Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Subject Revisited: Argentina's Monte Grande Explosion (2011) - Threats, Spies and UFOs?



Subject Revisited: Argentina's Monte Grande Explosion (2011) - Threats, Spies and UFOs?

[INEXPLICATA readers may remember the perplexing explosion that ruined the residential neighborhood of Monte Grande a few years ago - an event ascribed to a "pizza oven" explosion by the authorities but involving something more sinister...a crashed test drone, or worse? -- SC]

"There's a Deep Mystery They're Not Telling Us About"

The woman who lost her home on account of the mysterious explosion in Monte Grande spoke to 24COn three years after the fact.
Beyond the mystery that enshrouded the case, the suspicions and official stories, eyewitness accounts and the conclusions raised by experts, life goes on for the families affected by the Monte Grande explosion, and it is not a normal life either. Nothing was ever the same again, not even for the children of Silvia Espinoza, a Peruvian tourist who died when a wall collapsed on top of her. Or for Fabián Sequeira and his wife Yeanigres Cornejo, who lost all their worldly belongings.

On September 26, 2011 at 0216 in the morning, an explosion shook the 9 de Abril district of Esteban Echeverria. Two houses were reduced to rubble and beyond eyewitness accounts, the judiciary declared the case closed as an "alleged gas leak". At least this is how Yeanigres puts it when talking to 24CON. Yani, as her friends and neighbors call her, tries to explain her family's ordeal. "We're in bad psychological shape because they gave us a house in "comodato" (loan without charge), and it expires in three years. That means that we'll be out on the street within three years. We want the municipality to give us the deed to the property."

But to Yani and many others, what happened at their home was not a mere gas leak. It goes beyond that, and for that reason, both the judiciary and the municipal authorities have tried to silence them.

"There something much deeper going on here that they're not telling us about, but all we want is to live in peace. It's a miracle we're alive, and they often treat us like gangsters. We haven't had any peace for three years. We feel as though we'd killed someone. We have to be thankful to be alive," says the woman, who ratifies the theory that something fell out of the sky. "We were asleep when something fell down and it all exploded. We haven't had any peace since then."

Peace will be found only when both the Sequeira family and their neighbors know the truth. Yani has to take leave from work to engage in legal transactions. For example, going to District Attorney's office 6, where the files are kept. "I was never summoned. It was left like that. I spoke with the attorney from Sancor Insurance, who witnessed the expert report. She's no longer with the company, but she told me: 'I can't believe they closed your case as an alleged gas leak'. We don't know what to do or who to appeal to."

Three years after the "Monte Grande Roswell", as several UFO researchers involved in the investigation have called it, the matter remains open for debate. There is no certainty about what caused the fatal explosion: it could have been a gas leak, as the authorities say, or "something unknown that fell from the skies." The fact is that the affected families have been in limbo since then.

Ufologists Are Threatened: "We're listening in on you. Be careful."

Adrian Nicala, a UFO expert based in Ituzaingó, received intimidating messages on his phone. "They're the ones who should be afraid, he told 24 CON.

Silent but astute, ufologist scour the skies of the metropolitan area looking for strange objects, lights and odd movements. With their trained eye, their able to distinguished common air traffic from something that perhaps hails from another world. Their purpose is to disclose the strange phenomena that plow the skies. However, this disclosure sometimes affects interests that are contrary to those of the ufologists.

Research and discovery can lead to enemies. "We're listening in on you. Be careful." This is the first message received by Adriana Nicala, the Ituzaingó-based ufologist. At first he did not take it as a threat, but a prank. "[The call came in] at 10 in the morning. Since it says "we're listening in on you" I thought it had to do with a local radio show."

Faced with this uncertainty, Nicala replied, "Who's this?" - but received no reply.


He then phoned the unknown number, but no one answered. "Seconds later I received another text message. "Are you an idiot? Don't call me." I told him to go to hell in another message, phoned him again and he answered."

From the other side of the line, he heard the voice of a man between 30 and 40 years old who nervously asked not to be called again, then asked [Nicala] what time he left home, to increase the threat. The last message Nicala ever received sealed the person's intentions: "Have a care with what you say. I'm not far away from you."

According to the ufologist, threats, tapped phones and having his movements traced are commonplace. Nicala remembers that Luis Burgos, director of the Federacion Argentina de Ovnilogia, had a personal conversation he'd had with other UFO researchers played back to him over the phone. They had taped it right off his phone. "It's the intelligence services. Not from the United States, but from here. Our stance on the Monte Grande incident was very upsetting," he says.

"On a previous occasion, they ruined 20 terabytes of information we had. They disrupted a hard drive with 20 terabytes from our radio show. They got in while we were on the air. The engineer, Gaby Mottura, realized someone ahd gotten in because things were running slow. The IP showed us that they'd first entered from New Mexico, then another IP from Virginia came in. The second lingered 40 minutes and listened to the entire show. When we mentioned on air that things were running slowly, it went away, but not before planting a virus that ruined everything. They do this to erase their tracks," says Nicala, who broadcasts his experiences and those of his companions on the Testimonio Ovni radio show, broadcast on Inadaptados Radio (online) every Saturday at 20:00 hours.

"I'm not afraid. One's concerned about family, but I'm not afraid. It's not like I have firearms or anything, but I'm confident. I know there's an intelligence out there, without question. It's eminently powerful. If it allows something to happen to me, then it was meant to be. These people who threaten me should be more frightened, because I've seen these machines [UFOs] do things that ought to scare them," concluded Nicasa.

[Translation (c) 2014 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to the 24 CON newsroom, Leandro Fernandez Vivas [24CON] and Guillermo Giménez, Planeta UFO]

Monday, September 29, 2014

Mexico: Anomalous Object Over Cocoyoc



Contributing editor Ana Luisa Cid sends us a video taken over Cocoyoc, Mexico by Hector Ramírez Villanueva, a long-time videographer of the unexplained. Prof. Cid writes: "The witness described feeling a strange sensation prior to the sighting, as if something "informed" him where he should be looking to. Cocoyoc is a municipality in the Mexican state of Morelos, founded by the Tlahuiltecas in the 9th century. The area, famous for its lush vegetation and fertile soil, has long been known as a UFO hotspot.
VIDEO at: http://youtu.be/31caeKIHijg

Monday, September 22, 2014

Argentina: Man Claims Seeing UFO - Has Photos and Video to Show For It



Source: Planeta UFO and Diario Digital de Mar del Plata
Date: 09.20.14


Argentina: Man Claims Seeing UFO - Has Photos and Video to Show For It
By Redacción 0223

Martín photographed a series of blue lights moving randomly through the sky. "I think it's a UFO," he said. Read the article and draw your own conclusions.

Martín was strolling down Avenida Independencia, taking in his surroundings. When he reached Rawson, he stopped to look at a sign posted to a wall, because in the background, the steady glow of a set of lights illuminated it. This occurred on Friday (09.19.14) at around 20:00 hours.

"They moved at random," says the young man, startled at the vision, standing in the middle of the street looking fixedly at what seemed to be an unidentified flying object. Yes, a UFO. He immediately pulled a video camera out of his bag and recorded the unusual sight. He recorded the lights that moved "in a Z formation" for a little over two minutes, until he stopped recording. He also took a few photographs for good measure.

