July 2010

The extraterrestrial incident of Varginha, Brazil

The extraterrestrial incident of Varginha, Brazil is, without doubt, the most comparable case to Roswell. This incident is well known in Brazil and the world as a case in which the aliens were seen by many witnesses, then captured by the military and being denied by the government. According to investigations conducted by Brazilian ufologists, the two creatures (one dead and one alive) caught in Varginha were transferred to the United States. This case is truly the Brazilian Roswell.

Firefighters receive an anonymous phone call:

At 8:00 am, on the morning of January 20, 1996, the fire department of the city of Varginha in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, received an anonymous phone call. The person requested that firefighters investigate a strange creature seen in a park in the northern district of Jardim Andere.

Two hours later, firefighters arrived to Jardim Andere to search in the park. Since they anticipated finding a wild animal, they brought appropriate equipment such as cages and nets.

According to journalists who have interviewed several witnesses, the firefighters climbed a steep hill in the most wooded park, where they were at awed by an extraordinary sighting.

The Firefighters see a bipedal creature:

Before them murmured a five foot tall bipedal creature, with red eyes and brown oily skin. Witnesses said the creature had three lumps on its forehead and a small opening in the face like a mouth. They also said that it was making a strange sound, like the buzzing of bees and seemed to be injured.

While the firefighters were capturing the creature, the group's leader was in contact with the nearest military base. The base commander, Gen. Sergio Coelho Lima, quickly sent his troops to isolate the park.

A construction worker, José Enrique, witnessed the incident from the roof of a neighbor's house next to the park and later told investigators that four firefighters trapped the creature with nets, imprisoned it in a wooden box and then handed it over to the military.

Three girls see another creature:

If General Lima was pleased with the efficiency of the operation, soon he would be disappointed. That same day a UFO researcher, Ubirajara Franco Rodrigues, who was unaware of that incident, was informed of another strange occurrence. A series of phone calls led Rodrigues to interview the three girls who said they had seen; at about 3:00 pm (15:00 hrs.), a creature huddled against the wall of a building in Jardim Andere (near where the first creature was captured). The girls told Rodrigues that the creature had three lumps on its forehead and looked like “the devil.” After the encounter they ran home terrified and told what had happened to the mother of two of them. Meanwhile, firefighters and soldiers had been warned by scared neighbors about the second creature, like the other, seemed to be injured. The street was filled with a multitude of people who saw the firemen and soldiers capturing the being and then it disappears.

It was just a matter of time before the paths of two fellow ufologists, Rodrigues and Pacaccini cross. Vitório Pacaccini was investigating the events of the morning without knowing the second incident and Rodrigues did not know the first. The two ufologists then realized they were investigating two separate cases. They joined forces to launch a campaign to request interviews with more witnesses.

The rumors of the capture of two aliens spread very quickly and the news was in the various magazines. Brazilian ufologists went to Varginha to find out exactly what had happened. Meetings were held; the local press was notified and then more than sixty witnesses got in contact with the investigators.

Unlike the vast majority of UFO cases, several of the witnesses were military personnel. Many families in Varginha had relatives serving in the armed forces and many have commented about the incident of January 20 at their homes. Witnesses informed investigators that the brother or husband had been a witness or someone who had intervened in one of the cases. They gave their names and functions to the investigators and they were quick to find them.

There was no doubt that the incidents occurred on the 20 of January in the district of Jardim Andere, but the researchers wanted to know what happened next. Since the witnesses gave their testimonies, a clearer picture had emerged.

Apparently, the first creature captured on Saturday morning, was taken to the "Escola de Sargentos de Três Corações" (School of Sergeants of Três Corações), a town southeast of Varginha. However, none of the authorities involved in the case revealed what happened next. Only it was learned that a policeman who was present at the incident in the morning had been wounded by the creature.

Two days later, police officer Marco Eli Chereze died in a local hospital. Officially, the cause of death was pneumonia, but when his family asked for more information, medical authorities refused to provide it. It was never known clearly what could have taken the life of the young officer of only 23 years of age, leaving his wife pregnant and who then had twins at the time of his death. The death of Chereze remains one of the great mysteries related to the Varginha case.

Pacaccini and Rodrigues found out that the second creature was admitted to “Hospital Regional” (a regional hospital) of Varginha in the last hours of the afternoon.

On the same day or the next morning the creature, like the other one was injured, was transferred to “hospital Humanitas” (Humanitas hospital) in Varginha, and located 1.5 km away from the other hospital. Humanitas hospital, according to medical sources, had more resources to treat its wounds.

Witnesses at Humanitas hospital said the creature did not survive and was pronounced dead at 6:00 pm (18:00 hrs.) on the afternoon of January 22nd. Soon thereafter, at least 15 doctors, many military officials, police and firefighters had entered the room where the creature laid in a wooden coffin. It seems that one of the doctors inserted a surgical tweezers/pincer inside creature's tiny mouth and slowly pulled out a white tongue. Then when he opened the pincer, the tongue immediately retracted back inside the mouth.

