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The events mainly concentrated on the city of Colares, about 2000 inhabitants, on Colares Island, which is in the region of Pará, the delta of the Amazon river on the north-eastern coast of Brazil. But the whole region was visited by the same phenomenon.
Beginning in August of 1977, in the island of Colares, strange phenomenon begun to occur, that the Brazilian call Chupa-Chupa. Strange luminous objects appeared over the few towns of the region. These objects were often projecting thin rays, seemingly of light, directed at the people. The touched people fainted and woke up with a strange anemia. They witnessed that they felt as if some of their blood was removed by the strange rays.
The fisherman Manoel João de Oliveira Filho, aged 44, married and residing at No. 64 rua Carneiro de Mendonça, was strolling towards the beach early one morning with some companions, to spend a day at sea fishing. Before they had got to their boats, they saw - above the Rio Novo beach - an object shaped "like an umbrella" stationary at about 4m from the ground. From its under-part came a vivid white light. No sound was detectable from it at where they were standing. The object then moved away equally silently towards Machadinho, switching off the light as it went.
A carpenter named João Dias Costa (aged 44) and a fisherman, João da Cruz Silva (aged 54), both of Colares town, saw the notorious "luminous spheres" so greatly feared on account of their "low skimming swoops".
Another man from Colares town, Sr. Zacarias dos Santos Barata (74) saw the glowing balls on two nights. The first time, the object came from the direction of the Bay of Marajó, and rapidly vanished towards the interior of Colares Island. On the second night another ball, blue in color, flew over the local football pitch. "It lit up all the trees around the field and then vanished towards the town centre", said Sr. Zacarias.
Sr. Sebastião Vernek "Zizi" Miranda described his experience as follows:
"I was there with my wife, Palmira, in front of the church on the sea-front, when at about 8.00pm, we saw an intensely vivid "orangeish" light coming in from the sea towards the town. As it approached, it climbed, and then, moving rapidly, vanished towards the inner part of the Island."
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 told:
"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."
Worker Raimundo Costa Leite, very well known in the town of Colares for his skill in making and repairing fishing-nets, described his own experience:
"At about 4.00 in the early morning, I went with my pal "Baixinho" (Orivaldo Malaquias Pinheiro) to fish off the beach at Cajueiro. As I recall it, "Baixinho" shouted "Look! There it is!" and took to his heels, leaving me alone on the beach. The craft was of the size and shape of a helicopter, made no noise, and was flying very high. I could have taken a pot-shot at it if I had had a gun with me. I was terrified when the machine shone a sort of searchlight down on the beach. That light was sweeping the ground, illuminating everything! It was a bluish light (sort of ‘cold light’). It made it easier for me to see this because the craft had several small reddish lights beneath its front part.. The craft seemed to be seeking something on the ground. I was scared that it would touch me and, despite my poor physical condition I managed to run quite a distance, and then "Baixinho" returned and helped me. The object had come from the direction of the sea and it headed off into the inner part of the Island."
Actually, so many more people reported being attacked by beams of light from small UFOs in this area that only few of them are mentioned here.
On October 20, three women were hit in the breast by the beams of light: "All three were overcome by tremendous nervous tension and an unknown sort of lassitude "as though they were receiving constant electric shocks" wrote a newspaper.
On the evening of October 29, Benedito Campos and his 17-year old wife Silvia Mara were at home when "they spotted an oval, silvery object emitting a greenish beam like a searchlight towards the room where they were lying. Filled with curiosity, they approached a small window and, as they did so, the beam shot in through and made straight for Silvia, throwing her into a sort of benumbed trance-like state." Silvia, who was pregnant at the time, then fainted whereupon two entities apparently entered the house carrying something resembling a golden torch and "once again the beam struck Silvia, this time hitting her in the left arm at the level of the wrist. Her veins seemed to 'rise up out of the body' so swollen were they by the beam striking them." Later, while at a neighbor's house, Benedito was also briefly paralyzed by a light beam. Fearing a miscarriage, husband and wife were taken at night by boat to the Mosqueiro Medical Clinic, followed all the way by the UFO, which made no further attempt to harm them. They remained there for three days where the wife recovered, but Benedito "was in a state of severe depression for some days, his motor functions disturbed and, as his mother reports, weeping frequently."
The UFO activity over Colares Island was so intense that the people began to think the "Chupa-Chupas" were trying to make some sort of contact with them. Such was the view expressed by Sr. Raimundo Ferreira "Mimi" Monteiro. He still believes the craft were coming up out of the sea or out of some under-water base located in the Bay of Marajó — maybe in the region of the Caldeirão.
Alfredo Bastos Filho, a former town mayor, confirmed this and said: "Yes, indeed I can tell you, there wasn’t a moment of peace. The people were terrified by that "Chupa-Chupa" affair. I even managed to see one of the injured victims myself - Dona Mirota, a lady who was receiving medical treatment at the Health Clinic."
