Varginha is a Brazilian city
located in the southern region of the state of Minas Gerais.
Varginha is considered the seventh best city in Brazil to live and invest
and became known internationally in 1996
for the alleged appearance of alien creatures,
the episode that became known as the "Varginha Incident".
This following story is based on truth and lies.
If true, call it another Roswell, if you will.
That is, a crashed vehicle that had beings on board, apparently.
Can she say what feelings she got from the creature?
The Varginha case is considered
the most
well-kept secret
in the military circle of Brazil.
We're in Sao Paulo, Brazil,
about to go and investigate
the infamous 1996 Varginha UFO incident.
An alleged crash and reported bodies.
So we're gonna go see...
Oh, okay. No problem.
I'm basically trying to figure out what took place
in Varginha, Brazil, January 1996.
Many people say there was a UFO crash,
debris and bodies recovered.
My objective here in Brazil is to find out,
put some clarity on, what happened
and where this debris ultimately ended up.
I wanna hear from her.
James Fox teams up with Brazilian researcher Marco Leal,
who has been investigating the Varginha case since 2006.
Together they meet Cynthia Covo in Sao Paulo, to go over the case.
- So... - Yeah.
This is the daughter of one of the most famous
- UFO researchers in all of Brazil. - Yeah.
- And he is no longer with us. - Yes.
So she has brought some of his research,
illustrations, documentation
from the 1996 Varginha UFO incident.
An unidentified flying object reportedly crashes,
and then you have beings
associated with the craft, alive and walking through the town.
It sounds so spectacular,
it sounds so unbelievable,
it's hard to wrap your mind around it.
And I didn't believe it when I first heard about it.
This is the design.
The girls drew this for her father.
- That's her father. - Yeah.
They were in the fire... fireman station.
So this is the fireman that...
They believe this fireman was involved in the capture?
Oralina, Eurico.
And they saw a UFO that looked like it was definitely gonna crash?
Liliane and Valquiria.
- Right after they saw the creature? - Yes.
- Marco Cherese? - Yeah.
- Who captured the creature with his bare hands. - Yes.
And later died.
This is an original artist's rendition of what the girls saw.
Wow!
Wow, look at that.
Brazil is one of the most amazing locations on Earth.
- I mean, you've got Ubatuba in the '50s. - Yeah.
You've got Colares, Operacao Prato.
You've got 1986, UFOs over Brazil with Sao Paulo.
It was amazing. I met with a radar operator.
And then you have this crash in 1996 in Varginha.
These are some of the best cases in the world.
1957.
Witnesses observe an object descending at extreme speed
from the skies towards Toninhas Beach.
Before hitting the water, it explodes.
Fragments collected on the beach are sent to a lab to be analyzed.
This headline reads,
Scientific analysis confirms extraterrestrial magnesium
from the alleged Ubatuba flying saucer.
- Photographer Almiro Barauna
and the crew aboard a Brazilian navy vessel
- witness a disc-shaped object
maneuvering over the ocean.
- He grabs his camera and takes these shots.
Previously classified Brazilian Air Force documents
contain accounts of several UFOs
witnessed by both civilians and military personnel.
Shown here are several unknown craft
captured on camera by the Brazilian Air Force.
Some officers even claimed to see occupants.
1986.
- Over Sao Paulo, six Brazilian fighter jets
chase more than a dozen UFOs.
The Ministry of the Air Force confirms this encounter
in a press conference.
- She got to meet Carlos de Sousa? - Yes.
- In 1996? - Yeah.
- And he was the man who saw the UFO crash. - Yes.
Going back to 1996 and seeing the witnesses
and seeing the location of the creatures,
seeing the original illustration...
You know, the rendition of what the creature
looked like from 1996 and holding it in my hands,
it was fascinating!
And the photograph of the military man, Marco Cherese,
who apparently handled one of the creatures.
I mean, it just takes you back in time to 1996.
And it was just a really, really fortunate opportunity for us.
I'm thrilled, and I can't wait to get to Varginha, to be honest with you.
You could just say hypothetically, for a moment, if it did happen,
how significant of an event would it be?
I bet you that everyone would say,
there's nothing more significant than this story.
If it were true.
I just ask people to suspend judgement,
listen to the testimony, and then draw your own conclusions.
Hey, we're just gonna drop me off or something.
Get some drinks while they go around the block, or wait.
Upon arrival in Varginha,
the filmmakers want to hear from locals
regarding the alleged 1996 UFO crash.
