The entire South American continent is a hub of UFO activity, and has been since the start of the Modern UFO Era. There is little doubt, though, that one of the most active countries, in terms of UFO and alien encounters, not only in South America but in the world, is Brazil, which has boasted regular and consistent reports since the 1950s, at least. Moreover, many of these encounters feature multiple witnesses and also include veteran military and commercial airline pilots. In short, while we should treat all encounters from anywhere in the world with a cautionary pinch of salt, there is good reason to suggest that many of the following accounts are very credible.
Perhaps a great place to start when delving into the UFO and alien case files of Brazil would be with São Paulo, which has played host to a plethora of encounters over the decades, encounters that cover the entire UFO and alien spectrum, from reports of strange lights in the sky to claims of alien abduction.
A particularly intriguing encounter unfolded at a little after 11 pm on May 28th, 1974, over the Placa Quarry in the Santa Helena region of the city. On this evening, one of the quarry’s employees, Jaimie Belizario, was at the plant, standing near Belizario’s truck, when they noticed a strange object appear overhead. He immediately called out to his two colleagues – Rafael and Mario – and asked them to turn off their machinery. They did so, and he immediately motioned upwards to alert them to the strange object’s presence. This object was seemingly circling the plant, passing over it several times.
Belizario later described the object as having the shape of a “Ferris wheel with green, red, and yellow lights on the edges” and moving in complete silence. He and his two colleagues watched the object for several moments before he called out to the object in an attempt to get it to land. However, no sooner had he done so than the object suddenly shot off into the distance and disappeared. It would, however, return several hours later.
At around 1:40 am that same night, another employee at the place, Salvador Pinto da Silva, was driving his truck back to the “crusher” when he noticed a strange object heading toward a set of nearby television towers at an approximate altitude of 300 feet. Even from this distance, he could clearly see red, yellow, and green lights around the edge of the craft, some of which flashed seemingly randomly. As he was driving his truck at the time, he couldn’t hear over its engine if the object made any sound or not. He kept the object in his view until it disappeared. He kept the sighting to himself until he learned of the previous sighting the following day.
Just over four years later, at around 5:45 pm on July 3rd, 1978, the Legnaioli family had their own strange and bizarre encounter at their home. Odirlei Legnaioli was with his son, Dalton, in the kitchen of one of the outbuildings on their land. As Odirlei was busy, Dalton decided to take the family dog outside for some fresh air. While doing so, however, he suddenly spotted something metallic in the nearby woodland. At first, he thought a helicopter had landed in a clearing. However, as he approached, he realized he was looking at something a lot stranger than a helicopter. He later stated that this bizarre object looked like “two overlapping plates facing each other with two elevations, one at the top and one at the bottom, and one located in the center of it!” He elaborated that the craft had “a metallic surface, without portholes, visible hatches, and joints!” At the top of the craft was a “hook device” while “three apparently transparent spheres revolved around themselves, emitting yellow, red, and blue lights” at the bottom. He further recalled that the craft appeared to be hovering a very short distance above the ground and that it was approximately 30 feet in width.
In complete awe as to what he was seeing, Dalton remained motionless and as quiet as he could. The family dog, however, barked intensely at this strange sight in front of it. A moment later, a laser-like beam emerged from the object and temporarily enveloped the canine. Almost immediately, it ceased barking and backed away before sitting on the ground. A moment after this, several flashes came from the spherical objects at the bottom of the craft, and Dalton felt a sudden “breath of hot air” wash over him that made his shirt and hair feel as if they were full of static. A moment after that, the sound of a car coming to a sudden stop reached his ears. At the same time, the object suddenly rose into the air. As it did so, the young boy, along with the family dog, returned inside the house.
Odirlei immediately noticed that both the dog appeared nervous and agitated, and that his son had a look of fear and shock on his face. He rushed over, thinking Dalton had been involved in some kind of accident. Once he was satisfied that he was uninjured, he asked what had happened. However, rather than speaking clearly, Dalton simply pointed outside. This behavior alone made Ordirlei realize that something truly out of the ordinary must have taken place. Ordirlei quickly made his way outside. As soon as he did so, he saw the strange object that Dalton had witnessed much more closely. It was still rising into the air. They both continued to watch it until it disappeared out of sight. He later stated that, in the wake of the sight, the streetlights, which were normally a warm orange color, instead glowed a deep red. Even stranger, he noticed that the street was almost completely deserted, something that was strange in itself, as it was almost always busy.
