Colares UFO Flap Summary:

The Colares flap refers to an outbreak of UFO sightings that occurred in 1977 on the Brazilian island of Colares. During the outbreak, the UFOs allegedly attacked the citizens with intense beams of radiation that left burn marks and puncture wounds. These sightings led to the Brazilian government dispatching a team to investigate under the codename Operation Saucer (Portuguese: Operação Prato), but the government later recalled the team and classified the files until the late 1990s. The Colares flap refers to an outbreak of UFO sightings that occurred in 1977 on the Brazilian island of Colares. During the outbreak, the UFOs allegedly attacked the citizens with intense beams of radiation that left burn marks and puncture wounds. These sightings led to the Brazilian government dispatching a team to investigate under the codename Operation Saucer (Portuguese: Operação Prato), but the government later recalled the team and classified the files until the late 1990s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colares_UFO_flap













Brazilian Nationals Injured In Unprovoked UFO Attacks





Events At Colares In 1977

In 1977, the Brazilian island of Colares would be home base for some of the most extraordinary close encounters ever recorded. Only a few of the Island's city of Colares' 2,000 inhabitants would be spared the frightening light beams shot to the ground by many various flying objects. A number of residents managed to take photographs of the phenomenal flying death machines, or "chupa-chupas," as the locals called them.









Never had there been an event of unknown, flying objects with so many different variations of shape and size. There were reports of small UFOs, large UFOs, cigar-shaped, saucer-shaped, and more. Some of the objects were luminous, some were not, but all of them could be deadly. The unusual phenomena of the light beams lasted for months, sending the island of Colares and surrounding areas into a state of panic.

Colares Brazil Location Map

Beams of Different Color:

These strange death rays seemed to come from a Hollywood movie- projections of different colors of light and intensity aimed directly at frightened, fleeing citizens. Many hit by the beams were knocked unconcious and awoke with many various medical ailments, most prominently a type of anemia, or weakness. Many were diagnosed and treated by local physicians, hard pressed for a solution.









Trying to Make Contact:

The activity of the chupa-chupas was so frequent and powerful that the people of the region felt that aliens were trying to make contact with them though the powerful beams. As to the origin of the UFOs, some theorized that they would come and go from an undersea base near the Bay of Marajo, allowing the strange flying machines to appear, shoot their beams and disappear almost instantly.







Women & Chlidren Leave Homes:

During the siege, the citizenry was so frightened that many of the women left Colares, taking their children away from the terror of the UFOs. The men kept a vigil to protect their homes and possessions. They made large bonfires to light up the night, ofttimes used fireworks and banged on metal objects in hope of scaring off the intruding craft. Soon this was given up, seemingly it had no effect.









Victims' Claims:

One group of victims claimed to the press that: "They were immediately immobilized, as if a heavy weight pushed against their chest. The beam was about seven or eight centimeters in diameter and white in color. It never hunted for them but hit them suddenly. When they tried to scream no sound would come out, but their eyes remained open. The beam felt hot, almost as hot as a cigarette burn."







Patient Symptoms:

Doctor Wellaide Cecim Carvalho wrote: "All of them had suffered lesions to the face or the thoracic area." The lesions, looking like radiation injuries, "began with intense reddening of the skin in the affected area. Later the hair would fall out and the skin would turn black. There was no pain, only a slight warmth. One also noticed small puncture marks in the skin. The victims were men and women of varying ages, without any pattern."







The Chupa-Chupas:

Some of the local newspapers and journals tried to make the people of the Colares area believe that they were seeing satellites, military balloons, or other everyday objects. This only went to make the citizens angry, as they knew what they were seeing, and none of the media's explanations came close to describing the chupa-chupas, or their beams of light.





Operation Saucer:

COMAR (Comando Aéreo Regional, the Regional Air Command of the Brazilian Air Forces), arrived in Belém, and made a series of research projects in the region, under the project name "Operation Plate." (Operation Saucer) They would never affirm that UFOs or flying saucers were responsible for the beams of light, opting for a more "normal" explanation.