A large monument in the shape of a flying saucer
is a clear indication that the town embraces the story.
Armed with handmade signs that read,
"If anyone knows what happened in 1996, please talk to us."
The team takes to the streets.
What does he think about the case?
- Does he think it happened or it didn't happen?
What are your feelings on Varginha?
The 1996 Varginha UFO incident, what do you think?
Things are heating up right now, guys.
Like, we're finding some witnesses.
- These guys is really important here. - Okay, let's bring it.
They see a UFO. The UFO gets closer to them,
to the point where it's at the height of that street light.
Okay, so then what happens?
So a lot of people in this town have a little piece of the puzzle.
We were only here for an hour-and-a-half,
and I can't believe how many people we got to come forward.
What I love about this case is it's recent enough
where people either heard accounts or experienced things themselves.
So, right now, we are going to meet with
the mayor of Varginha.
So I'm very curious if an elected official will talk about
the details of the case and whether he believes it really happened.
These sorts of things.
- Look at this. - Oh, that's nice.
- That's great. - Yeah.
I'm extremely curious,
as an elected official, the mayor of Varginha,
does he believe that this case happened
as the witnesses are reporting it to have happened?
The witnesses in Varginha, for me, are some of the most
compelling testimony I've ever heard.
- So I didn't believe that
a UFO crashed in Varginha, Brazil, when I first came here.
But after 10 years...
I wouldn't have imagined getting an interview with...
an elected official like the mayor of Varginha.
If you would have told me I'd be doing that ten years ago, I wouldn't have believed it.
Not only that, but he was, basically,
saying that he felt that the Varginha case was true, that it really happened.
I think we have to remind ourselves how far we've come in the last decade.
Put me on that farm in January of 1996.
What happened?
1996.
Crash witness Carlos de Sousa
describes a similar object in this exclusive interview.
January 13th, 1996.
Carlos de Sousa is traveling from Sao Paulo
to Minas Gerais early in the morning,
planning to meet with friends
to fly ultra-light planes.
Now, 26 years later,
the team travels with Carlos de Sousa to find the crash site.
Turn around. Right.
Careful of the dust. He's trying to remember.
So where the trees were?
He doesn't... remember.
But he thinks it's this way. Because it's been 26 years...
Is this looking familiar? There's a house up there.
But if it's close to a house, then it's gotta be further down this way.
Unless the house is gone.
- I think the house is gone. - You do?
- He's asking you to stop. - Stop?
Right. Let's go.
- What does that mean? - Yeah, like big grass.
It was around here.
Okay.
- He wants to go there. - Okay.
- So it was a white house, and it was a small house. - Yeah, it was a small house.
- So... - The grass was burned.
The grass was burned. Why was the grass burned?
- So, is the house gone? - It was around here.
The house is gone?
He doesn't know. Everything's different.
I mean, it could be here, or it could be there.
We walk over to there and look.
If it's close to the road, it only can be in a couple of places.
Does he wanna walk up closer to it.
He said the house was close to where the crash was.
- Yeah. - 200 meters.
- Yeah, it's like... - 600 feet.
It's my only... My only house.
Family. My only family.
Well, I say we... I say we take a closer look.
- I mean... - Yeah.
You know?
Yeah, we gotta do it, man. We got to find this spot!
There's a lot of trees.
Is there a house down there?
Yeah, there's a house right down to these trees. Yeah.
Well, let's get closer to there then.
Let's drive down the road.
Let's drive down to get closer.
There's a house.
This isn't a field.
Yes, yes!
Here. Here!
Wow!
This is the spot.
Was this object big enough
to have, potentially, beings inside?
According to Mr. Sousa,
this area was covered with debris from the UFO crash.
This is his first time at the crash site since 1996.
So he gets out of the car.
He sees the piece, right?
He picks the piece up.
He folds it. He said it was really light,
and it was shaped kind of like this.
- Yeah. - And then he picked it up and he folded it
and then it opens itself up.
And it was really light.
- Yes. - Like aluminum.
At what point did the military come to him?
- Right after that happened? - Yes.
The military came from this way and arrived?
Yeah.
Carlos Sousa came from here and the trucks came from that side.
Okay.
Within minutes, trucks from the military base, ESA, arrive on the scene.
- Wah, wah? Go away? - Yeah.
I think some guy...
What does "borra" mean?
- Go away! Go away! Go away! - Go away?
Go away! Go away! And I'm ordering.
I'm ordering you? I'm ordering you to go away?
