1977 Colares UFO Flap / Operação Prato

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ParanoidSkeptic2

Active Member
This is quite an interesting one, in 1977, in the city of Colares, Brazil, a bunch of people, on multiple occasions, spotted lights in the. There's been many UFO spotting outbreaks in the past in different countries, but what makes this one more interesting is that, allegedly, these bright lights fired "beams" of radiations at the civilians, leaving burn marks, scars and (allegedly in some cases) death (although this one is highly suspect as I only found one person saying this, and he's not the most reliable: Jacques Vallee)

The radiation beam has been described as being 7 to 8 in diameter and being white. The heat of the beam has been described as being similar to a cigarette burn. A Brazilian doctor investigated these injuries.

Article:
Describing the injuries, Doctor Wellaide Cecim Carvalho - who worked in a health care unit in the area during the 1970s - 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."


Reports of people losing blood or being injured seemed to only grow after the lights were dubbed "Chupa-Chupa" (Sucker-sucker).

Due to the growing panic, the military was tasked with investigating this phenomena,

Article:
A 2,000-page military report was soon compiled, featuring 500 photographs and 16 hours of film that the FAB reportedly witnessed with their own eyes.


Mass hallucination/hysteria were ruled out due to the injuries serving as physical evidence of something happening

Article:
She said: "This is what the Air Force always asked me to say.

It did not happen any kind of mass hysteria or visual hallucinations.

"The psychiatry proves it didn't happen. It may happen mystic collective problems when people commit mass suicide.

"But nobody can have the same delirium, the same visual, sonic and synthetic hallucination at the same time and in different places."


The doctor had been visited by around 35 patients regarding this.

The investigation ended after four months due to no unusual phenomena being recorded.

(Translated from Portuguese by the automatic google translator)
Article:
Known as "Operation Dish", the investigation took place between 1977 and 1978, but the occurrence of strange phenomena in the city has never been proven.


I found some of the pictures of both these lights in the skies and the diagram's made by the military personnel:

1622320273921.png

Source: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url...ved=0CAkQjhxqFwoTCPjmu8bd7_ACFQAAAAAdAAAAABAk

1622320386673.png

Source: http://stendekkk.blogspot.com/2011/12/ufo-coverup-attacks-of-brazilian.html

Regarding the alleged fatalities, I could not find anything substantial. The only person to perpetuate that was Jacques Vallee and he's not the most reliable source, no other source mentions death, just these injuries. Speaking of, I could only find one image of a doctor examining the injuries of an alleged victim.

1622321423664.png

Source: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url...ved=0CAkQjhxqFwoTCOiKkL_g7_ACFQAAAAAdAAAAABAF

There's also written documentation of the report online but I don't speak Portuguese so I don't know how valuable that would be.

This is a rather interesting case and I don't know what to make of it, I do not think it's aliens, I think there's something more mundane at play here but I just don't know what. This has received very little skeptical attention and, due to that as well as the oddity of the situation, is used by true believers as the most compelling case of aliens visiting earth.
 
ParanoidSkeptic2 said:
There's also written documentation of the report online but I don't speak Portuguese so I don't know how valuable that would be.
Click to expand...
mufon has alleged translations of some of the testimonies. starting on document page 10 here
https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/MUFON/Pratt/prato.pdf

i'm not seeing much for injuries, but ufologists may not have full documents here. But the doctor quoted above ""Later the hair would fall out and the skin would turn black. There was no pain, only a slight warmth."

doesnt mention that in the report at the time.

