Post by Andrei Tchentchik on Aug 19, 2020 15:23:46 GMT 2
(.#470).- Military involvement in the 1977 Colares case, Brazil.
Military involvement in the 1977 Colares case, Brazil.
Two factors were apparently essential in determining the participation of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) in the investigation of the phenomenon of Chupas-chupas; the obvious invasion of national airspace by foreign flying devices; and the constant pressure suffered by many residents of the region, which was a deep concern for most mayors of the affected cities.
These reasons were sufficient for the first regional aeronautical air command (COMAR), based in Belèm, to draw up a detailed report on the phenomenon, which had to be completely analyzed in an objective manner.
To create this documentation, a group of soldiers, under the command of Uyrangé Bolivar Soares Nogueira de Hollanda Lima, then captain, whose mission was to direct Operation Prato, came to examine the affected villages and collect the testimony of witnesses and victims, and to record manifestations of the UFO phenomenon in the area.
The operation lasted from September to December 1977, and resulted in the production of a document of approximately 1000 pages, including hundreds of photographs of the flying machines, diagrams, maps and copies of the articles of newspapers. The operation managed to take about 5 hours of 8mm film showing the presence of extraterrestrial devices in the Amazon, but none of this data was publicly released at the time.
Naturally at that time, many officers faced the UFO phenomenon as skeptics, as being dubious and even a simple popular belief. According to Colonel Hollanda, the flying devices were viewed with great caution, as something improbable, and were a reason for conflicts between the military.
Revista UFO, the Brazilian ufology magazine, published in September 1991 an issue containing descriptions, comments and data collected by these agents of the Brazilian Air Force. Some photos from this era were also disclosed. However, the really new development was that events were occasionally confirmed in a rather transparent manner, for the first time in the history of the FAB. Obviously the military was divided, a few daring senior officers wanting to declare that UFOs are real, others being inclined to put the matter under wraps.
In interviews and conferences in Rio De Janeiro, at the invitation of ufologist Marco A. Petit, Colonel Hollanda said that he thought that the operation was set up thanks to the presence of the brigadier general General Protasio Lopes De Oliveira, from 1st COMAR, who had a great interest in the subject. ‘’ It was fortunate that at that time, an aeronautical officer, a brigadier general, who believed in flying saucers, was in charge. If there had been another officer, another brigadier general, the operation might not have taken place. "
The reason why Brigadier General Protasio Lopes de Oliveira was interested in UFOs is very simple; he himself was a witness in a case of UFO sighting and he lost all his doubts about the reality and even the nature of the phenomenon.
Hollanda presented a sample of the vast amount of data that the military, himself and other sources collected, in complete anonymity at the time of the incident.
At that time, a simple Captain, Hollanda was returning from a course in Brasilia, when he presented himself at the head of the second section of! Er COMAR, to Colonel Ferraz de Barros de Camilo. He was first asked if he believed in flying saucers. He gave an affirmative answer, and it was then that Ferraz de Barros said to him: "In this case, you will be responsible for this operation." In the files that Hollanda received, there were documents related to the operation, which had not yet received a code name, but was already underway through the use of private agents.
Pressure from municipal authorities :
The situation in the various regions of Para and Maranhao States required action. In June, July and August newspapers brought to the attention of the main authorities of the cities of Pine, Cajapio, Are Vicente and Are Bento, that people said they were attacked by what they described as "light rays" 'coming from' 'mysterious light' '. Due to some ostentation in the press, and because of the few reports of deaths linked to the phenomenon, there was quite considerable unrest.
For example, Belèm's Le Libéral newspaper on July 14 reported that on June 22, 1977, the Apolinario Firmino brothers and Jose Correia, as well as their brother-in-law Aureliano Alves, anchored their boat on the Crab Island, in the city of Alcantara. During the night, Firmino, Jose and Aureliano had gone to sleep, Apolinario having decided to sleep on the upper part of the boat. Shortly after midnight, according to Jose and Aureliano, a large object produced a powerful flash that terrified them so much that they didn't even cry out until Firmino broke into silence while screaming. At that time, Apolinario woke up and went down to help his brothers and brother-in-law. When he arrived, he found Firmino dead and his other two parents in pain. All of them had burn marks on the chest. The police examined the scene and found nothing unusual. The doctors who treated Aureliano and Jose at Socorrao Hospital in Sao Luiz did not report any findings. The lawyers who performed the autopsy on Firmino's body concluded their report by describing that he "was burned" by "an electric shock", without further explanation.
"The letter" a periodical from the Para region also reported in 1977 the concerns of the inhabitants when this story became known. Frightened by the apparitions of UFOs and its effects on the population, Maneco Paiva, mayor of the town of Pine, sent a request for assistance to the air force command in Sao Luiz. According to the regional newspaper, the command sent its note to the Belèm air base, where the information was forwarded to the air ministry.
The phenomenon has spread to the cities of Vizeu and Braganca, along the Gurupi River. In no time, he reached the outskirts of Belèm. Most of the time, the central region of the phenomenon was Colares, a town of 2,000 people which, according to Colonel Hollanda, received more attention from Operation Prato.
The mayor of Vigia, in Para, in the second half of 1977, informed the 1st regional air command of the events and requested the action of the armed forces. This created quarrels with the municipal council of Belèm. When they learned that the investigation "by the competent authorities" had concluded that the phenomenon was caused by weather balloons and satellites. Belèm city councilors complained to the court, further irritated by the now ridiculous comments in the press.
