Strange Phenomena: Where Monsters Roam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strange Phenomena: Where Monsters Roam
By Scott Corrales
© 2004, 2026

Monster-lore may not have reached the level of intricacy in Latin America that it has displayed in the United States and in Europe, but the Spanish-speaking countries of the Americas (and Spain) have made significant contributions to the storehouse of Fortean lore. In some of these regions, sightings of bizarre entities or outright monsters have been closely link with the practice of so-called “black magic” – a belief that is particularly strong in the nations of the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile and Brazil), in the Caribbean and in southern Spain. We shall presently examine some of these strange and unnerving events.

In April 2004, Argentina’s Diario de la República newspaper ran the sensational story of a child who had been attacked by an unknown entity that received the popular moniker of El uñudo (The Clawed One). Even though youngster experienced little more than a good fright, the manifestations of this creature caused a stir in the community of Justo Daract and its surroundings. El uñudo had already appeared before some young women, prompting one of them to pass out. The young women had left their night school classes at 11:00 p.m. and reported having been confronted by a frightening entity wearing a black mask and with long nails on their fingers – a creature capable of climbing up the flagpole in the town square with the ease and elegance of a squirrel.

Maura Avila, a reporter for a local radio station, had conducted several interviews with local witnesses and made the following statement to the press:

"I was informed that there was a great deal of movement in Barrio Norte, near the hospital, and we headed there just as the police arrived. We learned that El uñudo had appeared -- a character who has gained notoriety in Justo Daract because he/it has been appearing for several days now, and has now terrified an 11 year-old on the corner of Liniers and Los Andes [...] Those who claim having seen El uñudo [say] that it doesn't have human form, rather an animal one, adding that it walks on four legs and hops, being capable of very swift movements." Avila added that the locals had discussed the existence of “black magic cults” in the area and feared that El uñudo could have been an entity summoned during the course of some unspeakable ritual – especially as the timing of these manifestations coincided with Easter Week.

Search brigades were hastily formed to go on a monster hunt reminiscent of the two hundred man posses that scoured the Puerto Rican countryside in 1995 hoping to find the Chupacabras. The good people of Justo Daract, aided by the local police and members of the neighborhood watch, found themselves walking along the train tracks in the dark due to a report that claimed the creature had climbed to the very top of the grain silos by the rails. The dangerous climb to the top of these structures revealed nothing of interest.       
     
Later on that same week, neighborhood watch volunteers reported seeing El uñudo climbing up trees in a residential neighborhood after having seen it cross a soccer field. "It jumped over the barbed wire fences with remarkable agility and moved with such long strides that it appeared to be floating on air, and was impossible to reach," reported the witnesses.

On April 8th, another young woman returning home at 3 a.m. on her bicycle reportedly saw the strange character jumping from one rooftop to the next at the 331 Viviendas neighborhood of Justo Daract. Terrified beyond words, the girl pedaled furiously back to the local bus station – ten city blocks away – in order to take the bus home. Drivers and workers at the terminal attested to her distraught condition. Something strange – whether human or not – was scaring the hell out of the locals.

Descriptions of El uñudo now ranged from “large and with a mask and horns; small and apelike, black or brown, with a nude upper torso and covered with tattoos; walking upright or on four legs; leaving goat-shaped hoof prints; climbing trees, pipelines or metal silos; jumping over wire fences and large lagoons, swift and elusive,” according to El Diario de la República.

Other sources reported that despite their failure to locate the supernatural intruder at the grain silos, officers had managed to apprehend the creature at some point, but that it eluded capture in a display of inhuman strength and “the slippery nature of its body” – a quality it shared with the Malaysian orang minyak or “oily man” who became a focus of mass hysteria in the 1960s.

Descriptions of El uñudo ranged from a Springheel Jack-like figure, draped in dark clothing and with its face covered by a mask, owing its name to a pair of black gloves with long metallic nails. This caused many to believe that the night stalker of Justo Daract was merely a teenager trying to act out his own variation of the character Wolverine from the movie X-Men, which had been a hit throughout Argentina. 

Were people in this region superhero-happy? Yes, if other news accounts were to be believed. Another bizarre character, dubbed El cuervo (The Crow) due to its resemblance to the bird had been reported in 2003. Yet many insisted on El uñudo’s paranormal credentials, despite words of the local priest. “If it is a supernatural force,” cautioned Padre Fabián, “it would evidently be some game of the Devil to confound people, since at this time of the year their attention should be fixed on Christ.”

Manifestations of El uñudo became lessened toward the end of April and vanished altogether in May.  Did some local joker hang up his costume until the next bout of superhero mania graces the silver screen, or did the Clawed One return to the nether region that houses similar entities, like Springheel Jack and the Mattoon Gasser?