Results of Operation:

The Brazilian Air Force soon discovered the reason for the panic on the island, as their own personnel became targets of the beams of light. They did manage to take four video films of the objects, and many photographs, but no explanation was ever offered that satisfied the people of Colares.









In 1977, the Brazilian island of Colares was visited by flying objects of an unknown nature. Nearly all kinds of UFOs were seen, some big, some small, saucer shaped, cigar shaped, luminous or not, They arrived from the North every day, from the sky and also sometimes from underwater, and it lasted for months. Regularly, some Island's inhabitants were targeted by the objects, sending strange rays to them, and many were badly hurt. The Army intervenes, the press follows. 35 people were hurt by the strange rays, and all the civilian finally left the island.













The South American Military and the UFO Phenomenon





Operaçao Prato most desperate hour, without a doubt, came during the nightmarish siege of the Isle of Colhares in the Lower Amazon between 1977-78. This landmark case of Brazilian ufology dealt with the appearance of the notorious chupas -- boxlike flying contraptions which fired laser-like beams against the hapless inhabitants of Amazonian communities. These devices, whose depredations have been detailed by both Jacques Vallée and Daniel Rebisso Giese, caused Brazil's First Air Regional Command (COMAR) to dispatch its forces not to fight the aliens in some romantic real-life version of Independence Day, but to collect as much information on the unknown quantity and keep the hysterical population of the Amazon Delta under control.





At first, the military scoffed at the exploits of the chupas. But when reports were received from municipal officials, the very real fear of guerrilla activity prompted them to react. While some of COMAR's officers may have eventually believed that they faced an extraterrestrial adversary, the vast majority believed that one of the superpowers was testing advanced weaponry without permission in the Brazilian wilderness.







http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc1749.htm In his landmark book, Vampiros Extraterrestres Na Amazonia (Extraterrestrial Vampires of the Amazon), ufologist Daniel Rebisso Giese notes that the military personnel involved in the operations at Colhares managed to acquire considerable amounts of information in the form of photographs, video footage and audio recordings, but attempts at pursuing the enigmatic UFOs with helicopters proved fruitless. In an interview with author Pablo Villarubia, Rebisso noted that some of the soldiers involved in Operaçao Prato suffered nervous breakdowns while others went completely insane.













Sources:













Newspaper Announcements:





The first part of this research constitutes a bibliographical survey of all articles and reports published in the periodicals of Para' such as A PROVINCIA DO PARA', O LIBERAL, and ESTADO DO PARA'. However, the same was not possible, for the reasons previously described, with the press of Maranha~o. We read all the articles of the cited periodicals and feel that the press of Para' related in a very interesting form the development of the Chupa-Chupa phenomenon. All of the articles were heavily illustrated and taken at the locations of incidence, together with the testimonials... If today we are able to reconstitute this ufological wave, it is due to the press and the care of the Public Library of Bele'm.



Journalists On The UFO Trail





"On May 24, 1978, the unbelievable happened on the sloping waterfront at Baía do Sol township. The night was dark, with no stars visible in the sky. At 2.00am as they were sitting in their car sheltering from the heavy rain, the Estado do Pará’s reporters were awakened by a powerful beam of light which - however unbelievable it may seem - passed through the metallic structure of the roof of the vehicle. Alarmed, they rapidly got out of the car. Then, when already a small distance from the car, they saw that a tube-shaped light beam, about ten inches in diameter, was coming down from above onto the roof of the car and passing through the metal paneling. All of this went on for about two minutes. When they started taking photographs, the craft, which was emitting the light beams and hanging silent and stationary in the air, at once lit up all the tree-tops all around."









"One of the features that at once aroused my curiosity was the luminous signals that foreshadowed the arrival of the craft. Those beams of light crossed the sky horizontally and were repeated between 7 and 9 times, during an interval of 10 to 45 seconds. The UFOs always appeared from precisely that direction ie North)."





"In particular, it is my belief that the purpose of the light beams is to prepare the route of the mother-craft, in as much as the latter never produced any sound during its passage - such "flashes" being designed maybe to remove all matter existing along the intended trajectory of the craft."