In the village of Saint Antonio de Umbituba, near the city of Vieja, former police commissioner Alceu Marcilio de Souza vividly remembers the events that have taken place in the population. During nights spent in Umbituba, in police investigations, he can see people's anxiety. He remembers that an aeronautical team was also investigating and that some of its members had come to speak with him about the apparitions. It may be in fact the team of Jacques Vallée, who having been a contractor for NASA in computer science was often wrongly presented as "a person from NASA."
TWENTY YEARS LATER :
In an interview with a Brazilian ufology magazine in 1997, almost 20 years after the case, Colonel Hollanda began to make startling statements. He was now a retired colonel, and claimed that his UFO team had been unable to reveal anything due to the risk of personal sanctions by Air Force authorities.
'' Now, '' he said, '' I feel compelled to say what happened in the Amazon. '' He told UFO editor Revista J. Gevaerd, that the operation had the initial objective of demystifying these phenomena. I myself was skeptical about the extraterrestrial nature of these facts. But, after a few weeks, when the flight discs started to appear all over the place, I had no more doubts. ’’
ARMY DOCUMENTS ARE ALWAYS NOT ACCESSIBLE :
NOTE: The following paragraph is as published in 2002.
The documents were finally released in 2005, see the main page for this file.
The thick file of the Brazilian Army is still not accessible to the public and to the researchers, however certain soldiers allowed to filter a few reproduced elements as they had provided them for the file. Below, a handwritten document which would be a reconstruction of one of the testimonies in the official file :
Date, time, locations are clearly indicated, the object was estimated to be 500 meters from the place of observation.
It says: the emission of green and red rays directed from the front of the disc, a red exhaust on the back and a red luminosity below, a transparent dome on the top, the object being close to white color.
The weather conditions are given as: clear sky, nothing to report.
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Additional articles and documents
COLARES 1977, THE INVOLVEMENT OF THE MILITARY :
Introduction by A.J. Gevaerd, editor-in-chief of UFO Magazine, Brazil, 2005.
Photo : A.J. Gevaerd, Wikidata
Dear colleagues :
I have made a commitment, as well as to the readers of UFO Magazine Brazil, to do nothing about the issue of the lies we get from our military and authorities about UFOs in Brazil. But these lies are simply indignant and we cannot remain silent.
So, I decided to pursue this question no matter what. I am drowning in information that contradicts liars and I am now posting a recent message received from a magazine reader, who is also angry about the military’s cover-up policy. There will be other things to come and I will broadcast it in Brazil and overseas.
A.J. Gevaerd
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The spokesperson of the Brazilian Department of the Air Force for Social Communication, lies about UFOs.
Letter to UFO Magazine Brazil :
The newspaper Correio Braziliense published a whole page about UFOs in its edition of January 30, 2005, under the title "Security" and the subtitle "ET Hunters". The report was signed by Ullisses Campbell. Among other subjects, the text describes the campaign carried out by UFO Magazine Brazil: "Freedom of Access to Information Now", and reports that Brazilian ufologists want to see the opening of secret government archives about Operation Saucer, the case of Varginha, and what Brazilian UFO researchers call '' The official night of UFOs in Brazil ''. This request is included in the document called "Manifesto of Brazilian Ufology", which is an integral part of the campaign, and is published by the magazine and its website.
In the report mentioned above, under the subtitle '' Archive of Brasilia '', Campbell presents parts of his interview with Major Antonio Lorenzo of the Air Force, of the Brazilian department of the Army of Air for social communication. The text says: '' the Ministry of the Air Force admits the existence of reports of unidentified flying objects in the archives of the Brazilian Command for Air Defense (Comdabra), a military body based in the region from the South Lake. Major Lorenzo's report continues: ‘’ but none of these have an investigative approach, we have never gone in search of flying saucers in the Brazilian skies. ’’
The officer goes on to say that ufologists do not need to collect 30,000 signatures, which is the intention of the campaign mentioned above - to have these documents revealed. He concluded: "An order from the Air Force Commander, da Silva Bueno de Luiz Carlos, or the Minister of Defense, Jose Alencar, is enough to open the archives. ''
The text continues by saying that the Operation Saucer report, which has been read by ufologists all over the world and is published on the website of UFO Magazine Brazil, has been released by the officer who led the operation, Uyrange Hollanda , interviewed by magazine editor, AJ Gevaerd. In the documents, says the Correio Braziliense, there are reports of people attacked by lights from the sky who burned their skins, the so-called chupa-chupa. (*).
Finally, the report informs the reader that, according to Major Lorenzo, there is no evidence of UFO sightings in any of the Air Force reports. The officer said, "As far as I know, there are only reports about people who say: I saw this, I saw that in the sky, in these reports. The Air Force has never put in place any operations to monitor lights that are Mars or Jupiter. "
The officer lies.
I would like to inform UFO Magazine Brazil that I have received verified information, that the statements made by Major Antonio Lorenzo, from the Brazilian Air Force department for social communication, are false. He does not speak the truth in his statements to the journalist Ullisses Campbell and, consequently, in the position he occupies, he commits a serious fault with the Brazilian society which requests to be repaired.
I declare that in 1977 I was a member of the Brazilian Center for Ufology Studies (CNEU), founded and directed by General Alfredo Moacyr de Mendonca Uchoa, who was based in the Uniao Pioneira de Integracao Social University ( UPIS). I have occupied a high position in the establishment, which I will not indicate, in order to keep my name secret. One night, at 8:30 p.m., I was in General Uchoa's office, seated at his table, when three men, dressed in black outfits and holding huge suitcases, appeared. From the door, they said, "General, here we are." "I'm coming," was his response.
