, from within my brain. I was startled, but not so much, because weird things like that occur under anesthesia. I realized that I could hear my own voice perfectly. I tried to sit up and the voice said: “Relax. All is well.” At that moment I realized that I was lying down with my hands beside my body, and when I tried to sit up and couldn’t, I relaxed. But my hand began looking for the edge of the hospital bed as if trying to grasp something. I felt for the edge of the bed, but found nothing. I kept reaching even lower, down to my legs and underneath. I touched both of my hands and found that there was nothing under my body. That’s when I realized that I was floating. There was nothing, no support from beneath me, no contact with anything. I wasn’t startled and I didn’t give it any importance. There was no edge to the bed, nothing at all. The atmosphere was pleasant, as though air conditioned, but there was no wind, no air, nothing.

Noticing that there was a long period of silence after the second question, I felt total peace. As if I weren’t there. The correct word is that I felt as if I were dreaming. Then I asked: “Will you be taking me home?” And the first voice said: “No. We’re already home.” Next, I felt a buzzing, the loudest I heard in my right ear...sssss...it didn’t’ hurt my ear. It’s as if I’d lost control of my awareness at the time, becoming aware of heat against my head. I realized that was lying down, but not on my back, but on my left side. [...] I realized that the heat I felt was the sun burning my head. That’s when things got complicated, because I became aware that I was lying on the ground in an open area. The first contact I felt was with the weeds. I tried to get up, and I feel the soil, the ground, and I’m barefoot. I looked for my cane, which is inseparable from me, and rather than having my hand on the loop, it’s on my wrist. I pull it out; I extend it, and feel for obstacles with my hand. I touched all around with the cane and felt a barbed wire fence. This is very important to me, as I cannot see. I felt around with the cane, bothered by the weeds, the hot earth, and touched the barbed wire fence 20 centimeters away, seven or eight strands of it. It was a fence. I turned around. That’s when my ear came into contact with reality, because I could hear cars. I thought I must be at Independencia Park, which is the nearest thing to me. I started walking toward the cars, thinking I’m on Oroño Street. Then I start dodging obstacles, tough weeds, for some 20 meters more or less. But the cars were not driving past a street, because the characteristic sound was that of a highway, judging by the speed of the passing cars. Getting someone to stop was an odyssey.

I realized that a car was approaching slowly. A little truck, a tractor. As it approached, I made as though I was about to fall down. Help, please help me. The truck stopped, and its driver was a woman alone. She asked: “What’s wrong, sir?” I said: “Where am I?” “At Laguna” “Which Laguna?” “Laguna del Pescado in Victoria, Entre Rios” “But how could I be in Entre Rios? What time is it, miss?” She says: “It’s going on 3, ten to three.” “In the morning?” I asked, because it was the most reasonable thing I could ask, not realizing that the sun was burning my head. “No, in the afternoon, sir. What’s wrong?” So I tried to tell her everything, but the lady walked back, thinking I was insane. I asked her to take me to Victoria. No, I can’t take you – there’s a police station some 1500-2000 meters behind you. A truck pulls over, and since the driver knows the lady, she asks him: “Taborda, why don’t you take this gentleman to the police station?” I got on the truck and I asked the driver why no one stopped there. “No, I only stopped because I know Mrs. Urcola. I was on my way to Estancia La Concepción in Rincón Norte.” He took me to the police station. The officer on duty, surnamed Albornoz, turned up and didn’t let me use the phone, because it was for internal use only. But there was a radio to contact Victoria. He calmed me down, and seeing I was barefoot, gave me a pair of old sneakers to wear. So I told him everything that happened to me. He took note, and I asked him to use the phone again. He radioed Victoria and was told that it must be a missing person case. When he calms down, bring him to Victoria. 15 minutes later he radios Victoria and says: “Listen, this gentleman isn’t lost. He says he was in Rosario only an hour and a half ago.” “Aside from being lost, he’s nuts,” they replied.

I was taken to Victoria and have to tell them the whole story again. There was no way I could phone Rosario to contact my family. At 5 pm I needed to go to the bathroom, as I hadn’t urinated all day. I asked for someone to accompany to the bathroom and once there, I realized I wasn’t wearing any underpants. I unbuttoned my jeans, lowered them and realized I wasn’t wearing underpants. One of the things I didn’t say, since I was in the presence of women or children, is that I felt “the machine that was inspecting me” made me feel a warm, soft sensation on my testicles. I asked them what they were going to do. “We’re extracting life seed,” and I ejaculated immediately. The doctor, at my insistence, also reported this.

Another detail I want to state is that when I was standing, after having taken out my cane, touching the barbed wire, I looked for my talking wristwatch and found it on my wrist, but on the last hole and without the tongue holding it together. I activated it and it said: “14 hours, 32 minutes.” That was my first awareness of the time, and when I became even more concerned.

I was not allowed to make a phone call from the police station [in Victoria] at the police chief’s orders. When the chief arrived, the contacted my wife (and I found this out when I spoke to her on the return to Victoria. My questioners were all policemen, but there was also an examining magistrate present – Dr. Brasesco – who also questioned me. He left orders that everything I said should be recorded without further questioning.

Dr. Brasesco himself remarked to the coroner: “We mustn’t be startled by this. We should acknowledge that we’re facing something abnormal that’s beyond our grasp. But we have to get used to it, because it happens very often in the area.”

My wife got worried around 3:00 p.m. when my brother showed up to find me, since I was supposed to be back from the hair salon. When they couldn’t find me, the first thing they did was call the salon, which is my daughter’s. She told them that I had never gone there. That’s when they got moving. They phoned HECA and were told that there was no one matching my description; they were advised to call the police and the Personal Safety staff told them they had to wait 24 hours; they were advised to phone the 4th Section Police; at the 4th they were also told to wait 24 hours, and it was my wife’s insistence – because I was blind – that they said: well, let’s give it 18 hours, and they called all known places where I could be. Ruben Gaglia, the sheriff of Victoria, spoke to my brother at 5:00 p.m. At that point, everyone at the station spoke to my brother and asked him many questions. When the Dr. called, I realized that they were talking to someone in my family. I asked him to please let me speak, and that’s when I spoke with Juan, my brother. He told me to take it easy and that they were coming for me.

When my brother arrived, they took a deposition, asking him things about my life. They showed him by statement, and he asked why they’d made me sign it. The police told him that I had agreed to sign it after having it read out to me. Furthermore, my brother told me that depositions from Taborda, the trucker, and Mrs. Urcola were also there.

Mrs. Urcola and the trucker, Taborda, told the police exactly where they had found me.

I got back to Rosario at approximately 5 in the morning.

At 9:00 a.m., Personal Security staff from Rosario called my private phone.

At 10:00 a.m., two police officers showed up to talk to my wife, asking about my physical and mental condition, and my departure time. Then I received a call from Sheriff Romero of the Personal Safety division, suggesting that if someone asks me what happened, I should say there was a gag order in place.

IV. PROBATIVE PROCEEDINGS

With a view toward ascertaining the facts, I propose the following probative measures.

a. Informative: That an official letter be sent to the Police Chief of the city of Victoria to have photocopies of the actions and/or statements made by me, my brother Juan, Mrs. Urcola, trucker Taborda, coroner reports and/or any other statements in this regard released to me.
b. Testimonial: That the following witnesses be subpoenaed: Mr. Jorge Guerrero of the town of Pueblo Esther, an address to be provided shortly. Mrs. Urcola from the city of Victoria and Mr. Taborda from the same city, addresses as shown in the reports that we ask to have attached to this document.
c. Experts: To designate, if applicable, the participation of health professionals such as: clinical physician, transpersonal psychologist, psychiatrist, to perform all pertinent studies to determine my physical and mental health.

V. CRIMINAL LIABILITY:

Mr. Prosecutor, as you can see from my testimony, my ailments, the proof tendered, and with the goal of finding an answer to my experience, I am far removed from any quest for sensationalism, disturbing the social peace or any form of economic gain. I only wish to discover the truth of what happened.

I am willing to face any interrogatories, medical and psychiatric evaluations or anything you deem necessary. It is for this reason that I appeal to this judicial body.

Moreover, Mr. Prosecutor, I believe that the behavior of those who “abducted” me to be reprehensible. I was taken from one place to another without my consent, lost awareness, underwent an involuntary examination, had “life seed” extracted from me, was left in a semi-deserted place in the vicinity of Laguna del Pescado, Victoria, Entre Rios, which is aggravated by my visual impairment status.

I would like to state that while I have said would seem taken out of science fiction, there is a history of such things happening to others. In the U.S.A. it has been ascertained that Security agencies have performed genetic experiments on persons and animals (mutilations) and the screen employed for all this is “alien beings”. All of this indicates that we are faced with actual factors of power that employ the UFO subject as a disinformation, distraction and cover-up technique. This question arises: Are these subjects mutually related, or is it a screen to cover other mundane endeavors such as, for example, organ traffic, bacteriological testing, drug trafficking, genetic experimentation, etcetera?