"When I watched the video back home I realized the flying object had blue lights, and from what I was able to find out, there are no commercial airliners with lights of that sort," Martín Malaspina explained to 0223. He also added: "The lights moved at random, not in a linear manner as aircraft or helicopters tend to travel."



The Mar del Plata resident told 0223 that this "isn't the first time" that he's come across unidentified flying objects, but in this opportunity he had a camera to capture the moment.

The bizarre images and information provided by Martín appear to be directly connected with the thousands of stories to be found in the most exclusive channels of this widespread popular belief.

"I think it's an unidentified flying object," Martín said frankly.

VIDEO: http://youtu.be/ZaL5ifvgP3c

[Translation (c) 2014, S. Corrales (IHU) with thanks to Guillermo Giménez, Planeta UFO]

Argentina: A UFO Sighting at Puesto Hernández



Source: El Periódico de Rincón (Neuquén, Argentina)
Date: Saturday 09-20-2014


Argentina: A UFO Sighting at Puesto Hernández

Scant kilometers from Rincón de los Sauces. "It was nearly flush with the ground, a very powerful, bright, rich orange and fuchsia light. It remained static, as if floating in the air." It gyrated among the trees before the eyes of a witness who took several photographs. Within minutes, her cellphone had turned off and her vehicle's engine died.


Last Friday, September 19 at 19:00 hours, Silvia Santagatti, a resident of Rincón de los Sauces, was in Puesto Hernández, a location some 15 kilometers from the city, when she came across a very strange situation.

"I was in Puesto Hernández, a filling station, waiting for my husband to return. I was in the pickup truck when I suddenly noticed over to my right a very powerful, bright, rich orange and fuchsia light. It was static, as if floating in the air," says Silvia.

"As the light remained there, I'm not sure how many seconds elapsed, I felt motivated to get out of the vehicle. The light moved, ascended, became larger for a moment, but the most striking thing is that I was able to take pictures of it."

"There was no one there, just nature, mountains, a perfect sky and a setting sun," recalls Silvia with astonishment, near some oil extracting machines known in the area as guanacos (oil jacks). "The thing flew off without making a sound, heading west, and lost itself in the cordillera." She expressed surprise at the experience she had lived through.

Silvia reports feeling a mixture of "fear and astonishment" at the time, and feels privileged at having been able to photograph it. She is not ready to say that it was "a UFO, an object, or aliens...I simply photographed the light that impressed me. It was incredible!"

"When I was through taking pictures, my cellphone turned off and the pickup's horn didn't go off. I don't know, it was all very strange," remarks Silvia, adding: "Why should we be so egotistical to think that we are unique? I won't give a name to what I saw, because I don't know what it was. But it certainly wasn't anything commonplace."

LINK to the photo: http://www.elperiodicoderincon.com.ar/ver_noticia_imagen.php?id=20140920143301

[Translation (c) 2014 S. Corrales IHU, Special thanks to Guillermo Giménez Planeta UFO]

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Argentina: Consternation in La Rioja Over a Strange Object in the Sky



Source: Diario 26 and Planeta UFO
Date: 12 September 2014


Argentina: Consternation in La Rioja Over a Strange Object in the Sky

As occurred earlier in San Juan, residents of Chilecito were alarmed when they saw a light in the sky. In mid-August of this year, Valle Fértil was shaken after seeing a strange object in the sky. On that occasion, residents believed it might be a UFO because it was always suspended in the sky and looked like a white spot.

Scant kilometers away, another oddity has been seen. This time it was in Chilecito, La Rioja, where residents were startled to see as strange image in the morning sky. According to the Cronica newspaper, the object remained at the same location as time passed, barely evincing a slight movement.


On 14 August 2014, around 18:00 hours, some residents of Valle Fértil claimed seeing a strange image in the sky, feeling a tremor right before this, causing widespread alarm. According to the Instituto Nacional de Prevencion Sismica, the tremor took place at 17:42 hours with an epicenter close to the provincial seat at a depth of barely 11 km with a 2.6 magnitude.

Coincidence or not, residents claimed the object cause panic among many spectators, more than anything due to the time it remained motionless.
Fernando Soria, a resident of Valle, told Diario La Provincia newspaper: "It was seen throughout the Valley and along the road to Valle de la Luna and Talampaya. It hung in the air for about two hours. The whole town saw it. It was a metallic object that called the attention of the whole town. It
suddenly vanished around nightfall. The whole town and many tourists were in the town square, watching it for 2 hours more or less," said Soria, who admitted not feeling the tremor, but aware of close friends who did.

"It was very odd because it was very low and static, motionless. I watched from the departmental square, but it was visible everywhere. It was only suspended in the air within a small cloud. The blue sky and the metallic object. When the sun went down, it was a light," he explained.

[Translation (c) 2014, Scott Corrales, IHU with thanks to Guillermo Giménez, Planeta UFO]

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Cattle Mutilations: "I See Dead Cows" - Toward a Mutilated Vision of Reality



[An interesting contrarian perspective on the cattle mutilation phenomenon by Alejandro Agostinelli - SC]

Cattle Mutilations: “I See Dead Cows” – Toward a Mutilated Vision of Reality
By Alejandro Agostinelli – Factor 302.4

They return every so often, especially when the weather grows cold and the media runs out of stuff to talk about, or the story runs afoul of a hungry editor starving for a juicy ration of paranormal ghoulishness.

The flaps of “cow mutilations” or cases involving “cattle mutilations” represent a branch phenomenon of popular ufology or the urge to find evidence of extraterrestrial activity on Earth. It is also kept alive, however, by other media-created mysteries, such as the Chupacabras, or it receives a dose of crafty explanations such as those built by conspiracy theorists (which should not be cast aside, despite their minimal diffusion, as these are often turned into successful sci-fi scripts).

On August 25 of this year, the La Nación newspaper published another news item. Last year another appeared in Tucumán, and if we keep searching, or google back even further, there isn’t a year that does not include a report on this mystery that proves hard to extinguish. Likewise, we find a more intensive presence in provinces such as Entre Rios, where local UFO groups – highly interested in the matter – publicize accounts that would otherwise go unnoticed.
In 2002, this phenomenon manifested itself in Argentina with unprecedented strength. Personally, its importance was such that a chapter based on the matter displaced another on the mysteries of Capilla del Monte in my book Invasores: Historias Reales de Extraterrestres en Argentina (Sudamericana, 2009).

The following is an abbreviated version of the most theoretical part of the chapter included in Invasores:

12 years ago, Argentina experienced its first ufological cow-icide. I started in April and reached its climax in June 2002, particularly in the province of Buenos Aires and the Pampean region. Farmhands, cattlemen and local residents woke up to find dead cows of all breeds and ages all over the place. Dozens of bovine carcasses rested near circles of flattened grass, near empty water tanks – drained by who knows what and for which reason – and others in unusual circumstances.

All of the animals presented as “proof” of the flap bore similar injuries: their edges were irregular, as though cauterized. According to farmhands and cattlemen, these incisions appeared to have a purpose. Their carcasses had been despoiled of their soft tissue (tongue, eyes, ears, nipples, genitals, udders) and sometimes they appeared exsanguinated. Locals would sink their knives into them and the blade would emerge dry, as if they had been plunged into a piece of pound cake.