On Saturday, 13 November 1983, Eusebio Sánchez, 56, was returning to his home in the Spanish village of Vegas de Coria, walking alongside his mule with a cargo of cabbage. As he approached the bridge of Cruz de Animas, he noticed a shadowy figure creeping behind him. Unsure if it was one of his fellow villagers, Sánchez waited for the figure to come within range: it was tall and entirely black, "tall and thin like a statue", with enormous arms. Ominously, the dark apparition asked him: "Don't you know me?" and proceeded to jump -- a la Springheel Jack -- across the bridge and into the night.

Vegas de Coria was in the grip of a supernatural phenomenon. The tiny village in the Extremadura region of Spain was barely a speck on the map, and far from any major city. Journalist and crack UFO investigator J.J. Benítez drove to Vegas de Coria in order to investigate the phenomenon first hand. The end result was a superb document entitled La Quinta Columna (The Fifth Column), which appeared in 1990.

Sánchez was not the only witness to the dark figure's frightening maneuvers: Two days before, Nicolás Sánchez (no relation) was about to open the door to his house when he heard a moan issuing from the middle of the street. He turned to look and noticed that it was a small black "bundle", as he described it. His curiosity piqued, he walked over to it. It was 9:45 pm.

"[...] When I was four or five steps away from it, that "thing" began to grow, getting bigger. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of a figure some six feet tall or more, advancing toward me with a sound like the gnashing of teeth. I got goosebumps. I began walking backward a few meters, and the "giant" followed me. Jesus! I was so scared I couldn't speak. I wanted to call out to my parents, but it was impossible. I still don't know where I found the courage from, but I crouched and picked up two stones from the house wall, one in each hand, and I was willing to defend myself. I never got to raise my arms, though: just as I was about to hurl the stones, I shouted, "Take this, Satan!" and the creature stopped. It did an about face and headed up the road. Before it went out of sight, there was a large, lightning like flash, which made no sense, since the weather was good."

All of this coinciding with a outbreak of UFO sightings and landings in well over a dozen locations throughout Spain, including a sensitive military installation on the straits of Gibraltar.  Benítez went on to examine other UFO related monster sightings elsewhere in Spain, such as an electrifying sighting on the beaches of Conil, not far from the city of Cádiz, in October of 1989: a group of teenagers on the beach one early evening witnessed in terror the sudden appearance of two majestic, luminous figures after having observed the maneuvers of UFOs in the skies above them. The teenagers ran away in panic, regrouping some thirty meters away from the entities, which proceeded to transmute into a human male and female, dressed in street clothes. Through the aid of binoculars, the teens were able to observe the transformation and render accurate descriptions later on. The mystery couple walked away from the beach and toward the town's streets, mingling with the populace.

Things weren't over yet: a small white patch of what appeared to be fog was heading for the shore at a high rate of speed. From the cloud emerged a monstrous figure, nine feet tall, with a white, pear shaped head and clad in a black "jumpsuit". It stared at the frightened teenagers and then began walking in a westward direction. Lázaro and Pedro  two of the five teens  ran after it, stopping short when it turned around to look at them with eyes "like two black eggs." The stare was enough to cause them to beat a retreat, as the giant became lost in the darkness. All the while, the brightly hued UFOs continued to execute their aerial maneuvers. It would seem as though the sudden appearance of the nine foot tall giant was somehow geared toward keeping the five witnesses from following what would have been an understandable course of action  following the creatures that turned into humans   by reinforcing their fear.

Puerto Rico, well known for its heavy UFO activity from 1988 through the mid ‘90s, has also been a source of strange creature reports. While witchcraft is practiced under many guises on the island, not all the sightings are connected to the dark arts but to the nocturnal activity of UFOs: unusual birds, ranging from pterodactyl like creatures to small, fanged predatory avians have been reported since the 1970's, when the UFO activity began in earnest. A 1988 report from the Laguna Cartagena area stated that the witness saw two humanoids "in what appeared to be uniforms" guiding a large, hairy simian being. The trio "disappeared into the ground." Reports in a local tabloid, El Vocero, point to the depredations of a "mandrill" among the livestock of many farms on different parts of the island, an explanation sanctioned by the authorities as the reason for the strange mutilations. It is more than likely that the real culprit is a "big hairy monster", as opposed to an itinerant mandrill.