Consequently, the person and /or persons who transferred me would fall under the criminal item in Article 141 and succeeding articles.

Concerned with my personal safety, that of my family, and other persons who might experience the same, and faced by my unusual experience, I have resorted to this office to ascertain the reality of the facts, and if necessary, for this compendium to be submitted to the court of instruction.

We request that the Hon. Prosecutor investigate these facts.

Respectfully submitted,

ESFREN GODOY

Dr. LUIS A. REINOSO (Sponsoring Attorney)

Rosario, 27 October 1998

(Translation (c) 2011, Scott Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)

Argentina: Chicoana Crop Circles Appear for 3 Years in a Row

2011-10-24T03:59:00.001-07:00

Source: El Tribuno (www.eltribuno.info/salta/87887)
Date: October 23, 2011

Once again, the skies and fields of Chicoana were in the news for the third year in a row due to the manifestation of the “crop circles”. In 2008, 2010 and now, in 2011, this phenomenon repeated itself, accompanied as always by aerial lights. This time we have hundreds of witnesses and images. Are these pictograms related with fantastic or alien events? Or is it a more terrestrial event, involving certain anomalies of the earth’s surface?

The first “crop circles” were recorded on October 19, 2008 in this community 47 kilometers distant from Salta. They spread out the to the fields of Las Mesitas, Pulares and Villa Fanny, points of a triangle that included the mountain ranges near the town, prompting the still-unexplained crashes of three aircraft, resulting in eleven deaths. On the second occasion, also in October, but 2010 this time, the strange phenomena reappeared, covering hundreds of hectares in the area.

While this anomaly has repeated for over 20 years all over the world, similar events had never been seen in Salta. Chicoana is 47 kilometers from Salta and can be reached by National Route 68 to El Carril and then along Provincial Route 33 toward Cachi. Chicoana is a quiet place that is home to some 10,000 people, surrounded by pleasant hills covered almost year-round in the foliage of the Saltan “yungas”. Livestock and farming are the area’s two traditional activities, with tobacco and grains being produced. Chicoana’s wheat provided flour to other neighboring communities, and its fields surround the town.

For this reason – involving a grain whose wheat was going to be sold by local businesses – the authorities considered that a study of the area was advisable. In 2008, the local intendancy and the provincial civil defense requested a scientific report on the possible existence of some time of hazardous activity from the National Atomic Area Commission. The study was eventually carried out by Jorge Anesi of the CNEA’s Geological Prospecting and Radiometry Department. The technician reported that radiometric readings were taken with a scintillometer, a device sensitive to radioactive particles. “Records were kept constant in all areas checked,” said Anesi. To the CNEA expert, the designs are the manifestations of phenomena to which “people ascribe meaning, because they would appear to have one, in the way it manifests. But from what I could see, I believe that it is a phenomenon related to the wind, and not to alien presences. There are several universities interested in unraveling this enigma. What I found were a series of “impactites” or rocks expelled after a meteorite collision,” Anesi disclosed.

As to the likelihood that the marks may have been caused by pranksters, Leonardo Pellegrini, architect and precursor of “land-art” in the region, says: “it is impossible for these signs to have been created in three different locations and in the dark. In a single night, and trying not to draw attention to the large group of people who follow a plan to replicate giant designs in absolute secrecy. If they are man-made, they are unquestionably the work of organizations that involve many artists with very high standards. Furthermore, upon looking at the photos, something startling can be seen: whatever technique was employed, or the phenomenon that passed over the area, it had to have been done from top to bottom,” says Pellegrini.

His opinion dovetails with that of Jose Serrudo, the draftsman and sculptor who visited the pictograms in 2010. To this illustrator, these are “extraordinary designs, finely wrought.” However, he doesn’t think it could be done by humans. “The distances are immense and an army of people would be required to achieve them,” he said.

Despite claims of responsibility from artist-pranksters Bower and Chorley in the U.K., human manufacture of pictograms was never proven.

There were three aviation accidents with a total of 11 deaths near Chicoana. No conclusion was reached about these disasters in the end. At least three meteor strikes have been reported in nearby ranges, but none has been recovered to date.

A commission from the National University of Salta, led by geologist Ricardo Alonso, described the impact site, although nothing was found amid the dense vegetation. Local residents reported explosions, lights and objects falling in the night to the local police. Even earlier this decade, El Tribuno organized a search for an object that reportedly fell from the sky in flames. Provincial police was able to find the object employing satellites from the 911 system, but the Gendarmerie advised that it was best to withdraw from the search due to a hazardous change in the weather. “We only saw ice,” they claim.

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)

Argentina: New Crop Circles at Chicoana

2011-10-23T03:44:00.000-07:00

Source: Grupo GABIE
Date: 10.22.11

Argentina: New Crop Circles at Chicoana

Several days ago, circles and other geometric shapes appeared in the wheat fields. Today, there are claims that a strange circular object flew over the area -- sometimes at very low altitude.

Several residents of the town of Chicoana in Salta -- where circles and geometric figures appeared only days ago -- claimed having seen a strange circular object flying over the area at very low altitude.

The alleged UFO was described by the witnesses -- some were even able to take photos and record video -- as a round object that changed color constantly. "The object was very odd. It changed colors at every instant from red to green before losing itself in the mountains after being visible for several seconds," said José Morales, a witness to the aerial phenomenon over Route 33 last Thursday.

In an interview with Diario El Tribuno, the man said that the UFO "was round and not very large. Many were able to see it. After returning a few times, it vanished to the south of Chicoana."

Olga Chocobar and her nephew were also able to see it on Wednesday and Thursday from Barrio la Rotonda.

"There was a very bright light moving from one side to another at low altitude and in the same area. Two days in a row. At times it floated and moved quicly at others. It changed colors, dimmed and then reappeared somewhere else," said the local resident. Last weekend, the fields of Chicoana, 35 kilometers from the capital city of Salta, also witnessed the appearance of strange shapes in the wheat, as occurred three years ago in other rural areas of the region.

This time, circles measuring some ten meters in diamater were added to the figures, similar to the Crop Circles that appeared in England in the late '70s adne were later found in various parts of the world, causing speculation that ranges from ufology to fraud and outright pranks.

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU)

Peru: Cylindrical UFO Caught on Video?

2011-10-18T03:12:00.000-07:00

Source: Peru.com and ultimosavistamientosextraterrestres.blogspot.com
Date: 10.17.2011

Peru: Cylindrical UFO Caught on Video?

Fernando Avalos wasn’t expecting to see a UFO on the 12th of October.

According to Peru.com, the unusual sight of a cylindrical object moving at speed across blue skies was recorded at 17:45 hours and was witnessed by sixty students between the ages of eleven to twelve and four of their instructors in the city of Chimbote. While the sighting went on for about three minutes, the recorded segment only displays seventeen seconds – the amount of time remaining on the videographer’s memory card.

Naysayers have dismissed it as an airplane; believers say that it goes to show that Peru’s decades-old reputation as a UFO haven remains unchallenged.

See for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VylI5R0zkNg

Spain: More Work for Air Traffic Controllers - UFO Control

2011-10-18T02:44:00.000-07:00

Source: El Confidencial (www.elconfidencial.com)
Date: 10.12.2011

Spain: More Work For Air Traffic Controllers – UFO Control

As if the waters weren’t sufficiently turbulent for the air traffic controllers union, a new mandate has been forced upon them: to control air traffic that doesn’t appear on the books. At least that’s what César Cabo says. He is the former spokesman and “friendly face” of USCA, reporting on his Twitter account: “We kicked off the afternoon’s supervisory duty like this – three airliners have reported a UFO on their radar screens!” The remark may seem like the opening tag in a report by Iker Jimenez, but sources consulted by El Confidencial confirm that there was indeed an unidentified flying object, and three captains from various airliners attest to the fact.

The event occurred at the first hour of the afternoon in the airspace around Barajas Airport (Madrid). A strange report was received from one of the passenger airliners nearby: “I’m picking up a target on my screen” – in the jargon, a “target” refers to an unknown element. The statement cannot be corroborated from ground, as secondary radars did not pick up anything strange. Shortly after, a third pilot reported another “white light” on his monitors. Later, a third one makes a similar report to the Barajas Control Center.

According to sources, the agitation that ensued in the control room acquired considerable magnitude: an ambient mix of surprise, confusion and disquiet. An effort was made for a considerable amount of time to observe the element by following the pilot’s explanations to the letter, but without any effect. The only conclusion reached at Barajas was that – whatever it was – it wasn’t a known aircraft.

It seems that such phenomena are not as unusual as one would think. “Every so often, pilots pick up elements with “non-ballistic acceleration” on their radars,” explain airport authorities.