So the three men went out to the hall to wait. General Uchoa said to me in a low voice: "They are security agents of the Air Force, and they bring good news from Colares, State of Para." He then asked me to follow him and the men, and we headed for the classified archives of the UPIS. The first officer had a key in his hands, he opened the door and stepped aside so that the others could pass. He was the last, but when it was my turn to enter, I was arrested on the pretext that the subject was secret and I was not allowed to go further.
General Uchoa, who was already inside the room, turned around and said: "He is a man in whom I have all my confidence. If he can't get in, I don't get in either. "So the officers didn't have another time and let me in. We all sat around a large table and they began by explaining in detail everything that should happen to General Uchoa - and among other issues, there was the fact that the mission they carried out was in Colares, a town on the coast of the state of Para. What they showed us were the images and documents about Operation Saucer, which were impressive.
I was amazed with the amount of films and more than 200 photographs they presented. It was an endless source of high quality material. Flying saucers were filmed and photographed closely by these officers - I imagine distances from 100 m to 200 m. In this large amount of evidence were pictures of "distant lights", which came very close to them. Everything was filmed and well photographed in high quality and good contrast images. All the facts happened for several nights. There was a photo and film expert among the men, who explained the technical details of the images to General Uchoa, the conditions under which they were taken, the type of film and the exposure times.
There was another expert who explained physical aspects of UFOs to General Uchoa, and we spent more than three hours examining all of the material. However, during all this time, I did not say anything, since I was perceived as an intruder and was not really invited. The men didn't speak to me either. In the end, Uchoa's conclusion was: "There is no doubt that these are actually interplanetary devices present on our planet. We should receive them in order to understand their real intentions. ’’
This is my report, which I hope will be useful for UFO Magazine Brazil and the Brazilian Ufology Community in their campaign for free access to ufology information. My intention is to help show how important it is that the government ask the armed forces to open their archives immediately.
Posted by A.J. Gevaerd, editor of UFO Magazine Brazil.
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AN INTERVIEW WITH COLONEL HOLLANDA :
When the terror caused by UFOs in Colares had spread to neighboring cities, the Brazilian air force sent a military team to find out what was happening. This operation was called Pr ’Operation Prato (plate or saucer) and was commanded by Captain Uyrange Bolivar Soares Norgueira de Hollanda Lima, now retired Colonel. His team made hundreds of photos and four films. When the phenomenon stopped, the soldiers closed the file. Unfortunately, none of the photos and movies were shown to the public. But to the surprise of the ufologists, in October 1997, Colonel Hollanda gave a detailed interview to the researchers: Jose Gevaerd and Marco Antonio Petit, respectively editor and co-editor of the Brazilian Magazine '' Revista UFO '' (OVNI Magazine)) . Here is the full text of this important interview:
UFO Magazine – If you have created a file, he tells us, when there would have been some progress in research?
Hollanda – Yes, when I arrived from Brasilia, that I already had agents who were sent on the spot to study UFO sightings, because this was already happening so often in the Colares area, which is under the jurisdiction of the city of Vigia on the Para coast.
The city mayor sent an official to the COMAR Commander to inform him that UFOs were very bothering fishermen. Some of them could no longer carry out this activity, because the objects passed under their boats. Sometimes, some objects even dived near them, in rivers and in the sea. The locals spent the night outside. People were making fires and using fireworks to try to ward off the invaders. It was panic that prompted the mayor to contact COMAR command, requesting instructions, and the Brigadier General ordered me to go investigate the sightings.
UFO Magazine – Has there ever been any participation or instruction from Brasilia to have the situation investigated?
Hollanda – At that time, they did not participate in the discussions. There was only one captain and he only received orders. I was not involved in this process and I do not know for sure what decisions had been made. But for the little that I know, the decision was in the hands of the COMAR command. If there was a participation from Brasilia, I don't know which one.
UFO Magazine – How did you organize Operation Prato? How many sections, how many people, how many missions, etc.? And did you organize all the tasks personally?
Hollanda – Well, we were a team. I was at its head. We had five officers, all sergeants, who worked in the second division of COMAR. In addition, we had informants on the spot, people in the places where the lights appeared, on the ground, who helped us. So I divided the team into two or three different positions in the country. Clearly, we were in constant contact with each other, by radio.
UFO Magazine – What was the immediate objective of Operation Prato? To observe flying discs, to photograph them and to come into contact with them?
Hollanda – Actually, I wanted to explain these things exactly and completely. I wanted to find a clear explanation. Because everyone was talking about these lights and objects and even nicknamed them with popular names, such as '' Chupa-chupa '' or '' absorb-absorber '') . And the Brazilian Air Force had to know what was really happening, since this was happening in Brazilian airspace. It was our responsibility to investigate it. But, at the start of Operation Prato, what I wanted exactly was first confirmation of what was happening.
UFO Magazine – What was the reason for locals to call the "Chupa-chupa"?
Hollanda – There were a series of stories from people who were touched by a ray of light. They all felt that the effect of the ray was to absorb blood from them. And we actually checked a few cases, and we found out that several of them, mostly women, had the strangest marks on their left breasts, and there were two needle sticks around a brown patch . It looked like iodine injury. And these people had their blood drawn outside, in small quantities by these lights.
Therefore, they had started to nickname them "Chupa-chupa". It was always the same thing, a light came out of nowhere and followed someone, usually a woman, who was affected on the left breast. Sometimes it was men who were hit with marks on their arms and (pemas). Indeed, in ten cases, there were more or less eight women and two men.
