Hostile UFO Encounters: Colares, 1977

Should we assume ETs are benign?

In August 1977 an area of Brazil allegedly became the victims of widespread UFO wave that occurred sporadically for three months. At the movie theaters, Close Encounters of the Third Kind was highlighting how encounters with aliens could be an innocent and magical event. Down in Colares, they were having a completely different experience. In Colares, they were at the mercy of marauding UFOs whose behavior looked more like a raiding party than any ‘peace and love’ exercise. By the end of the Colares flap, over 35 people had been hospitalized, two men had died and many inhabitants had simply left…

If these events are in any way factual; something out there isn't very friendly

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General area where the incidents and sightings are alleged to occurred.

In August ’77 small lights began to appear in the skies of the area around Colares and Belem. The lights are known as ‘chupa-chupa’ or suck-sucks due to legends that the lights would suck the blood of anyone they found at night. Instead of being the typical UFO that performs random maneuvers and vanishes, these lights would suddenly flash a thin white beam at people. Anyone struck by the beam would relate an extreme burning sensation and feel weak and lethargic. Many simply fainted.

A barber Carlos Cardoso de Paula (aged 49), recalls a close encounter with the 'lights' and how they didn't mind entering your home...

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.

Witness accounts (ufologie)

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Ana Célia Oliveira (above) was only a young girl of six at the time so her recollections might not be so accurate. Nevertheless, she relates an account that illustrates the growing discomfort in the area. Many people had been struck by a hot white beam of light and reports of a wide variety of different shaped UFOs were common. Oliveira recalls…

People and animals were attacked. There was no food. Terrible lack of food. No one was fishing. People would not go out to their vegetable gardens for crops. Everybody tried to go around in large groups. Nobody wanted to be left alone. All of Colares stopped. At six o\'clock it got dark and we would go to sleep. Groups of as many as fifty to sixty women and children would get together in one house. The men would stay awake all night. They lit bonfires and banged on pots and pans to make noise to scare the UFOs away. People began to shoot into the sky to scare them away.

Witness account

As usual we have the typically \'could be anything\' images to support the accounts although Braxilian military officers recall seeing extensive video footage and photos. As we\'ll see in documents below...military investigators had the equipment and recorded the sightings...photographic evidence would exist you'd think...

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Three images taken by a witness (above)

Doctor Wellaide Cecim Carvalho was the local physician and it fell to her to treat the victims of these encounters. She took blood samples, and concluded that the victims suffered from generalized hyperthermia, superficial chronic headache, burnings, intense heat, nausea, tremors in the body, giddiness, asthenia and presented very small punctures in the skin where they were hit by the beams. These symptoms are regularly seen in patients undergoing chemotherapy when their blood becomes weakened by the radiation. Dr Carvalho wrote…

All of them had suffered lesions to the face or the thoracic area. [The lesions]… 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…

Doctor Carvalho (ufocasebook)

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Two patients with the 'puncture marks' after claiming to be struck with the thin white beam (above)

The UFOs themselves were seen flying over land and sea and fishermen had seen them entering and leaving the bay on many occasions. The impression here is of a quantity of UFOs ranging from as small as 2cm to 'cigar-shaped' huge craft that make little or no attempt to remain unseen. They are prepared to incapacitate and injure people as well as entering property at will.

Rosio Oliveira is Celia's father (see above) and he was interviewed in 1999 by MUFON. In some 30 years such events are unlikely to be too diminished in the memory...

Sometimes the UFOs go into the water. I’ve seen blue lights moving around under the water, and I’ve seen them come out. It just goes up and away in a northern direction, up and down in a wavy motion toward the ocean…It began with lights all over Colares… sometimes in the shape of a hat, round, discs, like an umbrella… They seemed to come from way high up from many places, one from the sky, one from the bay… They put out a strong light, too bright to see a shape. The light was blinding. One time we saw three or four objects come together into one big one. They seemed to come from different directions and then joined together. Many times we could see them going across the island toward Belém. They didn’t make any noise. Very silent. “One time we saw many UFOs coming out of the water at the same time, one, two, three, four… Many lights came out of the water. Huge objects went into the water, came down and went into the water.