Practically no case receives a rational explanation. No one dares put forth a logical hypothesis to yesterday’s UFO episode. Only one of the consulted experts was willing to put forth a hypothesis to the events: “It may be that since tomorrow (meaning today) is Hispanic Culture Day, it may have to do with the Armed Forces and such...although to tell you the truth, it isn’t much of an explanation.”

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Angel Carretero, Andalucía Misteriosa)

All Down The Line: Trains to High Strangeness

2011-10-14T03:19:00.000-07:00

All Down The Line: Trains to High Strangeness
By Scott Corrales

“Everybody hears the sound of a train in the distance; everybody knows its true.” – Paul Simon

The lonely whistle of a train plowing its way through the darkness of the countryside conjures up many romantic images, to be sure, but the chronicles of the paranormal in many nations are filled with stories involving high-strangeness events and those giants of the rails. Everything from ghosts to hairy monsters and UFOs have claimed their place in railroad lore, which is complicated enough without the added elements. But is there something about trains, especially train accidents, which brings about that paranormal element? Or is it merely the human mind trying to sort out the details of a disaster?

One of the worst railroad accidents in North America took place in October 1972 in northern Mexico. Pilgrims were returning to their homes after having made a pious journey to the shrine of St. Francis of Assisi in Real del Catorce, state of San Luis Potosí. They excitedly bought tickets for the first train out of the area: a nameless convoy of sixteen superannuated passenger cars pulled by a five hundred ton diesel. The returning pilgrims quickly overwhelmed the eighty-passenger capacity of each car, and standing room only became the order of the day. Authorities believe that well over a thousand passengers were on the train that night.

The diesel bravely pulled the overloaded railcars toward the appointed destination, but the steep downward grade was more than the engine could handle. It would later be learned that the sixteen cars had been slated for the scrap yard due to their age and obsolete equipment, but that knowledge would have not helped the engineer and brakemen at the time. As the train reached Puente Moreno, the overloaded cars smashed into each other and into the locomotive. The jumble of rolling stock and rails was engulfed by flame as passengers people tried to escape from the wreckage.

It was later said that the authorities administered beatings to the surviving rail crew, forcing them to take the blame for the incident, accusing them of inebriation while on duty. The fact is that the government buried the wreckage, and a good part of the unclaimed bodies, on the spot where the disaster occurred.

An article in El Diario de Coahuila (http://www.eldiariodecoahuila.com.mx/notas/2010/) mentions that Ivan Escamilla, a local paranormal researcher, has endeavored to make electronic voice phenomena recordings at the disaster site with surprising results – screams, sobs, voices asking for help, conversations and laughing children. Unexplained lights and shadows are reported in the area of Puente Moreno – the restless shades of the accident victims.

Even more compelling is a story posted to a paranormal website by the grandson of a survivor of the accident. But the lucky survivor did not escape from the flames and ruin thanks to the hard work of rescuers, or even his own wits: an unknown man told him to get off the train as soon as possible.

The nameless survivor had boarded the death train and fallen asleep in his seat. The person told him that it would be best if he got off the train immediately, “as something very serious was about to occur.” Seconds later, as the train began its inexorable forward motion, the stranger hollered to everyone that they should get off the train, “because something was amiss.” So insistent was his tone that a several passengers jumped from the train, leaving their luggage behind. Only later would they hear of the grim fate they had escaped....

Listen To The Train Whistle By

Millions of people worldwide have seen the shades of the departed, both human and animal, and no society on the planet has a dearth of lore on the subject: what to do when they appear, how to appease them, how to banish them (if necessary) or simply, how to honor the dead and assure their peace.

In the industrial world, it is not uncommon to learn of cases in which the living have encountered ghostly images of non-living things, such as ethereal houses, automobiles, and in some rare instances, entire "ghost" villages which, like Brigadoon, are not "there" the following morning. Therefore, the case involving a phantom locomotive should not cause us to raise our eyebrows. Or should it?

After the completion of the coast-to-coast railway system at the end of the 19th century, the United States boasted one of the busiest rail systems in the world. Enormous trains like the Mikado hauled vast numbers of coal cars to feed the industrial appetite of the budding world superpower. Pittsburgh, in particular, needed coal to fuel the blast furnaces of its titanic steel, glass and iron works, and was serviced by a number of criscrossing railways.

The building of the interstate highway network, the decline of commerce by rail and the advent of the postmodern era led to the obsolescence and eventual abandonment of many railways and their tunnels, blasted through the hearts of the Appalachians.

One such train track ran through tunnels south of Pittsburgh, near the city of Canonsburg. It retains a ghostly memory of its heyday, as two young Pennsylvanians were able to discover for themselves.

While driving along the back roads running of Donaldson Rd., they came upon the long-abandoned rails, rusted and interspersed with weeds. The pair of tunnels further down the line caught their attention--particularly the fact that one of the tubes was barricaded by a gate that swung aside as they approached, as if beckoning to them.

Discretion prevailing over valor, they chose to forgo the dubious distinction of venturing into the darkened tunnel's nether reality and return by day, which they did, only to discover, in the best horror-film fashion, that the gates were no longer there: in their place now stood a wall of old bricks, the work of decades earlier judging from their poor condition. This disconcerted the youths even further.

Unable to ignore the site's enigmatic attraction, they returned to the tunnels one night of full moon in May 1993. Any plans they may have entertained about exploring the abandoned tunnels were thwarted by the sudden appearance of a phantom locomotive, pearly-white in color and almost solid, which caused them to lose their resolve and quite literally, run away.

They bestowed the name "Hell" upon the peculiar patch of backwoods they had discovered, and set about to learn as much about it as they could. A quick check of their local library revealed nothing, at first. But they gradually pieced together the story of a massive train wreck, with considerable loss of life, which had taken place along that section of track in the 1930's. Even more ominously, their research uncovered a subsequent derailment along the same section of track, which resulted
in the collision of a train carrying the bodies of Vietnam War veterans in the late 1960's.

"Hell" had a personality of its own, they discovered. It allowed some to enter its unhallowed confines while chasing others away, availing itself of a bright yellow Chevy Camaro or else, an equally garish pickup truck, that would pursue unwelcome arrivals back to the main road, turning aside down a dirt track just as soon as the trespassers had been warned off.

Before discarding the teenagers' narrative as a lively amalgam of Freddy Kruger films and Stephen King novels, we should reflect upon the fact that acts of violence tend to leave an indelible imprint upon the areas in which they occur. The late British psychic, John Pendragon, discussed an event which took place in London during World War II: While seeking shelter in a bombed out mansion during an air raid, a man came upon a "monster", which he described as being horned, goat-like, and filled with evil, sitting on the stairs leading to the upper floor. The nightmarish beast ran up the stairs, the man claimed, vanishing into one of the bedrooms, where it proceeded to make loud noises. Pendragon speculated that the hapless man had witnessed an elemental, a creature "prone to frequent places where a tragedy has occurred." Subsequent investigation revealed that a manservant had committed suicide on the premises by hanging himself from a banister, and many people had since reported the horned, bestial apparition on the steps. Enigmatic three-toed footprints were found in the vicinity of Mars, Pennsylvania in February 1975, at the site of a railroad tunnel that had collapsed, a fact that lends some weight to the "tragic event" suggestion.

The Canonsburg, PA region falls loosely under the general zone comprised by the Laurel Highlands--well known for its UFO and Bigfoot sightings. Other railroad mysteries exist in the area, which oddly complement the teens' story. During the completion of the track leading down from Pennview Mountain, two gangs of railroad workers, sparked either by the hot summer weather or a real or imaginary slight, stopped driving spikes into the ground and instead, chose to drive them into one another. By the time the situation was remedied, two men lay dead, and were promptly buried on the site. According to locals, voices arguing in rage can be heard on certain evenings.

Nancy Roberts recorded a situation parallel to the Canonsburg situation in the book Illustrated Guide to Ghosts. Pat Hayes and her husband Larry were driving through North Carolina in the early morning hours when their car broke down. When Larry went to get help, Pat heard a screech of metal in the darkness and ran out of the vehicle: she soon witnessed the derailment of a passenger train over a tall bridge into the waters of a creek below. Explosions, fire and screams rent the darkness. To add to her bewilderment, she found herself standing beside a thin, uniformed man who asked her for the time, yet seemed unconcerned by the calamitous situation playing out before them.

Her husband returned to find her distraught, convinced that there had been a terrible accident in the woods. The following day, they visited the local train station, where they learned that there had been no derailment that evening... but there had been one on that very same evening fifty years before: On August 27, 1891, a train had left Salisbury for Ashboro, NC and had reached Bostian's Bridge at 3 a.m., plunging ninety feet into the dark water below.