UFO Magazine – And you registered and checked the marks that people had?
Hollanda – Yes, everything was checked and analyzed by the doctors, who came with us at the time. Honestly, I got into this as a devil’s advocate. What I wanted exactly was to demystify this story in order to tell my commander that these things do not exist, that it was a collective hallucination. I wanted to find out (or ‘’ I found ’’)? (which is very different) that a few things were seen, but that it was not extraterrestrial.
UFO Magazine – So what do you think attacked people?
Hollanda – I don't know. Maybe the plumage of an owl reflecting the light of the moon or something like that. We thought it could be extraterrestrial, but I didn't think so. I went there to check that these things are really happening. I spent at least two months to get an explanation for my commander, when I came back from the mission, I hadn't discovered anything.
The first of the two months of Operation Prato, I saw nothing that could have made me change my mind. At one point we spent a week in the weeds and came back only on Sunday, we lived a little bit like a family. At each report, my commander asked:
"Have you seen anything?" And my answer was always: "We saw strange lights, to say the least, but nothing extraterrestrial." In fact, we saw lights that never flashed, that passed at low altitude, but nothing very strange.
UFO Magazine – It happened overnight. What happened during the day? Were there other activities during Operation Prato?
Hollanda – Yes, we had other things to do, which were part of the objectives of the operation. We did interviews with people who had had experiences, we prepared the places to spend the night and we looked for the "hot spots" for the night observations. When we discovered that something appeared at such a place, we (...) We made a complete tour of the situation, and we always registered the names of the people implied in a precise form.
UFO Magazine – What procedure or methodology was used to collect the information?
Hollanda – We have always recorded the name of the person who had the experience, the place where it occurred, the date and time etc ... We have made a description of each fact which has occurred in the same locality. So, if three cases overnight happened, people heard from three witnesses. Some of the descriptions were common, others had more strangeness. Sometimes we got stories of things that we couldn't verify were authentic, like dematerializations of entire walls or roofs, for example.
UFO Magazine – What do you mean? Do you have a certain example to illustrate this type of event?
Hollanda – Yes. The first lady I interviewed in Colares, for example, told me absurd things. We came by helicopter from Belém just to hear a woman who had been attacked by the Chupa-Chupa. We saw that she really had a mark on the left breast. It was brown, like it was a burn, and it had a series of aligned holes. When we spoke, she told me that she was trying to put a child to sleep in a hammock when, suddenly, the environment started to change temperature. She found it rather pleasant, but she couldn't imagine what would happen next. Then, in her hammock, she saw that the roof tiles had taken on colors, colors of charcoal embers. After that, the tiles changed and became transparent and she could see the sky from the roof. It was as if the roof tiles had turned into glass. She saw the sky and even the stars.
UFO Magazine – Were strange stories like this very common during Operation Prato?
Hollanda – Very common, and it scared me a lot, because I had never heard anyone talk about such things. When I heard of such cases, I was worried and much more curious. These people seemed to be sincere. For example, through the hole the woman described, she saw a green light shining in the sky. The lady was half asleep, until then, after that, a red ray fired from the UFO reached her left breast. It was strange that in the majority of cases people were hit on their left side. And it wasn't over: just when we were talking about this, a girl came up to us and said:
"Look at the thing going on up there." When I got out of the house, I saw the light that the girl was pointing at, flying at a reasonable speed, although the sky was sufficiently covered. It was not very fast and it was flashing as it headed north. It looked like a satellite, except that this light turned around; and satellites don't do that!
Shortly after, there was something even stranger. But I couldn't exactly say if it was an alien ship. By the way, I was not sent there to cover up something about flying saucers.
UFO Magazine – Did you use any radar equipment that could confirm or track these phenomena?
Hollanda – No. All airports have fixed speed cameras. We hadn't brought anything like that.
UFO Magazine – Have the attacks that occur with certain frequency been communicated to government, state or municipal authorities?
Hollanda - Yes, clearly. Some doctors from the Pará Ministry of Public Health had been sent by the government to examine the people. They analyzed the burned skins and took the patient's depositions, but they did nothing more than that, in any case. Some victims recovered easily. Others were absolutely terrified. Some suffered from nausea, or fell asleep for days. A citizen once came to find me and said that beside his house a light had appeared, which had focused a bright ray towards him. He told me that he was so terrorized that he ran inside his house, grabbed a gun and aimed it at the light. Then more powerful rays made it fall. The poor man spent two weeks with locomotion problems, but had nothing more serious.
He was not hit by anything solid, like a projectile, for example. It seems that the nature of this light was that of a very strong energy which left people paralyzed. I believe that the federal authorities were aware of this type of attack on human beings which occurred in the area, but I am ignorant as regards possible tests. I only received orders from my commander, nothing more.
UFO Magazine – What if these depositions had been collected since the start of Operation Prato when the first close encounter with UFOs in the region took place?
Hollanda – It was significant enough. Some nights, our team did their research in Mosqueiro Island, in a place called Bahia Del Sol, so we had the opportunity to information that these things were happening there. And since we studied all the indications and ufological occurrences whatever they are, we settled in the place. During this period, the agents who had more time than me to devote to this operation - since I took the moving train, interrogated me all the time, after they saw some lights, as if I had already been convinced of the existence of the phenomenon. When I was still unresolved, they said to me: "but still, Captain, you still do not believe it" I replied that I was not convinced, that we needed more test to believe that these things were flying saucers. I had not seen any spacecraft at that time. Only lights, many and varied. I was still not satisfied.