The discovery of over two hundred mutilated animal carcasses was reported in less than three months, a ruthless and doubtful notion, but giving the impression that an intelligence had been at work and the deaths were not due to natural causes, such as the onset of the cold of winter or seasonal diseases followed by the instinct of certain predators looking for nourishment. Agreement between cattlemen, journalists, policemen and ufologists was overwhelming: the incisions looked artificial. These animals filled the ranks of the bizarre while predator activity was dismissed by some veterinarians in their homilies. The cult of the mutilated cow was confected by all of them, with or without an awareness of the subject.

The flap ended almost if by decree. On July 1, 2002, the National Food Safety and Quality Service (SENASA) blamed the weather and carrion animals. Presto: a mystery cauterized.

The official body stated that rodents belonging to the Oxymycterus rufus genus – among other vermin – had devoured the cattle in fine gourmet style while other victims lay dead as a result of ice storms, disease or natural causes. Bernardo Cané, the head of the organization, stated: “We are dismissing Martians, the Pombero and other rural Argentinean beliefs.” (1) The sentence would have been less odious if Cané had not ascribed the mutilations to “esoteric practices” a week earlier. (2) Forty-five days later he was dismissed from his position under suspicion of underhanded dealings. (3)
Other experts were also caught on the hop. Veterinarian Alejandro Martínez suspected “some sort of techno-cattle rustling” wielding the thermocauterizer (a pistol that fires darts) to underscore that the mysterious incisions could be caused by “any agency”. Pathologist Ernesto Odriozola supported “the actions of some madman”. Even the most experienced forensic pathologists stoked the mystery. Days later, SENASA disclosed the results of a necropsy performed on twenty animals collected from fifteen farms in different sections of Buenos Aires province. Cané presented his conclusions in a press conference: the cattle died “due to pneumonia, malnutrition, metabolic or infectious diseases that are highly prevalent during the winter season.” Thus, the mystery was halved: the mutilated cows…were already dead. The enigmatic incisions had been subsequently caused by various carrion animals, the red-muzzled mouse among them.

“Extraterrestrials Laugh at SENASA” proclaimed one of the screens of the Crónica TV channel. The mouse’s humorous moniker prompted the notion that it had all been a gag. It was around that time that I phoned Dr. Alejandro Soraci, one of the parties involved in the study conducted by Universidad Nacional del Centro (UNICEN). “Could you photocopy the report, and I’ll send for it?” But there was nothing to photocopy. The only material available, he explained, was the press release and the video of the mouse in action. SENASA results were simply two hastily drafted pages. The investigation could hardly be taken seriously with such apathy. “Why were mutilated cows found in places where the Oxymycterus isn’t found? And if it was the mouse, why didn’t SENASA undertake a campaign to control it?” wondered ufologist Quique Mario. To him, and to many other ufologist, the media oasis was deceitful. “Matters remain the same: nothing has changed. Two animals were found mutilated last Saturday, thirty kilometers from here. Last week there were five and seventeen down south, around Cuchillo Có,” he told me in mid-2003.

What factors were at play in unleashing the epidemic? Why now, and not before?

This is how SENASA – spokesman for official explanations – has belittled the human dimension of these experiences. Not everyone is willing to believe that cows are abducted by UFOs, or that a clandestine operation was set in motion to decimate the bovine population and attack those who came too close to the truth. It is also unfair that aliens should mock SENASA. The fact that the initial speculations of its experts should contradict the formal verdict speaks volumes about the fantasies that the mystery creates in all of them, scientists included. On the other hand, it doesn’t say as much about the quality of the study, which does not exempt SENASA from the mistake of making a pronouncement before the results were in hand.

The red-muzzled mouse’s leading role gave the matter an almost humorous cast: The scene-stealing and headline-grabbing mouse obscured the investigation’s credibility. It is possible that the media stressed the rodent’s involvement because there can be nothing better than a Supermouse to displace a Chupacabras. The irregular, serrated tooth marks of the Oxymycterus rufus appeared on the skin and bones of the analyzed animals. Those marks explained the origin of the strange incisions, some of them described as perfect circles. “Ever since Tom and Jerry, we know that a [mouse hole] has a circular opening. Rodents stand up and work from top to bottom,” explained Fernando Kravetz, full professor of Ecology in the School of Exact and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. “The rodent population grew with the increase in the availability of dead animals due to classic diseases, changes in vegetation and pastures deteriorated by the ice storms. Crops are harvested in March and the weather changed abruptly in April.” (4)

The quantity and dispersion of dead animals did not startle the professor, considered the main expert in rural ecology. “If three hundred mutilations were reported, the existence of a total of two thousand carcasses could be estimated. A congruent number for that time of year.” SENASA also mentioned less photogenic predators, such as the Pampas fox, seagulls and armadillos. But the red-muzzled mouse was on the cover, because the cow mutilation wave resulted in the casual discovery of an unexpected mutation in it dietary habits. Up to 2002, it was believed to be an insectivore, but it feasted on beef when given the chance. Kravitz measured the marks appearing on the cattle’s toughest tissue (such as the base of the tongue) and found the same patterns as in “cattle mutilations”.

Nor was SENASA the only agency to reach a prosaic conclusion. The Animal Health Group of the National Livestock Technology Institute (INTA Balcarce) studied ten cases. “The incisions and absence of internal organs, ears and nipples are due to action by predators found in the region.” The causes behind these animal deaths – when they could be ascertained – were not mysterious either (intestinal parasites, mineral deficiencies, metabolic diseases, malnutrition) as well as the cold and ice storms that blanketed the southeastern region (5).

What SENASA neglected to do – never mind other official agencies that were unresponsive to the mystery – was to find a hypothesis able to answer a question that can be stated in three ways: Why did men experienced in cattle activities feel certain that those incisions were qualitatively different from those caused by other predators? How can the belief about the phenomenon’s novelty be justified? What changed so that some more or less ordinary deaths should turn into an epidemic? Perhaps the answers would offer no consolation to cattlemen and others impressed by direct experience, but it is better to try to answer tough questions that feel the breath of the Chupacabras on the nape of one’s neck again.

The cattle mutilation wave did not occur at just any moment in time. The harsh reality suggested that attention given to these “strange events” responded to the infinity of existing social concerns. The mystery, therefore, could be considered an outgrowth of the crisis. According to the theory’s most newfangled variant, the phenomenon had been deliberately inflated to distract the population from the nation’s state of malaise. But more than a smokescreen, the exaggerated diffusion of such news looked like another symptom of the same illness.

On December 19, 2001, a crowd of Argentineans took the streets, banging on cooking pots, to protest against a government asleep in the midst of the most brutal crisis of recent history. Ferocious reprisals followed the protests, resulting in thirty-nine dead at the hands of the police. Bank freezes, the uncontrolled dollar and high rates of unemployment added to the sad national ordeal. The ashes were still hot in 2002. Shortly before the wave of alien cattle rustling, the emblem of creole opulence had been prey to minor “depredations”. It is still hard to forget the image broadcast by a news program, when a truck with beef cattle overturned on the outskirts of Rosario, Santa Fe, in 2001 and a crowd surged to butcher the animals on the roadside. Other factors – frivolous to some, but serious in their psycho-social impact – fostered the dejected popular mood: around the same time, the Argentinean football team had been eliminated from the world cup in the first round.