The stationmaster was even able to show the confused and frightened Mrs. Hayes a clip from the Charlotte Chronicle recording the terrible event: "Hurled to death, 30 Killed, Many Injured. At Three o'Clock in the Morning, Bridge near Statesville the Scene of the Wreck." Baggagemaster H.K. Linster was killed in the disaster. His description matched that of the man she'd spoken to at the crash site.

Even more dramatic are accounts of the "headless track walker" who carries out his duty at night to this very day. As one variant of the story has it, a trackwalker was on his way back to Derry, PA after checking certain sections of track in the vicinity of Burd's Crossing when he was slain by a westbound train. The fact of the matter is that the unnamed man's headless corpse was found on the tracks the next day. Ever since, those taking shortcuts across the track have stumbled across the path of a headless man carrying a lantern before him.

While we should not allow the charm of folklore, no matter how colorful, to distract us from the underlying truth of the matter at hand, places like "Hell" exist not only in the U.S., but around the world, many of them even involving railroads as well. These so-called "Dead Zones" have increasingly attracted the attention of researchers bent on unlocking their secrets. Their existence has been explained in terms of "psychic saturation", a concept that presumes that matter is quite capable of recording impressions of diverse natures, much like a blank strip of magnetic tape. When an event produces an intense outburst of mental or spiritual power from an individual or a group of persons, surrounding matter (the tunnels, train tracks, etc. in this case) picks up the outburst, storing it for "playback" (for want of a better term) by a person or persons capable of doing so. While neither of the two percipients of the strange phenomena taking place at "Hell" tried to test the solidity of the gate at the tunnel entrance, for instance, or that of the phantom locomotive, much less, the phenomenon has entered "playback" mode whenever they have returned.

An alternative theory -- psychic contagion -- could be invoked to explain the goings-on in this community off a major interstate highway (Rt.79) and less than forty minutes from Pittsburgh. The events playing out at "Hell" are nothing more than a hallucination suffered by someone at a particular time--perhaps during the collision in the 1930's, or during the derailment of the 1960's--which has repeated itself at the site and expanded until it developed into a sort of localized mental disturbance, infecting those entering the area and spread by them to others, fueling the phenomenon's existence. While eminent American and European parapsychologists have discussed such situations, their sheer complexity leads one to choose the possibility of a bona fide haunting.

In all fairness, one must point out that other train accidents have occurred in the Keystone State and have left no haunting tales for posterity: In 1856, for instance, an excursion train filled with Sunday schoolers crashed into a regular train, leaving 66 children dead. The engineer was reportedly so distraught that he committed suicide upon returning home. In 1943, a wheel bearing froze on the seventh car of the Congressional Limited as it sped through Philadelphia. The train ground to a halt and the seventh car jumped the track, slamming into the embankment. Other cars left the rails and piled up, with a death toll of 79.

A Phantom Conductor

Even stranger details accompany one of Europe’s worst train wrecks. On January 3, 1944, a mail train and a freight train collided -- inside a tunnel -- with a third locomotive used for maneuvers.

Rosa Santizo, editor of Spain’s Revista Avalon, says that Mail Train 421 left Madrid on January 2, pulling twelve passenger cars and a spare locomotive. Like the Mexican train thirty years later, the Spanish train also carried nearly a thousand passengers returning to La Coruña after having spent the holidays in the capital city.

The 421 reached the city of Astorga in León the next day at noon, and it was running late. The reason for the spare locomotive was to insure breaking power the convoy, but during this stop it was learned that the spare was also damaged, requiring it to be decoupled. The 421 now had to continue its trip through the mountains of northern Spain despite its own shortcomings.

Everything went wrong when – as in the case involving the Mexican train in decades to come – the train faced a steep downward grade and began gaining speed, to the extent that it was unable to stop at the next station. Startled onlookers said that the train sped past the platform like a runaway horse. A call was placed to the stationmaster at the next stop, instructing him to place crossbeams on the track to assist in slowing down the out-of-control train, but by the time the conversation had ended, the stationmaster watched helplessly as the 421 zoomed past his stop, straight into a tunnel where railroad personnel serviced an idle locomotive. In an age before two-way radios, there was no way of informing them of the doom that was barreling toward them.

The 421 collided against the idle locomotive, sending its crew flying. Now firmly jammed in the tunnel, the runaway train’s passengers and crew did their best to recover from the shock, unaware, as Santizo writes, “that the worst was yet to come.”

A 27-car freight train now headed toward the tunnel at full speed, unaware that the signals were now broken. One can only shudder to think about the ensuing impact, the fire from the freight locomotive’s shattered boilers and the screams of the injured and dying occupants of the passenger train in the tunnel.
Spain’s authoritarian government at the time underreported the losses. Nearly a thousand lives were lost in the tragedy. And, much like the Mexican accident at Puente Moreno, the Spanish case also had a paranormal component.

A respected citizen of the city of Astorga went to the authorities to report that three days prior to the railroad disaster, a railroad inspector had boarded one of the passenger cars, staring squarely at the passengers and saying that a serious accident had just taken place at the Torre del Bierzo tunnels and that many travelers heading to Galicia had perished. He did not wait for any response or questions from the startled passengers: he turned on a heel and got off the train.

Santizo’s article reports that others soon came forth to corroborate the presence of the “phantom conductor”, as he was quickly dubbed. The courts launched an unsuccessful search, suspecting that he might have been a saboteur, but no evidence of foul play was ever discovered.

Readers will recall John Fuller’s “The Ghost of Flight 401”, a report on the 1972 crash of an Eastern Airlines L-1011 Whisperliner in the Everglades, and the manifestations of a ghostly pilot in subsequent flights, who tried to tell others about what brought about the disaster. Separated by time and space, were the “phantom conductor” of 1944 and the “unknown man” of 1972 survivors of previous accidents? Guardian angels? Friendly djinn? Time travelers? Or merely figments of the imagination?

Under The Gaze of The Watchers

2011-10-11T08:46:00.000-07:00

Under the Gaze of The Watchers
By Scott Corrales

I saw Watchers in my vision, a dream vision,
and behold two of them argued about me [...]
and they were engaged in a great quarrel con-
cerning me. I asked them: "You, why do you
argue thus about me?" They answered and said
to me: "We have been made masters and rule over
the sons of men." And they said to me: "Which
of us do you choose?...

The preceding is a fragment from "The Testament of Amram", a document written in Aramaic that forms part of the Qumran scrolls, more commonly known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The entire fragment, which takes up some eight patchy paragraphs, relates a story told by Moses' father, Amram, to his children, concerning the burden of choice: whether to serve the evil Watcher Melkiresha, a viper-faced demon, or his counterpart, the Watcher Melchizedek, who is ruler of the "Sons of Light."

Much has been made over the last few decades of the link between the role played by the biblical Watchers and that played by UFOs and their occupants, as well as the phenomena associated with them. This order of nonhuman beings, which fell from grace on account of their transgressions with "the daughters of men," are at the core of a current controversy. The viper-eyed Melkiresha, allegorical though it may be, is strangely reminiscent of some of the more reptilian UFO entities that have been reported in a number of encounters. The Watchers, either as described in the Bible or by the Tibetan monks who discussed the topic with the Russian artist/mystic Nicholas Roerich (whose paintings of Asian hill-forts are often referred to in the writings of H.P. Lovecraft), are in essence a race of beings which have always lived in the skies and lord over humanity, reveling in intermarriage with humans. The biblical Noah, for example, was the offspring of a Watcher.

Are the Watchers Among Us?

In November of 1991, Monica María Ortega, a young Colombian woman, told her story of a nocturnal sexual encounter with an alleged "alien" which could have well been one of the Watchers on a nationally syndicated TV show. Far from being one of the current crop of "Greys", her nonhuman lover was more in step with the traditional "sky people", "elementals", or other creatures who have interacted with humans on a biological level in traditions that span the globe.

Ms. Ortega was twelve years old at the time and living in New York City when this tall, blond, green-eyed entity suddenly materialized in her bedroom. "At first, I saw two lights. I felt a presence, and naturally felt scared. One light was red in color and the other was green," she recalled. The lights told her not fear for her safety. As she began to fall asleep, in spite of the luminous globes' presence, she felt caresses and kisses all over her body as her nightclothes were removed. "I felt something spread my legs open and a sharp pain soon after. I woke up, terrified, and saw a being in a tight-fitting outfit in bed with me. His eyes were so green that it made dizzy to look at them. I found him very handsome, was attracted to him and fell in love."

Monica's lover and his silent companion (never manifested itself in human form) told her that they traveled around the world. Curiosity, they advised her, was the motivation for their sexual contacts.

In 1987, Monica had her third contact with the Watchers. After two years, she had moved back to Colombia, and was overjoyed at seeing her otherworldly lover again. At the end of their encounter, Monica expressed a desire to go with him to "his world", but the being turned her down. 19 years old at the time of the interview, the young woman had still not had sex with a human male. "They have the advantage," she explained, meaning the Watchers, "of not making you pregnant."

