CE3K: A Humanoid Encounter in Shadow of the Eclipse
By Luis Burgos (FAO-ICOU)
Introduction
Within the phenomenology of strictly physical humanoid encounters we find two types of close encounters: Related entities, with a UFO sighting, and Unrelated entities, in which no object whatsoever is readily visible. It is obvious that the first are the juiciest for research and analysis, but even so, records of strange characters appearing before the eyes of startled witnesses have been - and remain - very interesting when it comes to their evaluation. It just so happens that with no vehicle in evidence, a variety of interpretations can play a trick on researchers: Was the protagonist really face to face with an alien being, a Marian apparition, a ghost or merely a prankster? Moreover, the chances of a hallucination, or mistaken identification of a human, cannot be overlooked when it comes to unraveling the case. As we shall see below, our Humanoid Database, consisting of 500 Argentinean reports from 1947 to the present, contains very enticing events that involve these mysterious nocturnal intruders.
Local Geography
The case in question took place on Isla Santiago, accessed by the witnesses from La Plata to Ensenada and then along Almirante Brown Avenue, which leads to the Punta Lara bathing resort. These are natural wetlands that makes up the delta which bears the same name, separated from Isla Paulinho in the canton of Berisso by a 200 meter-wide channel. A few kilometers of paved road lead to a bridge whose canal connects the Rio de la Plata with the Club Regatas La Plata, and we come to what can be termed AREA ZERO, that is to say, the epicenter of the close encounter. There is a small channel that covers some 700 meters and empties into the river, and this is perhaps the exact location where the anthropomorphic figure became lost during the night of the eclipse. The marginal jungle covers both sides of [the channel]. An inhospitable area with abundant water and lush vegetation. Power lines and light posts follow the track to the Escuela Naval Militar, founded in 1872 by President Domingo Sarmiento, but reinstated in its current location in 1943.
A family from La Plata witnessed this uncanny nocturnal apparition: Cristian, 43, his wife Mirta, 33, his stepdaugher,19 and his nephew, 12, and the couple's daughter, who was only thirty months old. Five protagonists to an incredible story, and I mention all five. You'll see why...
The Encounter
Sunday, January 20 - the night of the famous eclipse - was clear, starry and with a slight wind that did not trouble at all the thousands upon thousands of anxious spectators of "the blood moon". The family headed to the Escuela Militar Naval's docks, as it had done on other occasions, located in the heart of Isla Santiago. The clock showed 21:15 hours. Mates, snacks, clean air and conversation were on hand to bring about the moment of the eclipse. But around midnight, the youngest girl felt cold and they decided to leave and finish seeing the concealed moon from their own home in La Plata. With Cristian at the wheel, his wife beside him and the three others behind, they set off their return journey. Only minutes later, driving along the straight paved road, Cristian noted something strange in the distance: a tall silhouette whose height he estimated at some two meters, standing on the left hand side of the road, lit in the distance by the vehicle's headlights. It gave the impression of standing with its back to the road. Startled, he slowed down and cut his high beams to get a better look at the sight. And that's when he realized that the character crossed the road normally and vanished into the foliage bordering the road. Meters ahead, passing through the location where the being supposedly concealed itself, he saw nothing unusual and continued his trip, as his wife was unwilling to stop. The five members of the family were able to see the figure in question to a greater or lesser extent, given its speed and their visual perspective from within the car.
The Humanoid
During the on-site reconstruction of the events, we placed the maximum proximity between the visitor and Cristian at some 40-50 meters at the moment that it crossed the road. The scant visibility of the area - since a few sodium lights happened to be off - added to the fact that Cristian lowered his high beams, did not allow an abundance of details on the entity. Even so, we estimate that its height was no less than two meters, slender in shape, and wearing a grey, non-luminous uniform. The area of the head was "darker" than the rest of the body, and as an interesting fact, its arms were outstretched and somewhat tilted forward alongside its torso. The time was exactly 0020 hours on Monday, January 21.