Rosio Oliveira MUFON

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In November 1977 events had become unacceptable to the populace and they became frustrated that nobody seemed to care. The Mayor of Belem stood outside his house with his son and watched as a large yellow UFO crossed the night sky. Minutes later the village power supply went off and left them in darkness. In the next fifteen minutes three large lights flew slowly over the village and surrounding areas whilst flickering on and off. When they finally left… the power came back on. The Mayor felt enough was enough and called for Military assistance...

Assistance came in the form of military investigator Sergeant Álvaro Pinto Santos and what became known as Project Prato (project plate/saucer) began. An unmarked car was sent into the area with a range of photographic equipment, theodolite, binoculars and telescopes. On November 26th they had a busy 24 hours with nine separate sightings…

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‘Corpo luminoso’ means ‘luminous body’. Here is a translation of the document.

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Who’d like this guy to come visiting and why assume ET would be good guys?

Interviewed in 1999, Sargeant Santos recalled how the villagers were so scared and probably angry that they began shooting at the lights. Although he advised against, there still were incidents and the UFOs would retaliate by targeting the shooter with a beam of light that would cause them to faint…

Really scared. They didn’t know what to do. They were so terrified they didn’t fish. They wanted guns to shoot… We had to explain to them that they couldn’t shoot at the UFOs or things could get worse.

The man in charge of Project Prato, Colonel Hollanda, parallels Santos recollections with his own description of a villager being incapacitated and temporarily blinded by a hostile UFO…

The people shot at the discs very often but we told them, ‘Don't DO that!’”
Hollanda cited the case of a Colares carpenter in his fifties who was badly frightened when a UFO focused a beam of light on his home.
“He got a rifle and aimed it at the disc, the light turned red and he fell to the ground. He was barely able to move for fifteen days. The first day he was dizzy. He could hear, see and speak normally but could barely move. He was in a hammock all that time.

This extract from the preliminary report is interesting as it remains neutral and in no way implies the events have a physical cause or otherwise. It leaves any conclusion open to further information and evidence as it describes…

… ‘collective hysteria,’ its inhabitants terrified by the appearance of mysterious lights of unknown origin. They don’t sleep, nor fish… The population lives in a state of terror. At times a scream of fear and then the news is spread that the ‘apparatus’ attacked so and so…
“People struck by a beam of light suffer what we can call a ‘nervous breakdown’ (for lack of a better explanation) whose symptoms are nearly always the same: partial or total paralysis, loss of speech, chills, dizziness, hot flashes, hoarseness, tachiacardia, tremors, migraine-type headaches, and progressive numbness of the area hit by the beam of light

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Simply to illustrate events.

The MUFON investigation follows in the best traditions of these incidents…conflicting interests versus vested interests. A host of possible explanations. Missing photos and four videos of the UFOs. Witness statements undermined by questions of hysteria and tendencies to assume that ‘villagers’ are unable to differentiate between a lighthouse and a moving UFO. Military investigators unsure of exactly how much evidence the Intelligence investigators were sharing with them. A Base Commander feeling he was kept out of the loop. I’ll leave it at this so anyone can read more in the following links.

Colares UFO Encounters

Colares summary

Jaques Vallee investigation

Military Reports

MUFON Report


Project Prato

RELATED THREADS (as I see it!)

UFOs Leave physical evidence

Australian UFO Reports 1969

Famous SciFi Author Tells CETI and METI to STFU & Stop Shouting at Cosmos!

UFOs,USOs and the Island of Puerto Rico


There's plenty more to have a look at, but they all share trace evidence, official documents and elements of why militaries are apparently content to sit back

[edit on 14-4-2009 by Kandinsky]

Lately, there's a very nice trend to open some very well researched and laid out threads: every fifty crocks there's one good thread, which means that we are improving (not so long ago, the proportion was 100/1):
great work, thanks for sharing.
Kandinsky, perhaps you already mentioned this, but after a FOIA request, Brazilian Air Defense Command (Comdabra)released more documentation related to OPERAÇÃO PRATO

(Roughly translated, hopefully ArMaP will take a look and correct possible mistakes)

OPERAÇÃO PRATO 1 – PART 1 –

First part of the document of Operation Prato, conducted by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) in the Amazon, through the Regional Air Command I, of Bethlehem (PA) between September and December 1977. This is the final report on the secret operation of FAB, coordinated by Uyrangê Bolívar Soares Nogueira de Hollanda Lima, closed in December 1977 and sent to the Brazilian Air Defense Command (Comdabra) in Brasilia.