The same witnesses also said the creature had three fingers, and again, three bumps on his forehead. It had no sexual organs, nipples nor belly button. It seemed to have injured joints on its wrinkled legs and its skin coincided with the first descriptions: brown color and oily texture.

Immediately, the coffin lid was screwed and two soldiers wearing masks and gloves wrapped it in a black plastic cover before putting it into a truck parked outside. Early in the morning, a convoy of military trucks left Varginha. It is believed that the creature had been transported to the UNICAMP, some 320 kilometers south of Varginha.

During his investigations, Pacaccini interviewed a radar operator of the Brazilian air force. This operator revealed that the U.S. came in contact with the Brazilian military and informed them that they were tracking a UFO that had entered the Brazilian airspace. The alert came complete with longitude and latitude, but the Americans could not say if the UFO landed without an accident.

Pacaccini also found that in Varginha several appearances had occurred on the days before the incident. A farmer, Eurico de Freitas, explained how he and his wife had jumped out of bed when hearing their frightened animals. Looking out the bedroom window they saw a gray object that emitted “a kind of smoke” and moved silently over the fields near the ground about 5 meters. Then it disappeared into the darkness.

Pacaccini also considered the possibility that the two captive creatures had a human origin, possibly the result of a failed military experiment. If it is not the case, they might actually be extraterrestrials, whose spacecraft crashed near the Jardim Andere district, where the creatures were found.

But if an accident occurred, where was the place of impact? Pacaccini believes that its remains are being concealed by the military and says there is an official cover-up. Pacaccini has received countless of death threats through anonymous phone calls and learned that any military personnel who mentions his name is risking a ten-day detention.

It is also being mentioned that General Coelho Lima issued an order prohibiting the soldiers from speaking, or to come in contact with any Brazilian ufologist. But these measures did not prevent the other details from coming to the investigators.

This information suggests that there is an involvement of the Brazilian government or of the United States military in the case. It is believed that an American was present on the morning of January 20, when the first creature was captured. In the last hours of that day, a transport plane, possibly a C-5 or C-17 of the USAF (United States Air Force), was seen at the São Paulo airport. Two days later, the same aircraft appeared at the airport in Campinas, near the university where it is assumed the second creature was taken. The two creatures, one dead and one alive, were transferred to the United States?

There is more evidence of U.S. involvement. On April 1996, Luíza Silva, the mother of two of the girls who saw the second creature, said four foreigners visited her house. The men offered her a "large sum" to persuade her daughters to lie about the episode. When Mrs. Silva refused to do it, the men promised to return and left in a 1994 blue Lincoln.

New developments indicate that there was a third creature in the incident. On February 1996, when a driver made a turn on the road, his truck headlights illuminated a strange creature 50 meters away. When the frightened driver braked, he saw that the creature lifted his hand to protect its “blood-red eyes” from the light and then disappeared into the night. The driver also said that the being had three or four fingers on each hand.

There is no doubt that something extraordinary happened on January 20, 1996, but many questions still remain unanswered. What happened to the first creature? What were the results of the autopsy on the second creature? And if they were aliens, how did they come to that location and where is the ship? The investigation on the Varginha episode is far from being complete and has become one of the most important in the history of ufology.

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Officer Lonnie Zamora’s UFO sighting near the town of Socorro, New Mexico (USA) on April 24, 1964, stands as one of the most intriguing UFO events in modern history. Police officers are usually considered credible eyewitnesses, and what he observed from up-close in broad daylight, in an open field, make the case even more intriguing. This encounter is also one of the best documented events with physical trace evidence and several witnesses.

The car chase:

On the above date, at approximately 5:45 pm, Sergeant Lonnie Zamora (31 years old at the time) was performing his town patrol duties when he observed a black Chevy speeding through the town. Patrolman Zamora gave chase and proceeded to the edge of town and out into the desert in pursuit of the speeding vehicle. Suddenly, the officer thought he heard an explosion, a loud roar in the distance, accompanied by a bluish, orange flame rising into the air. He knew that there was a dynamite shack not too far from him and thought that it may have exploded. The officer broke off the chase and drove towards the “explosion” to investigate.

Two small humanoid figures:

He made his way up a rough embankment and began moving slowly along a narrow gravel road that ran beside a small arroyo (a shallow dry gully). From this vantage point, in the distance he noticed a shining white object in the arroyo. He first thought that it might be an overturned car and its gas tank had exploded. Officer Zamora radioed his headquarters for backup, and assistance then stopped the car to investigate. It was at this point that he saw what he described as two small figures in white coveralls walking around it. As he drove around to get a closer look from about 100 feet, one of the little men in white overalls appeared startled at his approach and seemed to "jump somewhat".

