On the night of October 18, 1977, in the of northern state of Para, a woman named Claudomira Paixao woke up to a strange green light coming through her window. As the light shined into her face, the air got warmer, and Paixao attempted to cover her face and roll back to sleep. Soon, though she realized she couldn’t, and the light changed to red. Fully awake at this point, she spotted a strange creature standing in her bedroom. She stated it resembled a man wearing tight fitted clothing like a scuba diver. The being then lifted a device that looked like a gun and aimed it at the woman. It shot at her, and the beam was hitting the witness in the chest.
The laser was hot and painful, and the woman was in a paralyzed state due to the overwhelming fear she felt. The woman would later state she believed the being collected her blood.
While this event is certainly frightening, it is one of many that occurred in the Brazilian cities of Colares, and surrounding area during 1977 and 1978. In this post, we will discuss these mysterious and unexplainable UFO events which became to be identified by the Brazilian Military as Operation Saucer. Operation Saucer was a top-secret investigation by the Brazilian Air Force into the UFO sightings and attacks that surrounded the Northern section of the state of Para.
Unlike other UFO sightings that have occurred around the world this case is unique in that not only were there mass witnesses, but many of these witnesses were said to be attacked by the UFOs. According to the Brazilian Newspaper O’Liberal , it was reported that a variety of sizes and shapes flew over the Baia de Marajo region at low altitudes, around 30-50 feet in the air and fired strange light beams at the public. Witnesses reported the objects pilots were small, around 3-4 feet tall.
As hysteria set in, the people gave names to the strange visitors: vampire lights, bugs, the thing, and simply “chupa-chupa”, which is Portuguese for sucker-sucker. Things got so bad that women and children fled the area while men stayed behind to watch over their homes.
Frighteningly, the beams gave off high radiation that caused puncture marks and lesions. some victims reported to local media that it felt like a “heavy weight pushed against their chest”. The beam was described about seven or eight centimeters in diameter and white in color. It is said the beams never hunted for them but hit them suddenly. When the witnesses were hit by the beams they were paralyzed. They tried to scream but no sound came out. Their eyes were open, and they felt the intense heat on their skin like a cigarette burn.
Doctor Wellaide Cecim Carvalho, who worked in in the area during the 1970s noted how many of the witnesses had lesions, looking like radiation injuries. These usually began with intense reddening of the skin. Later hair would fall out and the skin would turn black. She also noted that there was no pattern in the victims, with all ages affected both men and women. One other claim from Dr. Carvalho is that she was forced to lie to patients by the military. She alleges she had to tell patients they were hallucinating things.
The stories around the attacks were truly horrifying.
One man who was warned not to shoot at the UFOs decided to anyway and the results were disastrous. A 60-year-old man took his rifle and shot at one of the flying saucers. Then a light surrounded him, and he was paralyzed. He fell to the ground. The first few days this occurred the man could barely move and had problems hearing seeing and speaking. Eventually after a few weeks he regained his strength and was back to normal.
The saucers were not only in the air but also under the water. It was reported fishermen saw bluish lights flying through the water. They also reported seeing saucers fly in and out of the water effortlessly. Members of the military would report activity in the water as well. Many would speculate that the UFO base was under the water.
As the attacks were happening, the Brazilian Air Force was called in to investigate. Perhaps the most famous and most compelling piece of evidence in this case is the interview given by the leader of this investigation, Capt. Uyrange Hollanda gave to interviewer Adelmar J. Gevaerd, the editor of the Brazilian monthly magazine, Revista UFO. In the magazine, Hollanda described how terrified his men were investigating this case.
Three months after giving the interview, Captain Hollanda was found hanged with his own bathrobe belt on the second floor of his house by his daughter.
It is said in the book “Vampiros Extraterrestres Na Amazonia (Extraterrestrial Vampires of the Amazon)” by Ufologist Daniel Rebisso Giese that some military members suffered nervous breakdowns, while some went completely insane during the course of the investigation.
Despite all these mysterious events and mass witnesses, the Brazilian govt decided to declassify the military report, known as Operation Saucer in 2004. To put to scale how much activity occurred, the report holds 2,000 pages, 500 photographs and 16 hours of film. At the time it was compiled, it was classified as top secret and sent to military leaders.
Perhaps what’s most interesting about this case is that all the evidence in the report supports the hypothesis of something extraterrestrial in nature, yet the conclusion of the report does not indicate it was ufos.
Over the years there’s been two main theories surrounding these events.
The first is that this was some type of military experiment. People who believe this tend to point to things like the military cover up and the strange death of Capt. Hollanda. It was said Hollanda’s conscience had gotten to him over the years. Was Hollanda punished for speaking out against a top-secret military he was aware of? Or was another country testing out something? None of this really explains the underwater sightings although this could be due to people being swept up in the mania. Another possibility is that the strange lights could have just been animals in the ocean.
While the military hypothesis is certainly possible, the more popular theory is that this was something extraterrestrial in nature. Still, one thing to question about this event is just why the people were being zapped. Were they being abducted or were they being marked somehow? One other question to ask, is that we’ve never seen something like this on such a massive scale and especially over a year long period?
Despite all the questions, it’s clear something strange and unexplainable was happening. We may never know the exact reasons why this occurred. It’s important to point out though that trying to understand another animal’s motivation is often met with endless questions. We can only assume that any extraterrestrial life most likely thinks differently.