Mexican investigator Dr. Rafael A. Lara suggests in an issue of Terra Incognita, the journal of the Center for the Study of Paranormal Phenomena (CEFP) that all monsters-- ranging from the BHMs to Nessie and the UFO monsters seen by the adolescents at Conil -- are little more than "distortions of space time (which is to say, the past projected to the present or the future to the present)." He shares the same as other researchers in that these creatures could well be "rationalizations of the evil dwelling within our unconscious." The big hairy monsters have been identified by some Mexican researchers with the humans that were turned into apes, according the Aztec tradition in another "age of the sun", which ended with enormous winds destroying life on earth.

Another outbreak of UFO related monsters that went largely unnoticed occurred in the Dominican Republic. 

The locality of Barahona  a small town in the Caribbean nation's sugarcane producing region  was beset by two terrifying entities that were allegedly responsible for the large number of mutilations of farm and domestic animals. In December of 1978, a creature resembling a large black dog (similar to the "Black Shuck" of Great Britain) repeatedly mutilated small animals like dogs, cats, chickens, and rabbits under cover of darkness and with chilling finesse: it made its way into chicken coops and pens by somehow opening the gates without destroying them. Local residents believed that the otherworldly creature had some sort of "intelligence" that allowed it to elude their best efforts at catching it (the same observation has been made by monster hunters worldwide).

In a matter of months, the murderous phantom dog was joined by an even more fearsome manifestation: a cadaverous being resembling a human female. Those who managed to see it closely noted that its face "appeared to be covered with cotton" (some sort of ectoplasm?). The entity was also blamed for a number of mutilations.

Barahona is almost on the border of voodoo ridden Haiti, and it is, in fact, an area that has received much negative publicity in recent years on account of the suffering experienced by Haitian sugar cane cutters at the hands of Dominican taskmasters. The locals were much more willing to believe that the entities were the product of some sorcerous lore than UFOs, even though the entire island happened to be in the grip of a small "flap" for a number of weeks that preceded and followed the mutilations. 

While Barahona was victimized by its two monsters, UFO occupants were being seen in a suburb of Santo Domingo. Five women sitting on the porch one evening watched as a brilliant object in the night sky fired two beams behind a nearby hill before disappearing. The women believed that it was some sort of airplane until they noticed two lights advancing toward them from the darkness. The lights turned out to be three conical humanoids with what appeared to be lanterns fastened to their chests.

Frightened at the sight of the beings, the women began screaming for help, drawing the attention of other neighbors. In retaliation, the three creatures began to make loud noises "similar to the rapid opening and shutting of a metal door". By the time the nearest neighbor had responded to their call for help, the beings had disappeared.

In the same suburban area, a watchman was confronted by robed, cat eyed entity. With a prayer on his lips, the watchman swung his heavy machete at the thing, which tried to duck the blow and proceeded to vanish instantly. Startled by the unexpected outcome, the watchman proceeded to inspect the dark, wooded surroundings all by himself: of such stuff are real heroes made.

Salvador Freixedo: A Child Healed By God

 

 Salvador Freixedo: A Child Healed By God 

The following case may provide the key to a fundamental explanation of the religious phenomenon. Naturally, there are many other aspects of the religious phenomenon to consider, but we believe that this case (and countless similar ones throughout history) contains certain elements essential to a fundamental assessment of the fascinating psychosocial phenomenon known as religion.

It took place in Peru in 1960, in a locality called Bailanca, one hundred kilometers south of Chimbote and in the vicinity of a large hydroelectric plant.

The principal witness (of whom I possess a detailed recording—not only of the event I am about to recount but also of others that occurred before and after in that same region) is a Yugoslav engineer. He was the plant's maintenance chief and a man who was completely skeptical regarding extraterrestrials or flying saucers until the events described here took place. Possessing a strong character and a highly technical profession grounded in the laws of physics, he is the type of person completely averse to tall tales or anything smacking of mysticism or intangible realities.

His first encounter with the UFO phenomenon was a momentary blackout at the plant at midnight. When he stormed out of his office to investigate the cause, he heard one of his assistants, a man named Quirós, say in a terrified, faltering voice:

"Those strange people have come down again!" Just as he was about to ask which people were being referred to, he realized that, despite it being midnight, the area outside the plant was illuminated as if it were broad daylight. He hurried outside to investigate the source of the light and saw a large, lens-shaped craft at the far end of the open area; as he gazed at it in astonishment, he spotted two individuals talking to each other and instinctively realized they were the "strange people" Quirós had mentioned.

Without a moment's hesitation—and in a foul mood—he strode over to them and demanded to know what they were doing there, by whose permission they had entered, and if they were aware of the harmful consequences of a blackout, even a momentary one. They smiled, tried to calm him down, and told him they were not responsible for the power outage.