Another perplexing, if intriguing, incident occurred on the evening of February 19th, 1980, in Goiania. At around 7 pm on the night in question, a control operator at Goiania Airport became aware of a strange “light in his eastern sector” that simply shouldn’t have been there. He contacted the Approach Control Center to ask “if there was any traffic there (for them) to inform him” about. The reply was swift and short – negative; there was no traffic in that section. Then, further to the operator’s confusion, two more anomalous lights appeared in the same area. Realizing something strange was afoot, he contacted the Anapolis control tower, telling them he had several “UFOs” on his screen. In turn, Anapolis contacted the Military Operations Center, which immediately went into action.
By pure chance, a VASP airplane was preparing to land at the airport, but when they noticed “an unidentified light crossing in the vicinity of the plane,” they decided to abandon the landing and investigate the aerial anomaly. As they did so, the radar at Anapolis picked up the three objects on its systems, while the Military Operations Center scrambled several jets on an intercept mission. A short time after this, a second VASP aircraft spotted an “unidentified light in the 4-hour position and also at its flight level”. Moreover, the light, it appeared, was pursuing them. This object was confirmed by the airport control tower. Then, things decidedly strange – and suspicious.
Out of nowhere, orders were issued for the scrambled jets to return to base and for the VASP planes to land as soon as it was safe to do so. Ultimately, all airports and pilots were being ordered to, essentially, forget about the incident and go back to business as usual. Even to this day, it is unclear where those orders came from and why they were given.
Several years later, another truly remarkable event unfolded. At some time between half past midnight and 1:30 am in the early hours of November 11th, 1984, it appeared that multiple unknown objects of unknown origin surrounded the entire Sao Paulo region. The Brasilia Area Control Center and São Paulo Control were the first to detect something unusual on the radar screens just after half past midnight. They immediately notified the Military Operations Center, which also confirmed that there were no military vehicles in the area of concern. Not long after, several other control towers in the region also picked up the strange object. Then, without warning, the object went from moving rather slowly to a considerable pace of over 500 knots. The next thing, the object disappeared completely. A moment later, it reappeared directly over the top of the city of São Paulo. Calls were immediately placed to the São Paulo Control Tower. However, the radar operator on duty had left his post to view the anomalous object with his binoculars.
The next thing the Military Operations Center realized, they were receiving call after call of reports of strange objects from all over the Sao Paulo region. These reports continued until just after 1:30 am when the objects suddenly disappeared. The events of that evening not only remain unexplained, but the evening remains one of the strangest in the history of Brazilian aviation.
While São Paulo certainly has many UFO encounters to boast of, there are many other reports from other regions of Brazil. During the early hours of February 8th, 1982, for example, a commercial Boeing 727 (Flight 169) was cutting through the dark skies over Patrolina when, 33 minutes after take-off, the pilot, Commander Gerson Marcial de Britto, noticed a bizarre glowing object on his left-hand side. Moreover, this object appeared to be heading in their direction. By the time it was only a short distance away, Britto could see that it was a strange, luminous orb.
At this point, Britto contacted air traffic control to request information on any other aircraft operating in his vicinity. Air traffic control – who were, in actuality, the Integrated Center of Defense and the Control of the Air Traffic (CINDACTA) – responded that there was no other aircraft anywhere near his current position. With this in mind, Britto contemplated whether the object might, in fact, be a small airplane. Hoping to get a better look at the object, Britto turned off the signal and fuselage lighting. As soon as he did so, both he and his co-pilot could make a central white-blue glow, which was surrounded by a separate yellow-orange glow. After watching the way this object moved for several moments, not to mention its bizarre appearance, Britto realized he was looking at something much more unusual than a small plane.
Now, looking to ensure that he wasn’t misidentifying the object, he located both Venus and the Moon in the night sky, and given he could see both as well as the object, he could dismiss that he was seeing something that wasn’t there. Besides, the object continued to fly alongside his plane.
Although CINDACTA insisted they had no signs of the aerial anomaly on their systems, several other planes that had been listening to the exchange and were relatively nearby did offer corroboration, with a Transbrasil TR177 and an Aerolines Argentinas both confirming the curious craft on their radars.
Realizing he would receive minimal assistance and information, at best, from CINDACTA, Britto decided to attempt to communicate with the anomalous object and began flashing the plane’s landing lights. However, although the craft continued to follow the plane, it didn’t respond in any way to the flashing lights. Britto continued these attempts several times as the plane continued through the night sky at an altitude of just over 30,000 feet. By the time the plane was over the Belo Horizonte region, CINDACTA confirmed they now had the strange object on their radar. Then, the curious events of that night turned even stranger.