In the Land of the Watchers

The mystical figure of Apollonius of Tyana--sorcerer, philosopher and indefatigable traveler--visited a place, according to the chronicles, known as the City of the Gods, whose inhabitants allegedly "lived on the earth, yet outside it at the same time." Said parallel universe or dimension was located in the Himalayas, and as Apollonius and his guide, Damis, would near their destination, the more unreal the landscape became. Apollonius' larger-than-life adventures include teleportation away from the court of the Emperor Domitian in A.D 96 and other occult phenomena. Could these skills have been learned in the City of the Gods? Considering Apollonius' stature in ancient history, could he himself have been a Watcher?

Metal disks have been reported in the skies over the Himalayas for centuries. These have been considered manifestations of The Watchers by the lamas of Tibet and Nepal, "a sign of Shamballah," the subterranean (or extradimensional) land ruled by a higher order of beings who visit our world in gleaming metallic vehicles. Foremost among Shamballah's denizens is the "Rigden-Jye-Po," the "King of the World", who is identified with the leader of the Sons of Light mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Book of Enoch

To the dismay of those who expect hard-boiled facts every time, the vast majority of the literature concerning the Watchers lies in mythology and in religious documents such as the Old Testament. In the book of the same name, we have Enoch taken to heaven to intercede on behalf of the fallen Watchers with the angels of the highest heavens. The appeal is turned down: for having taught the secrets of nature to human females, and worse yet, for having conceived children with human females (the giant Nephilim), the two hundred spirits involved are condemned to never again regain their lofty status. We are given the names of the ringleaders of this heavenly conspiracy, and one of them, in particular, does more than ring a bell to a ufologically-minded ear: Semyaz. While phonetic similarity proves nothing, it is unusual that the leader of the alleged "Pleiadans" visiting Billy Meier at his Swiss retreat should call herself Semjase. Meier's claims have been at the center of a number of disputes, mainly accusations of fraud concerning the fantastic UFO photographs that he circulated.

What evidence suggests that the Watchers mentioned by the ancient religious chronicles and the entities that accompany the UFO phenomenon are one and the same? A careful examination of certain contemporary cases, along with some outstanding ancient ones, can leave no doubt as to the conflict between the fallen Watchers (the 200 which descended in the ancient Middle East, led by Semyaz/Semjase), the "Forces of Good", and hapless mortal humans, stuck squarely in the middle.

Benign, malevolent, or both?

Although "scientific" ufology cringes at the mention of any angelic/demonic involvement, the recent spate of abduction cases engulfing the world provides cases that could be seen within such a context. Abduction researcher Barbara Bartholic has singled out a case in which a youth faced what he at first took to be a "Nordic" type male alien, who reverted into a reptilian form, assaulting the unsuspecting young man and leaving furrows across his back. While this sobering incident is presented in the light of the shape-shifting ability of a particular alien race, it is strongly reminiscent of texts of a religious nature which state that demons can sometimes appear as "angels of light", which is what the tall, blond alien visitors have been associated with.

The dichotomy over whether the Watchers are benign or evil has been approached with the same caution reserved for the "good angel/bad angel" case. As in the fragment from the "Book of Amram", we can see the existence of two very different kinds of Watcher. Certain yogis, for instance, believe that the Dark Angels who lost the conflict against their benevolent counterparts have been confined to certain dimensions; Renaissance authors wrote of the nine-day long fall of the vanquished angels into Hell, based upon Greek legends of the casting of the Cyclops into Tartaros--so distant that an anvil would take nine days to hit bottom. Could there possibly be any connection between the negative order of beings and the allegedly extraterrestrial visitors we are entertaining today?

In 1947, one Señor C.A.V. encountered strange amoeba-like beings in the desert outside Lima, Perú, who took him aboard their landed vehicle. When the conversation between the stunned C.A.V. and his nonhuman hosts turned to matters spiritual, they replied mockingly to his question about their belief in God, stating: "We are like Gods." Either the beings had a very high opinion of themselves, or they ranked among the fallen Watchers. German theologian Kurt Koch mentions that while in the Kwa Sizabantu mission station in South Africa, a woman approached him to confess a strange encounter in the Namib Desert with a robot-crewed UFO. In the course of a telepathic conversation with the mechanical aliens, one of them declared: "God is not going to answer your prayers anyway. But we can fulfill your wishes."

More stories abound with regard to the benevolent Watchers, both in antiquity and in the present. A truly bewildering case of Watcher intervention into human life is submitted by Spanish UFO researcher Salvador Freixedo in his book Ellos: Los dueños invisibles de este mundo: When a brush fire broke out on the estate of Colombian journalist Inés de Montaña, farmhands ran to and fro trying to create firebreaks in the middle of the night. Enormous tongues of flame lapped at the black skies while the journalist and her trusted housekeeper, Jovita Caicedo, looked on in sheer terror. The old wooden farmhouse from which they beheld the breeze was about to be incinerated in a matter of minutes, when "a helicopter of light," as de Montaña
describes it, swooped in from the western sky. The coruscant light came closer, as low as the tops of the coconut palms, leaving a wake like a comet's tail in its path. It then began to emit a blast of intense cold, which had the effect of extinguishing the raging fire, dousing them as effectively as would have tons of water.
Montaña's incredible story was devoted an entire page in the newspaper for which she worked. "What you have read is the truth, supported by the testimony of four people who felt the effects of a strange phenomenon, and by the fact that in over thirty years, no one has been able to say that there has been fantasy, fiction or deceit in the thousands of words I've written." she stated.

Frank Smythe, a mountain climber ascending one of the Himalayan peaks, allegedly observed a "pulsating tea kettle" which seemed to be monitoring his progress. Smythe noted that before seeing it, he'd had the sensation of someone benignly watching his efforts.

It has been suggested that what we are seeing is "police activity" of a sort on the behalf of the positive Watchers, as they go about their appointed rounds, fending off the attacks of the renegade contingent. While some may find this hard to accept, some confirmation can be found in events which took place in Spain during a very heavy period of UFO activity in that country in the early 1980's: while residents of the town of Isla Cristina, on Spain's southern coast, were plagued by UFOs, giant non-human creatures thrashing across the tidal swamps, and a host of hair-raising and disturbing phenomena, María Echague, another resident, witnessed two tall, slender, white-haired figures which appeared to move in unison some 40 meters from where she stood. Amazed by the odd beauty and synchronicity of movement displayed by the beings, Ms. Echague found herself thinking "¿Que sois?" (What are you?). The beings turned in unison to show her the raised thumb, index and middle fingers of their right hands (a classic esoteric gesture, symbolizing the triumph of spirit over matter) and mentally replied: "We are teachers," before disappearing.

The Watchers continue to stage spectaculars for the benefit of those whom they contact and the spellbound followers of these "modern prophets" as well: Augusta de Almeidda, a contactee from the Philippines, was advised by her "alien brothers" that an aerial display of their majesty would take place over an arena on June 12, 1992. 400 onlookers witnessed golden, sphere-and cigar-shaped vehicles of varied geometry over the stadium at 8:05 p.m. that evening.

Conclusion

While all this talk of supernatural Watchers, "Sons of God" who mated with human females at the dawn of time, and who were cast out from their lofty position by divine powers annoys the believer in extraterrestrial visitors (or even ancient astronauts, in this case). It would be both unrealistic and unwise to discount the strong paranormal component exists in the UFO phenomenon, which has been thoroughly discussed by a number of authors, as well as the belief in a primeval struggle between good and evil factions that is at the root of many different mythologies (the clash between Ormuz and Ahriman in Zoroastrianism, that between Ouranos and the Cyclops in Greek myth, and the struggle between Bacaab-Quiché and Tohil in the Mayan cosmology). As Amram cautioned his children in his testament: "I leave you my books in testimony, that you might be warned by them..."

[This article originally appeared in Fate Magazine, 2000]

Argentina: Impostor Spreads Rumors About Monte Grande

2011-10-06T12:15:00.000-07:00

[It seems that we will never able to achieve closure of any kind with the Monte Grande /Esteban Echeverria incident that has dominated the Argentinean chronicles of the unusual for the past few weeks. Alejandro Agostinelli draws our attention to a new wrinkle in the story: many of the statements issued in the media were made by an impostor masquerading as a fireman. -- SC]

Bogus Firefighter Spreading Rumors Obtained Media Attention
By Alejandro Agostinelli
Wednesday, 0ctober 5, 2011

Héctor Facundo Ayala, bearing a volunteer firefighter's badge, managed to be heard out by such media outlets as the Perfil newspaper and others that published his statements, furthering speculation that "something strange" had happened in the 9 de Abril district in Monte Grande, Esteban Echeverria, on Monday, September 26, 2011.