They spoke to him in a measured tone, constantly trying to dispel the ill humor he was openly displaying—for, as he himself admitted, he had used words "that cannot be repeated in public." They explained that the brief blackout had been caused by a *gallinazo* (a type of vulture or buzzard common in the area) that had bridged two power lines with its outstretched wings. They added that they meant no harm and had been visiting Earth from their own planet, Apu, for a very long time.

Far from being reassured by these explanations, the Yugoslavian lashed out at them again, feeling they were making a fool of him; he told them he didn't believe a word of their nonsense and ordered them to leave the power plant grounds immediately.

Refusing to listen to any further explanations, he turned on his heel and, still furious, headed back toward the building. But before entering, he remembered the strange vehicle he had seen at the edge of the clearing and turned back to check if it was still there, bathed in that extraordinary light.

The vehicle was rising vertically; Upon reaching an altitude of about 1,000 meters, it leveled off, accelerated rapidly, and immediately vanished into the sky above the high peaks.

Despite everything he had witnessed, our man refused to yield his position, though he could not stop turning the night's events over in his mind. Yet, he spoke to no one about it, nor did he alter his thinking or his lifestyle, attempting instead to forget the entire incident as if it had been a dream of no consequence.

Some time later, while hunting deer at altitudes exceeding 4,000 meters in the Andes, he had another encounter—one in which he engaged in a friendlier conversation with them. This second meeting was followed by others, during which he continued to receive new information about the strange visitors' home planet, the formation of the solar system's celestial bodies, and many other topics of interest to him—details preserved on the aforementioned recording.

By then, our engineer had abandoned his hostile attitude toward them and had become convinced that they were indeed non-human beings, even though their physical forms closely resembled our own.

However, I want to emphasize one of his encounters with the "extraterrestrials"—an encounter that, as I mentioned earlier, I consider key to understanding an intriguing aspect of human history.

One day, while our engineer was engaged in his favorite pastime—hunting—and tracking deer and bears at an altitude of over 4,000 meters in a remote area sparsely populated by indigenous people living far from civilization, he stumbled upon a small, enclosed valley surrounded by high hills. He was surprised to see a small group of indigenous people gathered around something he could not clearly make out from a distance. Although he did not speak Quechua and most of the group did not speak Spanish, he approached them to see what was happening. Usually, he was accompanied on his hunts by an employee from the power plant—a full-blooded indigenous man who was fluent in Quechua and served as his interpreter—but on this occasion, he was alone.

As he drew closer, he could see that the group was gathered around a child lying on the ground, bundled in layers of clothing against the intense cold and heavy snow. The boy appeared to be in critical condition; he had lost all color, and every sign suggested he was dying.

The engineer was met with great coldness and suspicion. When he asked through gestures what was wrong with the boy, he was told that the child had fallen from some high rocks and broken several bones. Seeing the desperate situation—and observing the sorrow and resignation of the boy's parents and relatives—he offered to take the child to the nearest hospital, provided they could carry him down to his jeep, which was parked much further down the mountain. The boy's parents were deeply unsettled by this offer of help; when the engineer insisted again that the boy needed to be taken to the hospital—since he was in critical condition and grave danger—they vehemently refused.

Intrigued by their attitude and their opposition to any intervention—despite realizing the boy was critically ill—he asked why they didn't want him taken to the hospital, knowing he would die otherwise. They answered with utter simplicity—a reply the engineer understood, yet one that left him utterly astounded:

"Because 'Papa' God is coming to heal him."

As they spoke, they pointed upward and then immediately toward the child. He tried to fathom what God had to do with the situation while continuing to urge them to bring the boy to his jeep so he could rush him to the hospital. Just as he had decided to leave the boy to his fate, he heard the Indians exclaiming and saw them all gazing at a specific point in the sky. He immediately looked in the same direction and saw a vehicle—identical to the one he had seen months earlier at the hydroelectric plant—plummeting at high speed from above before landing gently a short distance from the group of Indians. They greeted it with shouts of joy; it was clear from their faces that this was exactly what they had been waiting for.

Several individuals—like those he had seen on previous occasions—stepped out of the craft. Among them was a woman who, like her companions, wore a loose-fitting mesh suit. They made their way to the boy and, with his parents' help, immediately carried him to the craft, where he remained for about fifteen minutes. After that time, the boy stepped out of the craft’s hatch on his own and ran toward his parents, leaping about and throwing stones to show them that he had not only regained his full strength but that his arm was completely healed. All the indigenous people erupted in shouts of joy as they crowded around the boy, touching him to see if he was truly cured.