Out of nowhere, a bright, blue light suddenly emanated from the object and seemed to engulf the plane, the entire cockpit suddenly being bathed in the bright, blue wash. However, because of this, Britto and the co-pilot managed to get a much better look at this strange craft. They would go on to describe it as being disc or saucer-shaped, that “shone like a mercury street lamp” but was also clearly solid.
At this point, Britto suddenly realized that if he and the co-pilot could see the bizarre object, then the rest of the crew and the passengers would also be able to. With this in mind, he announced the speaker system, urging people not to panic and assuring them that everything was under control. He even urged them to go to the windows of the plane so they could view the object for themselves, and many of them did just that. This bizarre object remained with the plane until it reached its destination of Rio de Janeiro, after which it simply disappeared into the night without further incident. However, by the time the plane had landed, the incident was already known to the media, who were immensely interested in speaking to as many of the passengers as they could, as well as the pilots. When they did so, several of the passengers corroborated Britto’s account, having witnessed the events in their entirety. Almost all other passengers – including several celebrities of their day – saw at least part of the encounter. Interestingly or not, the only passengers on the plane who claimed to have seen nothing unusual were a group of priests and bishops who were on their way to the General Assembly of the National Confederation of the Bishops of Brazil. Whether they genuinely didn’t see anything (which is unlikely), whether they “chose” not to see anything (more likely), or whether their faith somehow prevented them from seeing the events that evening is perhaps still up for debate.
In the days that followed, VASP – the company that owned the airline – conducted its own investigation into the bizarre events of that February evening. They eventually issued a public statement that endorsed Britto’s account, stating that they could find no sound reason not to believe his version of events, not least due to the multiple other witnesses. Despite this, however, several days later, higher-ranking Brazilian aviation officials began to cast doubt on the incident. However, despite these attempts to reduce the credibility of the incident, it remains one of the most intriguing and credible UFO cases to come out of Brazil.
Four years later, another encounter that heavily involved CIONDACTA unfolded – one that stretched from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo, and featured several military jets being scrambled. Moreover, there were at least 20 separate UFO reports from radar controllers around the region, and the incident would last for several hours. In fact, such was the bizarre nature of the events that it would be dubbed The Night of UFOs by Brazilian UFO researchers and residents alike.
It was around 6:30 pm on the evening of May 19th, 1986, when several staff at the control tower at São José dos Campos Airport in São Paulo saw “two intense lights” overhead, seemingly directly in line with the runway. Around half an hour later, at just after 7 pm, confirmation came on radar that there were three “unknown targets” overhead. By 8 pm, CINDACTA had been informed, and they quickly identified eight unknown targets on their radar screens. Another physical sighting occurred 30 minutes later, when an employee at São Jose Airport saw a curious aerial object that had “defined edges and (a) red-orange color”. The witness watched the object for several moments through his binoculars, stating that it seemed to be moving closer and then back away again, over and over.
Around half an hour after that, at around 9 pm, the pilot of a jet owned by the oil company Xingu, Commander Alcir Pereira, reported seeing several “luminous objects” ahead of him. He followed them for several minutes before requesting permission to land at São Paulo Airport, which was granted. By the time he was descending towards the runway 10 minutes later, one of these strange, glowing objects was heading in his direction. Although it moved away before it reached him, its approach forced him to abandon the landing and circle the airport as he prepared to make another attempt. The control tower could see both the Xingu plane and the anomalous object on their radar screens. Then, at around 9:20 pm, the strange object disappeared, leaving the jet alone in the skies overhead and free to land unimpeded. At this point, a decision was made to contact the Air Defense Command. Meanwhile, the Xingu jet made a second attempt to land. However, as it approached the runway for a second time, another of the bizarre objects broke off and approached his aircraft. Once more, Pereira abandoned the landing and immediately began pursuing the strange craft.
By the time he had reached 10,000 feet, he broke off the pursuit and made a third attempt at landing. However, before he had a chance to do so, the control tower at the Air Control Center advised that there were suddenly three more objects in his immediate vicinity. A moment later, Pereira confirmed visual sighting of the three new anomalous objects. These three objects were below him and seemed to be flying directly over the Petrobras refineries and in the direction of Serra do Mar. At this point, Pereira began to become concerned that his fuel would be running dangerously low and so made his fourth attempt to land at São Paulo Airport. This time, the landing was successful.
