At approximately midnight on 19th January 1996, Norad (North American Air Defense Command) notified their Brazilian equivalent – CINDACTA – that a UFO was coming to Earth somewhere over the southern parts of Minas Gerais state. This transaction was witnessed by and leaked by a Brazilian Air Force man and substantiated by an employee at the radar facility at Air Force Base VI Correa.
At 1-30 a.m. on 20th January 1996, two farm workers, Augusta and Eurico Rodrigues, were awakened by the moans of cattle and sheep. On looking out of the window they saw the animals in a state of frenzy and on looking up they saw a silent UFO without lights.
“It was a submarine-shaped object about the size of a mini-bus and was trembling like a curtain and emitting smoke or fog as it descended to 5 metres above the ground”. The Rodrigues couple’s farm is located in a coffee district 6 miles northwest of the town of Varginha. An un-named military witness, apparently a member of the debris retrieval team, “leaked” the following information: “The material was twisted and lightweight”. The UFO is believed to have crashed between 1-30a.m. and 5-00a.m. – An American civilian was present when the cigar-shaped UFO was loaded aboard a flatbed truck.” It is believed that a number of EBEs survived the crash and entered the forest. It was also reported that a farmer shot one of the EBEs as it crawled out of the crashed cigar-shaped UFO.
At 8-00a.m. 20th January, college student Tucio Gaidno,20, then living in the Jardim Andere area of Varginha, looked out of his bathroom window to see ” a creature with oily dark brown skin crouched in the alley way”. The creature had no hair, no clothing and was about 4-5 feet tall. It had very small hands with 3 extremely long fingers – it ran away when someone called out.
As early as 7-00a.m. the Fire Department started receiving emergency calls about some wild animal that had got loose – at 9-00a.m. Major Maciel sent four firemen to check the situation. On arrival the four firemen called the Major asking him to attend as the situation was much more complicated than originally thought, the Military were already on the spot.
When Major Maciel, arrived, at 10-30a.m., a creature had already been captured using a net and gloves and according to witnesses the creature appeared to be apathetic to the way he had been treated – some children had been throwing stones at it. The witnesses also stated that the creature was making a noise similar to bees buzzing. The creature was caught in front of a house at Rua Suecia 3 and was placed in a wooden box which was covered with a white plastic cover. It was then placed on an army truck and driven away.
The military and firemen present at the capture included:
Lieutenant Colonel Olimpio Wanderley
Lieutenant Tiberio
Captain Ramirez
Sergeant Pedrosa ( Brazilian Army Secret Service)
The truck drivers were from the ESA (a military school in the town of Tres Coracoes – 16 miles from Varginha) and included:
Corporal Cirilo
Soldier Vassolo
Soldier De Mello
Major Maciel was also present.
The event was witnessed by several witnesses including civilian Henrique Jose da Silva.
This creature was taken to the Escola de Sargento das Armas (EAS) – a military school in the town of Tres Coracoes, about 16 miles away.
Later that day at about 3-30p.m., three young girls were returning home from their jobs as housemaids when they stumbled across a creature crouched against a building in Benevenuto Street – close by to where the first creature had been captured.
“It was squatting, with long arms between its legs. At first I saw the eyes – enormous and red. It was not an animal or human, it was horrible. It looked dumb, didn’t make any noise”. The creature, however, appeared to move its head slightly and, terrified, the girls ran away. Forty minutes later the girls returned to the location with their mother, Luiza Helana Silva, to find nothing but a smell of ammonia at the spot where the girls had seen the creature.
(Harvard Professor and researcher Dr. John Mack later interviewed the girls in May 1996 and stated: “I would stake my career and license on those three girls being truthful”)
The Fire Department and the military had been alerted by terrified residents and a crowd gathered in the street as fire officers and army personnel captured the creature with nets.