page 8
Article:
Wellaide Carvalho, the doctor in Colares at the time, told Daniel and me in 1993 that
she had treated about forty people who had been burned and that two of them died.
She said members of the Air Force team knew people had been burned


had her own sightings. page 17


External Quote:
771016/18:30 and 771022/19:30 – Colares – Wellaide Cecim Carvalho, 24, doctor and
head of the Colares Hospital – Dr. Wellaide affirmed having
observed on the days and hours respectively cited a bright
metallic object spinning over the front part of the village
.....
She said, besides
"crise nervosa," her patients
had other symptoms… (Partial
paralysis of the body)
evidencing a different …
clinical picture when having a
crise nervosa where the areas of attack were the extremities. Her patients reported
headaches, debility, dizziness, generalized tremors… and, more important, first degree burns marked by tiny perforations. According to the sex, the males on
the neck (jugular) and the women on the chest (only one case).

wiki says quoting a 2011 article:

Article:
Believing it would keep the lights away, residents of Colares organized night vigils,[2] lit fires, and ignited fireworks.[4]


1622333712430.png
 
For the record, this is the official untranslated paper by Air Force from Brazilian National Archive. It describes 130 sightings and contains a press reader (unfortunately many press reprints are unreadable). No injuries are mentioned in that paper. Also, I can't find this sighting, widely circulated with and without stamps. Other official papers, dated 1989 and 1991, state those stamps are fake and were reprinted from the back of a picture by a retired officer.

1622375168417.png
 
kasparovitch said:
Also, I can't find this sighting
Click to expand...
Can you read portugese? what does the written text say under the picture?

on the black vault they have that pic like this
Screenshot 2021-05-30 102550.png


i only translated the first few lines of the typed text. and i totally guessed what the written text might say based on a search for the word "dome". and what i assume in the written text is the word "transparent". Neither of these two match well unless you meld them together?

External Quote:

pg 27 nov 2 77

771102/19:00-21:30 – Rio Guajará-Olaria Keuffer – Light moving below tree-top level,
lighting up the area like daylight. Because of its brightness the witness couldn't
see the structural details. It was circular with a reddish dome on top… giving
the impression it was transparent; at a distance of 70 meters it appeared to be about
three meters in diameter and two meters high (base to top of dome). In the bottom a
porthole opened and a humanoid-shaped being got out, short but muscular,
wearing a tight, dark seamless uniform (light was behind him); it was floating; a
reddish beam of light came out of his hand and went straight toward the witness,
who ran away. As the witness was running, he saw the being examine his fishing net.
Then the humanoid returned to the object, which then moved toward the witness at low
altitude with a searchlight seeking the witness. The witness ran away across
the mud flats and later arrived at a place where his friends were waiting in a boat. As he
was telling them about the incident, the object appeared again with a different color,
reddish on top and blue-green below. They all fled the place. The humanoid
came out again, inspected the boat and then returned to the object,
which disappeared beyond the trees. The witness was examined by doctors and
psychologists but no abnormalities were found


pg 32
771106/19:00 – Colares – Antônio de Souza, 51, retired Pará military policeman,
resident of Colares – He was watching television when persistent interference made it
difficult. He went outside to check the antenna on the roof… and saw a lighted
object, color gray, almost white, round with a dome on top, having what
he judged to be two tubes of small diameter from which green and red light
came out; size estimated at 1.50 centimeters at a distance of about 500 meters.
https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/MUFON/Pratt/prato.pdf
 
Deirdre, unfortunately source official paper couldn't be uploaded so far and I placed a question in forum to solve that and wait for an answer.

In source paper I can't find any sightings on Nov. 6, 1977 at 7pm. All 3 sightings that day happened from 5.08am to 5.25am (sightings N.º 26-28).

Translation of image above with fake stamps:
Profile: oval with a transparent dome on top (witness though it was a gas tank) [...]

I guess they mean it was something like a dome in glass perhaps.

This is sighting Rio Guajará - Olaria Keuffer on Nov. 2, 1977 at 7-9pm from source paper (sighting N.º 17):

1622388139785.png


04. Description: glowing body
05. Color: red-like (superior) and green-blue (inferior)
06. Shape: round, transparent dome on top.
13. Witness claims ufo landed and a humanoid about 1.50m tall (59in.) left through a lower hatchway in sticking [?] clothes and examined the place witness had just left (net). [a fishing net? There were many fishermen there, my question].