Statements made by Ayala:

1. "I found a crater measuring a meter wide and a meter and a half deep from which fire emerged continuously. We doused with water, but it wouldn't go out," said Ayala.

2. "I never saw anything like it. It's like someone had driven a fist into the ground. There was a lot of smoke coming out and a reek of sulfur."

3. "The temperature of the ground was very high; it burned my feet."

4. "When the municipality sent its excavators, they removed the debris and covered the crater."

With regard to these statements, Guillermo E. Pérez, Commander of the Esteban Echeverría Fire Brigade, replied:

1. "Ayala is a FORMER fireman who was dismissed a year and a half ago."

2. He wasn't a member of any of the six crews, because he does NOT belong to the Esteban Echeverría Fire Department.

3. He is talking to all possible media outlets without any basis. What this person is saying is at his own initiative.

4. It so happens that he lives a few blocks away from where the explosion took place.

5. The only person with the responsibility and authorization to issue statements to the media is the Fire Chief, and that would be me.

6. He was at the site like any other local resident.

7. I have informed the Commissioner of the Malvinas Detachment to summon him and obtain a statement about what he has said, and to act in accordance with the law.

8. He was a Fireman for only 5 years, with very limited participation. I do not know or understand the reasons for which he made such statements.

9. The Fire Brigade exists to serve the community with no personal interest on the part of its members, or political tendencies, or financial expectations. We only serve our beloved Esteban Echeverría administrative area.

10. Concerning his statements, they are FALSE. I repeat: FALSE."

Argentina:"I Feel Like a Patsy for the Police and NASA"

2011-10-04T03:59:00.000-07:00

Source: www.ampliaremos.com
Date: 03 October 2011

Argentina: “ I Feel Like a Patsy for the Police and NASA”

The Monte Grande disaster – where a house exploded causing deaths and several injuries – continues to be a source of doubts. While some claim that a gas leak was responsible for said explosion, some believe that it was a meteorite.

One of the parties supporting this possibility is Emilio Daniel Verón, who was detained by the authorities along with his brother Jonathan by having presented a photo showing an alleged meteorite.

The photo, taken by a cellphone, lent greater credibility to the story upheld by residents of the 9 de Abril district: that the Sequeiro and Espinoza homes were volatized by a heavenly body that fell from the sky, and not by a gas leak, which is the hypothesis backed by researchers.

“We felt a buzzing sound, we were blinded by a light and there was an explosion. It was all of a sudden. With Jonathan, we surveyed a three-block area from my home and the place where the meteorite fell. That’s where we saw an incandescent red stone and a circle that resembled coal. There was no fire, only smoke with a smell of sulfur. The quickly took away whatever fell from the sky. We pulled out a lady who was covered in blood and the brothers Rodigo and Nicolás Sequeira,” Emilio recalls.

However, after the investigation, there were no marks that suggested an extraterrestrial origin to the phenomenon.

Yet bolstering his own version of the events, Emilio says: “For some time now we’ve been seeing many strange things in the sky. I showed journalists the photo of a shooting star taken by my 6-year-old sister on 11 September.”

“And that’s when they arrested you?”

“On the spot. Four policemen surrounded me and my brother, they made us go around the corner and hurried us along. They swiped my cell phone and pushed us into a squad car.”

The Verón brothers were detained “until midnight on Monday”. Prosecutor Andrea Nicoletti took their statements, but as of yesterday had not decided to charge them with making false statements.

Later on, Emilio said: “I feel like a patsy of the Police and NASA. I need them to give my my phone back and give me an attorney who understands about comets (sic). They want to pin this on me over the photo, and they only what to conceal what really happened.”

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)

Chile: Alleged UFO Plunges Into Sea by San Antonio

2011-10-03T03:04:00.001-07:00

Source: Diario Santiago (Chile)
Date: October 2, 2011
http://www.radiosantiago.cl/news.php?idnews=11464

Chile: Alleged UFO Plunges Into Sea by San Antonio

A large number of residents of San Antonio and the Central Littoral were surprised and frightened by the alleged UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) that plunged into the bay.

Area residents who claim having witnessed the strange event, contacted that city's Port Authority by phone. Elements of that agency reported to the site without finding anything anomalous.

Preliminary stories suggested that the event could be due to the natural phenomenon known as "la Tromba" (the waterspout) but the Port Authority discarded that possibility.

Confirmed by Eyewitnesses

Dozens of witnesses attested to the phenomenon. They ratify that a strange object fell from the sky. "It was surprising," they said. The police combed the area but nothing at all was found in the entire area.

The phenomenon, also seen in the beaches of the Central Littoral, caused a commotion among those who beheld it: "It was incredible, out of the ordinary," emphasized a policeman who was on duty in the area and asked that his name be kept confidential.

Witnesses agreed that three large columns of smoke were initially visible, similar to the contrails of a jet aircraft, and gave the impression of a speedy North-South movement. However, they changed course by 90 degrees and fell vertically, with lights similar to flames becoming visible, after which the appeared to vanish.

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez)

Argentina: “We Saw Something Weird Descending from the Sky”

2011-09-30T07:03:00.001-07:00

Source: DiarioChilecito.com.ar and Daniel Valverdi
Date: 30 September 2011

Argentina: “We Saw Something Weird Descending from the Sky”

At siesta time on Saturday there was a blackout in the San Vicente district of the Department of Famatina. According to some residents, they saw “something like a round, shiny object descending from the sky, striking a light post and causing a large explosion.” All that remained on the ground were “tiny pieces of particles, like something burnt (shrapnel).”

According to one San Vicente resident, a thundering sound was heard on Saturday during siesta time around the mountains, and something like a fireball became visible. It was a bright sky blue color and hit a light post, creating a shower of stars upon breaking up. This resulted in a large explosion that left the entire district without light.

Another woman said that there were bits of particles on the ground, resembling shrapnel. She also noted that there is a garden at the back of her home where she has many plants, including bamboo, and those toppled to the ground. There was nothing to be seen, except splinters resembling charcoal, and an ugly odor like burning sulfur.

Still another resident explained that something caused the light post to spark and made the lights went out. It was something weird, as it also frightened the animals and caused dogs to bark.

A phone call was subsequently made to the EDELAR power company for the corresponding repairs. Upon reaching the site, repairmen sad that something had struck the cables, and that the source of the event could have been something that fell from an airplane.

http://www.diariochilecito.com.ar/articulo/13788.html

Argentina: Probing a Possible "UFO Origin" for the Monte Grande Explosion

2011-09-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

Source: INFOBAE and Marcelo Metayer
Date: 29 September 2011

Argentina: Probing a Possible "UFO Origin" for the Monte Grande Explosion?

Manifestations of unidentified flying objects have been investigated in Argentina since 1947, and many characteristics similar to the ones studied in the past suggest that we are now facing a similar case, as the cause of the Monte Grande disaster has still not been determined.

Luis Burgos, who specializes in the UFO phenomenon, told Radio 10 that while it is impossible to offer clarification on this point due to the absence of more information, it is logical to think - from his perspective - that we are faced with one such case because the object that fell from the sky, and its various shades of light, was unknown at first hand. His research is based on the testimony of some thirty eyewitnesses.

"We spoke with more than 30 witnesses and they all agree that a pear-shaped object, small in size, descended along a 30-degree plane: it didn't fall - it descended."

At first, says Burgos, the investigation followed four hypotheses: space junk, a meteorite, a lost missile and finally, a UFO.

"We discarded the possibility of a missile due to the lack of a hole or crater. For that reason we adopted the UFO hypothesis," stated the specialist, adding: "The pear-shaped object fell with a bluish hue, the changed to red and back to blue when it struck the telephone wire that it severed, rather than melted."

According to Burgos, eyewitnesses relate that the unidentified object "braked before falling" and given its similarity with other events that have occurred since 1947, "there is physical evidence, such as pebbles" that is undergoing analysis.

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Marcelo Metayer)

Argentina: "Falling Pebbles" and Barking Heard at Echeverria

2011-09-29T03:36:00.000-07:00

INEXPLICATA contributing editor Guillermo Gimenez reports: “I find the Monte Grande case highly intriguing. I was talking to Andrea P. Simondini yesterday via text message and the Internet, and she still finds it strange. As far as I’m concerned, there is no question that “something” fell out of the sky. Eyewitness reports from people who saw “something” fall, followed by the explosion. Gas leaks, cylinders...nothing to do with it at all. There was a deputy fire chief from Necochea present, and given his years of experience, he told me that no gas leak was involved, much less a gas cylinder explosion.”

[Further details of interest have emerged on this case, which only days ago seemed to have been dismissed as a hoax, with its perpetrator – the hapless photographer of a falling red object – placed in irons for “making a false statement”. The following information comes from Todo Noticias – SC]

Source: Todo Noticias
Date: 28 September 2011
http://tn.com.ar/sociedad/00067936/misteriosa-explosion-la-version-de-los-ladridos-y-de-las-piedritas

Argentina: “Falling Pebbles” and Barking Heard At Echeverria

While experts claim that a gas buildup was the cause of the explosion, residents insist that a meteorite or unidentified object was responsible.