The pseudo-extraterrestrial explained to the engineer how they had performed the operation in such a short time. According to her, they had disintegrated all the diseased particles and reintegrated them, putting everything back in its proper place.

I say "pseudo-extraterrestrial" because, as she herself explained, she had been born on our planet; as a very young child—forty-seven years earlier—she had been taken by the people of Apu to their planet, where she had fully adapted and become like one of them.

The strange thing about the case—and what raises serious doubts in my mind—is that she was also Yugoslav, and from the very same region as the engineer, no less! Consequently, the two of them spoke in their native dialect. He did not seem surprised by this at all, especially given the things he had already witnessed—things he could not have even imagined years before.

I confess that it leaves me completely perplexed, for this small detail bears a striking resemblance to other highly suspicious "small details" I have encountered in other cases.

Another circumstance in the engineer's lengthy account that particularly intrigued us was the frequency with which—during his forays into the high mountain ranges in search of big game—he came across groups of indigenous people sitting calmly around extraterrestrials, listening intently to their conversation; the beings, of course, spoke to them in perfect Quechua. It seems that at those altitudes, far removed from our "civilization," the communication between the "gods" and the indigenous people remains just as it was in ages past across the globe, when aboriginal tribes with very primitive cultures regarded them as gods and paid them some form of worship.

The fact that they were waiting with the sick child for the visitors to descend suggests that, in some way, they knew beforehand that "God" was coming—whether because the visitors habitually descended there on specific dates, because they had communicated the time and place of their arrival to the indigenous people, or because the locals possessed a means of summoning and communicating with them. What is certain is that the Yugoslav engineer caught them on several occasions engaging in these gatherings—meetings unknown to the "civilized" population of his country.

In fact, on one occasion when he had stumbled upon them—and even taken part in the conversation—one of the chiefs approached him after the extraterrestrials had departed and he was preparing to descend the mountain. The chief implored him not to report what he had witnessed to the authorities. When asked the reason for this request, the chief explained that if the authorities found out, they would likely send soldiers to investigate the situation; such an inquiry would probably cause their friends from the sky to stop visiting—a prospect that deeply saddened the locals, as they felt protected by that friendship.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, this episode sheds significant light on how we might view—from a fresh perspective—many biblical accounts (particularly those in the Pentateuch) and the sacred texts of the world's major religions. It also helps us correctly interpret the vast array of similar traditions and legends found throughout the histories of peoples across the globe.

[Salvador Frexedo, La Granja Humana [The Human Farm], Ed. Posada, 1984]

Roadside Encounters: UFOs, Aliens and Missing Time

 

Roadside Encounters: UFOs, Aliens and Missing Time

by Javier García Blanco

"That thing had the size of eight cars or more. In other words, when it was on top of us, it looked like a skyscraper..."

So certain were the words of Pedro Mateo, a veteran radio personality and graphic artists who kindly described to this author the UFO he had encountered during one of his journeys some twenty years ago. At that time he was in the company of his wife, Gloria Jiménez, and heading toward Barcelona, where they were scheduled to catch a flight that would take them to their destination, the German city of Dusseldorf. But Providence had something else in store for the couple.

"It happened on June 26, 1977. I have it etched upon my mind because we were flying to Dusseldorf that day, and most of what happens to me I write in a notebook. We had left Zaragoza very early--around five o'clock in the morning--and we were hoping to have lunch with my brother, who lives in Barcelona, before boarding our flight to Germany.

"When the event occurred it was already dawn and the sun was out. It was then, shortly after having passed [the town] of Los Garrigues, in Lérida, that we saw that thing appear on the other side..."

 "What did the object look like?" I interrupted.

 "Well, how can I describe it...it was disk shaped. A sort of..."

  I offered Pedro Mateo my field book and he quickly drew an oval object with an indistinct edge to it.

"When I saw it for the first time, it was at a distance. I wasn't overly concerned since it was so far away. But suddenly, it began to move with incredible ease...soundlessly, and at a rate of speed that quickly put it over my car. And I got scared," Pedro told us, visibly moved. "It was then when I noticed as sign that read: Gas Station 1000 Meters. I sped as fast as I could, and when I looked I was driving at 160 kmh. Seconds later, we noticed the object disappearing the same way we saw it arrive.

"To us, it was a matter of seconds, but when we looked again, there was the sign that indicated the gas station's existence 1 kilometer away. Well, I told myself, it must be another sign. When we finally got there, it was a very odd gas station. Highways have always had service stations, and we found this gas station with two posts and a broken down shed, with the kind of pump one sees in American movies. A man emerged when we reached the site. I'm 1.76 meters tall," Mateo explained, "and that guy must have been 1.90, very tall, and dressed in very faded blue coveralls."