While Pereira was bringing his jet to a stop on the runway, however, visual sightings of further objects were being reported. All of these were of a “solid round object” moving overhead. Then, at 9:50 pm, an official report stated that a “luminous yellow object surrounded by smaller lights” was directly over Sao Paulo Airport. With the sightings now into their third hour, and with no possible explanation for them within reach, a decision was close to being made to scramble military jets. The first of these F-5E jets left the runway of Santa Cruz Air Force base at 10:23 pm, and was piloted by Kleber Caldas Marinho. Just over 20 minutes later, at 10:45 pm, Brisola Jordao guided his F-5E jet from the same runway, while at the same time, from Anapolis Air Force Base in Goias State, Captain Viriato left the runway in his Mirage F-103 jet, armed with Sidewinder and Matra missiles.
Only 10 minutes later, radar operators at Anapolis Air Force Base noticed several unknown objects on their radar screens. Meanwhile, from the air inside his Mirage F-103, Viriato confirmed he too had multiple unknown objects on his radar screen, although he couldn’t physically see anything out of the ordinary. Cutting through the sky at around 850 miles per hour, he used the radar to pursue the strange objects. Just as he was approaching the objects – at a distance from which he should have been able to physically see them – the objects vanished from the radar screens. Five minutes after this curious event, a second Mirage F-103 left the runway at Anapolis Air Force Base.
Meanwhile, around the same time, Kleber reported a visual sighting from his F-5E, stating he could see a “ball of light” and that he was going to pursue it. He later stated that:
“I had one visual contact and one contact with my aircraft radar of something that looked like a luminous point, which was 12 miles in front of me, a distance confirmed by ground radar. The object was moving from left to right and then began to climb!”
Kleber continued to follow the object, even heading out over the Atlantic Ocean. While he was doing so, a third Mirage F-103 left the runway at Anapolis Air Force Base.
Ultimately, the jets remained airborne until after 1 am before they returned to their respective air bases. All of the pilots involved had enthralling encounters to tell. Brisola Jordao, for example, claimed that after he had noticed the object on his on-board radar, the control tower informed him that several of the objects appeared to be “closing in” on him. The control tower updated him throughout this, even stating at one point that they were just 10 miles from his position, a distance from which he should have clearly seen them. However, there was no visual sign of them. Then, as if they had been switched on, 13 of the bizarre objects suddenly appeared behind his plane – “six on one side, and seven on the other!” He continued in the direction he was headed, and, after several moments, the objects disappeared.
Given the number of witnesses from two separate airbases, including several very experienced military pilots, as well as the multiple residents who had made reports to the military, police, and media, several high-ranking officials immediately attempted to down-play the incident, with some even offering that nothing out of the ordinary had taken place at all. In fact, the official narrative for the events that evening quickly became one of people witnessing a “meteorological event”. Officials claimed that when comets enter the Earth’s atmosphere, they “heat up and emit light!” This also, they claimed, explains why they would appear to vanish when, in fact, they had burned out.
Many people, especially the pilots and control tower employees at various airports and air bases involved in the incident, simply didn’t accept this official story. And by the time the 2000s were unfolding, many of them were prepared to speak much more openly about the events of that strange night. Then, in 2016, three decades after that bizarre evening in May 1986, a Freedom of Information request resulted in new information regarding the encounter entering the public arena. It was this information that really prompted many of the witnesses – many of whom were free from the control of their employers – to come forward.
Sergio Mota de Silva, for example, the person who first spotted the aerial anomaly half an hour before the first radar sighting, confirmed it was he who had informed the pilot of the Xingu plane, Alcir Pereira, of the bizarre lights. He stated that:
“I’ve been a pilot for many years, and I’ve never seen anything like it. It was too agile, impossible that there was a human inside it. I do not know if it was a disc, but it was a very strong glow!”
Mota de Silva also stated that he and all other employees at the airport were given strict instructions that they were not to speak of the incident to the media, nor should they comment on the official explanation. He further stated that officials told them that the sightings were part of an “electronic war,” and they left the heavy insinuation that the objects were experimental military aircraft. Whether there is any truth in this official explanation or not remains open to debate. It is perhaps interesting to note the words of Brigadier General Otavio Moreira Lima, the Minister of Aeronautics at the time, who stated that “radar doesn’t have optical illusions”, while Air Force Major Ney Cerqueira stated that the way the objects disappeared and reappeared was something unexplained, not least as the “technical instruments used for identification of these lights had problems in registering them!”
It is also worth our time examining some of the claims and statements of one-time Brazilian Air Force Minister Socrates Monteiro, who, after a long career in the Brazilian Air Force, served in the position from 1990 to 1992, and who gave a rather revealing interview with a Brazilian UFO magazine. And these revelations were as bizarre as they were fascinating. He claimed, for example, that there was regular “interaction of other cosmic species” in Brazil, and that such radar sightings of strange, anomalous objects occurred regularly. Moreover, although most of these sightings stayed with the organization, some were the subject of secret investigations by high-ranking members of the Brazilian Air Force.