- Yeah. - So then he pulled his gun out?
- Yes. - And he said I'm ordering you to go away.
Wow!
After giving this interview shortly after the incident,
Carlos de Sousa vanishes for 26 years.
- Mark it.
Can we just walk to where exactly this took place?
Seven days after Sousa witnessed the crash,
Hubert Ladera leaves this gym
when he and several friends see two military trucks driving into town.
They follow them through the neighborhood
and come upon a military blockade.
One of the people in his group said,
this is a free country, and I'm going through.
It was him.
- Oh, it was him? - Yeah.
So he said, hey, this is a free country.
I'll do what I want.
And then what happens?
This is the local TV news station that covered the case back in 1996.
He was deeply involved.
He was also good friends with Marco Cherese,
who's the military police officer who, allegedly,
handled the creature and then died.
- Thank you. - Yes, of course.
- Absolutely.
Describe what happened back in 1996.
What you witnessed, what you saw.
So is he saying that the military shut down the press?
- Yes. - Successfully.
- Yes. - They don't have a free press.
- And they say... - They don't have a free press.
No. If they If they say, if they would have go, like, investigate further,
they probably would have put them in jail.
Okay, I'll quickly mention.
So we have, uh, we have special authorization
from the city of Varginha,
and we have a universal key
which is provided to us by, I think, Katia's husband.
And so we're going to film the use of the special key
to gain access to the exact location where the encounter occurred
back in January of 1996.
Action.
There we go.
- Did you see how easy that was?
I wanted to film here
because this is obviously going to invoke memories
of the encounter, and I think that we're going to get a more dramatic,
more real, um, on camera testimony from the girls,
doing it here as opposed to somewhere else.
Media across Brazil and the world
cover the story.
Tell us, walk us through what happened.
What did you see?
Where did you see it?
1996,
based on the girl's testimony,
artist Betty Rodriguez,
creates this drawing.
What I find makes their stories so credible
is that there were three of them.
I want to hear from Valquiria because she was the youngest.
What were her thoughts at the time?
Was she scared? Did you run?
Like, put me there.
These eyes compared to my eyes,
how much bigger?
- Three times bigger. - Three times bigger.
I want to walk over by the wall,
and I want you to tell me where exactly the creature was.
- Wow!
Really close.
I didn't realize it's closer than I expected,
I mean, it's like eight-feet away.
They were eight-feet away from this creature. Broad daylight.
It was 3:30 in the afternoon.
This is the exact location.
When she made eye contact with this creature,
was there a moment of any kind of communication?
Did she feel anything at all?
Okay, so this is, uh, Valquiria.
This is Katia.
- Sim. - And this is Liliane.
You see the, the eyes.
They didn't draw a nose, they didn't draw a mouth.
It was all about the eyes.
I want to understand,
uh, first of all, the moment of contact with the eye,
with the eyes, meeting the eyes.
I really want to be there. I want to feel it.
When they locked eyes with this being, what were they thinking?
They all ran out of here quickly,
so they were scared.
Were they scared because they felt threatened,
or were they scared because they just simply didn't know
what they were looking at?
So the three girls run to her house,
and they say, "We saw this creature
that might have been the devil or whatever it was."
And they, do they, do they get in the car and drive here?
Do they walk here?
How did they get here? And what do they see when they got here?
Can she draw the footprint?
The shape of the footprint?
- Yes. Sim, sim.
That's the exact location where the girls saw the creature
right through that wall where we filmed already with the girls.
I didn't realize that Marco Chereze, the military officer,
who allegedly captured the creature,
with his bare hands, did it right over here.
Roughly three hours after the girls witnessed
the strange creature,
Military police officers Eddie Lopes
and Marco Chereze drive down this road
on the lookout for something unusual.
When suddenly, it runs right across their path.
It was captured by Marco Chereze
with his bare hands easily
and taken to the hospital.
After he captured the creature,
he was smelling the creature in his body and his clothes.
Because he had this strange feeling of something greasy, sticky,
over his body that came from the creature.
He developed this, this infection
that wouldn't go away.
And for two or three weeks
it was getting worse and worse and worse.
And it looks like that his immunity system was shut down.
This were the words used by one of the doctors who treated him,
who said that he never saw in his whole medical career
anything like that.
And that infection killed him.
All the witnesses
that claim that Marco Chereze handled a creature,
a strange creature, doesn't have to be from another world,
it was a strange creature,
he gets some unknown infection.
You did everything you could to save him,
and he died.