Then the officer heard several loud metallic “thumps” or “slams”, like doors closing. The officer left the patrol car and walked towards the gully, he noticed that the object was not an upturned car but a white elongated oval shaped craft with "girder-like" legs and with red markings on the hull. Officer Zamora made several attempts to contact headquarters again but couldn’t break through the heavy static.

The UFO leaves:

In that instant there was a loud roar and a bluish flame shot out from the underside of the object. Officer Zamora astonished did not hesitate...he hit the ground thinking it was about to explode, crawled behind his car and radioed his friend, Sergeant Sam Chavez, of the New Mexico State Police. He told Officer Chavez on the radio to come fast and to come alone. He heard a whirring noise and watched the object rise up out of the arroyo. The craft lifted up 20 to 30 feet up in the air and hovered there for a while. The flame and the “legs” were no longer visible. As he watched, the now-silent vehicle moved west traveling parallel to the ground, moving slowly and picking up speed as it left the area.

Officer Chavez arrives:

Officer Chavez arrived quickly after hearing Zamora’s frantic call and found him excited and scared. He explained to Officer Chavez what he had just witnessed and drew the craft and the markings he saw on it on a piece of paper. Officer Zamora reluctantly went down the arroyo with Officer Chavez to investigate. Both officers found a half burned bush and four angular indentations on the sandy ground where the craft had landed. The indentations were 9 inches deep, 9 inches long and 8 inches wide. They began looking for human tracks or shoe prints, but nothing was found. The only thing they saw on the ground was impressions made by perfect circles.

Further inspection of the landing site:

Within 90 minutes, US army officials at nearby White Sands Missile Range sent Captain Richard T. Holder to investigate. At the site, Captain Holder noticed the unusual impressions left in the sand. On the edge of the landing area he found a bush burned to a crisp, but only on one side as though seared by a blowtorch. The landing site area was considered sensitive and no one was permitted in the area. State trooper Ted Jordan was taking pictures of the landing site, but his camera and films were confiscated on the spot. The next morning police was back at the scene and Air Force personnel were also there with Geiger counters. Sergeant Sam Chavez was able to take several photos of the area that morning.

The period following the sighting in 1964 the small town of Socorro, New Mexico was literally “invaded” by journalists and UFO researchers. This included officials from the US Air Force Project Blue Book, investigators from the civilian UFO study group NICAP and noted skeptics. The story received national and international media attention. To this very day Socorro remains one of the most well-known UFO incidents in history.

Dr. J. Allen Hynek Investigates:

The late American astronomer, professor and ufologist, Dr. J. Allen Hynek stated that besides the ample evidence at the scene to verify the sighting, Zamora himself was known as a reliable police officer, family and church man, and well-liked around the city. He was forthcoming with his view of the incident to all of the investigators. His account of the strange object landing was accepted as fact by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, who was representing the U.S. Air Force Project Blue Book at the time. This would become one of Hynek and Blue Book's most famous cases. Zamora made a drawing of the red insignia that he had seen on the craft.

Other witnesses:

Several independent witnesses reported either an "egg" shaped craft or a bluish flame at roughly the same time and in the same area — some of them within minutes of Zamora's encounter, before word of it had spread.

1) Two tourists named Paul Kies and Larry Kratzer, who were approaching Socorro in their car from the southwest, less than a mile from the landing site. They apparently witnessed either the landing or takeoff and reported seeing the flame and brownish dust being kicked up. Their story was reported in the Dubuque, Iowa Telegraph-Herald a few days later after their return.

2) A family of five tourists from Colorado headed north also saw the oval object as it approached Socorro at a very low altitude, going east to west just south of town. It passed directly over their car only a few feet above it. After the encounter, the tourists stopped for gas in Socorro. Their identity was never discovered, but the story was learned from the service station operator, Opal Grinder, who reported the incident at the time and later signed an affidavit in 1967. According to Grinder, the husband told him "Your aircraft sure fly low around here!" and that the object almost took the roof off their car. The man thought it was in trouble since it came down west of the highways instead of the nearby airport to the south. He saw the police car headed up the hill towards it with the lights and siren on, he thought it was going to render assistance.

3) Another witness called an Albuquerque television station around 5:30 p.m. to report an oval object at low altitude traveling slowly south towards Socorro. Several other stories appeared in New Mexico newspapers in succeeding days of other sightings of oval-shaped objects, including another landing case with burned soil near La Madera in northern N.M. Also similar to the Socorro incident, the FBI report on the La Madera case further noted the witness reporting a blue-white flame associated with the object, four rectangular, V-shaped landing marks, and several circular marks about 4 inches in diameter.