F I N.
Military involvement in the 1977 Colares case, Brazil.
Two factors were apparently essential in determining the participation of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) in the investigation of the phenomenon of Chupas-chupas; the obvious invasion of national airspace by foreign flying devices; and the constant pressure suffered by many residents of the region, which was a deep concern for most mayors of the affected cities.
These reasons were sufficient for the first regional aeronautical air command (COMAR), based in Belèm, to draw up a detailed report on the phenomenon, which had to be completely analyzed in an objective manner.
To create this documentation, a group of soldiers, under the command of Uyrangé Bolivar Soares Nogueira de Hollanda Lima, then captain, whose mission was to direct Operation Prato, came to examine the affected villages and collect the testimony of witnesses and victims, and to record manifestations of the UFO phenomenon in the area.
The operation lasted from September to December 1977, and resulted in the production of a document of approximately 1000 pages, including hundreds of photographs of the flying machines, diagrams, maps and copies of the articles of newspapers. The operation managed to take about 5 hours of 8mm film showing the presence of extraterrestrial devices in the Amazon, but none of this data was publicly released at the time.
Naturally at that time, many officers faced the UFO phenomenon as skeptics, as being dubious and even a simple popular belief. According to Colonel Hollanda, the flying devices were viewed with great caution, as something improbable, and were a reason for conflicts between the military.
Revista UFO, the Brazilian ufology magazine, published in September 1991 an issue containing descriptions, comments and data collected by these agents of the Brazilian Air Force. Some photos from this era were also disclosed. However, the really new development was that events were occasionally confirmed in a rather transparent manner, for the first time in the history of the FAB. Obviously the military was divided, a few daring senior officers wanting to declare that UFOs are real, others being inclined to put the matter under wraps.
In interviews and conferences in Rio De Janeiro, at the invitation of ufologist Marco A. Petit, Colonel Hollanda said that he thought that the operation was set up thanks to the presence of the brigadier general General Protasio Lopes De Oliveira, from 1st COMAR, who had a great interest in the subject. ‘’ It was fortunate that at that time, an aeronautical officer, a brigadier general, who believed in flying saucers, was in charge. If there had been another officer, another brigadier general, the operation might not have taken place. "
The reason why Brigadier General Protasio Lopes de Oliveira was interested in UFOs is very simple; he himself was a witness in a case of UFO sighting and he lost all his doubts about the reality and even the nature of the phenomenon.
Hollanda presented a sample of the vast amount of data that the military, himself and other sources collected, in complete anonymity at the time of the incident.
At that time, a simple Captain, Hollanda was returning from a course in Brasilia, when he presented himself at the head of the second section of! Er COMAR, to Colonel Ferraz de Barros de Camilo. He was first asked if he believed in flying saucers. He gave an affirmative answer, and it was then that Ferraz de Barros said to him: "In this case, you will be responsible for this operation." In the files that Hollanda received, there were documents related to the operation, which had not yet received a code name, but was already underway through the use of private agents.
Pressure from municipal authorities :
The situation in the various regions of Para and Maranhao States required action. In June, July and August newspapers brought to the attention of the main authorities of the cities of Pine, Cajapio, Are Vicente and Are Bento, that people said they were attacked by what they described as "light rays" 'coming from' 'mysterious light' '. Due to some ostentation in the press, and because of the few reports of deaths linked to the phenomenon, there was quite considerable unrest.
For example, Belèm's Le Libéral newspaper on July 14 reported that on June 22, 1977, the Apolinario Firmino brothers and Jose Correia, as well as their brother-in-law Aureliano Alves, anchored their boat on the Crab Island, in the city of Alcantara. During the night, Firmino, Jose and Aureliano had gone to sleep, Apolinario having decided to sleep on the upper part of the boat. Shortly after midnight, according to Jose and Aureliano, a large object produced a powerful flash that terrified them so much that they didn't even cry out until Firmino broke into silence while screaming. At that time, Apolinario woke up and went down to help his brothers and brother-in-law. When he arrived, he found Firmino dead and his other two parents in pain. All of them had burn marks on the chest. The police examined the scene and found nothing unusual. The doctors who treated Aureliano and Jose at Socorrao Hospital in Sao Luiz did not report any findings. The lawyers who performed the autopsy on Firmino's body concluded their report by describing that he "was burned" by "an electric shock", without further explanation.
"The letter" a periodical from the Para region also reported in 1977 the concerns of the inhabitants when this story became known. Frightened by the apparitions of UFOs and its effects on the population, Maneco Paiva, mayor of the town of Pine, sent a request for assistance to the air force command in Sao Luiz. According to the regional newspaper, the command sent its note to the Belèm air base, where the information was forwarded to the air ministry.
The phenomenon has spread to the cities of Vizeu and Braganca, along the Gurupi River. In no time, he reached the outskirts of Belèm. Most of the time, the central region of the phenomenon was Colares, a town of 2,000 people which, according to Colonel Hollanda, received more attention from Operation Prato.
The mayor of Vigia, in Para, in the second half of 1977, informed the 1st regional air command of the events and requested the action of the armed forces. This created quarrels with the municipal council of Belèm. When they learned that the investigation "by the competent authorities" had concluded that the phenomenon was caused by weather balloons and satellites. Belèm city councilors complained to the court, further irritated by the now ridiculous comments in the press.