The locals became so frightened that many of the women and children left town. The men that remained lit bonfires to mount guard at night, letting off fireworks and banging tins whenever they saw the Chupa-Chupas approaching. Other locked in their homes for fear of the phenomenon. It was mentioned later that the more noise people made and the more bonfires and fireworks, the closer the craft came.
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."
In describing their experiences with these light beams, most victims claimed that "They were immediately immobilized, as if a heavy weight pushed against their chest. The beam was about [seven or eight centimeters] in diameter and white in color. It never hunted for them but hit them suddenly. When they tried to scream no sound would come out, but their eyes remained open. The beam felt hot, "almost as hot as a cigarette burn," barely tolerable. After a few minutes the column of light would slowly retract and disappear." Most symptoms usually disappeared after seven days.
At Agulhas Fincadas, Mrs. Maria Lopes, inhabitant of Vila Gorete, to the margins of Rio Tapajós, in the neighborhoods of Santarém (Pará), tells her case involving " strange devices " that absorb energy human being, known as Chupa-Chupa. "I saw an object to settle quiet in the bushes here close... It they had left two men and a woman, who had started to move with two fishing ", counts Maria. Other people gifts in the place had been paralyzed when observing the scene. "When hit, the men died in identical circumstances. On each one's chest, there were little holes as if they had been poked with a dozen needles".
Many had hurt themselves when trying to escape one of the strange objects. In many cases, the marks left by the rays on the victims skin were marks that could have up to eight small holes. In these occurrences, the Chupa-Chupa term was proven right as many of them had lost up to approximately 300 ml of blood, from these wounds.
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 exquisite 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 migraine and a great weakness, that left me collapsed for several days." In the next day to the event, she had been directed to the Sanitary Unit of the town, where she was taken care of by Doctor Wellaide Cecim Carvalho, who sent her to the Medical Institute Renato Chaves, in Belém, for backup examinations. Her ill-being and the constant migraines lasted many days, followed by fatigue and weakness. Years later, Claudomira still did not feel cured. "My health never came back to be the same since that night." She is not the only one to have passed for such situation. Some estimate that thousands of people, also men, had suffered the attacks of the Chupa-Chupa in the years between 1970 and 1980, and they still occur today, though less frequently.
"Emotional and physical sequels are very common in these cases," stated Dr. Wellaide Cecim Carvalho, the doctor who took care of Claudomira. Although she was skeptical and she believed that the occurrences of Chupa-Chupa were popular belief or some witchcraft, Dr. Wellaide ended up convinced of the veracity of the cases when she was confronted with their increasing frequency. "With the increase of hurt people, I started to give more attention each time in the existing injuries. I saw things that do not exist in my medical books," she said. According to her, the victims of Chupa-Chupa presented strangest burnings, not as those provoked by fire or hot water, as she thought herself, but very similar to ones produced by cobalt irradiation. "The injuries varied in extension. First it started with an intense reddishness in the hit area, known as hiperemia. Later, the skin of the affected region started to fall (alopecia) and days later the skin peeled off." In this period of development, said Wellaide, it was possible to note holes, similar to perforations by needles. 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 urge to the residence of the woman, who had become very sick. Her whole body was still and she gaped 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. The intriguing fact is that at no time, doctors in Belém had mentioned something about the injuries on her body and did not even say if they had effected backing examinations.
Regarding the possible effects of the UFOs on the supply of electricity, Sr. Geraldo Aranha de Oliveira (aged 37) of the C.E.I.P.A. (Pará Electricity Plant) explained:
"In 1977 the C.E.I.P.A. sub-station consisted of three Scania 125 kw, engines supplying light to the city from 6pm till midnight. I don’t recall having ever seen a UFO over the plant. I merely remember that, at that period, lots of lightning conductor rods were burnt out and, at times, some fuses too."
COMAR (Comando Aéreo Regional, the Regional Air Command of the Brazilian Air Forces), arrived in Belém, and made a series of research in the region, under the project name "Operation Plate." Captain Uyrangê Bolivar Soares Nogueira de Hollanda Lima, head of information office, directed all the operations in the region. During the investigations, the Air Forces obtained four films and hundreds of photographs of flying disks in the basin of Marajó. They also were a great help to the population, providing psychologists assistance, to eliminate the panic that sized the entire region.
The beams of light from the craft were described as being so bright that they resembled those used to illuminate night sporting events. They were "always sharply defined, directed with perfect precision towards any target – houses, people, boats, trees, even the Brazilian Air Force's helicopters deployed over the island during the investigations. On one occasion one of these powerful beams is reported to have obliged one of the helicopters to land, although the exact technical reason is not given. (Giese, 1996)
According to a statement by Sr. Sebastião V. Miranda, former resident of Colares, "the Brazilian Air Force spent more than 35 days in the town, and installed various devices near the Bacurí beach.
Sra. Alba Câmara Vilhena, a married lady living at 683 rua 15 de Novembro, added: "At the time of the 'Chupa-Chupa' everybody was scared to sleep at night, and so almost every night we went away to be with relatives. On one occasion some people saw one of the craft. It was round, and all luminous. Just at that moment a helicopter of the F.A.B. (Brazilian Air Force) was flying quite near to our house. Then we saw the UFO direct a very powerful beam on to the helicopter, obliging it to land on the São Pedro Airfield. That happened at about 8.00 pm one evening."