For once, a modern expression of the supernatural drew the interest of two specialists in myth and legends. Martha Blache and Silvia Balzano, researchers with CONICET, put forth an explanatory model for the events. They suggested the possible interconnection between Chupacabras reports, the penetration of genetically-modified sorghum and the use of new herbicides whose preparation is controlled by American laboratories. They wondered, for example, if the phenomenon might not be a warning against the uncertainty created by these changes and the perceived lack of control evinced by cattlemen. Globalization may be related to the role played by a country that “benefits from our raw materials and natural resources, removing them in an efficient yet imperceptible manner,” without leaving traces. News about cattle mutilations, they write, seemed to condense a wider metaphor reflecting a country in a state of crisis that is trying to identify the culprits. Who is attacking the cows, tame and apathetic representative of Argentine heritage? Is our blood being sucked by international agencies or domestic carrion animals?” The popular imagination, they conclude, “could sublimate the conflicting demands of the IMF with regard to the foreign debt.” (6)

In proposing their model, Blache and Balzano did not conduct a survey on the political trends or the technical-scientific concerns of cattlemen. Implementing a sort of psycho-cultural analysis using press clippings is always risky. But the authors are the first to say that their hypothesis rests only on journalistic sources. At least they didn’t keep quiet.

The authors also noticed the similarity in the conclusions reached by Kenneth M. Rommel when the FBI assigned him to study the bovine massacre in the United States in 1980 and those of SENASA in 2002. In his study of twenty-seven cattle mutilations, Rommel ascribed the phenomenon to the combined effect of the media, the social influence of “experts” and the action of various predators in the genesis, formation and extension of the wave. (7) Both in the United States and Argentina, the mutilated carcasses were found according to pre-defined patterns. What the authors have termed “the media transmission chain” supposes the participation of narrators who contribute to disseminating a legend regardless of their posture toward it.
This consensual version of the reality to be defined arises from an “identikit”, and these strangeness patterns configure, in turn a “selection criteria”. Thus, in order for the animal to belong to the category of “mutilated cattle”, it must meet a number of symptoms and even common scenarios. In order to build a “classic cattle mutilation scenario”, the animal must be found without its organs or soft tissue. The edges of its skin must be “clean, circular or with sharp angles” and the body must be as dry as possible, “as though exsanguinated”. Rommel did not find this “ideal case” in any of the one hundred seventeen mutilations he researched between 1975 and 1979, especially because – as in the Argentinean case – “surgical precision” vanished under the microscope and the exsanguination was only apparent. “Blood always pools in the lower parts of the carcass.” The missing parts – soft tissue organs – are the parts appealing to a carnivorous predator. He also discovered that the areas under the carcasses’ weight was also intact. An “intelligent mutilator” would have turned it over to devour the hidden parts. This was never the case.

[…]

In the United States, sociologist J.R. Stewart found that the number of cattle mutilation incidents was directly related to the volume of news devoted to the subject in the media. He also interviewed eight hundred adults and determined that the police, having no experience in elucidating the causes of cattle deaths, and certain local vets, more accustomed to treating live animals, were inclined to accept the farmers’ eyewitness accounts (9). A similar study was not performed in Argentina, but the phenomenon came to an end when the media moved on to other subjects.
Application of the “pitted windshield theory” can lead one to think of a case of selective perception molded by the stereotype provided by the media. I must stress that I am not a sociologist who can reduce the phenomenon to a case of mass hysteria. Even so, this theory seems more convincing to me than finding explanations in the incursions of a bloodthirsty Chupacabras, aliens hankering to throw some creole spareribs on the grill or a gang of lunatic scientists injecting strange potions into our cows.

For the moment, we know that the media is accustomed to broadcasting mutilated images of reality, and we cannot ask cows for their opinion. They can’t even moo. The red muzzled mouse – Professor Kravetz told me – swallowed their tongues.

Sources

1) “El Senasa dictaminó que las vacas mutiladas murieron ‘por causas naturales’” (01-07-02), in diario La Nación , Buenos Aires. “Vacas muertas: eran mutiladas por ratones de campo y zorros”, in diario Clarín, Buenos Aires (2-07-2002).
2) “Las vacas podrían haber sido mutiladas”, in diario Clarín (22-06-2002) y “El enigma de las vacas mutiladas, reportado por dos investigadoras en Internet”, in diario Clarín (24-06-2002).
3) “La salida de Cané del Senasa fue por una disputa política” (23/8/2003). In diario Río Negro.
4) Agostinelli, Alejandro (2002); “Vague de mutilations animales en Argentine”. In VSD Hors Série N° 5, pp. 56-61. Ed. GS Presse Com., Francia.
5) Balmaceda, Oscar (2002); “El INTA dice que las vacas mutiladas murieron por causas naturales” (29-06-02), in Diario La Nación, Buenos Aires. “Observaciones sobre supuestas mutilaciones en bovinos en el sudeste de Buenos Aires. Grupo de Sanidad Animal” INTA EEA Balcarce.
6) Balzano, Silvia; Blache, Martha (2004); “La leyenda del Chupacabras en el área pampeana. Una posible interpretación” In Folklore Latinoamericano, Tomo V, pp. 41-53, Buenos Aires, Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte. Also see: Balzano, Silvia; Blache, Martha (2003-2004); “La cadena de transmisión mediacional en una leyenda contemporánea: El caso de las vacas mutiladas como metáfora de la crisis argentina actual”. In Estudos de Literatura Oral, No. 9-10, 39-55, Universidade do Algarve, Portugal.
7) Rommel, Kenneth (1980); Operation Animal Mutilation Project.
9) Stewart, James R. (1980); “Collective Delusion. A comparison of believers and skeptics” en Midwest Sociological Society, Milwaukee, Winsconsin, Estados Unidos.


[Translation (c) 2014 Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology (IHU)]

Friday, September 12, 2014

Argentina: Confirmation for the Bellocq UFO Photo



Source: Planeta UFO & LV7 Radio (Tucumán Argentina)
Date: 09.08.14


Argentina: Confirmation for the Bellocq UFO Photo

Fernándo Távara of the MUFON Perú organization analyzed the original image of an Unidentified Flying Object photographed over San Francisco de Bellocq, which appeared in La Voz del Pueblo newspaper last Wednesday. Andres Stessens, the photographer, is an aide to municipal delegate Gerardo Chedrese. Távara further references a second figure that is also visible, but less clearly so.

"I have dismissed the cause being a photography error, lens stains or birds," notes the specialist.

He further points out: "I cannot associate the aero-anomalous objects with known artifacts or craft (airplanes, helicopters, drones). Moreover, the main object appears to be considerably large, with regard to distance."

In closing, he insisted that after "analyzing the image with various photography software packages I can see that it has not been edited, and the date on which it was taken coincides with the one manifested by the witness."

Based on the study of these characteristics, he said: "I can catalogue this case as a UFO due to the fact that no natural or logical cause can be found to explain this event (suggestions from other researchers or witnesses are welcome)."