Comparative Ufology
Over the course of several decades we have quantified and researched a considerable number of these entities along highways and roads. Aloof and not prone to causing encounters, their attitude is one of avoidance or indifference toward witnesses. But there are three significant details: their appearance during hours of the night, their light clothing (white or grey) and their classification (Type 3, tall beings). Similar events are abundant, but there is an area where they have proliferated over the course of decades: The southern regions of Santa Fe province.
Area History
This area of the Buenos Aires riverside has produced extremely interesting episodes related to the UFO phenomenon, particularly from fishermen, who constitute the 'elite core of UFO reports' along with hunters, rural dwellers and car drivers.
On March 19, 1974 at dusk, Mrs. Encarnacion del Valle Guerrero advised us that she had seen - from her dwelling in the vicinity of the former Propulsora Siderurgica (now SIDERAR) factory, an enigmatic and overwhelmingly tall luminous silhouette clad in sky blue, "floating" alongside the tower known as La Cebolla (the Onion), located 3000 meters in a straight line from the case that concerns us here.
Olga Ch., who currently lives in Spain, told us: "One morning in 1978, at around 03:00 hours were partying at a disco that used to be at Punta Lara and called "Tio Marcelo" (very famous in its day). Three couples stepped out for fresh air and we sat on a coastal wall looking at the river. All was quiet. Suddenly, we saw a flying saucer emerging from the water, fully illuminated, making a loud noise. The night turned to day and it was possible to make out the ships waiting their turn to enter the anchorage. Water streamed off its lower section back into the river. It hung in the air for some seconds, becoming either smaller or reducing its luminosity, and it took off swiftly toward the nearby summit of Boca Cerrada. It scared us - me most of all, since it made my eyes hurt, perhaps from the brightness of its light. The image would pop up in my mind for several months. I'll never forget it..."
One warm evening in 2007, Arturo F. was fishing around one o'clock in the morning in a sector of Arroyo Largo, a few hundred meters distant from where Cristian had his encounter. He witnessed an unusual event in the river. For about an hour, there was a show of 'five luminous objects' plunging into and emerging from the water, repeating this behavior several times throughout the duration of the sighting.
There can be no doubt that this is an area for anomalous sightings, one in which regional folklore feeds into the expectations of more than one person, and one in which the field researcher is well aware that these accounts resurface in many cases, perhaps more than one might suppose. Stories told by employees and workers at the Escuela Naval and Astilleros Rio Santiago, which is also located in the area, point toward manifestations of strange nocturnal luminous phenomena over the years. But if we're also looking for legends, we can find the one about the three shipwrecks whose vessels are supposedly buried under the waters...or the mini-cemetery of a foreign family buried in the wilderness...or the strange noises and guttural sounds emerging from different parts of the jungle at night...
Working Hypothesis
When it comes to evaluations, these cases of Unrelated Entities contain not only the absence of a flying object but also the lack of conclusive proof. Is this a negative factor? Yes, without a doubt, but only if we adhere to this posture, then over 80% of the Argentinean case histories of the 1940s, 1950s,1960s etc. would crumble due to a lack of proof.
Therefore, eyewitnesses remain the foundation of all research. Many of them are fully reliable, others less so, and others are unreliable. It would be better if probative elements could be attached to the story, obviously, but when these are absent, we are left with the ufologist's acumen in defining a case as POSITIVE, NEGATIVE or QUESTIONABLE. Examples of this are the three 'credible' classic cases of national ufology, in which the evidence is the least evident item.
July 20, 1965, 0830 hours. A cloudy, drizzly morning in Greater Buenos Aires. At that time, Ramon Pereyra, 38, was delivering merchandise in the Villa La Florida area in the locality of San Francisco Solano, some 18 kilometers from Capital Federal. Suddenly, he noticed that a sort of "luminous parachute" was dropping from the sky. This caught his attention and he decided to go and meet it. He walked a few hundred meters, crossed the General Belgrano train tracks, a stream, and entered into the well-known Monte de los Curas, where a monastery operated in years past. He realized that what had dropped from above wasn't a parachute: There was an oval-shaped object on the ground with a transparent dome, containing an individual wearing grey coveralls and hood. There was another character standing thirty meters away, wearing similar clothing but with the hood pushed back, making it possible to make out its features. It had short blond hair, stood 1.80 meters tall, and carried large binoculars slung around its neck, a holster around its right leg and a belt with a silver buckle. Its footwear resembled leather boots. A completely "normal" person. Upon noticing Pereyra's presence, the intruder immediately ran toward the craft, crossing the human's path and nearly bumping into him. Pereyra asked, "Is there something wrong?" The craft began to rise and vanished into the sky. While there was involvement by the local police, no traces whatsoever were found of the landing, or any anomaly that could be linked to the story of Ramon Pereyra, who never tired of saying that what he had seen was "a Russian".