50 pages document [.PDF, 8,1 Mb]
Download


OPERAÇÃO PRATO 1 – PART 2 –

Second part of the document of Operation Prato, conducted by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) in the Amazon, through the Regional Air Command I, of Bethlehem (PA) between September and December 1977. This is the final report of the secret of FAB, coordinated by Uyrangê Bolívar Soares Nogueira de Hollanda Lima, closed in December 1977 and sent to the Brazilian Air Defense Command (Comdabra) in Brasilia.

50 pages document [.PDF, 10,6 Mb]
Download


OPERAÇÃO PRATO 1 – PART 3 –

Third part of the document of Operation Prato, conducted by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) in the Amazon, through the Regional Air Command I, of Bethlehem (PA) between September and December 1977. This is the final report on the secret of FAB, coordinated by the then capital Uyrangê Bolívar Soares Nogueira de Hollanda Lima, closed in December 1977 and sent to the Brazilian Air Defense Command (Comdabra) in Brasilia.

51 pages document [.PDF, 6,7 Mb]
Download


OPERAÇÃO PRATO 2

Additional document on Operation Prato, conducted by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) in the Amazon, through the Regional Air Command I, of Bethlehem (PA) between September and December 1977. This is the final report of the secret of FAB, coordinated by Uyrangê Bolívar Soares Nogueira de Hollanda Lima, closed in December 1977 and sent to the Brazilian Air Defense Command (Comdabra) in Brasilia.

51 pages document [.PDF, 6,7 Mb]
Download


More photos from OPERAÇÃO PRATO





www.fab.mil.br...
www.ufo.com.br...
en.wikipedia.org...
www.ufo.com.br...
documents.theblackvault.com... [.pdf]


[edit on 14/4/2009 by internos]

Hmm, it seems the beams where not fatal correct? So it would be safe to say they didn't want to kill anyone (which I'm sure they could have if they wanted to). Perhaps it's a weapons test? Or maybe they are trying to figure out how we are effected by radiation?

This stuff never happens in the more high tech places on earth. Perhaps they feel that the less advanced are lesser beings and therefore fair game.

[edit on 14-4-2009 by DaMod]

reply to post by DaMod

Hmm, it seems the beams where not fatal correct? So it would be safe to say they didn't want to kill anyone (which I'm sure they could have if they wanted to).

My impression of these accounts is that whoever it was didn't care either way. Two died and many more were hospitalized or bedridden for a few days. The actions and activities were hostile and superficially appear to have been the forced extraction of blood and tissue samples. Wild west cattle rustlers come to mind When people aimed weapons at the larger UFOs they were apparently fired on and incapacitated by a red beam. I like this purely because it indicates that they weren't invincible. A bullet must have posed some risk otherwise why defend themselves? Being vulnerable to an ass-kicking lowers any superiority

Dr Wellaide Carvalho was directed by Operation Prato and her superiors to tell the villagers that they were hallucinating and to keep any details about events to herself. The military opened some of their files to a selection of interested ufologists in 2005. Dr Carvalho was prepared to be interviewed and these are the more interesting recollections...

Question — And what hurt you most?

Wellaide — It was the fact that, in my 22 years old, responsible for a health care unit, I had a lot of people in front of me needing research to find out why they were immobilized. Why they couldn't walk or talk. And when I looked at the hemogram to compare the last records, I've learnt they had very low rates of erythrocytes and hemoglobin. The fact is, no object can bring out skin necrosis after a burn so fast. A third factor is the alopecia, the fall of hair from the skin, in a way it will never grow again. The victims have never had hair on the skin burnt again.

Question — Did you, as did the captain Uyrange Hollanda, the investigation commander, see beings from space?

Wellaide — Yes I did. It was 5 pm in the afternoon at Colares. There was a ship at 50 meters of altitude, above the city's main street. Inside of this ship there was a being, 1.20 or 1.30 meter high. This happened when I was driving to help a child with broken clavicle, I was going to immobilize her. They were flying so low that I was completely unable to react. I could see the UFOs bright metal and it wasn't a dish-like object, but much more like a cone or a cylinder. Its course was elliptical. 5 o'clock in the afternoon your eyes can't play tricks on you. You may have visions, hallucinate, but, like me, many others would have to.

Question — Did someone died after being sucked by the lights?