[NOTE: The Exploración Ovni website, which features the analysis, adds that “the original photographer was not available for comment despite repeated attempts at contacting him over the course of four days.” – SC]

(Translation (c) 2014, S. Corrales (IHU) with thanks to Guillermo Giménez)

Thursday, September 11, 2014

The María Elodia Pretzel CE-3 (1968) Revisited



The María Elodia Pretzel CE-3 Revisited
By Alejandro Agostinelli (UFO-PRESS, October 1983)

[Despite our best efforts, it can be difficult to obtain follow-up material for every single case, especially those that occurred decades ago. A casual reading of the October 1983 issue of UFOPRESS, however, kicked up an article by our friend Alejandro Agostinelli about the Pretzel CE-3 case. The article’s original title: “La incredible y triste historia de la cándida Elodia y de su padre el desalmado” (The Incredible and Sad Story of Fair Elodia and Her Heartless Father ) is a nod to novelist Gabriel García Márquez’s “Eréndira” – To read the original case, please see “Argentina: The 1968 Night Visitor” at http://inexplicata.blogspot.com/2010/06/venturing-into-dark-vaults-of-south.html -- SC]

The reason that prompted the UFO-PRESS newsroom to include – in Issue #15 - a report by a psychologist who looked into the study performed by Dr. Oscar A. Galíndez concerning the experience of María Elodia Pretzel in Villa Carlos Paz on 14 June 1968 was the start of an argument between those who claim having found a definitive explanation, and continuing the discussion using new elements as a basis and shedding light on dark spots. A valid allegation in the light of the sterile discourse would be to invite the psychologist – the one who “debunked” the case, to some – and have him re-interview María Elodia and dispel any questions raised by the article. Yes, faithful to the path laid out by Freudian orthodoxy, Lic. Cetrángolo’s steps in the matter were true. María Elodia exclaimed tearfully: “A man!” and it is worth acknowledging that the psychologist’s hypothesis is at least cogent. Until the contrary can be proved, we must entertain the possibility that her exclamation could have been the response to the need for “a man” that may be necessary in the life of a woman in the bloom of adolescence.

But in the meantime, let us see what happened not so long ago with regard to the article in UFO-PRESS and fortunate mobilizing effect it had among certain levels of homegrown ufology.

The fact that anyone should dare question María Elodia Pretzel’s irreversible eyewitness account seemed to unleash the wrath of the editor of a well-known monthly magazine on borderline subjects. Without missing a beat, he sent a correspondent for his magazine to Villa Carlos Paz to see if it was possible to “refute the article appearing in UFO-Press”. The envoy, bewildered by his boss’s deceitful intentions, thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to interview the witness of a such a classic case in world ufology, which at the time sent a ripple of fear through the Argentinean public.

Upon reaching the “La Cuesta” motel, he was told by the desk clerk how to reach María Elodia’s property. He found the home, disheartened to see that all the blinds were closed. He rang the doorbell and after a while, from the dark interior that could barely been seen through the windows, he heard the distrustful voice of a woman asking who was at the door. The envoy identified himself and, still hesitant, she asked him into the living room. Looking older than her thirty-four years of age, María Elodia apologized for her initial mistrust and told the man that she had to obey her husband’s instructions regarding her safety. Incoherent, contradictory and visibly upset, Ms. Pretzel explained that she had been in poor health ever since that June 14th fifteen years earlier.

The cause for her imbalance lies not so much in the encounter itself but in the disproportionate coverage given to her incredible story, and particularly the mocking treatment she receives from her neighbors. The cosmic affair pursues her wherever she goes much like a scarlet letter on her arm. She reaffirmed the truthfulness of the experience and rejected the untruths put forth by the worst of the townspeople, who have tainted her good name.
The resourceful magazine correspondent later spoke to some local residents and was able to learn the local gossip.

According to the chattering classes, María Elodia had a secret boyfriend who visited her when her father, Pedro Jacobo Pretzel, was away from the motel. On the unhappy evening of June 14th, she received one of these clandestine visits, and her father arrived as her furtive lover fled through a side door. Believing that she would bear the brunt of her father’s jealousy, poor María broke into tears. Seeing how perplexed her father was at the dramatic scene, she dried her tears and made up the story of the galactic superman. We are not alone in distrusting the version of the events put forth by the locals, nor did the chronicler take their arguments seriously. He preferred to stress the sad impression he got from Ms. Pretzel: a woman on the brink of insanity.

The material gathered by the reporter, as one can easily suppose, did not meet the expectations of the unnamed merchant of mystery or defray the cost of sending his correspondent to that location. Therefore, it does not surprise me that none of what has been hitherto stated has appeared in the magazine in question. The brave should never avoid the truth. As Joan Manuel Serrat sang: “The truth is never sad…it just can’t be helped.”

The new information introduced by this article, however, will require a more complete confirmation if we seek to tilt the balance of credibility in one way or another.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Creator of the UMMO Hoax Passes Away in Spain

Spain's El Ojo Crítico informs us that Jose Luis Jordán Peña, the architect of the notorious UMMO hoax of the '60s and '70s, has passed away in Madrid. Jordán Peña was also responsible for the creation of a lesser known fraud - Pyrophos - with even darker overtones.





When asked if he regretted started the UMMO hoax, he had this to say:

"I do not regret having started it. I regret having made the truth known. Let's see. You have some kids. And you give the kids presents for Three Kings Day, or from Santa Claus if you're in North America. What a delight it is to see the joy of those children who believe in Santa Claus or the Three Kings! Now imagine that an older kid comes along - a jerk, because you'd have to be one - who tells them: "Don't believe it! It's your parents who give you presents! There are no Three Kings or Santa Claus!" It's downright brutal, isn't it?"

His death brings an end to one of the most controversial episodes in ufology.

Friday, September 05, 2014

Argentina: Unknown Object Over Villaguay



Source: VISION OVNI
Date: September 5, 2014


Argentina: Unknown Object Over Villaguay
By Silvia Pérez Simondini

Dear friends - José Javier Perotti of Villaguay, Entre Rios, has sent me an interesting home video - unedited, which makes it truthful. In any event, it is necessary to have it analyzed by our specialists to insure that we are facing an anomalous object. Thank you, José, for always being alert and collaborating with us.



VIDEO at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrOPtJaSjo0&feature=youtube_gdata

Thursday, September 04, 2014

Argentina: A UFO Over San Francisco de Bellocq

Source:La Voz del Pueblo (Argentina) and Planeta UFO
Date: August 27, 2014


Argentina: A UFO Over San Francisco de Bellocq

08.27.14 - it was captured yesterday morning in a photo taken by an aide to municipal delegate Gerardo Chedrese. Last night they noticed the presence of an oval, plate-shaped figure. There is even a similar one that is less visible. A report from the author of the image that has caused interest and renewed speculation.



There was considerable surprise last night in San Francisco de Bellocq when what looked like a spot or dot on the screen resulted in the discovery of an Unidentified Flying Object. Andrés Stessens, secretary to municipal delegate Gerardo Chedrese, took the photo - among others - yesterday morning from a tall structure in the community in order to capture the condition of flooded rural roads and adjacent areas. He was accompanied by Chedrese himself and two other locals as he used his camera. As hours went by, an unusual new development occurred.

The photo even shows a similar object, albeit less clear and more susceptible to being called into question. The clearest photo makes evident the presence in the sky of an oval or plate-shaped UFO. A revealing document that brings front and center a subject that is always the cause of analysis by experts and causes questions among the public.

"It is both impressive and odd," said Andrés Stessens to La Voz del Pueblo when asked about the matter by this newspaper.