June 14, 1968, one o'clock in the morning. Maria Elodia Pretzel, 19, said farewell to some guests of the "La Cuesta" motel located on Route no.20 and two kilometers away from the center of Villa Carlos Paz (Cordoba). Her father, Pedro Jacobo Pretzel, the landlord, had not yet returned. The young woman, thinking that someone had turned on the lights to the common room, went inside only to find a startling visitor: a being standing over two meters tall, clad in form-fitting tights of a fluorescent blue color and bearing a luminous orb in its left hand, only a few meters away from her. There was a large ring on its right hand, resembling a gauntlet. When the creature raised it, Maria Elodia felt herself become weak and dizzy, and when the object was lowered, she regained her senses once more. The intruder, whose demeanor was otherwise friendly, vanished from the room minutes later. Her father arrived shortly after and found her unconscious and in bed. At a given time, the witness heard the phrase: "Do not be afraid" in her head. Doctor Hugo Vaggione, 33, the family's private physician, diagnosed the young woman with a nervous condition perhaps arising from shock. As a positive contribution to the case, we have a re-investigation of the incident by Daniel Lopez (FAO Baires) 20 years later, with María Elodia reliving the situation as if it had only transpired the previous evening.
November 17, 1969, evening. Aquilino Ramon Acosta, 44, responsible for the "Mi Recuerdo" farm, located in Crotto, near Olavarría (Buenos Aires), awoke suddenly when he became aware of strange activity on the farm. In the darkness, he was able to make out seventeen figures moving among the trees, lighting the ground with flashlight-like objects that fired beams of light, as if 'searching for something'. But what he found most striking was their red, transparent legs. For moments they appeared to be levitating. The only evidence presented by Accosta was 'some eye trouble."
Poles of Attraction
The phenomenon's penchant for penetrating scientific and military installations reappears in this case with the presence of the Escuela Naval Militar in the vicinity of the encounter. But without question, beyond the power lines and the wilderness, water emerges as the most attractive factor. UFOs and their occupants are often seen in the vicinity of water areas, no matter how small, even when they have a river or the sea at their disposal. Watering holes, streams, water troughs, swimming pools, lagoons, etc.
For example, in the Ensenada - Berriso region, toward the late 90s, there was an Unrelated Entities case I dubbed "The Little Nuns of Berisso". Short, clad in dark garments like tunics and with their heads covered, they appeared for over a week in Berisso's SUPE district and in the area known as El Puente Roma, where a canal just happens to cross the area bordering with the YPF refinery and emptying into the Rio de la Plata. These diminutive humanoids also made an appearance at the old, abandoned Puerto La Plata Hydraulic Station.
Seven Variants of What Might Have Actually Transpired
Fishermen: While the small channel emptying into the river is not the region's best feature for fishing, some make regular use of this little stream and in fact, once deep into the wilderness, we found trails between the foliage and items of clothing. Therefore, someone sleeps or transits through the area. Would it be very strange to 'mistake' a nocturnal fisherman with the unusual entity described by Cristian and his family? While the scale would tip toward the affirmative, it would not be 100% conclusive.
Jokers: This is perhaps the least sustainable hypothesis given the lack of eyewitness accounts involving sightings of this type. Was it someone in disguise on the night of the eclipse, aiming to scare or mock casual witnesses driving past in cars?
Thieves: It is interesting to suppose that a person would aim to waylay drivers in order to rob them. But the character in question had no intentions of stopping the vehicle, but rather quite the opposite - he FLED and/or HID in the dense vegetation lining the road.
