Brazilian Senate UFO Hearing Part 5

Speaker 1:

I'll start right away, first, to inform you that I provided incorrect information earlier about our session being broadcast live on TV Senado. Yes, our session has been live on YouTube from the beginning, but because there is also a session taking place in the Human Rights Committee right now, our session here in the Senate - it has been confirmed - will be rebroadcast on TV Senado at 2:00 PM. So, I wanted to provide this information.

Let's proceed!

I would like to invite another guest to take the stand, on whichever side you prefer. Our next speaker is Mr. Rony Vernet, an electronic and computer engineer with specialization in industrial automation and telecommunications. He is currently pursuing a master's degree in Physics at the Brazilian Center for Physics Research, a career employee of the Petrobras system, and a technical education professor in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Thank you very much for your participation. Please feel free to proceed with your presentation

Speaker 2:

Honorable Senator Eduardo Girão, distinguished authorities, and the Brazilian people, the cases I'm about to present are impressive not only because they reveal unexplained phenomena that are interested in our indigenous and riverside people in the Amazon but also because these incidents have been thoroughly investigated by the Brazilian government, and the documents are available through the Access to Information Act and the National Archives. Some of these cases are sensitive, as they involve permanent sequelae and deaths of individuals. However, simply closing our eyes and ignoring these facts will not help us understand the origin of this problem.

Let's reflect: when we, as researchers, take a helicopter and land in the Amazon rainforest, tranquilize a jaguar, fit it with a GPS, perform invasive procedures on it to study and preserve its species, is it aggression? And if this jaguar dies due to a natural reaction of its organism to the tranquilizer dart that was administered to the animal, is it murder? From the animal's perspective, probably yes, but from the researcher's perspective, they were only trying to protect that species.

To allow us to interpret these questions, we need to advance science towards the frontier of the unknown and understand the origin and intentions of these phenomena.

Could you please show the slides?

The documents we will discuss are official documents about cases in Maranhão, Pará, and also Acre, from both the Brazilian Air Force and the Federal Police, FUNAI (National Indian Foundation), and the Public Prosecutor's Office.

The first case we will discuss is from April 29, 1977, which occurred on Crab Island. On a boat, people were removing wood from an island when they were hit by a light; one person died, and two were injured. Following this incident, which was widely reported in a newspaper in the state of Maranhão, these phenomena began to occur in cities in the states of Maranhão and Pará, near the border with Maranhão. They were called "fireballs" that flew over the houses of riverside dwellers and emitted beams of light, causing physiological effects such as weakness, redness, paralysis, numbness, headaches, imbalance, mental confusion, and fainting. Most victims were simple people, riverside dwellers, and fishermen, who were attacked, most of the time, when they were alone, at night and during the day. These cases did not spare even the capital, São Luís, which also began to be overflown by these devices, a popular name given by visitors to the region when they started to observe not only lights but also the shapes of these aerial vehicles.

The population in various locations in Maranhão was in a state of panic due to the beams of light. The Mayor of the city of Pinheiro, Manoel Paiva, even confirmed that the UFO phenomenon was real and that he would report it to the Ministry of Aeronautics after one of the vehicles descended and flew over the city at low altitude.

Starting from a wave that began in July 1977 in the city of Viseu, near the border with Maranhão, the focus of the phenomenon's activity shifted to the state of Pará, affecting even the capital, Belém. People stopped going out of their homes after 6 PM, began gathering in the same houses, and prayed to try to ward off the phenomenon of the luminous beams. They responded with shotgun shots when these objects descended. Men were mainly hit in the neck region, while women were hit in the chest area, near their breasts. Meanwhile, authorities tried to discredit the witnesses. The Secretary of Public Security of the State of Pará at the time, Flarys Guedes de Araújo, even declared: "These people should take a sedative or see a doctor. There is no light, in reality, it's just imagination."