"We saw the mother-ships several times, and some of them had a row of lighted windows. The smaller craft were released from them via a sort of cockpit which would open up in the lower part of the larger craft." http://wiki.razing.net/ufologie.net/htm/colaresjournalists.htm#journalists













Object Fires a Light Ray at the Locals and Fly Away





One of the reports describes a yellow to red object flying at low altitude and without noise. Suddenly, it emitted a long bluish light beam hitting the victim on the lumbar region. This part of the body became numb. The victim also complained of paralyzing, muscular pain, and others for several days. Another story talks about a flying object of more or less 100 meters in size described by a Colares local. He said the object emitted strong light beams against the city. When it stopped the local aimed his rifle at the object and shot once. Then, he run away and hided in the bushes. Several locals spoke of a sighting over the Jejutauá estuary. A big, bright object at more or less 1.500 m and flying faster than a jet plane. The object turned suddenly and disappeared within the dark night of the Marajó bay.





On November 1st, 1977, the military set up an UFO observation post on the Colares water-tower, when a strange event caught their attention: at midnight, a blue light, already saw in previous sightings, was moving from south to north and stopped above the sand bank called Coroa Vermelha. Another bright object, yellow to red, came closer and became dark when it touched the light. Half an hour later, another object did the same, disappearing after “landing” on the blue light. Captain Hollanda said that a huge bright object, which seemed to be the 'mothership', has been a 100 meters from them. “I was terrified. At that moment I didn't know what could happen. They could have taken us. They could have done anything they want to us. Another time, they were at Baía do Sol and it was around 7:00 in the morning, Hollanda says, soon after the sun rising. “We didn't see anything when, suddenly, a huge disc-shaped object, with more or less 30 meters of diameter and 50 meters in height, hovered above us”. http://www.ufo.com.br/materiaespecial/brazilianairforce.htm

4 Images from the Collection of Photographic Evidence

http://www.ufo.com.br/public/documentos/Fotos_da_Operacao_Prato_01/









Air Force Alerted:





COMAR (Comando Aéreo Regional, the Regional Air Command of the Brazilian Air Forces), arrived in Belém, and made a series of research in the region, under the project name "Operation Plate." Captain Uyrangê Bolivar Soares Nogueira de Hollanda Lima, head of information office, directed all the operations in the region. During the investigations, the Air Forces obtained four films and hundreds of photographs of flying disks in the basin of Marajó. They also were a great help to the population, providing psychologists assistance, to eliminate the panic that sized the entire region.





The beams of light from the craft were described as being so bright that they resembled those used to illuminate night sporting events. They were "always sharply defined, directed with perfect precision towards any target – houses, people, boats, trees, even the Brazilian Air Force's helicopters deployed over the island during the investigations. On one occasion one of these powerful beams is reported to have obliged one of the helicopters to land, although the exact technical reason is not given. (Giese, 1996)





According to a statement by Sr. Sebastião V. Miranda, former resident of Colares, "the Brazilian Air Force spent more than 35 days in the town, and installed various devices near the Bacurí beach.





Sra. Alba Câmara Vilhena, a married lady living at 683 rua 15 de Novembro, added: "At the time of the 'Chupa-Chupa' everybody was scared to sleep at night, and so almost every night we went away to be with relatives. On one occasion some people saw one of the craft. It was round, and all luminous. Just at that moment a helicopter of the F.A.B. (Brazilian Air Force) was flying quite near to our house. Then we saw the UFO direct a very powerful beam on to the helicopter, obliging it to land on the São Pedro Airfield. That happened at about 8.00 pm one evening."





Professor Raimundo Sebastião Aranha said: "At that period I was closely connected with some of the Air Force's enquiries. They were seeking more information about the "Chupa-Chupa."





He said the Air Force had with them masses of equipment: cars, helicopters, radio transmitters, cameras, powerful glasses, etc., etc., He recalls that, in addition to the rank and file Air Force recruits, there was a whole group of officers and he had the impression that there was a foreigner among them. The helicopters that appeared from time to time, bringing material and personnel, attempted to chase the UFOs but without much success. Indeed, on the contrary, it was the UFOs that chased them!" http://wiki.razing.net/ufologie.net/htm/colares.htm#events

















The Investigation by Jacques Vallee:





It is in the islands around Belém, where the waters of the Tarantins and the Amazon majestically come to meet the ocean one degree south of the equator, that the 1977 Brazilian wave culminated; and it is there that for the first time the proof of the reality of the phenomenon was obtained. More specifically, as Daniel Rebisso has revealed, the culmination took place over a three-month period from July to September 1977 on the island of Colares and on the beach of Baia do Sol, on the island of Mosqueiro. (Ref. Rebisso Giese, OVNI no Para)





We found fishermen there who had witnessed the objects, and a doctor who had ministered to the medical needs of dozens of people hit by the light from the chupa. She confirmed that one of her patients died after the experience. Several of these witnesses also told us that they had observed two teams of Brazilian military filming the objects, attempting contact.





Ground truth: there was no denying the wave of 1977. It started in June near Cape Gurupi, north of the town of Vizeu, and it moved in both directions along the coast: toward São Luís to the east and toward Belém to the west during June and July; it reached a peak in September and October.





The reason the phenomenon could not be denied was very simple: every evening the UFOs appeared, coming from the north. In some cases, they flew down from the sky, in others, they emerged out of the ocean. I saw a photograph of an object with a luminous white ring flying right out of the brackish water at dusk.





They came over the islands at low altitude and circled; they descended as if to land; they made loops and accelerated suddenly; they hovered over houses and probed the inside with beams. They even emerged out of larger objects and reentered them. And this happened on schedule, every evening for three months. http://wiki.razing.net/ufologie.net/htm/colaresvallee.htm





"Above are the reconstitution of the cylindrical object commonly called Chupa-chupa. We described the presence of two figures similar to sighted humans through a window.



In detail: the same photo, 1978, without mount."

Translated Article:











Triangle UFO Illustration - Operation Prato Documents









Circular UFO Illustration - Operation Prato Documents

http://www.ufo.com.br/documentop.php







Multiple Objects Tracked on Radar

The high point of the current release is the final report on the so-called Official Night of UFOs in Brazil, was consecrated as the night of 19 to May 20, 1986, when a most extraordinary cases in the history of Brazilian and World Ufology.



For several hours from the start that night and until dawn the next day, more than 20 unidentified flying objects saturate the radar screens of the Integrated Center for Air Defense and Air Traffic Control (Cindacta), featuring a veritable "invasion" . UFOs, initially detected in the Paraíba Valley region, around the city of Sao Jose dos Campos (SP) - one of the areas of strategic importance for the country - then spread and also flying over the states of Rio de Janeiro and Goias The situation was so serious that even the president at the time, the current Senator Jose Sarney, was agreed by the then Minister of Aviation, Brigadier Julius Octavio Moreira Lima, who has 20 days in the national media called for an official pronouncement on the facts. Were made available to the press, to respond to questions, the pilots of Air Force fighters (FAB) which gradually took off from Air Bases de Santa Cruz (RJ) and Annapolis (GO), in order to pursue and identify targets that were blocking the radar screens, and that, by observing them, had amazing speed and displacement.



Approximation of objects - In addition to military pilots aboard our modern aircraft at the time, were also among the witnesses of the occurrences civilian pilots of commercial aircraft and high-profile figures in the country, as Colonel Ozires Silva, who has tried a chase one of the alien ships, aboard a plane piloted by the commander Xingu Alcir Pereira da Silva, when they approached the city of Sao Jose dos Campos. The duo had the opportunity to encircle an artifact when it was below the altitude of the Xingu, as stated in an interview with Radio Bandeirantes. The colonel was president of Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica (Embraer), headquartered in the city, and was preparing to assume the presidency of Petrobras. Amid the news conference, the very Moreira Lima promised that within 30 days the Air Ministry would release a detailed and definitive about everything that had happened during those memorable hours, in which numerous UFOs were placed in check our air defense and ability to control air traffic in the country. One of the most striking declarations of military power was the reference to the acceleration of these objects, which reached speeds, its shifts and changes of trajectory, that crush any human pilot to control an aircraft with the technological limitations of our civilization.