Do you believe that there's some credibility to that story?
When her brother falls ill,
she asks about his involvement with the case.
On February 10th,
Marco Chereze is admitted to regional hospital.
Roger, what's the main purpose that you could to Varginha for a new ecological research?
The main purpose for being here,
uh, is to look at the physical evidence aspect of this case,
uh, which is what I specialize in.
It is June, the 7th 2002,
and I am here in Varginha, Brazil,
with the chief investigator on the Varginha episode,
Ubirajara Rodrigues.
2002, renowned UFO researcher, Dr. Roger Leir,
travels to Varginha to investigate the case.
He documents multiple key witnesses on video.
This footage has never been released.
She is the wife of a deceased member of the military police.
I think we should at least know what her husband's name was.
Does she know if anyone has seen a medical report?
Oh, they took a long time to deliver it,
and they asked for money, and they, and there were missing pages.
Once she lose,
she searched for explanations, but nobody would give any.
Was Marco Chereze the only person infected
who died?
We don't know.
Where, uh, these two creatures
the only ones that remain alive after the crash?
We don't know.
We only have, uh, very detailed information
about the existence and the capture of these two.
One capture in the morning and one at evening of the same day,
January 20, 1996.
According to credible reports,
there were two captures on January 20th.
Hours before the girls' encounter,
the fire brigade captured a being.
This capture was thoroughly investigated
by leading Brazilian researcher and lawyer
Ubirajara Rodrigues.
This is the fire department...
Dr. Leir teamed up with Ubirajara.
They questioned the fire battalion allegedly involved
in the capture of the first creature.
This is the creature.
And this is a, kind of, equipment that is used to catch it.
The fire department was dispatched to this location
after receiving several calls from concerned residents
who reported seeing something strange in the area.
The Army truck entered by this gate here.
Got in over here.
Got the creature already dead from inside.
The presence of several elements
from the military police, from the Army...
- ...several doctors, nurses...
This convoy left the place and went to Tres Coracoes.
Both creatures left at the same time.
And the creature that was alive got to Campinas alive.
The team drives to meet with a family
who saw a UFO hovering over the area of the encounter
and capture.
Okay, let me ask.
- Let me ask. - Yeah.
How about we film the back of their heads talking to me?
Like, I don't know.
- Hey, Fernanda, we have two options. - Okay.
Okay. One, we blur his faces, no problem, and we will do that.
Two, we film from the backside and their and their faces aren't seen ever.
Like doctors, and they all saw the UFO right over this area.
It looked like they were looking for something, like it was doing a grid search.
And this is a very respectable family.
They don't want their faces on camera.
They want to talk and tell what they saw,
but they don't want their faces revealed on camera,
which happens.
Okay, so we're standing
in very near the area where the girls saw the creature.
It was 1996, January.
This entire family saw something they want to share with us,
but they don't want to have their faces revealed.
So what did they see?
Did I hear... I heard Americana.
- He stayed American. - Yes.
What was that about?
Some American officials...
- Came here. - ...came here to talk about what they saw.
- Yes. - Americans?
Were they military? Were they police?
Who were they?
Is there any way that there is a conventional explanation
to what they saw?
I just want to go over
that interview and what I find.
First of all, they hesitated on whether or not they even wanted to go on camera.
They canceled yesterday.
Today they were like, "Hmm. We don't want...
Oh, sorry...
"We don't want our faces on camera."
It was like an entire family, and they all saw this object and it was really big.
Shaped like a disc,
zero noise.
You have witnesses like that.
They're friends of the doctor, the guy that we rent the house from.
That you could just tell they've been sitting on that story for 26 years.
How excited he was to finally share it.
There was unusual activity at the base.
There were helicopters from the Navy,
which in itself was unusual.
He sees a box.
Was the box unusual?
So to this day, has he spoken to any of them that went to Varginha?
- No, no. - Nothing.
- Yeah. - Wow.
According to the witness,
it wasn't only the drivers who were never seen again.
Their Captain Edson Ramirez,
also left without a word.
January, 1996.
A radiologist has an unexpected visit by the military
while on duty at regional hospital.
He agrees to share his story,
provided his identity remains concealed.
So we have a big military presence
on the outside of the hospital.
We've got two army and two police
on the inside of the hospital with a box
and something inside of a black zip body bag.
But what did it smell like?
When they took whatever it was in that black bag,
and they left the hospital, the military and the police with that bag
and that thing,
did the smell leave?
