Viclore

Introduction

This story appeared in issue 744 of Duda (English: Doubt), a Spanish language magazine from Mexico which frequently discussed the supernatural. This issue was published on 2nd October 1985 and can be found online at: http://revisteriaponchito.com/duda/744/

In the end, multiple updates were posted to the article in subsequent issues. These will be included in this page. Images of the original articles can be found at the bottom of the page.

My translation:

UFO wave in the summer of 85

The UFOs announced the present wave since the spring months of the year in Africa, Asia, and Europe: In Italy, practically, there exists a mini wave since the month of January, which includes sightings and “close encounters”.  But nothing is comparable to what happened during the month of August in South America.  We detail below some of the aspects of this disturbing spree of the summer of 85.

A FLOTILLA OF UFOS PARALISED TWO TRUCKS

The first relevant case in Chile during the month of August occuried in the first days of the month: the news, dispersed by ANSA, wasn’t published until day 15, in the a communication which said that the original version of this case was the motivation for a special insertion in the newspaper La Tercera.

According to this version, a flotilla of UFOs comprised of a mother ship and three smaller ships was seen on a highway in the north of Chile.  In that moment they circled the highway two times.  In a moment, the UFOs positioned themselves exactly above the vehicles.  “After hearing a strange buzz,” said the driver of one of the trucks, Samuel Campos, “an elongated body of light appeared, and positioned itself above my truck. During this the engine stopped. After staying there for some 15 seconds, the UFO started to oscillate like a pendulum and, rising rapidly, disappeared over the hills…”

The other driver, Carlos Condori, confirmed what was said by his companion, but added that he witnessed the “landing” of the UFOs. “When the light appeared in the sky,” he related, “the engine of my truck also stopped working; it was something strange that didn’t have an explanation”.

PHENOMENON WHICH CAUSED PSYCHOSIS IN SANTIAGO

The fact is that it triggered a true psychosis in Chile, happened on Saturday 17th of August between 4pm and 8pm. The object was not only witnessed by hundreds of people in the streets of Santiago and later in the football stadiums- where by the way the commentators encouraged the people to turn to look at it-, but was also detected by the control towers and meteorological centres of the capital airports, in addition to being photographed by astronomers of the Cerro Calán observatory of the University of Chile.

Chilean media described the UFO as “a metal sphere, the size of a great star, which travelled slowly from the west to the east”. The UFO was observed at the same time in the port of Valparaíso, some 140km to the west of Santiago and in various towns along the Chilean coast.

In the control tower of the base “The Forest”, belonging to the Chilean Air Force, the UFO was also detected. The duty officer, the lieutenant Carlos Rivera, said that in order to have been observed simultaneously along the coast, the flying object must have been travelling at a height of 40,000 feet.

For their part, the astronomers Herbert Wroblewski, Carlos Torres, and Guillermo Carrasco of the Cerro Calán Observatory observed the UFO with a telescope and were able to photograph it. Their description of the object was the following: “An inverted paraboloid object, of brilliant metal, resting on a saucer and with an upward facing antenna, in orbit 800km above Earth”.

The declarations of these scientists unleashed a great controversy during the days following the sighting. The astronomers opined that “it was without a doubt an artificial satellite we couldn’t say if it was a North American or European satellite, nor if its purpose was fulfilled, but we believe that it was an artificial satellite even though we have never observed one with such clarity”.

The response to the astronauts was immediate. The engineers of the NASA station in Chile, Eduardo Díaz, Luis Bello, Juan Ruiz and León Villan concurred between themselves that the phenomenon which had appeared in the skys of Santiago was not an artificial satellite but corresponded with what has been given the name “unidentified flying object”. They categorically stated: “What we saw were UFOs in the strictest sense of the term”.

The Aeronautics Directorate of Chile started an investigation, but they warned that it was probably “weather balloons”. Reinforcing this claim, Federico Rol, boss of the Meteorological Service of Chile, said that Australia had developed a new weather balloon design of great size. Those balloons -he explained- are immense and have a capacity of 80,000 cubic feet of helium gas; they are designed to maintain elevation and travel great distances within the southern hemisphere, gathering information about x-rays, humidity, and atmospheric pressure.