The high point of the current release is the final report on the so-called Official Night of UFOs in Brazil, was consecrated as the night of 19 to May 20, 1986, when a most extraordinary cases in the history of Brazilian and World Ufology.For several hours from the start that night and until dawn the next day, more than 20 unidentified flying objects saturate the radar screens of the Integrated Center for Air Defense and Air Traffic Control (Cindacta), featuring a veritable "invasion" . UFOs, initially detected in the Paraíba Valley region, around the city of Sao Jose dos Campos (SP) - one of the areas of strategic importance for the country - then spread and also flying over the states of Rio de Janeiro and Goias The situation was so serious that even the president at the time, the current Senator Jose Sarney, was agreed by the then Minister of Aviation, Brigadier Julius Octavio Moreira Lima, who has 20 days in the national media called for an official pronouncement on the facts. Were made available to the press, to respond to questions, the pilots of Air Force fighters (FAB) which gradually took off from Air Bases de Santa Cruz (RJ) and Annapolis (GO), in order to pursue and identify targets that were blocking the radar screens, and that, by observing them, had amazing speed and displacement.Approximation of objects - In addition to military pilots aboard our modern aircraft at the time, were also among the witnesses of the occurrences civilian pilots of commercial aircraft and high-profile figures in the country, as Colonel Ozires Silva, who has tried a chase one of the alien ships, aboard a plane piloted by the commander Xingu Alcir Pereira da Silva, when they approached the city of Sao Jose dos Campos. The duo had the opportunity to encircle an artifact when it was below the altitude of the Xingu, as stated in an interview with Radio Bandeirantes. The colonel was president of Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica (Embraer), headquartered in the city, and was preparing to assume the presidency of Petrobras. Amid the news conference, the very Moreira Lima promised that within 30 days the Air Ministry would release a detailed and definitive about everything that had happened during those memorable hours, in which numerous UFOs were placed in check our air defense and ability to control air traffic in the country. One of the most striking declarations of military power was the reference to the acceleration of these objects, which reached speeds, its shifts and changes of trajectory, that crush any human pilot to control an aircraft with the technological limitations of our civilization. http://www.ufo.com.br/index.php?arquivo ... hp&id=4483









Uyrangê's Interview and Death

In 1997, two decades after the operation, Captain Uyrangê gave an interview to researches Ademar José Gevaerd (editor of UFO Magazine, founder and president of the CBPDV (Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas de Discos Voadores, or Brazilian Center of Flying Saucer Research), national director of the Mutual UFO Network) and Marco Antônio Petit. In this interview, he tells the experience he lived with his men. Some three months after the interview, he was found dead hanging on his own belt. In 1997, two decades after the operation, Captain Uyrangê gave an interview to researches Ademar José Gevaerd (editor of UFO Magazine, founder and president of the CBPDV (Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas de Discos Voadores, or Brazilian Center of Flying Saucer Research), national director of the Mutual UFO Network) and Marco Antônio Petit. In this interview, he tells the experience he lived with his men. Some three months after the interview, he was found dead hanging on his own belt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera%C3%A7%C3%A3o_Prato







Colonel Hollanda revealed to investigators he was contacted by an Alien entity http://www.ufo.com.br/public/documentos ... _Hollanda/





illustrations drawn by Hollanda depicting the Alien entity





OPERAÇÃO PRATO - Interview with Colonel Holland Uyrangê



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql0djKXTn7U













Physician Compelled By Brazilian Air Force To Lie About UFOs

"I've been compelled by Brazilian Air Force to convince the locals that the lights attacking them were mass hallucinations and that what they saw has never happened". Who says this, after reading the material published yesterday by newspaper O Liberal about the "suck-suck" phenomena, a weird episode that terrified many communities at Colares, Vigia, Santo Antonio do Taua, Mosqueiro e Baía do Sol in the end of 1977 and beginning of 1978, is Wellaide Cecim Carvalho.