In the village of Saint Antonio de Umbituba, near the city of Vieja, former police commissioner Alceu Marcilio de Souza vividly remembers the events that have taken place in the population. During nights spent in Umbituba, in police investigations, he can see people's anxiety. He remembers that an aeronautical team was also investigating and that some of its members had come to speak with him about the apparitions. It may be in fact the team of Jacques Vallée, who having been a contractor for NASA in computer science was often wrongly presented as "a person from NASA."
TWENTY YEARS LATER :
In an interview with a Brazilian ufology magazine in 1997, almost 20 years after the case, Colonel Hollanda began to make startling statements. He was now a retired colonel, and claimed that his UFO team had been unable to reveal anything due to the risk of personal sanctions by Air Force authorities.
'' Now, '' he said, '' I feel compelled to say what happened in the Amazon. '' He told UFO editor Revista J. Gevaerd, that the operation had the initial objective of demystifying these phenomena. I myself was skeptical about the extraterrestrial nature of these facts. But, after a few weeks, when the flight discs started to appear all over the place, I had no more doubts. ’’
ARMY DOCUMENTS ARE ALWAYS NOT ACCESSIBLE :
NOTE: The following paragraph is as published in 2002.
The documents were finally released in 2005, see the main page for this file.
The thick file of the Brazilian Army is still not accessible to the public and to the researchers, however certain soldiers allowed to filter a few reproduced elements as they had provided them for the file. Below, a handwritten document which would be a reconstruction of one of the testimonies in the official file :
Date, time, locations are clearly indicated, the object was estimated to be 500 meters from the place of observation.
It says: the emission of green and red rays directed from the front of the disc, a red exhaust on the back and a red luminosity below, a transparent dome on the top, the object being close to white color.
The weather conditions are given as: clear sky, nothing to report.
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Additional articles and documents
COLARES 1977, THE INVOLVEMENT OF THE MILITARY :
Introduction by A.J. Gevaerd, editor-in-chief of UFO Magazine, Brazil, 2005.
Photo : A.J. Gevaerd, Wikidata
Dear colleagues :
I have made a commitment, as well as to the readers of UFO Magazine Brazil, to do nothing about the issue of the lies we get from our military and authorities about UFOs in Brazil. But these lies are simply indignant and we cannot remain silent.
So, I decided to pursue this question no matter what. I am drowning in information that contradicts liars and I am now posting a recent message received from a magazine reader, who is also angry about the military’s cover-up policy. There will be other things to come and I will broadcast it in Brazil and overseas.
A.J. Gevaerd
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The spokesperson of the Brazilian Department of the Air Force for Social Communication, lies about UFOs.
Letter to UFO Magazine Brazil :
The newspaper Correio Braziliense published a whole page about UFOs in its edition of January 30, 2005, under the title "Security" and the subtitle "ET Hunters". The report was signed by Ullisses Campbell. Among other subjects, the text describes the campaign carried out by UFO Magazine Brazil: "Freedom of Access to Information Now", and reports that Brazilian ufologists want to see the opening of secret government archives about Operation Saucer, the case of Varginha, and what Brazilian UFO researchers call '' The official night of UFOs in Brazil ''. This request is included in the document called "Manifesto of Brazilian Ufology", which is an integral part of the campaign, and is published by the magazine and its website.
In the report mentioned above, under the subtitle '' Archive of Brasilia '', Campbell presents parts of his interview with Major Antonio Lorenzo of the Air Force, of the Brazilian department of the Army of Air for social communication. The text says: '' the Ministry of the Air Force admits the existence of reports of unidentified flying objects in the archives of the Brazilian Command for Air Defense (Comdabra), a military body based in the region from the South Lake. Major Lorenzo's report continues: ‘’ but none of these have an investigative approach, we have never gone in search of flying saucers in the Brazilian skies. ’’
The officer goes on to say that ufologists do not need to collect 30,000 signatures, which is the intention of the campaign mentioned above - to have these documents revealed. He concluded: "An order from the Air Force Commander, da Silva Bueno de Luiz Carlos, or the Minister of Defense, Jose Alencar, is enough to open the archives. ''
The text continues by saying that the Operation Saucer report, which has been read by ufologists all over the world and is published on the website of UFO Magazine Brazil, has been released by the officer who led the operation, Uyrange Hollanda , interviewed by magazine editor, AJ Gevaerd. In the documents, says the Correio Braziliense, there are reports of people attacked by lights from the sky who burned their skins, the so-called chupa-chupa. (*).
Finally, the report informs the reader that, according to Major Lorenzo, there is no evidence of UFO sightings in any of the Air Force reports. The officer said, "As far as I know, there are only reports about people who say: I saw this, I saw that in the sky, in these reports. The Air Force has never put in place any operations to monitor lights that are Mars or Jupiter. "
The officer lies.
I would like to inform UFO Magazine Brazil that I have received verified information, that the statements made by Major Antonio Lorenzo, from the Brazilian Air Force department for social communication, are false. He does not speak the truth in his statements to the journalist Ullisses Campbell and, consequently, in the position he occupies, he commits a serious fault with the Brazilian society which requests to be repaired.
I declare that in 1977 I was a member of the Brazilian Center for Ufology Studies (CNEU), founded and directed by General Alfredo Moacyr de Mendonca Uchoa, who was based in the Uniao Pioneira de Integracao Social University ( UPIS). I have occupied a high position in the establishment, which I will not indicate, in order to keep my name secret. One night, at 8:30 p.m., I was in General Uchoa's office, seated at his table, when three men, dressed in black outfits and holding huge suitcases, appeared. From the door, they said, "General, here we are." "I'm coming," was his response.