Pedro Mateo and his wife, still frightened by the mysterious encounter they had experienced, quizzed the man regarding the unusual object.

"I asked the man, listen; did you see something strange in the sky? and he covered his face with something that looked like a sandwich to me. He replied that nothing had happened all morning. Since we weren't going to buy any fuel, he got into the shed once more, but at no time were we able to see his face, since he covered it with that thing he kept in his hands..."

Three Hours Lost

 Somewhat more relaxed, the Mateos decided to continue their drive to Barcelona, where they would meet their flight later on.

"I didn't look at my watch at the time," he gestured to his wristwatch. "and when we reached the airport, which can't be more than an hour away from where we were, it was already 2:15 p.m. and our flight was being called from the loudspeakers! Without knowing how or why, we'd lost around three hours. I was hoping to get there around 11:00 a.m., and my brother would be meeting us for lunch. However, when we got there, barely had time to catch the plane."

"But the most curious thing," Mateo explained with a certain degree of astonishment, "is that we didn't discuss the subject during the flight. Not for a long time. Not even on the way back."

Hours later and without further delays, they reached Dusseldorf. Having reached their hotel, Gloria Jiménez was ready to change her clothes when she noticed that her underwear was torn on one of its sides. In spite of this disquieting detail, some of the most disquieting and mysterious things would be discovered during the return trip, while driving in their Seat 1430.

"When we turned the radio on it played perfectly. But when we put a music cassette in the player, we realized it had been erased. We tried with all the others, but none of them worked. What's even more surprising is that we tried taping over the cassettes once we got home, but it couldn't be done.

 "And as if that wasn't bad enough, a pair of bifocals I used for reading and which I'd left on the glovebox had disappeared. They vanished after the event, and I've never seen them again. Furthermore, sometime after, the car's paint job --red in color--turned pinkish on the roof, on the hood and on the passenger side. The car got very ugly."

But not only the car and some of the objects within it had disappeared or experienced some sort of alteration. Pedro Mateo himself and his wife would find something in their bodies that would make them shiver.

"After our experience, someone left me a novel about some Americans, a racially mixed couple who'd experienced something similar to what we'd been through. Since then--and this is something I haven't told anyone--I've had a very strange wart on my testicles that doesn't hurt at all, and my wife has another on her genitals."

The incredible story of the Zaragozan couple would be completed some years later, when during supper with friends in a restaurant near Los Garrigues, they were able to prove that the strange filling station at which they'd stopped that day did not exist, and had never existed.

"We Lost All Notion of Time and Space..."

Only a year earlier, another Aragonese couple had lived through an experience similar to that of Pedro Mateo and his wife. On April 2, 1976, Alberto Ballarin and his wife, Maria Josefa Torres, were driving along highway N-240 heading toward their home in Monzón. At 10:30 p.m. they reached the town of Angües, where they made a brief stop.

 After taking on fuel at a local service station, they resumed their trip, leaving the town behind and getting into a long stretch of road some 3 kilometers long. It was then that they noticed the presence of something strange on the road.

"We were on the road again when after only a few minutes--two or three--we saw something very strange coming down on us."

In the distance, they were able to see a strange light moving at some 55 kmh on the other lane of the road and in the contrary direction. Their first impression was that it was another vehicle, but as it grew closer, they were able to verify that the object lacked headlights or wheels, and that it engaged in an oscillating motion, "as if riding the waves."

 The object, which was shaped "like a flattened pear," was some 3.5 meters tall by 7 or 8 meters wide. The UFO was hovering half a meter over the road surface and in perfect silence. Shortly afterward, the mysterious object crossed paths with the car and both witnesses were able to tell that the object gave off "large white or yellowish sparks, similar to those of a Catherine wheel." The husband urged the wife to turn around at try to see the license plate of the strange vehicle that had just passed them by. Logically, the woman only observed a bright light that rose heavenward at great speed, vanishing into the heights.

 "Look! look! my husband said," remembers María Josefa, "and I saw it up in the air, surrounded by a great brightness. Then, we suddenly found ourselves in front of the San Román parador. We didn't pass by the bridge or the town of Lascellas. We lost all notion of time or space for fifteen minutes."

 They reached home at 10:50 p.m., fifteen minutes faster than they should have, since that particular journey was one they always conducted at no more than 70 kmh given the difficulty presented by certain stretches of road. After the event, the couple felt "a great sense of calm, tranquility and well-being" which they experienced for a number of days. Furthermore, Mr. Ballarín noted that ever since, "the car runs better, has better engine performance, and even brakes better."

 hat very same night, Jaime Tresaco, Manuel Polo, Jesús Lleguet and Victor Bergua were assailed by a UFO on the N-136 highway linking Zaragoza and Huesca. Days earlier--on March 31 and April 1, specifically--other persons witnessed UFO activity in the vicinity of Huesca.