She was the responsible for a health care unit at Colares at that time. She treated about 80 victims of the mysterious lights. "I was the first one to make contact with the victims of the suck-suck phenomena. In spite of my 22 years old at that time and being completely skeptic, I started to notice changes the medicine failed to explain. The burns on the victims' skin were almost always on the neck and the breast, with two small and parallel holes, as if it was a little bite, but it wasn't".



Wellaide Cecim Carvalho

Doctor on public health and psychiatry, Wellaide Cecim says that after 60 days of daily records, more than 120 cases, she started to report these cases to their superiors. But she wasn't prepared to their reaction: She has been forbidden to admit something strange was happening. "But, being faithful to what I see, not to what I hear, I kept on speaking. Even under the risk of being fired".



http://wiki.razing.net/ufologie.net/htm/colareswc.htm





http://www.viafanzine.jor.br/site_vf/ufovia/prato3.htm Translated Article: http://alturl.com/q442 "I've been compelled by Brazilian Air Force to convince the locals that the lights attacking them were mass hallucinations and that what they saw has never happened". Who says this, after reading the material published yesterday by newspaper O Liberal about the "suck-suck" phenomena, a weird episode that terrified many communities at Colares, Vigia, Santo Antonio do Taua, Mosqueiro e Baía do Sol in the end of 1977 and beginning of 1978, is Wellaide Cecim Carvalho.She was the responsible for a health care unit at Colares at that time. She treated about 80 victims of the mysterious lights. "I was the first one to make contact with the victims of the suck-suck phenomena. In spite of my 22 years old at that time and being completely skeptic, I started to notice changes the medicine failed to explain. The burns on the victims' skin were almost always on the neck and the breast, with two small and parallel holes, as if it was a little bite, but it wasn't".Doctor on public health and psychiatry, Wellaide Cecim says that after 60 days of daily records, more than 120 cases, she started to report these cases to their superiors. But she wasn't prepared to their reaction: She has been forbidden to admit something strange was happening. "But, being faithful to what I see, not to what I hear, I kept on speaking. Even under the risk of being fired".









Saucers and Soldiers ? The Amazon Scenario Examined









By 1969, just as Project Blue Book was winding down in the U.S., the Brazilian Air Force was setting up its Sistema de Investiga³ao de Objetos Aereos Nao Idenficados, or SIOANI. This operation coincided with the oft-mentioned Operacao Prato (Operation Plate), whose purpose was that of a collecting information on UFOs from the riverine communities of the Amazon Basin as well as investigate and photograph any anomalous phenomena. However, researchers of distinction, such as Fernando Cleto Nunes Pereira have argued that the bulk of the information collected by Operasao Prato was turned over to the U.S. Air Force. Brazil, having neither the resources nor indeed an overwhelming interest in exploring the UFO enigma, would barter its findings for more tangible benefits.





Operacao Prato most desperate hour, without a doubt, came during the nightmarish siege of the Isle of Colhares in the Lower Amazon between 1977-78. This landmark case of Brazilian ufology dealt with the appearance of the notorious chupas - boxlike flying contraptions which fired laser-like beams against the hapless inhabitants of Amazonian communities. These devices, whose depredations have been detailed by both Jacques Vall,e and Daniel Rebisso Giese, caused Brazil's First Air Regional Command (COMAR) to dispatch its forces not to fight the aliens in some romantic real-life version of Independence Day, but to collect as much information on the unknown quantity and keep the hysterical population of the Amazon Delta under control.



At first, the military scoffed at the exploits of the chupas. But when reports were received from municipal officials, the very real fear of guerrilla activity prompted them to react. While some of COMAR's officers may have eventually believed that they faced an extraterrestrial adversary, the vast majority believed that one of the superpowers was testing advanced weaponry without permission in the Brazilian wilderness.





The United States manifested an interest in the region for the first time in the 1960's, when American interest penetrated the Amazon Basin in search of a rare mineral - niobium, a silvery- grey metal vital to the production of spaceflight-related alloys and the cores of nuclear reactors, as niobium cannot be corroded by uranium. Both niobium and manganese can be found in relative abundance within Amazonia.