Hallucination: A perception that bears no relation to any type of external stimulus. A very feasible hypothesis, but it loses strength as a COLLECTIVE sighting involving three adults and two minors. The baby's reaction plays a fundamental part in this, being the fifth witness at the time of the sighting. She exclaimed: "Oh, I'm scared," and covered part of her face with a hand.
Finally, we must make clear that neither Cristian nor his wife consume alcoholic beverages or show signs of addiction.
Tactical Frogmen: Probably during the days of the dictatorship or in facing the likelihood of a war (against Chile or Great Britain), these commandos of the Argentinean Navy would have been a logical explanation to the entity observed by Cristian and his family. Moreover, this is bolstered by the proximity of the Escuela Naval Militar and the delta's ideal geography as a training site. But at the present time, this suspicion vanishes almost entirely.
Fraud: Setting the confusion factor aside (Did Cristian and his family witness an alien presence at Monte Santiago?) perhaps we will never know. It is up to the reader to believe or disbelieve their story. The exception that can be made in such cases leads us back to the statistics on national UFO witnesses, and out of the thousands in their ranks from 1947 to the present, only a fistful has emerged as collective frauds, that is to say, "an association of people who commits fraud with a purpose in mind - a prank, publicity,etc." The majority of these fraudulent ufological cases have been committed by individuals or by couples, at most.
Extraterrestrial Entities: While there are notable coincidences between this case and others involving Solitary Entities in Argentina, the absence of specific proof makes this possibility take a few steps back. But our research did shed some light on this controversial case. A highly reliable narrative says that on Tuesday January 22 at 23:30 Hours (at least 48 hours from Cristian's incident), a couple driving in their car along the same road was startled to see a bizarre silhouette with glowing green eyes between the vegetation. Could this have been the same figure that appeared before Cristian?
The Mystery of the Green Light
The appearance that same evening of a strange light in the sky that had nothing to do with the transit of the ISS, Iridium or other satellites, no doubt bolsters the hypothesis that something anomalous happened between the sky and the land of Isla Santiago.
Around 22:30 hours on Sunday the 20th, residents of Villa Rubencito, a district bordering the island, were witnesses to the maneuvers of a green-hued object over the area for several minutes...
At 00:20 hours on Monday the 21st, the 'close encounter of the 3rd kind' involving Cristian and his family took place, in other words, one hour and fifty minutes later.
At 02:01 on Monday the 21st, a resident of Barrio Los Hornos in the city of La Plata was shocked to see a flying object with green lights flying toward the Rio de la Plata. She was able to take a few photos of it with her Samsung J7 cellphone just as the eclipse reached its peak.
At 02:30 hours, nearly 30 minutes, workers on duty at the Astilleros Rio Santiago dockyard witnessed the green object flying toward Monte Santiago.
At 00:30 hours on Tuesday the 22nd, Angel T. and another person with him witnessed the south-to-north transit of a white-colored object from a house in Punta Lara. It caught their attention when they could hear no sound, nor their ability to see the characteristic navigation lights.
At 23:30 hours that Tuesday the 22nd, the second encounter with the humanoid took place, involving a couple driving their car along the same road.
Epilogue
It is obvious that a succession of strange events transpiring in the same geographical portion of the riverbank within 48 hours leads us to question whether a connection existed, or if it was a product of chance. What relationship was there between THE GREEN LIGHT and THE HUMANOID? We have no doubts whatsoever that this "encounter in the shadow of the eclipse" isn't just another case. It had been a long time since a case of this nature had been reported in the area. Therefore, while we bring to a close a chapter filled with questions, certainties and hypotheses for all tastes, as field research demands, local investigation efforts are underway and remain completely open...
The FAO (Fundación Argentina de Ovnilogía) research team:
Lucia López – Mónica Alzamendi- Patricia Gómez- Nelson Polanco – Miguel Peralta – Diego Sampedro – Raúl González – Luis Hernández and Luis Burgos.
[Translation (c) 2019 by Scott Corrales for INEXPLICATA]