So the three men went out to the hall to wait. General Uchoa said to me in a low voice: "They are security agents of the Air Force, and they bring good news from Colares, State of Para." He then asked me to follow him and the men, and we headed for the classified archives of the UPIS. The first officer had a key in his hands, he opened the door and stepped aside so that the others could pass. He was the last, but when it was my turn to enter, I was arrested on the pretext that the subject was secret and I was not allowed to go further.
General Uchoa, who was already inside the room, turned around and said: "He is a man in whom I have all my confidence. If he can't get in, I don't get in either. "So the officers didn't have another time and let me in. We all sat around a large table and they began by explaining in detail everything that should happen to General Uchoa - and among other issues, there was the fact that the mission they carried out was in Colares, a town on the coast of the state of Para. What they showed us were the images and documents about Operation Saucer, which were impressive.
I was amazed with the amount of films and more than 200 photographs they presented. It was an endless source of high quality material. Flying saucers were filmed and photographed closely by these officers - I imagine distances from 100 m to 200 m. In this large amount of evidence were pictures of "distant lights", which came very close to them. Everything was filmed and well photographed in high quality and good contrast images. All the facts happened for several nights. There was a photo and film expert among the men, who explained the technical details of the images to General Uchoa, the conditions under which they were taken, the type of film and the exposure times.
There was another expert who explained physical aspects of UFOs to General Uchoa, and we spent more than three hours examining all of the material. However, during all this time, I did not say anything, since I was perceived as an intruder and was not really invited. The men didn't speak to me either. In the end, Uchoa's conclusion was: "There is no doubt that these are actually interplanetary devices present on our planet. We should receive them in order to understand their real intentions. ’’
This is my report, which I hope will be useful for UFO Magazine Brazil and the Brazilian Ufology Community in their campaign for free access to ufology information. My intention is to help show how important it is that the government ask the armed forces to open their archives immediately.
Posted by A.J. Gevaerd, editor of UFO Magazine Brazil.
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AN INTERVIEW WITH COLONEL HOLLANDA :
When the terror caused by UFOs in Colares had spread to neighboring cities, the Brazilian air force sent a military team to find out what was happening. This operation was called Pr ’Operation Prato (plate or saucer) and was commanded by Captain Uyrange Bolivar Soares Norgueira de Hollanda Lima, now retired Colonel. His team made hundreds of photos and four films. When the phenomenon stopped, the soldiers closed the file. Unfortunately, none of the photos and movies were shown to the public. But to the surprise of the ufologists, in October 1997, Colonel Hollanda gave a detailed interview to the researchers: Jose Gevaerd and Marco Antonio Petit, respectively editor and co-editor of the Brazilian Magazine '' Revista UFO '' (OVNI Magazine)) . Here is the full text of this important interview:
UFO Magazine – If you have created a file, he tells us, when there would have been some progress in research?
Hollanda – Yes, when I arrived from Brasilia, that I already had agents who were sent on the spot to study UFO sightings, because this was already happening so often in the Colares area, which is under the jurisdiction of the city of Vigia on the Para coast.
The city mayor sent an official to the COMAR Commander to inform him that UFOs were very bothering fishermen. Some of them could no longer carry out this activity, because the objects passed under their boats. Sometimes, some objects even dived near them, in rivers and in the sea. The locals spent the night outside. People were making fires and using fireworks to try to ward off the invaders. It was panic that prompted the mayor to contact COMAR command, requesting instructions, and the Brigadier General ordered me to go investigate the sightings.
UFO Magazine – Has there ever been any participation or instruction from Brasilia to have the situation investigated?
Hollanda – At that time, they did not participate in the discussions. There was only one captain and he only received orders. I was not involved in this process and I do not know for sure what decisions had been made. But for the little that I know, the decision was in the hands of the COMAR command. If there was a participation from Brasilia, I don't know which one.
UFO Magazine – How did you organize Operation Prato? How many sections, how many people, how many missions, etc.? And did you organize all the tasks personally?
Hollanda – Well, we were a team. I was at its head. We had five officers, all sergeants, who worked in the second division of COMAR. In addition, we had informants on the spot, people in the places where the lights appeared, on the ground, who helped us. So I divided the team into two or three different positions in the country. Clearly, we were in constant contact with each other, by radio.
UFO Magazine – What was the immediate objective of Operation Prato? To observe flying discs, to photograph them and to come into contact with them?
Hollanda – Actually, I wanted to explain these things exactly and completely. I wanted to find a clear explanation. Because everyone was talking about these lights and objects and even nicknamed them with popular names, such as '' Chupa-chupa '' or '' absorb-absorber '') . And the Brazilian Air Force had to know what was really happening, since this was happening in Brazilian airspace. It was our responsibility to investigate it. But, at the start of Operation Prato, what I wanted exactly was first confirmation of what was happening.
UFO Magazine – What was the reason for locals to call the "Chupa-chupa"?
Hollanda – There were a series of stories from people who were touched by a ray of light. They all felt that the effect of the ray was to absorb blood from them. And we actually checked a few cases, and we found out that several of them, mostly women, had the strangest marks on their left breasts, and there were two needle sticks around a brown patch . It looked like iodine injury. And these people had their blood drawn outside, in small quantities by these lights.
Therefore, they had started to nickname them "Chupa-chupa". It was always the same thing, a light came out of nowhere and followed someone, usually a woman, who was affected on the left breast. Sometimes it was men who were hit with marks on their arms and (pemas). Indeed, in ten cases, there were more or less eight women and two men.