However, in a communication sent days later, the Meteorological Service of Australia, on the other side of the Pacific, rejected the versions that the sighted UFOs were in reality Australian weather balloons. They specified that the so-called meteorological instruments sighted in Chile didn’t form part of any program of the Australian Climatology Office; they also said that none of their balloons have the capacity to cross the ocean and reach South America.

THE NEXT DAY ANOTHER UFO IN CHILEAN TERRITORY

On Sunday 18th in the early morning another UFO -or the same?- supposedly landed in Arica, some 2,000km to the north of Santiago. The witnesses asserted that “an intense red-violet light descended vertically, in a similar way to a helicopter, above the peak of a hill, 500m from the highway”. The witnesses added that right on the spot where the UFO had been, the undergrowth appeared to have been burnt to a great extent.

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Update 1

The following week, an update to the article was posted

This story appeared in issue 745 of Duda, published on 9th October 1985, and can be found online at: http://revisteriaponchito.com/duda/745/

CONTINUATION OF THE UFO PSYCHOSIS IN CHILE

In the previous issue we informed you of the UFO wave which was unleashed during the month of August in Chile and the subsequent psychosis experienced by the inhabitations, a psychosis which for the most part was due to the controversy unleashed in the media around the nature of the observed phenomena; scientists and military/civil authorities participated in this conspiracy, as well as witnesses of the phenomena and UFO researchers.

Continuing the atmosphere of hysteria, on the 23rd of August the news agencies reported that mysterious “auditory phenomenon” has occurred in Santiago, inexplicable but seemingly related to the UFOs. In various sectors of the Chilean capital three strong explosions were heard. Military sources said that the blasts did not correspond with any shooting practices and the Air Force asserted that at that time they had no jet planes in flight. The Meteorological Service also took action, informing people that the explosions had nothing to do with atmospheric events such as thunder or similar.

For his part, the astronomer Rodrigo de la Vega opined that the origin of the mysterious blasts could be related to the UFOs which had been observed during the month in the skies around the Chilean territory. Professor de la Vega said on the matter: “It’s very probably that as how airplanes provoke a strong blast when they break the sound barrier, the UFOs produce the same phenomena when they start their incredibly steep flights above the Earth.

PHOTOGRAPHED UFOS AND CLOSE ENCOUNTERS IN ARGENTINA

Coinciding with the news about UFOs coming from Chile, from the 19th August the international news agencies started to send notices from Argentina about continuous sightings in diverse areas of the country, as well as reports about the alleged explosion or crash of a UFO in Tucumán, photographs of two in Buenos Aires, and “close encounters” with crew members who spoke.

Some Argentinian experts think that more than a wave of UFOs, what happened in their country in those moments was a “wave of complaints” about the mysterious and elusive flying objects. The reports come from the Argentinian provinces of Chaco, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Salta and Tucumán. Between the descriptions of what was observed count the following: “A spotlight which projected a very bright light”; “a great glow that, seen with binoculars, had blue and reddish shades”; “a ball of fire which fell to earth causing a strong explosion which shook the ground”. This final description corresponds with the incident which happened in the locality of San Pedro de Colalao, 85km from Tucumán. The event occurred, according to witnesses on the afternoon of Saturday the 17th of August, the same day in which Santiago in Chile went crazy over the presence of a UFO. The observation in Colalao also coincides with what affected the residents of Cafayate, a place close to San Pedro, but located in the province of Salta. The people of Cafayate said that the UFO exploded against the hills, causing a sound similar to a aircraft in that situation.

Days later, the prestigious Argentinian newspaper El Clarín published photographs of the UFOs captured by the photographer Roberto Ruiz. The photos were taken during a commercial flight over Argentina. The event had a great impact in the Argentinian newspapers because on the flight various journalists and photojournalists were returning from a car demonstration in the city of La Banda. According to witness descriptions, “a brilliant light broke through the side windows of the Boing 737. It made zig-zagging movements, travelling at enormous speeds and suddenly was stuck in the floor”. The commander of the airplane, Jorge Requiere, pointed out that the light came from a UFO, but soon spotted another. When the plane headed towards one of the UFOs, it violently changed its direction of travel.