The creature seemed to be injured. The captured creature was originally taken to the General Hospital in Varginha where the doctor ordered it to be moved to the bigger and better equipped Humanities Hospital. Witnesses reported that the creature died at 6-00p.m. on Monday 22nd January. The transporting of the creature was carried out by the Fire Department – which was confirmed by Mr. Adilson Usier, Regional Hospital Director – although he was later to deny this statement. In the hospital Dr. Rogeric said to a reporter from the Varginha News:
“I don’t know what it is, could be a freak, but I have never seen anything like it”. Once again, another statement that was denied at a later date.
Whilst the second creature was being captured more people witnessed strange activities around Varginha. A lawyer, with previous military experience, witnessed two planes that he recognised as F-50s. The planes were flying in attack formation. He also noticed army vehicles close to the area where the firemen had caught the EBE and he also observed a truck carrying seven soldiers in camouflage accompanied by men in plain clothes. Another witness described how he had heard shots and saw soldiers come out of the woods carrying two campaign sacks – one moving and one motionless.
Yet one more witness revealed that a soldier shot an EBE three times in the chest and the creature died immediately.
The aforesaid lawyer also noticed another search team arriving at 1-30p.m. and another witness described seeing a team of men in plain clothes searching the area. Meanwhile, a C-5 or C-17 U.S. Air Force transport plane was seen to land at Sao Paulo International Airport and two Americans were seen to check into a motel close to the hospital – they arrived with an array of strange equipment. The two Americans were later seen at the Humanities Hospital with their equipment and camcorders.
Fire Department and military police were observed at the entrance to the hospital, along with two men from the Army’s secret service. Adalberto de Magalhaes, a patient in the hospital waiting for an operation, described to his wife, Theresa, how he witnessed a dead alien being wheeled out of the morgue on a gurney. General Sergio Celho Lima, [ right ] commandant of the Army Cadet School in Sao Paolo State is alleged to have initiated a security clampdown but information was leaked on a daily basis .On the 22nd January the U.S. transport plane, mentioned previously, appeared at Campinas Airport – speculatively in order to fly the EBEs to the U.S.
Unfortunately a policeman who had been present at the capture in the morning of the 20th had somehow become injured (by the creature?). Two days later he died in a local hospital. The official cause of death was given as pneumonia but when the dead man’s family challenged this diagnosis, the hospital refused to give details.
In February 1996, a university student was driving on the Varginha-Tres Coracoes highway when he narrowly missed hitting a strange creature whilst navigating a bend – his headlights picked out the creature some 50 metres ahead, as he screeched to a halt it raised its arms to protect “blood-red eyes” before running into the night. The near-accident happened right next to the farm where the couple had seen the UFO.
At 9-00p.m. on 21st April 1996, 67 year old Mrs. Terezinha Gallo Clepf left her table at the restaurant in the Varginha Zoo Gardens to go onto the porch for a cigarette. She was terrified when she came face to face with a bizarre creature – her description tallied with previous accounts, sending shock-waves through Varginha.
In April 1996, Luiza Silva, mother of the girls who first witnessed the second creature, was visited by four strangers – none of whom were Brazilian. The four men, dressed expensively, offered her a large sum of money to persuade her daughters to lie about their encounter. When Mrs Silva refused, the men left in a blue 1994 Lincoln Continental car – they promised to return.
Update – July, 2004 : New revelations about the capture and medical treatment of alien creatures in Brazil, January 1996
Written by Ubirajara Rodrigues
Released by A. J. Gevaerd
Published in Brazilian UFO MagazineAfter eight years from the principal episodes of the Varginha Case, predictions that the volume of information would substantially increase with time are confirmed. However, as with all similar episodes, the volume of information turns difficult the establishment of certainties. We know that facts are proved with witnesses, but the complications arising from human reports turns any investigation into a real challenge in the quest for the truth. Among the many aspects involved in this process we should mention the emotional one, which may produce a series of statements uncommitted with the objectivity required to lead us to the truth.
Considering that an uncommon occurrence make people offer their own interpretation influenced by personal beliefs and trends from their own social environment, only the research carried out directly in the places and situations in question allows us to have some confirmation. Among the reliable statements – even though depending on analysis grounded on a wider set of data or rare evidence – we should point those from individuals from the environment where the facts supposedly occurred.
Military Witnesses
In the beginning of 2003 Varginha was visited by Roger Leir, US ufologist and acknowledged physician, whose experience of more than 50 years as a UFO researcher lead him to different kinds of occurrences, such as the cases of implants supposedly made by alien surgical intervention. This visit was an opportunity to verify the effective existence of some secret witnesses of the Varginha Case, which since 1996 was always affirmed by researchers. This was already shown in 1997 when representatives of local and national press were selected to watch – upon ethical commitment of absolute secrecy – two video-recorded interviews with military witnesses who took part in the event. At the same time we may not consider as evidence statements given in secrecy – therefore of restricted or none value -, it is crucial to prove to the population and scholars in general that these statements really exist. With this objective Roger Leir was taken to the office of a colleague – an acknowledged doctor in Varginha with more than 30 years of work who belongs to one of the most traditional families of that region. Called by the US ufologist as “Doctor”, he agreed to receive Roger Leir, after a natural hesitation, to confirm what he had seen in January, 1996 inside an appropriate room at the Regional Hospital, south of Minas Gerais. During more than three hours of talk, Roger Leir heard from his Brazilian colleague the confirmation that a second creature of uncommon physical appearance was captured. The “Doctor” revealed a new detail unknown to researchers till that time.
Injured Creature
According to the “Doctor” – who refuses to reveal his real name – the body presented injuries of different kinds and grades. He said he was urgently called by the military staff responsible for keeping the creature and described his astonishment in front of something never seen or reported before. His statement regarding the appearance of the creature is not different from many other descriptions of other witnesses, but he said the creature was surely alive when he saw it. This declaration is part of an ever increasing pile of witnesses including military, police officers, doctors, hospital officers, civil witnesses etc. We should not forget, however, the necessity to select the gathered information, which sometimes may receive the direct influence of the investigator. Here is one example especially chosen to emphasize the neutrality of arguments, so important for the discussion of UFO or similar occurrences. One of the procedures preferred by ufologists of the so-called objective line – not mystical – is to focus their attention to statements free of personal impressions, especially those where witnesses talk about their own emotional alteration at the moment of their experience.
The “Doctor” – initially insisting that it was a colleague who was called by the military to the referred hospital – eventually admitted that he was the doctor in question and decided to trust his US colleague telling everything. The “Doctor” was touched and giving us a new detail about the case with a serious expression on his face he said that when he was trying to examine the injuries of the being he felt suddenly “as if my hands were automatically driven” and “it was as if the lights suddenly became yellowish”, and “my perception was somewhat enhanced”. These are transcriptions of what he said.
The “Doctor” also said that he could not understand the physiological constitution of the body we was examining even though it was an anthropomorphic being, with head, trunk and members. The “Doctor” did not hear any sound made by the creature neither mentioned the famous “thin, bifurcated tongue”, reported by other medic and military witnesses. He said he had seen its slow movements, proving it was still alive, but refused to say if it was breathing.
Here is the example of the difficulties found in statements like this. We don’t know to which extent the psychological impact and emotional alterations of a professional before the unknown would influence him to the point of causing uncommon sensations. For obvious reasons such alterations may occur much more in persons with technical knowledge and refined culture. The contact with a situation not explicable by academic assumptions means increased sensitivity to such shocks. Therefore, the reported impressions could be a simple result of this. It would be absurd to take the detail of a supposedly psychic interaction between the creature and the doctor as an effective signal of intelligence of the being or – even more absurd – that the “Doctor” was in contact with something with telepathic or similar powers. These kinds of assertions, however, are not uncommon.
Complications in the Research
With time, hopes of new information and other confirmations about the Varginha Case are partially satisfied. But there is the risk that they come each time more characterized by complications. For now, the most significant of these complications is the denial of the institutions involved from the beginning, such as the Army, hospitals and others. Even if we had access to a detailed report composed by examinations, analyses and full data about the material resulting from the episode, the effective existence of the said creatures of Varginha could only be confirmed if officially admitted. While this does not happen, ufologists, researchers, skeptics, and curious and interested people can only keep on the further discussion about the case.
More revelations to come very soon!