Professor Raimundo Sebastião Aranha said: "At that period I was closely connected with some of the Air Force's enquiries. They were seeking more information about the "Chupa-Chupa."
He said the Air Force had with them masses of equipment: cars, helicopters, radio transmitters, cameras, powerful glasses, etc., etc., He recalls that, in addition to the rank and file Air Force recruits, there was a whole group of officers and he had the impression that there was a foreigner among them. The helicopters that appeared from time to time, bringing material and personnel, attempted to chase the UFOs but without much success. Indeed, on the contrary, it was the UFOs that chased them!"
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One night several months later, on May 24 1978, a journalist and photographer, who had been sent to cover the local UFO encounters, were in their car when despite the heavy rain they were woken up "by a powerful beam of light which – however unbelievable it may seem – passed through the metallic structure of the roof of the vehicle." Not surprisingly they leapt out of the car to see that "a tube-shaped light beam, about [twenty-five centimeters] in diameter, was coming down from above onto the roof of the car and passing through the metal paneling." On this and other occasions they managed to take numerous photographs which they claim that their newspaper later sold to "a North-American group".
On another night while trying to use flash equipment to photograph one of these craft "the UFO emitted such a vivid beam of light that it smashed the windscreen" of their car. (Giese, 1996)
Several newspaper started to write that the alleged UFOs were weather balloons, or secrets satellites, although there was no possible reason to think that. Local authorities were of course extremely angry because of such articles. Elói Santos, councilman of the old Enclosure for bullfighting stated: "It is not possible to deny that Belém is, today, a frightened city. We are not technician nor do we argue with the conclusion of the authorities. But we did surprise them with declarations of the witnesses who saw light crossing their roofs to penetrate in their skin, removing a little of blood and leaving visible marks of needles and burnings on their epidermis."
During the "Chupa-chupa" Wave many new "sighting zones" emerged, such as Pinheiro and São Bento in the State of Maranhão, and Viseu and Bragança in the State of Pará. Some areas indeed reached such a 'level of saturation' that rarely a single night passed without UFO sightings.
One of these "ufological epicenters" was over the bay called the Baía do Sol (Bay of the Sun) and had a direct effect upon the Island of Mosqueiro. Mosqueiro is one of the most important of the islands, and it is the biggest, belonging to the municipality of Belém.
Public concern was immense, all the men banding together at night to organize watches, with bonfires and fireworks, thinking these would deter the craft. But nothing seemed to stop the UFOs, not even the Air Force’s film men and their cameras - and even less the journalists from the Estado do Pará!
There were frequent and regular sightings of mother-ships and probes and flying saucers, all performing incredible manoeuvers over the Bay.
A 61-year-old widow, Elisa da Silva, residing on rua do Bacari, was one of the witnesses in that year (1977). One night, from her house, she saw a flying saucer appear. Vivid white light came from small windows or apertures on it. Seen from below, she said, it seemed quite dark and quite flat. It vanished towards the South, in total silence.
In the opinion of some of the members of the GUA (Amazonian Ufological Group) based in Belém, there exists, or there did exist for a considerable time, at some point beneath the Baía do Sol ("Bay of the Sun") a concealed base for extraterrestrial probe craft. Such an idea would account for the constant appearances, in recent years, of unidentified flying objects over the region.
In 1981, one woman who had been exposed to the UFOs beam in Colares died, although it is no clear that her death was clearly related to the attack.
In 1986, not far from Colares, two persons on Crab Island were discovered "badly decomposed by heat" amid numerous sightings of balls of fire in the sky; cause of death "not known" in either case. Same area, different time: a "ball of fire" seriously burned three men out cutting wood on Crab Island; one of the woodchoppers died. One of the two survivors, Edmundo, had a gaping electrical-type burn injury on the side of his chest, an almost perfect replica of the chest burn suffered by Jack Angel in Georgia in 1974.
In 1993, again in Colares, a 32-year-old missionary and a 40-year-old domestic worker died, a month apart, as a result of close encounters with UFO; according to ufologist Pratt, these women were "both burned on the throat and the chest, as were most of the other people the doctor treated."
Said Pratt: "I know of about ten deaths that have some connection with UFO close encounters."
According to the USAF, there is not one proof of the reality of UFOs, and there are no evidence that they can be a danger. According to the skeptics... According to the skeptics? To tell the truth, skeptics never express anything in such cases. And the larger public does simply not know about such cases.
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Jornal Do Bahia, July 12, 1977. |
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O Liberal, July 16, 1977. |
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O Liberal, October 8, 1977. |
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O Liberal, October 16, 1977. |
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O Estado do Pará, "Flying Saucer Attacks Woman: Terror on Mosqueiro Island," Belém, November 2, 1977. |
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A Provincia Do Parà, November 19, 1977. |
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