In the city of Vigia de Nazaré, the panic was so great that Mayor José Ildone Favacho Soeiro sent a letter to the Brazilian Air Force asking for help, which was also followed by the Mayor of the Municipality of Colares, Alfredo Bastos. The only doctor in the region, Dr. Wellaide Cecim, tried to attend to the large number of people who crowded the medical centers claiming to have been affected by these luminous beams. In the words of Dr. Wellaide herself, "They were received by a beam of light that prevented them from moving any muscle, even to ask for help. From there, the pain became unbearable, and they were overcome by profound weakness, as if they were being drugged." The population began to abandon the city, which entered a process of depopulation, bringing hunger and a shortage of food. Even the only police officer in the municipality had fled in fear, but the courageous Dr. Wellaide continued to care for the population. At that point, a team from the Air Force was dispatched to the area to investigate what was happening and restore order.

In October 1977, with the support of Mayor Alfredo Bastos and Councilman Manoel Costa, military personnel from the 2nd Section, the Intelligence Section of the Air Force, went to the location under the command of Colonel Camillo Ferraz de Barros and established themselves in the region. A month later, in November 1977, Commander, at the time Captain Uyrangê Hollanda, was assigned by the commander of the I Comar, Brigadier Protásio Lopes de Oliveira, to lead what he named Operation Saucer, a clear reference to flying saucers, although he believed that what was happening in the region had nothing mysterious about it. He thought there was a straightforward explanation for everything.

The Navy also became interested in the matter. Report No. 45, dated November 23, 1977, issued by the Command of the IV Naval District, reported that from April 1977, newspapers in Belém began publishing various news articles about these UFOs that were terrorizing the states of Pará and Maranhão.

This report includes a map of the most affected locations, a drawing of the most frequently sighted aerial vehicle - which can be seen on the slide - and a document signed by Captain of Sea and War Paulo Fernando da Silva Souza, which includes Attachment No. 71 of 1977, signed by a Councilwoman from the Municipal Council of Maracanã, requesting assistance from the Armed Forces High Command in Brasília to investigate the phenomenon and take action.

The leadership of Operation Saucer initially believed that it was all due to mass hysteria, natural phenomena, and the like. However, an event involving Commander Uyrangê Hollanda, his team, and members of the former intelligence service, the SNI, completely changed the course of the operation. A disc-shaped aerial vehicle, completely black with a light on the underside and an estimated size of 30 meters in diameter, hovered directly above the military personnel. From that moment on, the captain had no doubt that it was something mysterious and unknown.

Another credible witness is Dr. Wellaide Cecim herself. She saw one of these aircraft up close. In Dr. Wellaide's own words, "Up until that moment, even though I had treated a huge number of people who had been attacked, I still doubted that it could be something I could see." Dr. Wellaide saw, in the late afternoon, still in broad daylight, a cylindrical flying object with a panoramic window, inside which there were two beings with dark skin and blond hair.

The reports prepared by the FAB's operation included drawings of the aircraft sighted, nine different shapes of various sizes. According to the operation's commander, more than 500 photographs and 16 hours of super-8 and super-16 film footage were taken, including three private films by Hollanda that remained in the possession of the Air Force.

According to Hollanda, some of the photos taken by him and his team showed motherships with the emergence and reentry of smaller objects. The commander said that they came face to face with an aircraft shaped like an American football, 100 meters long, at a distance of only 60 meters from them; they were in front of a building. This aircraft remained stationary in front of the military personnel, and they filmed and photographed this phenomenon. After discussing this footage and showing it to the military personnel in a special session, Operation Saucer was finally officially closed.

In August 1997, after more than 20 years of silence, Commander Hollanda was interviewed by ufologists Gevaerd and Petit, revealing various details of the operation.

In April 2009, the campaign by the Brazilian Ufologists Commission managed to release some documents from Operation Saucer. However, according to Operation Commander Uyrangê Hollanda, the final report was sent to the Air Force High Command in Brasília and has not yet been fully released.

I appeal to the Air Force to fully release to the Brazilian people all documents from Operation Saucer, including photographs and film footage that have never been made public.