When he decided to photograph adjacent areas to the community, flooded roads and the rural areas most affected by the storm on a windy morning, he had no idea that he could be capturing something that would result in the detection - hours later - of a shape that strongly resembles a plate.

"Looking at the photo in the evening to analyze the effects of the flood and the town's situation, we did a close-up with the zoom and saw it," he notes.

The shots were taken around 10:30 and 11 a.m. "There were four of us," he explains. "I took around ten photos and we found clearly visible plate-shapes in one of them. It's startling." A question arose in this regard: "One object or two?" Stessens stressed that "one can be clearly seen, and there is another similar shape in the distance, but much more distant and removed."

The computer magnification was employed in order "to better view the lagoon that is menacing the rear part of the town. Something was visible over the hills, we closed in on it and found a plate or a plate-shape." While he had heard of others' experiences, he noted "this had never happened to me, not personally. Never."

He uses his camera to document situations he finds interesting, although he is not a shutterbug. "In this case, it was due to the matter of water in the community, which causes concern. And we found this."

The story represented a different way to end the day to Andrés Stessens, Gerardo Chedrese and others who looked at the computer screen and agreed on the record's importance. Amid the difficulties caused by the storm, and while controls are scheduled from the delegation, an unexpected event occurred which shall draw even more attention after it is published in La Voz del Pueblo.

[Translation (c) 2014, S. Corrales, IHU, with thanks to Guillermo Giménez)

Argentina: Cattle Mutilation in Santa Fe

Argentina: Cattle Mutilation in Santa Fe
By Andrea Pérez Simondini



Thanks to our friend Marcelo Fasano we have learned of new cattle mutilation events in the locality of Reconquista, Santa Fe.

The story was covered by local station Radio Amanecer and is very interesting. It states that the animal's owner found the animal in a state of nevers and trembling on Friday the 15th, and the found it dead with these injuries on Monday the 18th.

Two new cases occurred during this instance: one of them in Villa Adela, in the Villa Ocampo district, at the farm of Osvaldo Marega; another occurred at Km.20, jurisdiction of Tartagal, in a field owned by the Miranda family. In each of these, the are not only many similarities to be found, but also with other events that have occured in different parts of this northern Santa Fe community in recent months.





[Translation (c) 2014, S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to G. Giménez, Planeta UFO]

Wednesday, September 03, 2014

Mexico: UFOs Reportedly Seen over Yucatán Airports



Source: MILENIO Novedades and Planeta UFO
Date: 09.02.2014


Mexico: UFOs Reportedly Seen over Yucatán Airports
By Jorge Moreno - SIPSE

According to witnesses, sightings have been reported at the Kaua and Merida terminals.

MERIDA, Yucatan – Mexican airports, and airports around the world, are some of the locations in which many UFO sightings have occurred. However, air traffic controllers, pilots and other staff working at these sites are under orders not to report them to avoid panic among the population.
However, there are cases that have been filtered, or rather, those in which civilian personnel have witnessed them. One of these cases took place a little over a decade ago in the airport located at Kaua (Eastern Yucatan) where local residents frequently reported strange lights over those sites. They thought at first they had to do with airport operations, but soon realized this was not the case upon speaking with airport staff, and also upon discovering that these lights in the sky came ever closer to the municipality and made no noise whatsoever despite flying at very low altitude.
When asking witnesses for a description, they noted that these were metallic objects measuring 2 or perhaps 3 meters in circumference, making irregular movements, noiseless, and disappearing at full speed vertically after flying over the town for some ten minutes.

A Pilot’s Testimony

An eyewitness account that bolsters the statements by residents of Kaua comes from retired pilot Martín Campos Faber, currently living in Cancún, and who says that he had the opportunity to make a couple of private flights to Kaua several years ago.

“Shortly before landing, I saw two strange craft – some UFOs. They were circling around us. I won’t deny the situation made me panic, since I feared the worse at having them so close, but they suddenly vanished; they took off at high speed. They had approached as though looking for something, or perhaps they became confused, and immediately took off. I can’t find another explanation for it,” he noted.

As for the Mérida Airport, our interviewee noted that he visited that site at times, but never saw anything strange, despite having been told a few anecdotes.

“Two retired colleagues told me about having seen some strange craft that didn’t seem to be from this world near Chichen Itzá and Uxmal. We’re familiar with all airplanes and can tell what we’re looking at without making mistakes. They feel it may be related to the site where they saw them (the archaeological ruins). There could be a connection in some way, I believe, between cultures such as the Maya civilization or these pyramids with the fact that UFOs also appear there. This relationship keeps repeating in the other cultures, such as Egypt’s.”

Living Near the Airport

It should be mentioned that little over a year ago we published a report from Mr. Roger Coral who also saw a UFO near his home, in the proximity of Merida International Airport.

“At the time (1989) I was working at DIF and my start time was 4 in the morning. So I would leave my home at the Emiliano Zapata Sur district, located behind the airport, very near its walls, around three thirty a.m.,” he explained.

“I left that morning as usual and had only progressed two blocks when something called my attention. Upon looking up, I saw a strange figure shaped like a swastika – that is to say, with broad light-covered tips surrounding it.” He adds: “ I could see the distances separating each light. I was afraid that it would cast its light on me, so I turned off my motorcycle and looked at it with great apprehension. I think I saw it for one or two minutes. Then a jet took off from the airport – one of the small ones – but it went by quickly. I know them well because I live near the terminal area and see them frequently. Well, when the jet reached the same altitude as the strange object, the UFO went after it, but was no longer spinning. It flew away with its lights to the east, but returned moments later and took off in the opposite direction, that is, to the west,” he concluded.

[Translation © 2014 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Guillermo Giménez, Planeta UFO
]

Monday, September 01, 2014

Leviathans of Space: Massive Unknown Craft




Leviathans of Space: Massive Unknown Craft
By Scott Corrales © 2014

We were assured by space writers and science fiction authors that the vastness of interstellar space could only be crossed by mammoth space vehicles – “generation ships”, in the parlance of some spinners of space yarns – crewed by generations of space travelers hoping to reach their destination centuries hence. The concept was ripe for speculation. What if the children of the children of the first crew became a series of stratified societies aboard their vehicle, and had forgotten the purpose of their mission? (Harlan Ellison’s Phoenix in Ashes, the novelized version of The Starlost), or the fate of the mission was entrusted to a single pilot while passengers endured dreamlike sleep until their destination was within reach (James White’s The Dream Millennium). This science fiction did not allow for super-passing gear of hyperdrive like space opera: crossing the blackness of space was a dangerous, laborious process whose ultimate payoff was never in sight.

“These children,” wrote Arthur C. Clarke in his landmark Report on Planet Three and Other Speculations, “knowing no parents, or indeed anyone of a different age, would grow up in the strange artificial world of their speeding ship, reaching maturity in time to explore the planets ahead of them – perhaps to be the ambassadors of humanity among alien races, or perhaps to find, too late, that there were no home for them there. If their mission succeded, it would be their duty, or that of their descendants, if the first generation could not complete the task, to see that the knowledge they had gained was someday carried back to Earth. Would any society be morally justified in planning so onerous and uncertain a future for its unborn – indeed unconceived – children?”