After nine days of comments and conspiracies about the UFOs both in Argentina and in Chile, the south American newspapers published on the 26th of August an extensive report about a supposed “close encounter” which occurred close to the town of Ituzaingo, on the highway which joins Buenos Aires with the city of Corrientes. The two witnesses said that they were travelling in a small car when they were intercepted by extra-terrestrials who spoke fluent Spanish. The beings supposedly gave them the following message: “We belong to the world of Mait, which can be found in another space; like on Earth we are men and women, but we don’t have this civilization; we come to meet them, tell everyone not to be afraid”.

The previous story would sound fantastical if the Argentinian press hadn’t published about another UFO event which occurred that same day: in the coastal town of Necochea, some 800km south of Buenos Aires, the photographer Oscar Vallehos of the El Atlántico newspaper photographed a mysterious flying object; besides Vallejos, various neighbours observed the object over the space, indefinite in its form, which evolved in a cycle with an unusual brilliance.

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Update 2

The week after this, another update to the article was published

This story appeared in issue 746 of Duda, published on 16th October 1985, and can be found online at: http://revisteriaponchito.com/duda/746/

CONTINUATION OF THE UFO WAVE IN SOUTH AMERICA

After the appearance of UFOs in Santiago in Chile produced a complete psychosis in the inhabitants of the city, the sightings extended into Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil. South American UFO experts pointed out that the wave that currently lives in their countries was anticipated by several scholars, who were situated between the months of February, March, July and October. Milton Santana, an Uruguayan ufologist who leads el Grupo de Estudios e Investigación del Fenómenos OVNI [literally: Group for Studies and Investigation of UFO Phenomenon], said that the current sightings are occurring within a “UFO route” which has been established since long ago by those who analyse the phenomenon. The protected coordinates for this “route”, pass through the countries involved so far, but also include Peru and Uruguay.

To continue we detail some of the latest cases.

FLOTILLA OF UFOS ABOVE LAKE TITICACA

Bolivian radio stations reported on a spectacular UFO sighting which occurred in the night of the 18th of August above Lake Titicaca. The witnesses, who communicated with the radio stations, said that six objects flew over the lake for half an hour.

The following day the Bolivian newspapers gave an account of the event, adding that a sunken ship had been found, and the boat crew had been abducted by the UFOs which had flown over the lake.

BRIGHT UFOS ABOVE THE BRAZILIAN CITY OF SANTOS

On the 24th of August, international news agencies reported that the port city of Santos had seen a UFO which “cast strong emanations of silver and red light, remaining in the sky for 30 minutes”. One of the witnesses was Waldir Costa, commander of the oceanographic boat “Professor Besnard”, which observed the UFO during the entire time that is was visible with the use of binoculars.

“It definitely,” said Costa, “wasn’t a weather balloon, because I know them, and we launch them frequently. The object was much too bright to be a hot air balloon, and much too big, and its movements in the west to east direction were in contradiction to the direction of the winds”. This opinion was confirmed by officials of the air base of Santos, who also observed the UFO, and by students of the Vincente Carbalho school, which had suspended classes in order to observe the phenomenon in detail.

UFO ON THE BORDER BETWEEN BRAZIL, PARAGUAY AND ARGENTINA

In Curitiba, Brazil, the aeronautical authorities reported that a UFO was seen in the skies of various cities in the Brazilian state of Paraná. The trajectory of the mysterious object was followed from Foz de Iguazú, on the border between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina; its speed was impressive and it was heading towards the Atlantic ocean.

The first appearance of the UFO occurred in Foz de Iguazú and according to witness descriptions “it didn’t have a definite form, it was developing an extreme speed and was emitting an intense light”.

For their part, residents of the Argentinian city of Posadas said that they had seen a UFO “suspended” above the Iguazú Falls. The object had an ovoid form and intermittently gave off blinding flashes of orange light. After remaining “stationary” for several minutes, it disappeared spinning on itself at great speeds.

In Paraguay it was also reported that a UFO was witnessed in at least a dozen cities in the eastern region of the country. The object was described as “like a semi-oval, with an intense light which dimmed at times”.

In Asunción, experts in the Instituto de Ciencias Básicas [literally: Institute of Basic Sciences] at the university opined that the UFO could well have been a meteorological probe, although they did not rule out the possibility that that it was the planet Venus, whose position close to the earth in those moments made it more visible in the daylight. Regardless, they were unable to explain why the witnessed object seemed to move away from and towards the Earth, according the the descriptions of witnesses.

Original text: