Central and South America have long been home to some of the more bizarre aspects of the UFO phenomena. One incident that stands out in my mind was the subject of an amazing thread over at my favorite gold mine; Above Top Secret. Like a diamond in the rough I seek only to bring you what stand out as the best of the best among the often questionable threads that exist on that site. The thread focuses on the 1977 UFO flap that the tiny Brazilian island of Colares experienced for a period of months during which time many photos and videos of UFOs were taken, people were injured, and allegedly at least two persons died from their interaction with the UFOs. And, as a slight follow up to my most recent post, the case had more than a few USOs thrown into the mix for good measure.
Starting in August of 1977, Colares began to experience an unusual phenomena which the local residents called Chupa-Chupas. These chupa-chupas were odd luminous objects that would hover around the town at night and would often shoot out thin beams of light that would strike the townspeople. Many of those that were struck would report feeling as though their blood had been drained by the lights. One resident offers what occurred to him in the early days of this bizarre episode.
The barber Carlos Cardoso de Paula (aged 49), living at Travessa Deodoro da Fonseca No. 231, had a still closer encounter with the "lights", as he himself relates:
"Everybody else was asleep. I was just still having my last smoke when suddenly a ball of fire entered our house up near the ridgepole of the gable. It started shooting round and round the room, and then finally came right close to my hammock.
"It ran up my right leg as far as the knee (without touching my skin). I watched with much curiosity as it then moved across to the other leg. Then I started to feel feeble and sleepy. My cigarette fell from my hand and I came to and let out a yell. The fireball quickly vanished and everybody woke up.
"I think it had been searching for a vein in my body but didn’t manage to do so. As its brightness grew, I felt a sort of heat coming from it."
(account taken from UFO Casebook)
As the interaction with the strange objects began to increase the people of Colares started to suspect that perhaps the UFOs were trying to make contact with the people. Whether this is the case or not, the chupa-chupas were having a kind of contact with the residents. Many people, after having been struck by the beams from th UFOs, sought medical attention due to anemia (again the lights seemingly draining the person of their blood) or just general weakness from having been knocked unconscious by the beams. What's interesting to note is that many of the townspeople felt that the UFOs originated from and underwater base near by the oceans of the town and after a night of draining the residents blood, the lights would return to their base.
The nightly sieges became so frequent and unbearable that the majority of the women and children in Colares left the area to stay with friends and family in other nearby villages. The men remained and attempted to build bonfires in order to ward off the strange attacks of the chupa-chupas.
By November 1977 doctor Wellaide Cecim Carvalho, the physician in charge of the health unit on Colares Island, took care of to some 35 people claiming to have been touched by the strange light.
She took blood samples, and concluded that the victims suffered from generalized hypertermia, superficial chronic headache, burnings, intense heat, nauseas, tremors in the body, giddiness, asthenia and presented very small orifices in the skin where they were hit by the rays.
She wrote: "All of them had suffered lesions to the face or the thoracic area." The lesions, looking like radiation injuries, "began with intense reddening of the skin in the affected area. Later the hair would fall out and the skin would turn black. There was no pain, only a slight warmth. One also noticed small puncture marks in the skin. The victims were men and women of varying ages, without any pattern."
Up until this time it seems as though no one had yet witnessed any entities associated with these lights. That is until the following account;
This was the case of Claudomira, resident in the Island of Colares. She claims that her family already did not sleep right with fear of the devices.
"In one of these days, after midnight, I woke up because of a strong flash, a sort of focused bright green light ray that came down from the top roof to my left chest. I tried to shout, but my voice did not function. I felt an esquisite heat... Later, that beam of light diminished and I saw that I was burnt."
Claudomira told that she sighted a strange object, much similar to an umbrella, from which a being of clear skin, oriental eyes, and great ears.
According to her, the creature was dressed in tight green clothes and had a sort of pistol in the hand, which emitted the luminous beam. At this moment, Claudomira felt perforated as by needles on her breast.
"After this, I felt a migraine headache and a great weakness, that left me collapsed for several days."
Eventually the military of Brazil would get involved in the case. The COMAR (Comando Aéreo Regional, the Regional Air Command of the Brazilian Air Forces) came to the region in order to investigate the strange occurrences. According to UFO Casebook, the Air Force made four films and hundreds of photographs of the chupa-chupas under a project titled Operation Plate (for Saucer, at least according to the UFO Casebook folks).
There is a whole lot more to this case and I suggest that if you are really interested be sure to check out the reading list I will put at the bottom of this post. What really happened back in the fall of 1977 to the residents of Colares? It's hard to say for sure. Many may say mass hysteria, but I don't know of many cases of mass hysteria that cause people to have anemia. And mass hysteria probably doesn't film or photograph all that well. Oh, I almost forgot I had earlier mentioned that at least two persons were reported to have died because of their encounters with the chupa-chupas. Well I could find an account of only one person that died after having interacted with the lights. According to UFO Casebook;
One of the most interesting cases she took care of happened with a lady who had cardiac problems. She arrived at the doctor's office very nervous and immediately she showed her left breast, in which were two strange holes.
She complained of giddiness, shortness of breath, and weakness - characteristic symptoms already known by people hit by the phenomenon. The doctor tried to calm her and she returned to her home.
But at about 03:00 pm, however, Dr. Wellaide was called to the residence of the woman, who had become very sick. Her whole body was still, and she gasped for air, but she did not have fever and did not vomit.
Seeing the seriousness of the situation, the doctor took her to a hospital in Belém.
Hours later, she received the medical papers and the certificate of death forwarded by the Medical Institute Legal Renato Chaves, which stated a heart stroke as cause of the death.
That's all for now. Be sure to follow these links to learn more. And remember, evidently not all UFOs are necessarily friendly!
Posts