U.S. awareness of the area further increased in 1994, when the Raytheon corporation (famous for its Patriot missiles employed during the Gulf War) was awarded a $1.4 billion dollar contract to build a radar system. This in itself is hardly surprising, given the company's record of building similar facilities for the U.S. Navy, particularly the highly controversial "over the horizon" system (ROTHR) being deployed on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. The curious note was that the call for bids had issued from Brazil, which was interested in creating an advanced radar network within Amazonia to be known as SIVAM.



http://www.rense.com/general33/ss.htm http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc1749.htm









The Amazon Surveillance System, or SIVAM is a project developed by the armed forces of Brazil in order to monitor the airspace of the Amazon.



UFO activity has been particularly heavy in the Brazilian, Peruvian and Bolivian Amazon and its tributary rivers, leading many to strongly suspect the existence of a "UFO base" in the region. Such a belief was voiced as early as 1965, when Dr. Olavo Fontes speculated on a possible extraterrestrial "military" invasion in the northern part of Brazil. A retired military man, Gen. Moacyr Uchoa, seconded this belief, stating that his nation's air force had considerable evidence pointing to the existence of such a site. Uchoa's personal skepticism of the phenomenon was overcome when his daughter was cured of a terminal illness by a UFO entity.By 1969, just as Project Blue Book was winding down in the U.S., the Brazilian Air Force was setting up its Sistema de Investiga³ao de Objetos Aereos Nao Idenficados, or SIOANI. This operation coincided with the oft-mentioned Operacao Prato (Operation Plate), whose purpose was that of a collecting information on UFOs from the riverine communities of the Amazon Basin as well as investigate and photograph any anomalous phenomena. However, researchers of distinction, such as Fernando Cleto Nunes Pereira have argued that the bulk of the information collected by Operasao Prato was turned over to the U.S. Air Force. Brazil, having neither the resources nor indeed an overwhelming interest in exploring the UFO enigma, would barter its findings for more tangible benefits.Operacao Prato most desperate hour, without a doubt, came during the nightmarish siege of the Isle of Colhares in the Lower Amazon between 1977-78. This landmark case of Brazilian ufology dealt with the appearance of the notorious chupas - boxlike flying contraptions which fired laser-like beams against the hapless inhabitants of Amazonian communities. These devices, whose depredations have been detailed by both Jacques Vall,e and Daniel Rebisso Giese, caused Brazil's First Air Regional Command (COMAR) to dispatch its forces not to fight the aliens in some romantic real-life version of Independence Day, but to collect as much information on the unknown quantity and keep the hysterical population of the Amazon Delta under control.At first, the military scoffed at the exploits of the chupas. But when reports were received from municipal officials, the very real fear of guerrilla activity prompted them to react. While some of COMAR's officers may have eventually believed that they faced an extraterrestrial adversary, the vast majority believed that one of the superpowers was testing advanced weaponry without permission in the Brazilian wilderness.The United States manifested an interest in the region for the first time in the 1960's, when American interest penetrated the Amazon Basin in search of a rare mineral - niobium, a silvery- grey metal vital to the production of spaceflight-related alloys and the cores of nuclear reactors, as niobium cannot be corroded by uranium. Both niobium and manganese can be found in relative abundance within Amazonia.U.S. awareness of the area further increased in 1994, when the Raytheon corporation (famous for its Patriot missiles employed during the Gulf War) was awarded a $1.4 billion dollar contract to build a radar system. This in itself is hardly surprising, given the company's record of building similar facilities for the U.S. Navy, particularly the highly controversial "over the horizon" system (ROTHR) being deployed on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. The curious note was that the call for bids had issued from Brazil, which was interested in creating an advanced radar network within Amazonia to be known as SIVAM.The Amazon Surveillance System, or SIVAM is a project developed by the armed forces of Brazil in order to monitor the airspace of the Amazon. http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIVAM Location Map: SIVAM in Manaus

6.7m (22ft) diameter S-band sandwich radome installation in Manaus, Brazil

UFO Photographed by Military Personnel during "Operation Prato"