UFO Magazine – And you registered and checked the marks that people had?
Hollanda – Yes, everything was checked and analyzed by the doctors, who came with us at the time. Honestly, I got into this as a devil’s advocate. What I wanted exactly was to demystify this story in order to tell my commander that these things do not exist, that it was a collective hallucination. I wanted to find out (or ‘’ I found ’’)? (which is very different) that a few things were seen, but that it was not extraterrestrial.
UFO Magazine – So what do you think attacked people?
Hollanda – I don't know. Maybe the plumage of an owl reflecting the light of the moon or something like that. We thought it could be extraterrestrial, but I didn't think so. I went there to check that these things are really happening. I spent at least two months to get an explanation for my commander, when I came back from the mission, I hadn't discovered anything.
The first of the two months of Operation Prato, I saw nothing that could have made me change my mind. At one point we spent a week in the weeds and came back only on Sunday, we lived a little bit like a family. At each report, my commander asked:
"Have you seen anything?" And my answer was always: "We saw strange lights, to say the least, but nothing extraterrestrial." In fact, we saw lights that never flashed, that passed at low altitude, but nothing very strange.
UFO Magazine – It happened overnight. What happened during the day? Were there other activities during Operation Prato?
Hollanda – Yes, we had other things to do, which were part of the objectives of the operation. We did interviews with people who had had experiences, we prepared the places to spend the night and we looked for the "hot spots" for the night observations. When we discovered that something appeared at such a place, we (...) We made a complete tour of the situation, and we always registered the names of the people implied in a precise form.
UFO Magazine – What procedure or methodology was used to collect the information?
Hollanda – We have always recorded the name of the person who had the experience, the place where it occurred, the date and time etc ... We have made a description of each fact which has occurred in the same locality. So, if three cases overnight happened, people heard from three witnesses. Some of the descriptions were common, others had more strangeness. Sometimes we got stories of things that we couldn't verify were authentic, like dematerializations of entire walls or roofs, for example.
UFO Magazine – What do you mean? Do you have a certain example to illustrate this type of event?
Hollanda – Yes. The first lady I interviewed in Colares, for example, told me absurd things. We came by helicopter from Belém just to hear a woman who had been attacked by the Chupa-Chupa. We saw that she really had a mark on the left breast. It was brown, like it was a burn, and it had a series of aligned holes. When we spoke, she told me that she was trying to put a child to sleep in a hammock when, suddenly, the environment started to change temperature. She found it rather pleasant, but she couldn't imagine what would happen next. Then, in her hammock, she saw that the roof tiles had taken on colors, colors of charcoal embers. After that, the tiles changed and became transparent and she could see the sky from the roof. It was as if the roof tiles had turned into glass. She saw the sky and even the stars.
UFO Magazine – Were strange stories like this very common during Operation Prato?
Hollanda – Very common, and it scared me a lot, because I had never heard anyone talk about such things. When I heard of such cases, I was worried and much more curious. These people seemed to be sincere. For example, through the hole the woman described, she saw a green light shining in the sky. The lady was half asleep, until then, after that, a red ray fired from the UFO reached her left breast. It was strange that in the majority of cases people were hit on their left side. And it wasn't over: just when we were talking about this, a girl came up to us and said:
"Look at the thing going on up there." When I got out of the house, I saw the light that the girl was pointing at, flying at a reasonable speed, although the sky was sufficiently covered. It was not very fast and it was flashing as it headed north. It looked like a satellite, except that this light turned around; and satellites don't do that!
Shortly after, there was something even stranger. But I couldn't exactly say if it was an alien ship. By the way, I was not sent there to cover up something about flying saucers.
UFO Magazine – Did you use any radar equipment that could confirm or track these phenomena?
Hollanda – No. All airports have fixed speed cameras. We hadn't brought anything like that.
UFO Magazine – Have the attacks that occur with certain frequency been communicated to government, state or municipal authorities?
Hollanda - Yes, clearly. Some doctors from the Pará Ministry of Public Health had been sent by the government to examine the people. They analyzed the burned skins and took the patient's depositions, but they did nothing more than that, in any case. Some victims recovered easily. Others were absolutely terrified. Some suffered from nausea, or fell asleep for days. A citizen once came to find me and said that beside his house a light had appeared, which had focused a bright ray towards him. He told me that he was so terrorized that he ran inside his house, grabbed a gun and aimed it at the light. Then more powerful rays made it fall. The poor man spent two weeks with locomotion problems, but had nothing more serious.
He was not hit by anything solid, like a projectile, for example. It seems that the nature of this light was that of a very strong energy which left people paralyzed. I believe that the federal authorities were aware of this type of attack on human beings which occurred in the area, but I am ignorant as regards possible tests. I only received orders from my commander, nothing more.
UFO Magazine – What if these depositions had been collected since the start of Operation Prato when the first close encounter with UFOs in the region took place?
Hollanda – It was significant enough. Some nights, our team did their research in Mosqueiro Island, in a place called Bahia Del Sol, so we had the opportunity to information that these things were happening there. And since we studied all the indications and ufological occurrences whatever they are, we settled in the place. During this period, the agents who had more time than me to devote to this operation - since I took the moving train, interrogated me all the time, after they saw some lights, as if I had already been convinced of the existence of the phenomenon. When I was still unresolved, they said to me: "but still, Captain, you still do not believe it" I replied that I was not convinced, that we needed more test to believe that these things were flying saucers. I had not seen any spacecraft at that time. Only lights, many and varied. I was still not satisfied.
F I N.