During interviews in 1997, Uyrangê Hollanda already stated that he had information that these vehicles' activities in the Amazon extended from east to west, from Fortaleza to Manaus. In fact, nearly 40 years after the cases investigated in Pará, a new wave of phenomena occurred in the Amazon and was also investigated by the government. These were cases in the state of Acre, where there were close encounters between indigenous people of the Ashaninka ethnicity and unidentified phenomena. According to indigenous reports, these aircraft began to fly over them starting in 2013.

And the first interactions between the Ashaninka people and luminous phenomena in the rivers and forests of the region began to occur more significantly from July 24, 2014, after the World Cup in Brazil. An aircraft descended in the Apiwtxa village in Acre, on the border with Peru, and fired beams of light at the indigenous people, causing panic. An indigenous woman suffered a miscarriage due to a fall during the incident.

The indigenous leadership sent a letter to Funai (the National Indian Foundation). Following this letter, which described the aircraft that had descended on the village as cylindrical and luminous, Funai initiated contact with the Armed Forces and the State Government of Acre. The aircraft descended exactly in the clearing of this village, as shown in the photo. The organizations involved in the subsequent investigation were Funai, the Federal Police, the Federal Public Ministry, and the State Public Security Secretariat of Acre.

In response, Delegate Marcel Antonio Neme initiated an inquiry, known as Inquiry No. 184/2014-4, to investigate whether any crimes were being committed against that society or indigenous community. Federal police officers conducted a mission in that village based on this inquiry, and on August 20, Funai issued a report summarizing the information and distributing it to various organizations, including the Armed Forces and Abin (Brazilian Intelligence Agency).

Indigenous tribal leaders reported that these objects were visiting the village all the time, from 6 PM to 10 PM, disrupting their fishing activities. The Federal Police then conducted an initial mission. One of the testimonies from this mission comes from Paula Colares, a Ph.D. in Anthropology, who filmed, along with indigenous people, an object descending on the village with white, green, and red lights. In the video, indigenous people begin shooting at this object, which then abandons its approach and ascends towards the horizon. This video is available and attached to the Federal Police's inquiry.

The Federal Police's inquiry was subsequently closed and archived due to a lack of evidence of any crimes against that population. The Public Ministry then intervened. The Public Ministry based its actions on the words of Anthropologist Dr. Carolina Comandulli, who was in the village in January 2015 to participate in a meeting between indigenous peoples of Brazil and Peru. Around 9 PM, after dinner, she saw luminous flashes being fired in the village clearing. She found it strange because there were no clouds, and the sky was clear. She then prepared to sleep at the house of Isaac Piyãko, the current Mayor of the nearby city of Marechal Thaumaturgo. In Isaac's house, she observed a spherical light entering the house about half a meter above the floor. When Paula realized it wasn't a person and saw that phenomenon up close, she was terrified. She turned to the side and tried to sleep but couldn't. With no team or resources to conduct a mission in the village, the Public Ministry's investigation was terminated.

Thinking that the phenomenon had ended, in 2016, in a tribe further southeast, among the Kampa and Isolated peoples of the Envira River, an object descended. There was a group of indigenous people present. This object burned all the lantern wicks of these indigenous people. One indigenous person fired a shotgun, and the object emitted a beam of light that left him hospitalized. He was rescued by the indigenous teacher Airton, shown in the photo.

My investigation recently released, in 2020, more than 120 pages of official documents from these investigations and over 20 minutes of videos collected by the Federal Police, which are available to the Brazilian people.

These phenomena began in Peru, in Chulucanas, in 2001, where phenomena appeared, going in and out of the sea, going in and out of rivers. They began to move towards Pucallpa in 2008, also in Peru, and reached Acre from 2013 onwards, in two tribes, as far as we know. But we also know that, given the trend of this line, other indigenous communities that are not protected by protective agencies might also be affected. They respond with shotgun shots and are exposed to these luminous beams without knowing what is happening.

That's why what Jackson mentioned here is very important: we need to talk about this issue and raise awareness among the population, especially among those who are more isolated and in need, such as our isolated peoples, river dwellers, indigenous people, and fishermen.