 

Car Chase at Los Monegros

 But these cases involving Aragonese couples should not be considered isolated events. Numerous individuals claim to have been the victims of harrowing UFO chases while peacefully driving along lonely roads--such as those found in the almost deserted region of Los Monegros and the Alcubierre Mountains.

  Jesús García, a 44 year-old truck driver, will never forget the ordeal he suffered during one of his many trips to the Aragonese capital. One night in early 1995, Jesus was going down county road 1104 in his Opel Corsa as he headed back to work in the capital city. The time was approximately 1:30 a.m. when he suddenly became aware of a light following him. At first, he took it to be another vehicle and gave it no importance, but shortly after, a quick glance at his rear view mirror proved the unconventional nature of the object behind him.

 "When I looked through the rear view mirror, I was able to see a rectangular object surrounded by multicolored lights blinking at regular intervals. That's when I became uneasy."

 Feeling somewhat nervous, Jesús continued on his way, trying to put some distance between himself and his unexpected companion. But the strange object seemed to have its own agenda.

 "I remember the radio being on and suddenly, the object sped up and got right behind me. The radio stopped operating at that point and I could only hear interference. Now I was really scared and I floored the accelerator. I had the car going at 140 kmh."

 Anyone who has ever driven down the highway joining the towns of Farlete and Monegrillo will know from experience that it is hardly suitable for high speed driving. In spite of this, the frightened witness sped away with the understandable intention of getting rid of his pursuer. A few kilometers later, and after putting a hill between himself and the unknown object, he lost sight of his unwanted "tail".

  A few months later, toward the end of July, another surprising encounter played out on Aragonese roads, specifically on the road that joins the locality of Alcubierre with Zaragoza. On July 25, Ana Casamayor was travelling along with her sister-in-law and youngest son along the road in question. But that summer afternoon would be different: "something" up in the sky would draw their attention. The journey proceeded normally until Ana became aware of something in the sky--a large oval-shaped object which remain suspended at a given altitude in mid-air.

 "We were coming down from the sierra when we suddenly noticed that thing to the right. It was quiet, silvery and without any edges. It was dish-shaped, but not so rounded. It was tilted at an angle and seemed metallic."

 In a matter of seconds, without giving them a chance to react, the mysterious object took off at high speed. After passing beside a hermitage nearby, the object vanished from sight, reappearing in the distance as it flew in a southerly direction.

 "We didn't stop. It took us by surprise; of course...it began moving only seconds after we saw it, almost passing right over us...it headed in the direction of Casino Montesblancos. After losing sight of it, we managed to make out a small, silver, shiny point, which receded into the distance..."

    

As Big as Bullring

 Another experience had occurred in the past not far from where Jesús García experienced his road pursuit. In the late 1960's, Francisco Martí Cuatrtero and four more young men who were doing military service in Zaragoza ran into a UFO of enormous proportions.

  In the early morning hours of November 1, 1968, the five recruits were returning to Zaragoza after a pass granted due to the feast of All Saints. It was around 4:30 hours as they drove along the Los Monegros road with only 40 more kilometers to go before reaching their destination. Suddenly, one of the fellows noted: "Look, the sun's coming up." Within seconds they realized that the luminous disc was not the sun, since it was rising on the opposite side of the horizon.

 The object grew closer, and when the car was half a kilometer away from the object, the radio stopped playing, the engine stopped and the headlights dimmed. The recruits would later notice that their wristwatches had also stopped at the very same time.

 Terrified and in the thrall of a nervous breakdown, the young men looked on in amazement as the gigantic disk --described by the eyewitnesses as being the size of a bullring--landed some 500 meters to their left. After three endless minutes in which the object remained silent, it rose again and after a sudden acceleration, vanished from the eyes of the recruits. Once the UFO vanished, the car's engine, headlights and radio returned to their normal operation. Upon reaching their destination, they reported the sighting to their superiors, who initiated an investigation and subjected the recruits to detailed questioning.

 In the Middle of the Road

  Burgo de Ebro is a small town located at a certain distance from Zaragoza. During countless occasions, its residents have witnessed strange lights over their community's skies. One of the locals, Baltasar Cavero Andreu, a humble shepherd, received the fright of his life when he ran into a trio of strange creatures in the middle of the road.