Wellaide — Two persons I took to the hospital in the capital, Belém, had died. I took them in my car. And when they gave me the death certificate, I could read "unknown reason". The victims had the burns, the tinny holes, the examination. I mean, it's very easy to hide things in this country.

extract from DOCTOR WEILLADE CECIM SPEAKS OUT

The Doctor recalls treating 80 patients for burnt skin, low hemoglobin counts (causes fatigue), puncture marks and shock. In Colares alone, she estimates that around 120 cases occurred. All the victims described being struck by beams of burning light that varied in color between yellow and red with red being the cause of puncture marks.

Several witnesses described seeing the 'pilots' of these UFOs. They were allegedly between 1 and 1.5 metres and, unusually, had females present also.

Operação Prato (“Operation Plate” in English) was once again in the news on May 20, 2005 as a result of a year-long campaign by Brazilian ufologists to get the Air Force to open its UFO files. In meetings on May 20 with ufologists at military headquarters in Brasília, three top generals acknowledged that the Air Force had long been concerned about UFOs and had systematically tracked them – known as “H” traffic – since 1954. During the Brasília meetings, the ufologists were allowed to examine about 110 photos and 160 documents from Operation Prato. They were also permitted to examine files about an airliner-UFO encounter in 1954, and the
massive radar detection of UFOs over much of Brazil on the night of May 19, 1986.

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UFO movements during one night

Between witness statements, military documents, senior military interviews, independent reports and other sources linked by Internos we are left with a very compelling series of events.

Descriptions of large cigar-shaped UFOs, smaller, 'manned' craft and the tiny(2cm-1inch) silver lights that 'zapped' the people show something organized and with purpose. The tiny silver lights can be interpreted as probes. The low hemoglobin in victims indicates that the purpose had something to do with blood or the chemistry within.

Based on the accounts it has all the appearances of a field expedition with samples being retrieved from subjects. Given the hostile disregard for the subjects welfare, the 'field expedition' may well have been similar to British and Belgian forays into the African Congo during the 18th Century.

Assuming the events happened, it's very intriguing why the eastern seaboard of S. America enjoys so much UFO attention Why Colares for these events? At the time, areas of India were more heavily populated and more isolated by technology than Colares. Why not India? A look at this UFO chronology of 1977 reveals the usual accounts of worldwide sightings. The ones in S America share the same features of 'light beams', 'nausea' and 'fatigue'.

It's notable that regions share similar features in their accounts of UFOs and other strange incidents. Has the west been sliced up into sections with each falling under the 'management' of distinct UFO or ET groups? Or is it all just a reflection of cultural mythologies at work? As ever, I'm Swiss and interested either way...

[edit on 15-4-2009 by Kandinsky]

I am giving this thread a bump. This is great read, and a very, very good presentation of a mysterious old UFO case.

Thanks for taking the time to make this excellent thread and share this case with us, Kandinsky!

Very interesting indeed. Best read in some time.

reply to post by Kandinsky


This case was on the History Channel's UFO Files. It is quite interesting, and has many witnesses and physical evidence to look over. Thank you for researching this one, as it shows there are dozens of great cases for those tired of the crap out there.

What is interesting about this case is it seems like the government just 'let it happen', I mean no one tried to do anything to chase the crafts away(ie; fighter jets, calling US aid, etc). This leads me to two main possibilities...


1. Some outside, Earth base force was aware of this and prevented any form of defense.

OR

2. Even the military were so scared they didn't want to mess with the crafts.

I am liking option 1, it seems all to suspicious that this was not controlled nor a major news story at the time. Great thread, S and F.

This is one of the best cases that has evidence that is very difficult to deny. I read about this case a long time ago but have forgotten. When I first heard about this I had the impression that some military had a hand in (because of the radiation burns) it but looking it over again I’m less convinced.
It doesn’t look like they were “trying” to kill anyone but certainly didn’t show any respect for any people. I know some died but I’m sure that if they just wanted kill everyone there they probably could. Perhaps that is what they were trying to demonstrate.
This is a little scary because it clearly shows that they don’t see us as their equals. If there are many aliens here, I would like to know which ones are these, so we can avoid them if possible.

Great post! I saw a show on this on the History channel a while ago and never really read about it. I enjoyed reading all the evidence and statements. I even downloaded the documents which I will read over time. This is quite scary IMO. What were they really doing and why?? I wonder why that area was chosen and why nobody tried to stop it. I wonder what alien race it was too. That would be great to know because they sure as heck dont seem friendly after reading this information. Thanks for the read! S&F!