Speculative aliens may face a similar situation. Around this same time, Clarke also wrote about “worldlets” filled with extraterrestrials who might venture through our solar system, and perhaps this line of thought led him to write Rendezvous with Rama (1973), a work desperately calling for elevation to the silver screen for four decades. The British scientist’s Childhood’s End also introduced us to the concept of giant alien saucers hovering over our planet’s major cities as the mysterious Overlords changed the direction of human civilization.



Size matters, and many of us - this writer included - sat in wonderment at a movie theater as Darth Vader’s star destroyer dominated the entire screen in its pursuit of Princess Leia’s Tantive IV in the crucial opening minutes of Star Wars: A New Hope (just plain Star Wars in 1977). An even bigger surprise awaited viewers as Han Solo’s Corellian freighter was absorbed into the moon-sized Death Star. Here was a Clarkian “worldlet” capable not only of traveling from one planet to another, but also destroying it.

Using science-fiction as our springboard, we move on to the subject of gigantic vehicles – seemingly real – that are often reported in UFO chronicles. The presence of such behemoths has fuelled speculation about alien efforts at colonizing our own star system, although – referring back to pulp as a touchstone – such massive craft could be needed to pierce the barrier that separates one dimension from another, as suggested in Fritz Leiber’s The Wanderer.


A Forgotten Case: The Janos People

The story of The Janos People occupied the narrow middle ground between the UMMO hoax and contactee experiences of the 1950s and 1960s. In 1978, a family traveling down a lonely road somewhere in England found their routine journey intercepted by an unidentified flying object. During the course of this CE-3 experience, the humans were taken aboard the alleged craft. In the abduction-riddled '90s, they would have been subjected to series of gruesome experiments; but things were different in the '70s, even in matters involving extraterrestrial captors, who limited themselves to showing their unwilling guests a movie.


The projection - for want of a better term - told the story of the destruction of the planet Janos as one of its satellites - Saton - crumbled to bits and rained mountain-sized fragments on the planet below, destroying atomic power plants and enveloping the world in fallout.

The Janosians set themselves to work on a gargantuan spaceship constructed in the stricken planet's orbit (somewhere free from the meteoroids left over from the destruction of Saton, one supposes) and this too was displayed to the captives. This unimaginably large, ring-shaped worldlet held ten million people, and waited at the edges of our solar system for permission to embark on a colonization mission: whether on Earth proper or perhaps terraforming another planet like Mars or Venus.

The story appeared in a book - aptly called The Janos People - by Frank Johnson in 1980. The description of the Janosian homeworld is straight out of the UMMO playbook and – if real – suggests some dark psychological operation, whether by the military or another shadowy organization. Taken at face value, the humanoid Janosians are politely awaiting permission to settle in our system, and may still be waiting out there (could all those blurry photographs of “rogue planets” and comets circulating on the Internet really be snapshots of the Janosian worldlet? Throw that into the pot of speculation for good measure).

“If they were desperate,” suggests the ever-quotable Arthur C. Clarke in his essay When The Aliens Come, “if, for example, they were the last survivors of an ancient race whose mobile worldlet had almost exhausted its supplies after aeons of voyaging, they might be tempted to make a fresh home in the solar system. The barren Moon and the drifting slag heaps of the asteroid belt would provide all the raw materials they needed, and the Sun, all the energy.” This seems like a more acceptable solution than the one proposed by author Frank Johnson, who proposed vacating New Zealand to turn it over to the Janosians.

Desperation must not be a factor for the ten million alien souls aboard the Janosian ring-ship.

The Worlds of Oahspe

Now we venture into an even more uncomfortable no-mans-land: border regions where spiritualism has points of contact with drug-induced visions, such as those produced by the consumption of ayahuasca and other substances. The Oahspe Bible, a work of automatic writing produced by John Ballou Newbrough in the late 19th century, occupies a respected place among new age and general esoteric writings. John A. Keel noted in his works that some of the terminology employed in contacteeism hails from this mysterious volume, but that most contactees had never heard of Dr. Newbrough’s nine hundred page long received work. It is not our intention here to delve into the theology of Oahspe or the reality of the spirits that dictated the huge document, but rather to only touch on a particular aspect – the fact that the world “star ship” makes its first appearance in written English (according to
http://www.sacred-texts.com/oah/oah/).


“13. Onward moved the float, the fire-ship, with its ten million joyous souls, now nearing the borders of Horub, the boundary of Fragapatti's honored regions, known for hundreds of thousands of years, and for his work on many worlds. Here, reaching C'vork'um, the roadway of the solar phalanx, near the post of dan, where were quartered five hundred million ethereans, on a voyage of exploration of more than four millions of years, rich stored with the glories of Great Jehovih's universe. Their koa'loo, their ship, was almost like a world, so vast, and stored with all appurtenances. They talked of going home! Their pilots had coursed the firmament since long before the earth was made, and knew more than a million of roadways in the etherean worlds, and where best to travel to witness the grandest contrasting scenes.” (Book of Fragapatti, Son of Jehovih, Oahspe, 1912)

“Some of the giant starships are described in Oahspe as being from ethereal worlds,” observed Brinsley LePoer Trench – Lord Clancarty – in an article for SAGA UFO Report in 1976, “and others as from corporeal worlds such as our own. So almost 100 years ago Oahspe supported both the extra-dimensional theory and the extraterrestrial hypothesis. Indeed, Oahspe gives a history of both the etherean heavens and the corporeal worlds.” He concludes by saying: ‘In short, there may be a vast, galactic civilization in deep space, living not so much on physical planets but on giant spaceships the size of planets, as described in Oahspe.

The koa’loo certainly fits the bill for a Clarkian worldlet, - with room to spare – but it is a predecessor to other colossal conveyances described in the contactee tradition, such as the Ashtar Command’s flagship, the Shan Chea, depicted in contactee illustrations at a multi-leveled, football-shaped craft with a dozen separate decks ranging from a motor pool for flying saucers to the dome-shaped command deck from which Ashtarian officers survey the universe. Level Ten of this brobdingnagian craft contains "lodgings for visiting dignitaries from all dimensions" while Level Three contains a "zoo with animals of many worlds." Level Eight contains housing for the evacuees from the impending destruction of planet Earth.

"Rest assured that the Mansions of Space are ready and awaiting their guests," states the text accompanying the sketch of the giant spacecraft. "There will be no crowding of persons or things in these incredibly spacious, self-contained and extraordinarily organized floating aetheric ships. Seven of these pearly-white Space Cities are ready, and their sizes range from 10 miles in diameter (16 km) to the greatest of all, the one containing the headquarters of Lord Jesus Sananda, Lord Ashtar and the Ashtar Command, which is over one hundred miles in diameter." An unwise tongue may be moved to quip that Tarkin's Death Star was two hundred miles across, but did not contain such august characters.


The most attractive feature of this contactee vessel is the Grand Rotunda (on Level 11) where human visitors shall be summoned from their staterooms for a meeting with the space brothers. “Its impressive circular walls contain giant displays through which guests may enjoy the cosmic landscape, their own world, and events from the past and those yet to come.”