A series of episodes prior to the explosion, which left one dead and seven injured in the municipality of Esteban Echeverria, are what lead local residents to believe that the cause of the disaster was either a meteorite or an unidentified flying object (UFO).

Investigators marvel at the insistence of the locals: over 30 witnesses consulted by experts do not believe in the gas leak theory, according to Diario Popular. To experts, the theory of a gas buildup stands as the main theory to account for the explosion.

Luis Burgos, director of Fundacion Argentina de Ovnilogía, told the morning newspaper that residents – still frightened – informed him of the events that occurred prior to the explosion.

Minutes before the tragedy took place, the woman who later died was prompted by the sound of tiny pebbles falling on her rooftop, which made her go outside to take a look. Several families in the neighborhood felt the same thing and said as much in their statements to the police. Another significant fact involves household pets. After midnight, dogs were howling and barking as if disturbed by something.

(Translation (c) 2011, Scott Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez)

Argentina: VISION OVNI Reports to the Scene of the Alleged Meteor Strike

2011-09-27T11:14:00.000-07:00

Argentina: VISION OVNI Reports to the Scene of the Alleged Meteor Strike

A Day For Learning – The Monte Grande Explosion – Buenos Aires
By Andrea Perez Simondini

At 6:00 a.m. on the 26th of September I received a call from a fellow official in the Municipality of Esteban Echeverria. Aware of my interest for investigating the UFO phenomenon, he made me aware of a powerful explosion that destroyed a series of homes, and residents claimed it had been the result of something that fell from the sky.

You can imagine my surprise, faced with the magnitude of this news. My first reaction was to phone Captain Mariano Mohaupt to inform him. He already knew of the incident, so I then confirmed with my contact the interest of entering the explosion area. Permission having been obtained, I called Silvia Cano, a member of Vision Ovni, in her double role as expert photographer and victim of a gas explosion in her own home.

We headed toward the location with exact information. I would like to than Santiago Roldan, secretary to the Intendant, Dr. Fernando Gray and the Chief of Staff, Dr. Miguel Angel Urchipia. Without their cooperation it would have been impossible for us to enter the area and have elements of information at our disposal.

Upon reaching the site, my specific mission was to get Captain Mariano Mohaupt (in charge of the Aerospatial Phenomena Study Commission) with the authorities in charge of the investigation.

I’d like to tell you that at that moment I felt that a heavy responsibility weighed upon me. I was aware that this was the first institutional contact between a force and a body of government, such as the Municipality, and a number of jurisdictions, such as the Justice Department and the Federal Police (with their Scientific and Ecological branches), the Provincial Police of Buenos Aires, the Volunteer Firefighters of the Municipality and the various branches of the Municipality of Esteban Echeverria.

These comments having been made, we now move on to what will be an exhaustive chronicle of the facts, no more, no less. When I left the area at approximately 19:45 hours, no official explanation had been issued as of yet to support the facts.

Technical Specifications

Place: Barrio Zaizar, Locality of 9 de Julio – District of Esteban Echeverria, north of Monte Grande.
Date and Time of the Event: Between 2:02 and 2:05 AM on 26 September.

Victims:
1) Sequeira Family: Fabian Sequeira (cab driver), Yeanigres Cornejo Medina, 42, Fabian’s wife, worked at the store; Rodrigo, 16, no specific activity.
2) Pedroso Family: Orlando Pedroso, Paola Pedroso, Alejandra Rodríguez
3) Espinosa Family: Julio Espinosa, Hilda Ortiz, Silvia Espinosa, 43, sister of Julio (deceased)

All of them taken to the Santamarina Hospital.

The Events:

Having reached the site with Silvana Cano, we got in touch with Santiago, a municipal representative. He would connect us to Dr. Miguel Angel Urchipia, Chief of Staff of the Municipality, to get in touch with Commissioner Mario Valente, in charge of the operation. My function was to act as a go-between for both organizations.

To contact Commissioner Valente, I first found Commissioner Durand and provided the contact information.

The results of the explosion were readily apparent at the site. The remains of homes, with pieces of tile and concrete, had been hurled several meters around. The columns of material bore mute witness to the event. However, despite all that has been described, what startled Silvana and me the most were two cars that had been parked outside the affected homes, and were now within the property, completely twisted. I remember the words of an experienced fire fighter, who remarked: “It gave the impression that the shock wave sent stuck out its tongue like a chameleon, grabbed the cars, wrapped them up, and stuck them inside the property.”

While Silvana took photos alongside Dr. Urchipia, we spoke to various technicians and specialists. And so it was that we contacted with the municipal Energy Secretary to glean information on the theories that were being bandied about on site: emissions of natural gas from the soil, electrical phenomena, measurements of radiation and voltage, among others. We will approach these one by one.

1) Natural Gas Hypothesis: We learned that all of the homes in the El Zaizar Neighborhood are built on landfill. These structures are mostly made of masonry. We have not seen shanties in this area. We noted that Luis Vernet Avenue was being paved, so major activity was evident in the area. Also visible in all blocks were ditches of standing water, a clear sample of terrain with constantly flowing groundwater. Some people were putting forth, in the early hours, an explanation from an environmental standpoint, engaging in sampling fluids and liquids along with soil samples, searching for gaseous emanations resulting from the soil’s lack of breathability. I’m not sure at what time this hypothesis took hold, but it faded as time went by.
2) Electrical Phenomena: The technical staff of Esteban Echeverria municipality, through its Energy Secretary, took down information and measured electrical conductivity in the soil. One of the strongest theories at this time was the possibility that high voltage towers in the area could attract energy from the surrounding atmosphere and generate strange electrical phenomena. This hypothesis was dismissed as soon as it was voiced due to a lack of support. A high level of conductivity was determined in the soil, resulting from the explosion itself. Active charges still remained as a result of the shock waves. Readings were taken at various points of the affected premises.
3) Radiation Measurements: Radiation readings were the responsibility of the Bomb Squad attached to the Federal Police. They entered the area with suitable protective gear, but it should be noted that these experts entered the area at 13:10 hours, well after hundreds of people had done so. This should be kept in mind. Radiation readings proved negative, and from that moment on, the fire fighters began looking for remains and evidence in the explosion area. Advised of all these proceedings, the authorities made no comment about the burned wooden pole a block away from the explosion site. Along with Silvana, we did not hesitate to ask them to take us to that location. It was shocking to see. The fact that something split the post and set it alight was clearly visible.

It was still burning, and parts of it were falling off before our very eyes. Dangling, severed and burned wires were still visible. Remains of the wooden pole were on the ground; more wire, bits of metal and burned, hardened grass, perhaps as a result of the melted and cooled wire. It should be noted that there was stagnant water under the wooden pole, and remains broken off the pole had fallen into the ditch. We didn’t take samples at this time. All evidence was state property and it was necessary to ask Commissioner Valente’s permission.

With the collected information, and having achieved our main goal, which was to make contact, we decided to process the information and allow the fire fighters to carry on with their work. [...] The time was now 13:26 hours and we noticed two things: one, the fire fighters were concentrating on a specific area that all investigators dubbed “the crater”. Before going on, the importance of this item is the name it was given, as it was evident that whatever caused the explosion emerged from this space. An opening measuring 1 meter in diameter, shallow but with clear signs of detachment, was in evidence.

Firefighters concentrated all this time in collecting the main evidence from this point, which the called “ground zero” to avoid any confusion.

The second factor is that samples were taken of wires, metal parts, bits of tile and assorted material. Hundreds of parts that will surely define the origin of the explosion. We left the firefighters to their work and went off to eat and drink, as the heat was considerable at this time.

Resting in my car, Silvana and I analyzed everything we saw and heard from the technicians and local residents. We could not reach a conclusion, as everything was confusing and circumstantial.

Things the residents had said surprised us. It was clear that some of them had heard something, others had seen something, and yet others were reporting hearsay. We decided to revisit the evidence of the post and re-interview one of the witnesses, who seemed very certain in her statements, and was also reluctant to have her story and identity made public.

Sampling

We returned to the wooden pole area to collect samples and came across Dr. Urchipia along the way. We advised him of our decision and he accompanied us. I had my field kit with me, so I began taking samples of the liquid from the ditch, a piece of charred cable, bits of metal, even one that fell exactly as the sample was being taken and was still on fire. Reports were also collected from the witnesses, and the time of the event – 2:02 hours – coincides with the damage to the pole.

Our assessment is that something struck the pole, broke it and set it afire. What is more, at the time we gathered our samples, and I placed my hands on the lower part of the pole, which was in contact with the polluted water, it was hot. This told us that fire was still burning within the pole. I advised the authorities so that the proper measures could be taken in the event it fell. Civil Defense was apprised. Through a neighbor, we learned that the electrical utility had removed the dangling cable and had also taken samples.