  It was sunset and Baltasar was headed back home in his motorcycle after having placed his flock of sheep back in their pens for the evening at a distance of some 2 kilometers from the town. Halfway along the road, he noticed three men standing in the road. Despite the poor highway conditions and the fact that Baltasar could not drive very fast, he came within some 40 or 50 meters of the strange entities.

     "I thought: it must be the Guardia Civil," he says. "But it wasn't..."

 Puzzled, the witness turned on his high beams. The "men" turned around and began running downhill. Deciding to find out exactly who they were, Baltasar followed them some for some 200 meters, but after doubling a curve, he was unable to find any trace of them. "I even stopped my motorbike, but I couldn't see anyone. I had no idea what could have become of them."

  The three "men"--standing approximately 1.80 meters--were clad in white and had blue bands on the back of their outfits that reached from their shoulders down to their waists.

  Cavero returned home feeling disturbed, surprised by the unusual event he had witnessed. There was a further surprise in store: "I ran into them again two days later."

 On that occasion, Baltasar was heading to the pens to make sure his animals were well when he noticed something unusual was going on: the sheep and sheepdogs were exhibiting strange excitement--the animals were huddled against one of the walls. As he tried to open the lock to the pen's large door, he noticed two of the strange beings in white he'd seen earlier. They were still dressed in white and were flattened against the wall as if to avoid detection. The terrified shepherd fled the scene and headed for the Guardia Civil headquarters. Unfortunately, the beings were already gone by the time officials reached the pens.

 Baltasar Cavero's case--researched a few years ago by J.J. Benítez--is only one more of the numerous encounters which occur on the lonely roads and trails linking the thousands of small towns of our geographical region.

 Conclusion

     Antonio Ballarín, Jesús García and Pedro Mateo are only some of thousands of witnesses who have had close encounters with UFOs or humanoids as they drove their vehicles along Spanish highways. These cases evince the phenomenon's interest in the human being and a desire to let itself be seen.

 What is the purpose of the frantic high-speed pursuits in the middle of the night? Why do they assail frightened witnesses, turning a normal drive into a dangerous "adventure"? Who knows. The fact is that at this very moment some confident driver may be at verge of becoming the protagonist of an anguished "experience" as he/she drives on some deserted road. And don't forget--you could be next...

 [Translation ©1999, 2026 S. Corrales, IHU, appearing originally in Inexpicata # 3]

Portugal: Some 20th Century Cases

 

 

Unusual Heavenly Phenomena in Portugal: A Historical Roundup

by Dr. Rafael A. Lara Palmeros, CEFP (Mexico)

 

      Portugal is no exception when it comes to unusual heavenly phenomena. For many years now, and in a number of countries, these events which have become known as UFOS, were called "pillars of fire", "sky monsters", "circular luminous bodies", etc.

      The following is a presentation of some of these extraordinary phenomena:

      * Estación de Casa Blanca, Montemor el Nuevo. 14 September 1946: At 4 p.m. on this day, an enormous disk casting off a greenish iridescence appeared in the skies over this community. The strange phenomenon, which was witnessed by a great number of railroad passengers, remained motionless for approximately 5 minutes after which it turned southward before vanishing altogether (1).

      * Viana de Costelo, 17 September 1946. Shortly after 21:00 hours, a luminous body much greater and shinier than a star passed over this city, traveling in a north/south direction. The phenomenon was a cause for great wonderment among the population, giving rise to opinions among the population that it was somehow related to the some of the "mysterious luminous projectiles which have been mentioned in the press lately." (2).

      * Lisbon, 15 December 1946. At approximately 18:40 hours, a curious luminous projectile was seen traveling at an extraordinary altitude, leaving in a brilliant wake in its path. The object followed a southerly trajectory from the northeast. It gave the impression of being some new kind of "flying bomb", having great range and tremendous speed, similar to those which have been reported over the Scandinavian  peninsula and other parts of Europe. Duet to the time, the putative missile travelled along the coastline resembling a meteorite, going unnoticed by the majority of this city's residents. (3).

       Comments

       As we have noted, these events are centered in the "pre-modern age of ufology", considering that after Kenneth Arnold's sighting in June 1947, the whole world would become aware that the skies above were filled with strange objects catalogued by many as extraterrestrial spacecraft.

      Sightings in Scandinavia, Brazil, France and other nations made us aware that Man has always been accompanied by this strange phenomenon -- which remains a mystery to us until the present day.

 NOTES:

 1. Diario do Noticias. 15 September 1946. Lisbon, Portugal

2. Diario do Noticias. 18 September 1946. Lisbon, Portugal

3. Diario do Noticias. 16 December 1946. Lisbon, Portugal