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Two factors have seemingly been essential to determine the participation of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) in the inquiry of the Chupa-chupa phenomenon: the ostensive invasion of the local airspace by foreign flying craft and the constant pressure that suffered many inhabitants of the region which was a deep concern to most of the mayors of the hit cities.
These reasons have been enough for the First Regional Aerial Command of the Aeronautics (COMAR), hosted in Belém, to elaborate a full report on the phenomenon, that was to be thoroughly analyzed in an objective manner.
To create this documentation a group of military under command of then captain Uyrangê Bolivar Soares Nogueira de Hollanda Lima, who had the mission to head "Operation Plate," came to survey the hit villages and to collect depositions of witnesses and victims, and to record manifestations of the UFO phenomenon in the area.
The operation lasted from September to December 1977, and resulted in the elaboration of a document of approximately 1.000 pages, including hundreds of flying disk photographs, drawings, maps and copies of journalistic news articles. The operation managed to take about five hours films in 8 mm format evidencing extraterrestrial ships in the Amazonia, but none of these data were publicly released at the time.
Of course at the times many officers faced the UFO phenomenon as something doubtful and even a mere popular belief. According to Colonel Hollanda, the flying disks were seen with much caution, as something improbable, and were a reason of arguments between the military.
Revista UFO, the Brazilian Ugology Magazine, published in September of 1991 an edition containing descriptions of comments and data collected by agents of the Brazilian Air Forces. Some photos of the time had also been divulged. However, the great new development was that the events were occasionally confirmed in a rather transparent manner, for the first time in the FAB history. Obviously the military has been divided, some high rank officers willing to state that UFOs are real, other willing to put the matter to a rest.
In interview and lectures in Rio De Janeiro, at the invitation of the ufologist Marco A. Petit, Colonel Hollanda told that he believed that the Operation Plate was completed thanks to the presence of Brigadier General Protásio Lopes de Oliveira, in the command of the 1st COMAR, who had much interest in the subject. "It was a luck at that time, in that region, an officer of the Aeronautics, a Brigadier General, who believed flying disks, was in charge. If there had been another officer, another Brigadier General, the operation would perhaps have not taken place."
The reason that Brigadier General Protásio Lopes de Oliveira had interest in the subject is simply that ha was himself a witness in a previous UFO event, which left him with no doubt that UFOs are real.
Hollanda presented a sample of the vast quantity of data that the military, himself and other sources collected, under anonymity back then.
At the time a Captain, Hollanda returned from a course in Brasilia when he presented himself to the head of the Second Section of 1º COMAR, Camilo colonel Ferraz de Barros. He was first asked if he believed flying disks. When he received an affirmative reply, Ferraz de Barros said "then you are in charge of this." In the files that Hollanda received there were documents related to the operation, which still did not have a code name, but already had private agents operating.
The situation in diverse regions of the States of Pará and Maranhão demanded action. In June, July and August the newspaper brought to the attention of the main cities authorities at Pine, Cajapió, Are Vicente and Are Bento, that people told to have been attacked by what they described as "luminous rays" coming from "mysterious lignts." Because of some ostentation in the press, and then some deaths reports related to the phenomenon, there was quite a stir.
For example the newspaper "The Liberal" of Belém, in 14 of July, reported that in June 22, 1977, the brothers Apolinário Firmino and Jose Correia, together with their brother-in-law Aureliano Alves, anchored their boat in Crabs Island, in the city of Alcântara. During the night, Firmino, Jose and Aureliano had gone to sleep, Apolinário decided to sleep on the top part of the boat. Shortly after midnight, as Jose and Aureliano reported, a great object produced a strong flash The terror hindered them to cry out until Firmino broke the silence with a shout. At this moment Apolinário was waken up and went down to help his brothers and brother-in-law. When he arriving, he found Firmino dead and the others two relatives if twisting of pain. All presented marks of burning in the thorax and the chest. The policy investigated the place and found nothing abnormal. The doctors who had treated Aureliano and Jose, in the "Socorrão" hospital in Sao luiz, gave no conclusion. The legal experts who had made the autopsy of the body of Firmino concluded their report saying he has been "burned" by "an electric dump", without further explanations.
"The Letter," a periodical of the region of Pará in 1977 also reported the concern of the inhabitants when this story was known. Scared by the apparitions of UFOs and its effect on the population, Maneco Paiva, mayor of the city of Pine, sent a request for help to the Command of the Aeronautics in Sao Luiz. According to the regional newspaper, the command directed the note to the air base of Belém, where the information was followed up to the Ministry of the Aeronautics.
The phenomenon arrived at the cities of Vizeu and Bragança, along the Gurupi river. In little time it reached the environs of Belém. One of the mostly hit region was Colares, a city with 2000 inhabitants who, according to colonel Hollanda, received greater attention from Operation Plate.
The mayor of Vigia, in Pará, in the second semester of 1977, notified the 1st Regional Aerial Command of the events and requested action from the Armed Forces. It created quarrels in the City council of Belém. When they learned that the inquiry of the "competent authorities" had concluded that the phenomenon was provoked for meteorological balloons and satellites, the councilmen of Belém complained in court, being angry with the newest ridiculing commentaries in the press.
In the village of Saint Antonio de Umbituba, next to the city of Vieja, the former policy commissioner Alceu Marcílio de Souza perfectly remembers facts that occurred to the population. During nights spent in Umbituba, in police investigations, he observe the worried state of the people. At the time, a team of "the Aeronautics" walked the region, and some of its members came to speak to him regarding the sightings. It is nevertheless quite possible that the "people of the Aeronautics" were in fact Jacques Vallée and his team. Vallée had been a computer consultant at NASA at times and was sometimes wrongly introduced as "someone from NASA."
In interview granted to a Brazilian UFO magazine in 1997 almost twenty years after the case, Colonel Hollanda started to make surprising declarations. He was now a retired Colonel, and affirmed that his UFO team could not disclose anything before due to the risk of personal sanctions from the Air Force authorities.
"Now," he stated "I feel myself in the obligation to tell what happened in the Amazonia." He said to the Revista UFO publisher J. Gevaerd "the operation had the initial objective to demystify those phenomena. I was skeptical myself about the extraterrestrial nature of those facts. But after some weeks, when the flying disks had started to appear from everywhere, I had no doubts anymore."
NOTE: The following paragraph is kept as published in 2002.
The documents have finally surfaced, in 2005; see the main page for this case file.
The Brazilian Army files are still not accessible to the public and researchers, however, certain military personal let go some reproduced information of their input to the files. Underneath is a handwritten document which is intended to be a reconstitution of one of testimonys in the official files:
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Date, time, place are precisely indicated, the objet was estimated to be 500 meters away from the observation place.
It is indicated that the objects emitted red and green rays at the front, a red exhaust at its back, and a red glow underneath, and had a transparent dome at the top, the overall color being whiteish.
The weather in indictaed as: clear sky, nothing particular.