These phenomena still occur today, and there are places where these phenomena have been happening for decades. The region of Serra da Beleza in Valença, Rio de Janeiro, has been studied for decades by researchers. In these regions, luminous phenomena occur, witnessed by Arnaldo's family, whose presence I thank today. A father of two children, an entrepreneur, he has great respect for these phenomena because he has lived with them since childhood.

From this moment on, I make a pledge here before the National Congress and the Brazilian people, promising to report, with all the truth, an event observed by me for over four years during visits to this region. I believe that as an engineer, a master's student in physics, a teacher, and a federal public servant, my credibility and testimony will contribute to arousing the interest of our congressmen and research institutions in this matter.

On June 10, 2021, at 6:47 PM, an enormous light with a diameter of about 5 meters, resembling cast iron in color and luminosity, appeared at the top of the hill known as Cruzeiro, where Arnaldo had built a 13-meter cross in honor of his deceased father. At that moment, I paraphrase Commander Hollanda to describe what I was seeing: it was like a sun in front of me, a very bright light, but one you could stare at without hurting your eyes.

When the light dimmed, I picked up my binoculars, which had sufficient optical zoom to allow me to observe details of the phenomenon at an approximate distance of 18 meters, the same clarity and distance at which I observe many of you here today. Instead of that light, there were humanoid beings, estimated to be between 3 and 5 meters tall, jet black in color, opaque, with bodies that appeared fluid like contained liquid and capable of floating. Smaller lights, in the same color as the original light, accompanied these beings. It was clear that they were looking in my direction, seeming to be aware of my presence.

Impacted by the unknown, I accidentally dropped the binoculars, which were set up to record with attached accessories. I then started filming the phenomenon only through a semi-professional camera with no zoom feature. A historic recording, lasting several minutes but of poor quality due to the distance, estimated at 400 meters.

This case highlights the difficulty of capturing good records of these phenomena due to human error. It underscores the need for the use of automatic recording stations. Therefore, on this historic day, we are inaugurating, on Arnaldo's land, who has contributed significantly to this subject scientifically by allowing researchers to visit his site. And today, he is here, making himself available to the government, federal research institutions, and the Armed Forces to investigate these phenomena in the region.

I thank Arnaldo very much. I request a round of applause, if you can, for the contribution he has been making to this issue. And he is also available to the Brazilian people, to anyone who wants to visit the region.

Concluding my speech, today we are inaugurating, on this property, the expansion project of the first monitoring station for these phenomena. This station consists of state-of-the-art motorized cameras with auto optical zoom, communication antennas, solar panels, capable of automatically detecting and recording any phenomena that appear in the region. In the near future, various sensors will be installed to collect data on these occurrences, as well as tracking software and artificial intelligence.

The same methodology...

Speaker 1:

One minute?

Just one minute to conclude, please, Rony.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, Senator.

The same methodology is already being executed with more substantial funding at the University of Würzburg in Germany and by the Galileo project at Harvard in the United States. It's possible that in the near future, we may have the first high-resolution image of these unknown phenomena obtained by a civilian research institution.

The fact that this case, as well as other less impressive ones I have observed, does not describe lights going back and forth into space opens up a range of hypotheses for explaining the phenomenon. Could these be phenomena originating from Earth itself, in an alternate reality or dimension yet to be explored by modern physics? Could they be us from the future? Or could these be phenomena operating from our seas and rivers, as observed in the Amazon cases and also in cases revealed by the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Department of Defense? These are questions whose answers depend on data collection and analysis by scientific institutions.

I conclude my presentation by asking Senators to make efforts...

so that the national intelligence and security approach, which has been in use in Brazil for decades without apparent results, is complemented by a scientific research approach to study these phenomena that pique the curiosity of all of us and have the potential to transform the world as we know it, in cultural, anthropological, sociological, and technological terms.

Thank you very much.

Speaker 1:

Thank you very much for your presentation, Mr. Rony Vernet, who is an electronic engineer with specialization in industrial automation and telecommunications.