Thanks for all the kind and interesting replies and especially Ziggystar60 for the bump I've starred everyone for breathing life into the thread, thanks.

The whole incident and the information available is very challenging. Who can know what happened or to what extent? We can only read the witness statements (fallible), the Operation Prato documents and accounts from military observers and speculate on explanations.

I'm often skeptical of such accounts, but the amount of reading into the subject and the documents provided by Internos make it seem very plausible. Something unusual happened there. I have a lot of respect for the 'skeptics' (I sort of am one!) on ATS and they've either been kind to the thread or understood that it's an unusual case

The descriptions don't lend themselves to any of our technology or even behavior. If it all happened (broadly) as described it implies some intelligence from elsewhere. If so, who and from where? The questions I raised earlier in the thread and those by other members underline the exasperating nature of UFO incidents and accounts. Even if we accept that they happened, we have no reference points to understand them. They always remain inconclusive...

The impression of Colares, 1977 is one of marauding pirates on a 'smash and grab' raid. They invaded the territory, airspace and lives of the people. They appear to have taken samples from animals and humans without consent or consideration. They retaliated to resistance. For a couple of months the Authorities took no action...why not? They didn't stay long and don't appear to have been back.

There's that famous scene in Star Wars when Obi Wan takes Skywalker to the dodgy bar to hire Han Solo. I wonder if, somewhere out there, there's a black market in 'genuine Earth genetics?' Maybe we are held in the same regard as tiger penises in China? Maybe there's a 'Protect Humanity' campaign being run by liberal aliens out there. Who knows?

reply to post by Kandinsky


Very good question! I´m from Brazil but I live a long way from Colares.
I sometimes think that there are too many kinds of testimonies related to different ufos overall appearences and aliens attitudes that we actually may be dealing with several different civilizations...

All the handiwork of terrestrial authorities. ET technology but not ETs.

I just stumbled on these videos about Operacion Prato...the Colares investigation. I know ATS is mostly an English language site, but the contemporary footage and interviews elevates the incidents beyond the standard anecdotal past event. Whatever...the first couple are interesting, especially the first five minutes of the first...





Both videos are courtesy of CEUFO's you tube channel...good videos...CEUFO

reply to post by Kandinsky


great thread Kandinsky

this case will definitely make you wonder what these E.T.'s are really up to. this evidence and my own experience indicates to me that they are not as friendly as some people would like to believe.

S+F

Originally posted by easynow
reply to post by Kandinsky

 

this case will definitely make you wonder what these E.T.'s are really up to. this evidence and my own experience indicates to me that they are not as friendly as some people would like to believe.

Thanks for the compliment

I don't think I've ever read anything that suggests ET is friendly. Maybe neutral, indifferent or too advanced to care either way? There are definitely more indications that if this IS ET it's not here to make friends or trade. I could go on and list my reasons, but that's a whole other thread and has likely been done already.

reply to post by Kandinsky

I don't think I've ever read anything that suggests ET is friendly. Maybe neutral, indifferent or too advanced to care either way? There are definitely more indications that if this IS ET it's not here to make friends or trade. I could go on and list my reasons, but that's a whole other thread and has likely been done already.

Personally I have always thought there are good, bad, and neutral aliens out there. Why would it be any different than our race? If Earth is being visited then I think it is being visited by all three of the aforementioned groups.

reply to post by jkrog08

Personally I have always thought there are good, bad, and neutral aliens out there. Why would it be any different than our race? If Earth is being visited then I think it is being visited by all three of the aforementioned groups.

Hiya J,
I also expect that there are good and bad guys out there...if such terms can apply to an unknown. 'Good and bad' are so equivocal. The point I was making was more in terms of 'friendly.' There's very little evidence of anything friendly going on. A lot of secrecy...

If elements of the Colares events are in any way factual, there's little to reassure people. We've all got strong imaginations and can picture dozens of scenarios that could explain motives for the lack of openness in relation to UFOs. The secrecy is what makes it all open to interpretation...

reply to post by Kandinsky


I will try to do a translated (with subtitles) version, but I doubt I can upload it before Saturday.

This is a very interesting case, if you want more translations just ask. If things run as they should I will start my holidays on August 1, so I will have more time for ATS.