He also told of an encounter with a “disc-type object of great proportions” that flew over a radar station in Gama. This encounter, he recalled, caused “great panic” at the facility – so much so that several personnel opened fire on the bizarre craft. It was Monteiro himself who gave the orders for the personnel involved to cease firing immediately. He stated, “They have a technology far more advanced than ours. And we don’t know how they would react to our (hostile) action!”
Monteiro also had several intriguing details to reveal about the Night of UFOs incident in May 1986. He stated, for example, that whenever any of the pilots attempted to close in on the bizarre objects, they would simply disappear at an “extremely high speed!” He further stated that the entire episode was recorded on the radar tapes of the facilities involved. However, the whereabouts of those tapes, if they still exist, remains unknown. He also offered that, in part, because of their research and knowledge of the Mantell incident decades earlier, their aircraft approached these “electronic abnormalities” with extreme caution. He then ended this interview by claiming that it was an open secret behind the closed doors of the world’s high-ranking military officials that we are “being visited by other cosmic species!”
Just short of a decade later, another UFO encounter unfolded, also on the road between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. According to the report, which comes to us from the files of Brian Vike, after attending training conference on flight simulation training in Rio de Janeiro, in the early hours of May 6th, 1994, an experienced airline pilot, his girlfriend, a senior airline captain, and a flight engineer, were being driven by a chauffeur back to Sao Paulo. At a little after 3 am, the pilot’s girlfriend woke him while they were near Guarantingueta to show him something strange in the sky. He looked in the direction she was pointing, and was shocked to see a “red star-like object”. To begin with, he thought the red light was simply a radio antenna on a nearby mountain. However, a quick scan of his surroundings revealed that there were no mountains around them, only flat land as far as the eye could see. Then, he saw the object move, dispelling any notion that the object was stationary or that a rational explanation was likely.
The object moved in a particularly erratic fashion, although it seemed to maintain its distance relative to their car. The red light then changed color, going from red to yellow, then to white, and finally to blue, allowing the witness to rule out that they belonged to a helicopter, not least as the lights had a strangeness about them, almost as if they were a “disco ball” rather than navigation lights. They watched the object for several minutes as their car traveled along the road at an approximate speed of 90 miles per hour. When the vehicle slowed its speed to somewhere around 40 miles per hour, to their shock, the object slowed down also. They could also now see that several other motorists had also seen the object and had pulled their respective vehicles to the side of the road in order to get a better look. With their vehicle now traveling much slower, the witness estimated that the strange craft was around a mile away from them and at an approximate altitude of between 3000 and 4000 feet.
Now, beyond curious, the witness asked the driver to stop the car and pull to the side of the road, which he duly did. The witness, along with his girlfriend and the other two passengers, all stepped out onto the roadside. As soon as they did so, the object began to descend and head in their direction. The witness later stated that the closer it got, the more they could see it was a typical “flying saucer dome-shaped object” that moved in complete silence. After watching the aerial display for a moment or two, the witness suddenly remembered his camera was in his bag in the car, and so he reached inside to retrieve it. However, he was dismayed to discover that he had used all of the film. He returned to the roadside where his girlfriend was standing, the object now only several hundred feet away from them. The witness began walking toward the object, his girlfriend following behind him. However, after taking only several steps, she stopped.
The witness, however, continued forward, eager to get as close a look as possible. He only stopped when the barbed wire at the roadside prevented him from entering the field on the other side of it. He was now barely 200 feet away from this strange craft. From this close proximity, he could see that there were several square lights on the side of the object that pulsed and grew bigger before returning to their normal size. Underneath the craft, he could see a “bluish vapor,” and he could also feel a “soft breeze” that he assumed was also coming from this curious craft, given that there was no wind to speak of on this particular night. He further stated that as the object moved, it had a “rocking motion” to it that reminded him of how a boat would move on the water. Moreover, he could feel a strong “electrical charge” in the air that he was also convinced was emanating from the object. He later estimated that the object was around 70 feet across and around 30 feet in height with a “reddish-grey” exterior.
Suddenly, one of the onlookers down the road took a flashlight and shone it directly at the craft, hitting it square on. As soon as the beam hit it, the rocking motion increased dramatically. Then, things turned even stranger. A “faint bluish-greenish glow” began shining on the underside of the craft while on the top, there were several sudden “flashes of multi-colored lights”. The object also began to ascend and head away from the witnesses. To begin, this ascent and departure were slow and controlled. However, within moments, the pace had increased somewhat. As it headed off, the witness recalled hearing a “faint, low-pitched humming sound!” Another display of flashing lights followed by the object’s speed increased even more, and within a second, it had disappeared. Strangely, the witness stated that during this final part of the sighting, the witness could detect an “aroma of ionization” in the air, as well as a strange metal taste in his mouth.
He looked around and could see that other people were returning to their respective cars, and he did likewise. Incidentally, as the four people got back inside their car, the chauffeur, who had remained inside the vehicle throughout, stated that when the object hovered close to the roadside, an intense static had overtaken the radio. They set off back on their way to São Paulo, eventually coming to a stop at a highway restaurant where they could use the bathroom and purchase a coffee. While inside, they spoke to several locals about what they had seen. They were informed that this area had “lots of sightings” and had done so for many years.
Incidentally, when the witness made his report of the sighting, he detailed another encounter he had two decades earlier in 1972. He claimed he was flying his plane on the night in question when he heard the pilot of another plane state that he could “see a UFO!” He listened to the exchange between the pilot and the control tower, as well as several other planes in the area, including a United States military aircraft. Although he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary himself that evening, when he landed, he managed to speak to the pilot who had. They assured him that they had seen something “out of this world!” The witness also stated that during his time in the world of aviation, he had heard multiple stories from other pilots and control tower operators of sightings of strange and anomalous objects. Despite making his report to the Brazilian authorities and to several others once he returned to the United States several weeks later, he never heard any more of the incident, and it remains completely unexplained.
Without a doubt, one of the most fascinating encounters to come out of Brazil took place in January 1996 in the town of Varginha, an event that would go on to make international headlines. And when claims began to swirl of the involvement of the Brazilian military attempting to suppress the encounter, interest in the incident only intensified. Multiple UFO investigators have studied the encounter, with leading British UFO researcher and author, Timothy Good, dedicating an entire chapter to the affair in his 2000 book Unearthly Disclosure.
According to the account, at around 3:30 pm on January 20th, 1996, three young women – 16-year-old Liliane da Silva and her 14-year-old sister, Valquiria, along with 22-year-old Katia Xavier – were walking in Santana (just to the north of Varginha) when they came to an opening and vacant plot of land. To their utter shock, in this clearing, was a strange “demon-like” creature that was huddled against the wall of an abandoned and decrepit building. They later stated that it had a “triangular-shaped head” and its skin was a leathery brown color. They estimated that this creature was only around two and a half feet in height and that its arms appeared too short for its body. They further noticed that the creature appeared to be pressing itself against the wall, as well as trying to “crouch lower”, as if it was frightened.
After several moments, the three girls turned and ran back to the main street, and from there they went to the sisters’ home. Once there, they relayed what they had seen to their mother. Around 20 minutes later, the girls’ mother and their neighbor set out to return to the spot where they had witnessed the strange creature. However, by the time they returned, the bizarre entity was no longer there. All those present could see a distinct impression in the grass where it had been sitting, and they could all detect a strong ammonia odor in the air. It would soon come to light, though, that the three girls were not the only witnesses to this bizarre event.
A short distance away, an elderly lady and her granddaughter had heard the three young women scream. By the time they arrived at the clearing, the three girls had already turned and gone. They not only saw the strange creature, but they also witnessed the events that followed. Remaining hidden and out of the way, the elderly lady and her granddaughter claimed that a short time after they arrived, a vehicle from the city’s fire department arrived, with several firemen quickly “securing” the creature. They then placed it in their vehicle and drove away.
News of the incident quickly leaked out into the wider community, and before long, journalists and UFO investigators alike were aware of the alleged events. One researcher, Ubirajara Franco Rodrigues, took a particular interest in the case. He spoke with the three girls in question and was convinced of their “sincerity!” Moreover, he managed to unveil further corroborating witnesses. One of these was a local bricklayer – Henrique Jose de Souza – who claimed to have witnessed a fire department vehicle at the location of the encounter, although, interestingly, he claimed to have seen this vehicle several hours before the three girls came upon the seemingly frightened creature.
Another witness, local resident Oralina Augusta, had even more remarkable testimony to volunteer. She claimed that she was woken up suddenly at around 1 am in the early hours of January 20th – just over 12 hours before the three girls found the creature in the clearing – by the sound of “bellowing cattle” from a nearby farm. She got out of bed and walked over to the window, more than shocked to see the cattle “stampeding” past her home in sheer fright and agitation. When she looked upward, she could see why. There, a short distance above the ground, was a “submarine-shaped” glowing object. At this point, she woke her husband, who also saw the bizarre scene when he made his way to the bedroom window. As they looked on, they could see what appeared to be “grey smoke” coming from one side of the craft. A moment later, it began to rock in a “stop-start” motion. It was clear to them that the object – whatever it was – was damaged in some way.
Now, here, it is worth clarifying that the fire department is under the control of the military police, so it makes sense that the fire department – officially or not – would be dispatched to investigate strange activity. And Rodrigues’ investigation would soon bring further details to light. For example, at 8:30 am on the morning of January 20th, a call was received by the Varginha City Fire Department. This call, according to the records, was reporting a “strange creature” who had been seen roaming the woodlands on the outskirts of the city. Moreover, the fire department records show that when they first arrived in the area, they spoke to three young boys who also claimed to have seen the strange creature. Even more interesting, the direction the boys claimed the creature had been heading would have taken it straight to the clearing where the three young women saw it later that afternoon. Yet another pair of witnesses – an anonymous man and woman – corroborated the young boys’ account, even recalling that the youngsters were initially throwing stones at the creature, which the woman told them to stop doing. They did, and the creature quickly disappeared into the woods.
According to what Rodrigues could find out, the fire department had sent another vehicle to the woodland where the creature was eventually found. This unit, though, searched the immediate area, and while it took several hours to locate the creature, they eventually did so, managing to “net it” a short time later. The report stated that the creature had offered no resistance, leading some researchers to suggest it might have been injured and was simply unable to do so. After securing it, the unit radioed their commander. He arrived a short time later and ordered that the entire area be completely shut off and informing all those at the scene that the operation was now classified top-secret. Even more remarkable, at least according to what Rodregues discovered, there were more than one of the creatures in the woodland and discreet searches for them continued under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Olimpio Vanderlei Santos.
With two of the strange creatures now in the custody of the Brazilian authorities, a third creature was discovered and captured later that afternoon. Following this, and something which could be relevant, an intense rainstorm broke out almost immediately following this second apprehension, and continued until around 6 pm that evening. As soon as it cleared, the search units ventured back into the woodland. According to the reports, a fourth creature was discovered by two “officers”, who some researchers have dubbed “plain-clothed agents. Whoever they were, they didn’t have any of the tools or devices of the fire department, and so forced the creature into the back of their car. They seemingly drove the creature to a small, quiet, local clinic. However, the doctor refused the two men entry to his premises, and he refused to look at or treat the bizarre creature, insisting they take it to the hospital in the city.
Interestingly, one of these supposed plain-clothed agents – apparently named as Marco Chereze – had handled the figure with his bare hands as he attempted to apprehend it and then get it into the car. Several days later, he suddenly became extremely sick, and a short time after that, he was admitted to the hospital due to having lost the use of all of his limbs. The hospital was perplexed as to what was wrong with him, and he failed to respond to any treatments. He deteriorated extremely quickly, and on February 15th, less than a month after the incident, he passed away. These grim events, though, would turn even more ominous in the days after his death.
There was no explanation for Chereze’s death from the hospital. However, they ordered that his body be placed in a sealed coffin and that his funeral should take place “within hours!” This order was carried out, and the military was eventually sued by his family. As a result of this lawsuit, two pieces of information entered the public arena. The first being that there was a “small amount of toxic material” discovered in Chereze’s body, a material that was unidentified, or at least, undisclosed. Moreover, there was clear evidence of altering official records regarding Chereze’s movements on the night in question.
There were, though, more revelations to come as a result of Rodrigues’ investigation. It came to light, for example, that authorities had taken over an entire wing of the hospital in the days following the incident. During this time, the military ordered a meeting with all of the hospital employees. They were told that the events they had witnessed were a “training exercise for doctors and military personnel” and that they were to “deny everything” if anyone asked them about it.
Even more suspicious, on the afternoon of January 22nd, three large military vehicles were witnessed directly outside the hospital. From what Rodrigues could piece together, at this point, at least one of the creatures was at the hospital and was still alive. However, by 6 pm, it was dead, and the military was there to transport it away from the premises in a sealed high-tech container. Even stranger, according to further research, at around 4 am in the early hours of January 23rd, a small convoy of military vehicles – led by a “yellow Volkswagen van” – made their way out of the city. It is not known where they were going or why.
There were also claims from some researchers of autopsies being performed on these strange creatures, with some even claiming that the person who carried them out was Fortunato Baden Palhares, something we should note that he always denied, at least publicly. According to one of his students who asked him about the alien autopsy claims several years later, Palhares told him that he would “really love to give you an answer, but please, ask this question in 10 or 15 years from now!” Make of that what you will.
As if the incident couldn’t get any stranger, further investigations into the incident added further twists to the case. It was revealed, for example, that there was at least one United States intelligence agent in Varginha between January 20th and January 23rd. Even more remarkably, some researchers have suggested that the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) had issued a warning to the Brazilian authorities the previous week on January 13th, informing them that they had “tracked a number of unidentified objects over the western hemisphere that night. And that one or more had penetrated Brazilian airspace!” Whether or not these objects are connected to the strange creature in Varginha remains open to debate, as does whether one of these objects crashed, resulting in the creature roaming the woodland. There is, though, an intriguing account on record that is very much worthy of our time here.
According to the report, in the early hours of January 13th, Carlos da Souza was driving along the Fernao Dias highway, approximately five miles outside of Varginha. Suddenly, he heard a “muffled roaring sound” that seemed to be coming from above his vehicle. He looked up momentarily and was shocked to see a silver, cigar-shaped object moving across the sky at an approximate speed of 50 miles per hour. He estimated that the craft was around 40 feet long, and he recalled seeing at least four windows along the side of it. Of more concern, though, he could see what seemed to be a crack or “jagged tear” in the front section of the object, out of which came thick, white smoke. Within moments, the craft had overtaken his vehicle and was ahead of him. For the next 10 minutes, he followed behind the damaged craft. Then, however, it suddenly took a “dive” over the trees and disappeared. Although he couldn’t physically see it, he was almost certain, due to the trajectory of it, that the craft had come down somewhere in the surrounding woodland.
Now beyond curious, Carlos headed in the direction he believed the object came down. Several minutes later, he brought his vehicle to a stop and got out, standing just in front of the truck. There, a short distance ahead of him in a field, were several large pieces of silver debris. It was clearly the remains of the silver, cigar-shaped craft he had witnessed only moments earlier. It was then that he spotted military personnel in the field, seemingly gathering up the debris and transporting it to several heavy-duty military vehicles close by. In total, he estimated there were around 40 soldiers in the field with the debris. He was perplexed as to how they had arrived there in a matter of minutes. Of course, Carlos was unaware that the unit was likely acting on intelligence given to them by NORAD.
At this point, a small piece of silver wreckage caught his eye, sitting just slightly in front of where he was standing. Unable to resist, he stepped forward to retrieve. As soon as he did, though, he heard one of the soldiers call out to him, ordering him to leave immediately. Not wanting to risk being arrested, or worse, he left the debris and returned to his truck. He took one more quick look around and then restarted the engine and set off down the road. After traveling several miles, he stopped at a service station to purchase a coffee. To his shock and unsettlement, “two military men in civilian clothes” arrived at the service station not long after he did and immediately approached him. Even more shocking to him, they knew his name and told him that he was not to speak about what he saw in the field. Needless to say, he agreed, if only to ensure he could get away.
While Carlos was the only witness to these bizarre events, they do resonate very nicely with the apparent warnings from NORAD to the Brazilian authorities, and we need to remind ourselves that there is simply no way that he would have been aware of those details at the time.
Ultimately, while many people, even some in the UFO community, insist that the Varginha case is nothing but a hoax or fabrication, it would appear that there is, at the very least, much more to it than that. Did a craft from elsewhere crash land just outside the city in January 1996, resulting in several alien entities roaming the woodlands for several days? And did the Brazilian authorities manage to capture each of these creatures? Although we know of four, there could have been others. Were they all captured? And if so, did any of them survive? And where are they now? Perhaps most intriguing, outside of the NORAD warning, how did the American intelligence agent fit into all of this, and was he there with permission from the Brazilian authorities or without their knowledge? Indeed, the case continues to fascinate UFO researchers and investigators today, almost three decades later.
These sightings here are just a tiny example of the UFO encounters that have unfolded in the skies over Brazil. It is safe to say we will return here with more accounts in the very near future. We might ask, though, what makes this location so rife with UFO sightings and encounters with strange creatures? Does its location in the South Atlantic, not to mention its proximity (relatively speaking) to such mystical locations as Antarctica, make it an attractive location to these otherworldly visitors? Or perhaps the Amazon rainforests provide ideal shelter for the intelligence behind these mysterious craft, and, as such, they are spotted much more. Whatever the reasons for it, Brazil is one of the hottest UFO hotspots on the planet, with sightings and reports continuing today in the 2020s. Indeed, Brazil is a location that UFO researchers might want to keep very much on their radars over the coming years, as we collectively strive for the truth to the UFO and alien question.