4) There were a large number of aural witnesses to the object's loud roar during takeoff and landing. One member of the Socorro sheriff's office said that "hundreds of persons" on the south side of town had heard it. The two women, who heard the roar just before 6 p.m., said that there were two distinct roars, maybe a minute or so apart.

5) In addition to the above witnesses, there were three other persons who called the police dispatcher immediately following the incident, before it was ever publicized, reporting a bright flame. In October 2009, it was revealed that Sgt. Chavez, the first policeman to provide backup for Zamora, had privately confided to fellow police officers that he too had seen the object rapidly departing to the west over the mountains as he approached the site. However, in public statements, Chavez was firm that he arrived too late to see the object. When Chavez first arrived at the scene within a minute or two after the object had departed, he also noted that burnt bushes were still smoldering and Zamora appeared to be in a state of shock.

6) Multiple policemen arrived soon after to help investigate, including Ted Jordan and James Luckie. All noted fresh burning at the site. Luckie and Chavez were quoted in the Socorro newspaper saying that clumps of grass and burned greasewood bushes were "still hot" when they arrived. Chavez was also quoted saying that dry grass was still "smoldering" as were the greasewood plants. Jordan later filled out a sworn statement saying, "When I arrived, greasewood branches were still smoking." Zamora was likewise quoted about the green bush "burned bare by exhaust heat" and that it was "still smoking several minutes after the craft's departure." The FBI report written by the agent on the scene within two hours similarly reported that all first responders noted "four irregularly shaped smoldering areas."

7) Chavez was again quoted in an Air Force report written two days later about smoking brush. “Chavez then went to the area were the craft or thing was supposedly sighted and found four fresh indentations in the ground and several charred or burned bushes. Smoke appeared to come from the bush and he assumed it was burning, however no coals were visible and the charred portions of the bush were cold to the touch.”

8) Chavez was further reported securing the area and scouring the ground looking for the presence of other human activity. He could find no other tire tracks besides Zamora's and was "adamant" that there was no other "track activity" (footprints or other marks) in the area. In addition, Chavez was also quoted in the report saying that the indentations appeared to be new: "He stated that the marks were definitely 'fresh', and the dirt showed evidence of 'dew' or moisture."

9) Similarly, several policemen later stated that whatever had produced the rectangular, wedge-shaped landing traces appeared to have penetrated into the moist subsoil, as the bottoms of the traces were moist for several hours, suggesting that the traces were freshly made. Hynek also commented on the freshness of the soil impressions in a letter to astronomer Donald Menzel: "I have the word of nine witnesses who saw the marks within hours of the incident, who tell me the center of the marks, were moist as though the topsoil had been freshly pushed aside."

10) The FBI investigator also observed that the rectangular marks "seemed to have been made by an object going into the earth at an angle from a center line" pushing "some earth to the far side." Also observed were "three circular marks in the earth which were small, approximately four inches in diameter and penetrated in the sandy earth approximately one-eighth of an inch." Speculation was that these were ladder indentations for the crew to exit and enter the craft.

Was it a Hoax?

The so-called "Socorro UFO hoax exposed", and that the sighting was a “college prank” the only thing I can say is, yeah, right! This is probably an attempt by those who publicized it on the Internet for personal gain. The allegation out there on the Internet is that it was an elaborate school prank by some school kids. Well, it couldn’t have been because Sgt. Zamora saw with his own eyes the craft takeoff. Unless those kids had an advance technological know-how to create a vehicle that would takeoff in a roar and fly silently across the state of New Mexico in excess of 150 miles an hours and being witnessed by people across the state, then I’d believe it. If it were true, they should have worked for NASA to help the US win the “Space Race” against the Soviet Union during the Cold War at that time and not live in the small town of Socorro.

Was it the Lunar Lander?

Some also assert that it may have been a Lunar Lander (or Lunar Module). Below are two photos one of the Lunar Module and the other one, the object described by Officer Zamora. See the difference? Police Officers are trained eyewitnesses. He first thought that it was an overturned car, but when he looked closely, he identified it as being an oval shaped object. I am certain that Officer Zamora would have certainly known the difference.

Conclusion:

During repeated examinations of the landing site, investigators try to find out if they can see any evidence or things that would make them think that it was a hoax, they found nothing. Everything they saw seems to support the story that Officer Zamora recounted. The officer was mystified and wanted an explanation. Nothing that investigators heard of later gave them the slightest hint that he did that as a hoax, or cooked it up for fame or fortune.

According to the late American astronomer, professor and ufologist, Dr. J. Allen Hynek: “the Socorro UFO landing is the “Rosetta Stone”. There has never been a stronger case and a more impeachable witness as Lonnie Zamora. The physical trace evidence is extremely compelling, but the most persuasive argument for a genuine UFO sighting is Lonnie Zamora himself”. Lonnie Zamora passed away on November 2, 2009 in Socorro from a heart attack.