Once our sampling was complete, we set out to inform Commissioner Mario Valente. We must bear in mind that the law is involved in this case, and all elements constitute evidence of the case. These items were sent to Capt. Mariano Mohaupt with a note on each piece.

Our Departure

Our final chat with Commissioner Valente was very enlightening. We saw in him a man with quick reactions, a firm team leader up to the challenge posed by the events. He had collected all evidence provided by the experts, as he had requested consultation with all jurisdictions of the Federal and Buenos Aires police departments and the La Plata Observatory, among others. Attorneys for the families appeared in the afternoon, and this changed the mood of the researchers, who did not comment as freely as they had hours earlier. As from this moment, anything said would be taken with legal weight by the affected parties, who sought culprits and were increasing their pressure as the evening approached.

We spoke with Silvana about this, and the rumor of the oven explosion began to spread. In fact, while standing behind the children’s canteen, we saw two intact gas cylinders, and experts saying they had removed parts of the oven in small pieces, scattered all over the area.

Silvana kept taking photos. We glanced at each other and realized it was time to leave. Night was upon us and we could already see the answers that would be given when formal expert reports appeared.

In the background, bulldozers and front loaders came and went, loading trucks with rubble. I remember seeing a small intact chandelier, and an appliance in the courtyard of the children’s canteen. I also noticed the Espinosa Family’s pet dog, milling around in confusion. What might you be thinking, Dottie? due to its white fur with black marks. I also remember that the black dog was at the Municipal Zoonosis Institute under veterinary care. The canine had sustained a hip fracture as a result of the explosion; I remember seeing it still and bound in the first photographs.

Scanning everything around me, I am still shocked by Fabian’s inconsolable pain. I couldn’t help being moved. I also understood that after seeing all of the activity at the scene of the explosion, is that what matters it providing an explanation to these people that goes beyond the cause of the event. I do believe that we must tell the truth, beyond our personal opinions, convenience or wishes. Beyond anything that may be said, and we never spoke of UFOs here, if something indeed fell from space, it is as hard to explain as a pizza oven exploding. Only expert research will shed light on this mystery.

As far as our work is concerned, we can only tell you what we saw, and that is our truth.

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Andrea Pérez Simondini)

[Editor's Note: A wealth of photographs and video can be seen at Vision Ovni's website -- www.visionovni.com.ar]

Meteorite Case Falls Apart - Hoax or Disinformation?

2011-09-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

Source: INFOBAE and Martha Núñez
Date: 26 September 2011

Argentina: Meteorite Case Falls Apart – Hoax or Disinformation?

** Authorities detain the man who “saw” the comet and concentrate their investigation on the gas cylinders **

The young man who disseminated a photo of the luminous object that allegedly fell on the community of Esteban Echeverria has been detained for making a false statement. Researchers have now concentrated their investigations on a gas cylinder that was “jury-rigged” to an oven, according to Radio 10.

The causes of the fatal explosion in the community of Esteban Echeverria in early morning hours are becoming clearer. Today at noon, a young man who claimed having seen “a fireball” falling from the sky acknowledged that had been lying. This is the same person who disseminated the image showing an orange object in free-fall.

Authorities in charge of the investigation decided to detain the man for making a false statement and have concentrated their research on the tanks found in one of the homes. Police confiscated a 45 kg cylinder connected in a clandestine manner to a pizza oven. Preliminary investigation suggests that this connection was the source of the leak that caused the tragedy in the province of Buenos Aires.

This conclusion, however, does not account for sightings made by distant onlookers and comments made on INFOBAE that "car ignitions would not start in the wake of the explosion."

Argentina: Meteor Incident Becomes News Worldwide

2011-09-26T11:14:00.001-07:00

The report of a death and injuries related to the impact of an alleged meteor in the Argentinean community of Esteban Echevarria has already made headlines around the world. Spain's El Mundo newspaper has reprinted the original information with some interesting follow-ups presented here:

[...} Ricardo Casal, Minister of Justice and Safety for Buenos Aires, acknowledged that "hypotheses now range from an explosion to something strange. Nothing is being discarded. We must analyze," noted the minister, underscoring that there was no explosion of the gas cylinders in the destroyed homes.

A local resident distributed a photo in which a red light can be seen against the early morning sky. "The mattress on which I slept jumped off the ground, the ceiling joists twisted and all of the windows in my home blew out. When I went out to the street, there was fire falling from above, setting fire to a post some 20 meters away," stated another resident of the 9 de Abril neighborhood.

"My daughter sleeps in the front room, and she told me that upon opening the window, since she smelled an odor like gunpowder, she saw fireballs dropping from the sky, and that's when she saw the explosion that struck my son-in-law in the leg," added the man.

Another female resident living some 200 meters away from the site, claims having heard "a whistling sound, and seconds later came the explosion that made everything shake. When I went outside to look, I saw fire descending from above, something blue. It wasn't the normal color of a regular fire, it was all blue fire."

Jorge Coghlan, director of the Santa Fe Astronomical Observatory, says "there are lightning bolts that manifests themselves in such a way." Faced with the hypothesis of a meteor strike, the expert explained that "meteors, upon entering the earth's atmosphere, begin disintegrating, creating a tube of radiation that breaks against the ground."

Some of the theories surrounding the unusual event in Argentina invoke "fragments of comet Elenin" as one of the possible answers to the mystery, owing to the fact that no impact crater has been found.

Photo: Meteor Impact in Argentina?

2011-09-26T08:27:00.000-07:00

Information continues to come in on the possible meteor impact in Argentina. The following is from www.perfil.com:

[...] The Monte Grande explosion, which caused dozens of families in this Buenos Aires community to wake up, and caused a woman's death, was not caused by a gas cylinder explosion, as confirmed by initial investigations performed by the fire department.

"It was shown that there was no explosion resulting from a gas cylinder," stated Guillermo Pérez, the head of the fire department.

Only minutes before the explosion, a local resident took a photo of a burning object that fell from the night sky. The image shows a spherical object with a tail similar to that of a comet. Testimony by local residents suggests that this could be the "fireball" that they saw falling on the destroyed homes.

(Photo courtesy of C5N)

Argentina: Deaths, Injuries After Alleged Meteor Strike

2011-09-26T07:43:00.000-07:00

Source: INFOBAE, ELANTRO.CL and Grupo GABIE
Date: 09-26-11

Argentina: Possible Meteor Strike Kills One; Destroys Homes

One woman died and six other people were injured as a result of the event. A local resident told Radio 10 that the explosion was caused by a flaming object that fell from the sky and completely destroyed a house and several cars. “It was a veritable earthquake,” she said.

The event took place a few minutes before 2 a.m. in a property located at the intersection Luis Vernet and Los Andes streets in Monte Grande, municipality of Esteban Echeverria.

The causes of the explosion remain unknown, but local residents claim “a fireball fell from the sky.”

There was an overpowering smell like gunpowder,” recalled one of the people living in the area, in statements made to C5N. “There is no explanation for what took place,” added Cayetano, another resident, to Radio 10. He then added: “A neighbor woman came out running because she could see a blue fireball falling from above.”

Guillermo Perez, commander of the local fire brigade, remarked that the causes of the incident remain unknown, while acknowledging that the first story points to “an object that fell from the sky.”

“I heard that version, but can’t confirm it at first instance. It is necessary to go by an expert investigation to see what really happened,” he told Radio 10. Perez confirmed that two houses and a business were “completely destroyed.”

As a result of the event, an elderly woman trapped under the debris perished while another six were rescued. Firefighters told C5N that these were subsequently taken to a local hospital.

The fatality is among the victims living in the house where the explosion took place. Three of the injured are members of the household and the other three are from the adjacent house, affected by the explosion. The injured parties are out of danger, C5N explained.

According to neighbors, the explosion was even heard in such neighboring communities as Ezeiza and Temperley, to the south of Greater Buenos Aires.

Video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQx9S64Fsmg&feature=player_embedded

More information: http://www.infobae.com/notas/607728-Investigan-las-causas-de-la-misteriosa-explosion-en-Esteban-Echeverria.htm

(Translation (c)2011, S. Corrales, IHU)

Antonio Ribera y Jordá

2011-09-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

Our friend Oscar Ferreyra of the PLANETA UFO Yahoo group has reminded us that it was ten years ago today that Spanish ufology lost one of its leading lights: Antonio Ribera y Jordá, one of the earliest authors of UFO sightings in Spain and Latin America. Aside from keeping an eye on the sky, Ribera was also interested in the sea and its mysteries becoming an underwater explorer of renown. Some of his books are still in print, others are in PDF form online, and some of his radio interviews (in Catalán and Spanish) can also be found online.