The foregoing may be ludicrous to some or charming fantasy to others. However, plans for a human-built worldlet were put forth a long time ago: Project Hyperion posited the creation of an "asteroid starship" to follow the discovery of possible inhabitable worlds by the Daedalus probe (conceived by the British Interplanetary Society decades ago). The guidelines for hollowing out an asteroid use science fiction as a blueprint - a concept employed by science fiction writer Larry Niven - which involves drilling into an asteroid with powerful laser beams of a kind we have yet to develop. Water tanks would be inserted into the cavity, which would be sutured, and the asteroid would be made to spin "like a pig on a spit" using ion-drive engines mounted on the structure's equator (http://www.icarusinterstellar.org/project-hyperion-the-hollow-asteroid-starship-dissemination-of-an-idea/).

Arrival of the Motherships

It could have been a scene out of a motion picture: the citizens of a small South American city, enjoying the warm summer night at open-air cafés and entertainment areas. The heat, according to the local press, was the reason for so many people being awake as two o’clock in the morning, looking for cool drinks and ice cream to make the situation more bearable.

This then, was the situation in the city of Joaquin V. Gonzalez – named after the Argentinean senator and chancellor of the University of La Plata – when a “strange, gigantic luminous creature, elongated and weightless” appeared in the dark skies, lighting everything around it and under it. The apparition was described in the media as a “UFO mothership” or “cigar-shaped UFO with intermittent flashing lights and a fixed red beacon”. The bemused onlookers saw the majestic and terrifying structure make its way south toward the community of El Tunal before their community was plunged into a blackout.

An article in the November 26 2009 edition of Diario Popular added that a two hundred square mile area had been affected by the power outage as a result of the unusual phenomenon. UFO researcher Luis Burgos stated the object was “what we call a mothership, a sort of space aircraft carrier measuring no less than 200-300 meters (roughly 600 -900 feet) long, and which usually issues smaller UFOs measuring between 8 and 10 meters in size, which later return to the [mothership].” Burgos found corroboration for the event in a sequence of photographs taken two days earlier, showing a spindle-shaped object. “Our correspondent in the town of the town of Comandante Luis Piedrabuena, in the province of Santa Cruz, has sent us an exceptional document showing a mothership that flew over the outskirts of that southern locality of our country. This "phantom UFO" was picked up by resident Jose Acosta as he took photos of his property, located 15 kilometers west of Piedrabuena and in the vicinity of the Santa Cruz River, at 1600 hours on November 24, 2009. According to calculations made by our analyst, Jorge Luis Figueiras, the object is at a distance of 7 kilometers and is among the typical cloud formations of the country, having an approximate altitude of 4000 meters. This gives the alleged airship a length of between 80- 100 meters (250-330 feet).”

The mysterious “mothership” reappeared over the city of Joaquin V. Gonzalez on December 19, 2009 during the day, interrupting cell phone and internet service around five o’clock in the evening.

Other “motherships” had been reported in Argentinean cases, such as the 1990 event in Necochea on the Atlantic Ocean. On Sunday, 29 April of that year, a spindle-shaped object was seen by dozens who described it as a “flying cigar”. The object flew silently over the coastline and vanished into the sea after heading south. Curiously enough, the sighting also occurred at five o’clock in the evening.

“Please God, don’t let this fall down, or it’ll destroy the world!”


This was the thought that crossed the mind of Antolín Medina in the wee hours of March 20, 1980. Medina was a part-time cab driver who had just completed a fare in the vicinity of Lugo in Spain’s northwestern corner. His story, featured in Marcelino Requejo’s OVNIS: Alto Secreto recounts a man’s chilling encounter with a gigantic spaceship.



As he drove along Route N-540 on a crystal clear spring night, Medina had just driven past the As Lamelas power substation when he felt a growing feeling of pressure in his chest, coupled with a sensation of static electricity in the air. Distressed, he pulled the vehicle over and got out, suddenly unable to breathe. Insensibly, his eyes drifted upward to look at the night sky, and were rewarded by a shocking scene: A huge, dark triangular object hung silently some two hundred feet overhead.

“I was stunned as I looked at it, and I remember thinking: Please God, don’t let this fall down, or it’ll destroy the world! It was so large, and since it made no noise, one couldn’t imagine how it kept itself aloft. I thought about what would happen if it suddenly crashed. It was solid, metallic, dark grey in color and truly impressive, beyond being merely large. It had some sort of nozzles on each of its corners, dark yellow in color. I watched it for nearly a minute and suddenly, the nozzles lit up three at a time, issuing a bluish-white light, very intense, but making no noise at all.”

According to the bewildered onlooker, the massive object tilted to the right, allowing him to make out its configuration: an equilateral triangle measuring 1800 meters (5900 feet) per side. “I’m not exaggerating,” Medina insisted. “It was right above me and one of the vertexes covered the town of Piedrafita, which is two kilometers distant in a straight line from where I stood.”

A science fiction filmmaker would have had the mountainous object rev up its engines to a deafening degree, bathe the protagonist in actinic light, and take off toward uncharted regions. What actually happened in Medina’s case was the object leaped skyward silently, turning into a distant point of light before vanishing altogether.

A triangular UFO measuring nearly six thousand feet should be considered among the largest unidentified objects ever reported, but Marcelino Requejo’s archives held one more surprise: a 1989 report involving a spherical mothership. Two guards assigned to the security detail of the Endesa power station outside A Coruña had been told to keep an eye on Monte de Muras – a hill whose high voltage towers were possible targets for terrorist activity.

The security officers positioned their vehicles in such a way that they could command the view of three hundred thousand volt lines that provided energy for the Alcoa plant in San Cibrao. Around five o’clock in the morning, one of the guards pointed out the presence of a group of yellow lights traveling in a row beyond the power grid. They then noticed a similar formation coming up on the other side of the hill, at some two hundred feet over the transmission towers.

“That’s when we realized that the sky was being covered by something very large, as it hid the stars as it moved,” said the main witness, who gave his name only as Carlos. “We got out of our cars and it was then that we could clearly see what was going on. It was truly incredible, inconceivable! The dark mass passing over our heads and the rows of lights flying over the high voltage lines were part of the same object. It was gigantic, hard to describe in mere words. The rows of yellow lights were the edges of that object!”

There was a distance of more than half a mile between each power line, which helped the onlookers get a better idea of the massive proportions of the craft. “It reminded me of outer space movies, where the giant ships have many compartments and protuberances underneath them. We looked behind it to get an idea of what it looked like, but the shape became lost in the distance. It looked like a giant rugby ball. It was over half a mile wide, so you can imagine how long it was. It was in excess of one mile long.”

The witness was very specific about the details: the object made no sound whatsoever, the only noise that evening being the strong prevailing winds. It did not change course and flew slowly, an estimated sixty kilometers an hour (short of 40 mph), taking a full twenty minutes to cover “the twenty two kilometer distance in a straight line to Ría de Viveiro.” Once the object reached the sea, it disgorged two white spheres down a column of light that projected into the water. One of these objects flew inland at dizzying speed, flying over the security guards. The colossal mothership eventually began to sway from one side to another, shooting skyward at a prodigious rate of speed.

Conclusion

One is reminded of the timeless illustration of the smaller fish being eaten by progressively larger fishes. Here we have it in reverse – the relatively small flying objects reported by tens of thousands of witnesses worldwide over the past sixty years, those which have been seen on the ground, the motherships that carry them (unless they are simply “traveling dimensional doorways” capable of delivering a payload to a specific location), perhaps even larger motherships that carry the motherships, and ultimately the planet-sized objects they hail from.