Translation of typed text you mention:

Gray (celestial) color slightly glowing body with an oviform dome on top, two pipes on front side, on bottom a red-like circle (brazier), diameter was calculated as 1.50m, no sounds produced, and glow reflected throughout all structure. They saw colorful light emitting from frontal pipes: green and red. Low altitude (?). Distance 500m. Note: caused interference on a TV set witness was working on [repairing it? My question].

I think that until this paper can be found on Brazilian National Archive its genuineness is uncertain. Stamps are known to be fake and handwritten text reads on bottom: based on original, so it's not a source text.
 
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kasparovitch said:
I think that until this paper can be found on Brazilian National Archive its genuineness is uncertain.
Click to expand...
do they have anything handwritten in Brazilian Archive? I didn't try to find it based on language issues. Does the handwriting, on questioned drawing photo, look like other handwriting you can access?

Are the reports from the investigative team in what you can see? According to articles, the investigating team saw a bunch of stuff too. But i didnt notice any observations from THEM in what is on Black Vault site from Mufon.

Perhaps their (the investigation team) personal sightings are still classified?
 
So far, I found 4 papers in Brazilian National Archive:

BR_DFANBSB_ARX_0_0_0184 source report I'm trying to upload, 160 pages. sightings by military personnel are included.
BR_DFANBSB_ARX_0_0_0271 report certifying stamps are fake
BR_DFANBSB_ARX_0_0_0322 report claiming a confidential report published by magazine "UFO DOCUMENTO" N.º 2, 1991, was leaked by a named retired officer (same who supplied fake copy of stamps).
BR_DFANBSB_ARX_0_0_0647 letter from ufogenesis.com.br requesting release of official papers, dated 2004.

Source paper 0184 contains some handwritten sketches like that one, but not that one. I attach one here (same signature).

I don't know if any papers are still classified.

1622394700077.png
 
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Files can't be attached if they're larger than 50MB. I couldn't compress source paper without losing quality at large, so I split it in 2:

I hope this isn't against forum rules, but I had to rename extension from 2nd file to be allowed to upload. So, file ending in "SPLIT01.zip" must be renamed to "SPLIT.z01".
 

Attachments

I agree on the matching. If I understand it correctly, they say the report was done by DANIEL REBISSO GIESE and was leaked by JOÃO FLÁVIO DE FREITAS COSTA. Signature seems started by a "J" or perhaps an "F" like Freitas, but it's hard to tell.

1622400325756.png


The source paper may be missing some part before it as it looks like an appendix. Military documents use to start with a signed letter addressing it to someone and disclosing what type of report it is. This is a listing of sightings and a press reader just titled "RECORD OF USO SIGHTINGS".

Brazilian National Archive is very hard for searches. It offers a version in English, but it doesn't help much. I can only search a word at a time for instance.

Anyone can register in Brazilian National Archive:

SIAN - Brazilian National Archive

To register, use it in Portuguese version and click "criar cadastro"" (register) and then "Estrangeiro" (foreigner).
 
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kasparovitch said:
The source paper may be missing some part before it as it looks like an appendix. Military documents use to start with a signed letter addressing it to someone and disclosing what type of report it is. This is a listing of sightings and a press reader just titled "RECORD OF UFO SIGHTINGS".
Click to expand...
I found the missing red tape. It's paper BR_DFANBSB_ARX_0_0_0197
 

Attachments

kasparovitch said:
They have info on the pic's woman and a detailed picture of her burn
Click to expand...
I can't read the portugese bits, but the stuff that could translate to English is basically saying that 2 doctors (including Wilton the ET believer, when he examined similar wounds) said the wounds were "snare injury". Let me know if there is something in the portugese, when you read it, that says differently.
 
Hmm, I mean if they were firing fire works at the lights that seems like a more likely explanation for the burns. Also the fact that no injuries were reported until after the fact, that's kind of odd, you'd think that would be the biggest thing to note. In addition the fact that the veracity of some of the paperwork is questionable is very suspect.

Looks like a story that just gained more and more embellishments as the years went by.
deirdre said:
snare injury
Click to expand...
As in the animal trap snare?

On another note, has a causal link between the alleged deaths and the sightings ever been made? Or could it be that those two (including the injuries I assume) are unrelated events?
 
deirdre said:
I can't read the portugese bits, but the stuff that could translate to English is basically saying that 2 doctors (including Wilton the ET believer, when he examined similar wounds) said the wounds were "snare injury". Let me know if there is something in the portugese, when you read it, that says differently.
Click to expand...

According to Dr. Zoghbi (in picture with woman named Aurora, 18 at the time), a skeptic, those injuries were self-inflicted nail scratching during an hysterical attack. For Dr. Wilton Reis, an UFO-believer forensic doctor (he took the injury pic in #15), that was nonsense and those injuries looked like "saca-bocado", a popular term which meaning I don't know. As he says there's loss of dermis, epidermis and blood, he might mean an excoriation. But an excoriation is perhaps the type of injury also inflicted by nails...

By the way, I found in operacaoprato.com that Daniel Rebisso Giese, is a believer in vampire aliens and wrote a book about it, titled "Extraterrestrial vampires in Amazon", 1991.

Also, they confirm Freitas drew most sketches for Operação Prato reports. So that's a "J" for sure.

Freitas (Flávio) and Daniel
 
Last edited:
kasparovitch said:
As he says there's loss of dermis, epidermis and blood, he might mean an excoriation. But an excoriation is perhaps the type of injury also inflicted by nails...
Click to expand...
i cant copy paste the page, and forgot to add my screen shot.
1622503564214.png


ParanoidSkeptic2 said:
As in the animal trap snare?
Click to expand...
i think like the skin was snared on something, like a fingernail, or a branch, or a baby/kid's nails etc.
 
ParanoidSkeptic2 said:
has a causal link between the alleged deaths and the sightings ever been made?
Click to expand...
i think the deaths is bull. it's just an alleged passing comment from the 24 year old doctor, to a UFO researcher almost twenty years later. No specifics are given. That i saw anyway.

I didnt read every "observation" at the Black Vault link, but i dont think there were any deaths during the investigation period (or before). I'm ignoring the deaths comment as story embellishment, unless actual data is found somewhere.
 
This is very garbled but I get the general impression of a UFO flap triggered by people looking at scintillating stars.
 
Testimony of Victorio Peret about his participation in a meeting along with General Alfredo Moacyr de Mendonça Uchôa with the Operação Prato team. During the meeting, the captain of Operation Saucer, Uyrangê Hollanda, commander of the operation, reveals that it was NORAD that warned the Brazilian armed forces on the UFOs in the Amazon region. Mr. Peret talks about the Route of UFOs, from the East Coast of Brazil to the Island of Island of Colares.

Activate subtitles in English.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkZNzAAaVf0
 
Fascinating story. I came across it when i was watching a Netflix serie called "Top Secret Ufo Projects declassified. ( Not such a great show tbh..)
There is just one thing what is puzzeling me : captain Hollande who lead the investigation team told in the 1997 interview that he was hugged or grabbed by an entity in the night from behind.
a super close encounter. He didnt say how it ended or what happened only that he had some implant in his left arm later and showed it in the camera.
I find this prety strange , i would think an army / airforce officer would not let himself get captured or at least would try to do something in self defense. Or at least scream to his officers for help.
I also didnt read anything about that encounter from his officers. Nothing. Its sad that he commited suicide 3 months later after the interview.
Could he be mental unstable around the 90's making things up leading to his suicide ?
 
Daves! said:
Fascinating story. I came across it when i was watching a Netflix serie called "Top Secret Ufo Projects declassified. ( Not such a great show tbh..)
There is just one thing what is puzzeling me : captain Hollande who lead the investigation team told in the 1997 interview that he was hugged or grabbed by an entity in the night from behind.
a super close encounter. He didnt say how it ended or what happened only that he had some implant in his left arm later and showed it in the camera.
I find this prety strange , i would think an army / airforce officer would not let himself get captured or at least would try to do something in self defense. Or at least scream to his officers for help.
Click to expand...
I've seen a few retellings of this story and I've never heard mention of this incident. Maybe there was a mistranslation somewhere... do you have a link to this interview (preferably with no dubbing over him)?
Daves! said:
I also didnt read anything about that encounter from his officers. Nothing. Its sad that he commited suicide 3 months later after the interview.
Could he be mental unstable around the 90's making things up leading to his suicide ?
Click to expand...
That much has been mentioned by people who know him and who dismiss theories he was "suicided" by the government, or that he faked his death and disappeared, etc. Apparently he'd had attempted suicide before.
 
As for the case in general, at least some of the photos are proven hoaxes:

https://www.vigilia.com.br/filho-de-oficial-faz-revelacoes-surpreendentes-sobre-a-operacao-prato/

The above is an interview with Fernando Costa, the son of João Flávio de Freitas Costa, a sergeant involved in the operation. The teenager was asked by his father to help with the operation by developing photos, which he did begrudgingly at best:
External Quote:
A minha participação na revelação de algumas fotos da OP foi imposta por ele: "Era melhor eu estar aprendendo uma profissão em casa, que estar aprendendo coisa que não presta, na rua". Hoje eu posso entender, mas, para um adolescente, aquilo gerou uma imensa revolta. Enquanto eu revelava as fotos no quartinho, ele ficava na sala, redigindo relatórios desenhando muitas das ilustrações da OP. Nesse período, a raiva acabou vencendo a razão e eu passei a "sacanear", ampliando qualquer ponto luminoso impresso no filme, que ficasse parecido com um "disco voador". Depois, algumas dessas fotos vazaram (não sei de que forma) e eu ria muito quando eu tinha notícias de publicações delas em livros de Ufologia. Eu dividia o motivo da risada apenas com alguns amigos mais chegados.

My participation in developing some of the Op's photos was imposed by him: "better to learn a profession at home than make trouble in the streets". That's something I can understand now, but teenage me was downright indignant. While I developed the photos in the dark room, he'd be in the living room, writing reports and drawing many of the Op's illustrations. In those times, anger won over reason and I started "pulling pranks", enlarging any light dot impressed upon the film so it'd look like a "flying saucer". Afterwards, some of those photos were leaked (I don't know how) and I had a good laugh when I heard of some of them being published in Ufology books. I'd share the reason for the laughter only with my closest friends.
(freely translated). This doesn't explain everything (after all, someone took said photos presumably because they thought there was something worth photographing), but it does mean it's important to be cautious when considering pictures of this incident.
 
markus said:
I've seen a few retellings of this story and I've never heard mention of this incident. Maybe there was a mistranslation somewhere... do you have a link to this interview (preferably with no dubbing over him)?

That much has been mentioned by people who know him and who dismiss theories he was "suicided" by the government, or that he faked his death and disappeared, etc. Apparently he'd had attempted suicide before.
Click to expand...
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x43erih

Here is the interview undubbed and with English subtitles.
Its just a pretty weird interview towards the end where he talks about his close encounter.

I also heard there was an american Green Beret with them but i cant find anything about him.

Here is the reddit wit a link to a video interview where the Colonel even shows an implant in his left arm.


Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/mv0iy4/operação_prato_extraordinary_interview_by_captain/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share


Only weird is that that video is now nowhere to be found, while i have watched it a couple of weeks ago.
 
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