Three of the most strange, bizarre points,
of this encounter.
Probably about ten months ago,
Marco managed to reach
a vetted, legitimate witness
who was involved in the transportation of the, they call them E.T.
or the being.
Um, this guy was so scared,
uh, Marco spent, I think, eight to ten months,
slowly developing a relationship with this guy.
And about four days ago he agreed to meet with me and Marco, just the two of us.
So we drove late into the night,
we met him at a bar. When he arrived, he was with another guy.
He took us to a different location.
We sat outside and we talked for a couple of hours
about coming forward, appearing in the documentary.
I've never ever had the opportunity to interview a witness
that potentially handles an extraterrestrial being.
I'm worried about the military getting wind of what's going on
because there clearly paying attention to this witness.
I'm worried about them getting a phone call,
reminding him of his oath of secrecy.
I don't want to put someone else's family in harm's way.
So you're always, in the back of your mind,
in a situation like this,
you know that at any moment, the carpet can get pulled out from under you,
and it's not a done deal until it's a done deal.
Listen. I wonder if we should rent a hotel room
and then have him come to us.
Because, then we can get all the gear inside the hotel room
and then he can just show up and walk in.
We can, we can stop at the gas station.
Marco coordinates with the witness, military Ex,
to secure a safe meeting location.
Yes. I made appointment with him in the some hotel right here.
Close to here and then, so I think we have to drove...
- We go to the hotel first. - Yeah, we go...
- Check in and then he just walks in. - Exactly.
- Yeah, that's good.
I feel that, that anxiety in my stomach, you know?
It's just like...
We pull this off and it's just like first time.
It will be the most compelling testimony
ever revealed on the history of this case.
- Oh, my God. This hill's so steep. - I know.
Entrada, this is the hotel.
I would get a quick shot of it,
and I'd shut these cameras off right now.
Can you guys do that?
Shut everything off.
Guys?
- Yeah. - Right.
Right here.
Here? Fuck! This room is small.
You can't even use these cameras in here.
Oh, my God!
Okay. He's trying to find the room with two beds.
It'd be better.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
Mark it.
Okay.
Okay. He's on.
Okay. So we are sitting here with Military X who clearly
doesn't want his identity revealed
which we're not going to do.
And he's going to provide enough detail, not too much,
but enough detail on operations
that he was involved with with the Varginha case.
When he was in Humanitas,
this is where he saw part of the creature.
- Yes. - What was the atmosphere like?
What were the looks on the faces of the other people in the room?
- Yeah. - What was it like?
Can he put me in that room?
When you looked and you saw the leg
or part of the leg and the foot with the "V"...
- Right. - ...what did you think?
ESA military base, is roughly 20 miles
southeast of Varginha.
According to witnesses,
the Army operations originated from here.
Is there filmed footage, video footage of the creature
that he knows about?
Military X says that on January 22nd 1996,
he drove the creature
from Humanitas Hospital in Varginha to ESA Army Base,
where it would remain overnight.
Does he have any idea
where the creature went?
Because, uh, it went to Regionas,
then Humanitas, then ESA, then Campinas.
And then what happened?
According to Military X, he transported a creature
from Humanitas Hospital in Varginha
to ESA military base and Tres Coracoes
where it stayed for the night.
Early the following morning,
the convoy continued their mission,
heading south from Fernao Dias freeway,
then west on Don Pedro to Espcex army base
in the city of Campinas.
The team meets with Brazilian Air Force
traffic control officer, Jose Manuel Fernandez,
his unit was responsible
for monitoring specific airspace over the state of Sao Paulo.
Do you know anything about this case?
Was it Americans involved,
or was it just the Brazilians involved?
Only Americans. Only.
And how does he know that the Americans were involved?
Has anybody seen Eric Lopes?
Has anyone ever tried to talk to him?
Yeah. People try to reach him out.
- People have tried? - Yeah.
And nada?
With the help of Varginha mayor, Verdi,
the team connects with Mr. da Costa,
a military police corporal in 1996.
His son, Romulo A Ribeiro,
agrees to escort them to the home of Eric Lopes.
Can you go up there?
Eric Lopes is the military police officer
from P2 who reportedly drove the car
during the second capture with Marco Cherese.
Not even the family of the deceased officer
has been able to get a statement from Lopes.
If the reports are true,
he is the only living witness of the second capture.
Officer Lopes has been unreachable for 26 years.
Oh, my God.
I'll go with him. I'm going with him.
Hey!
Tell him that the mayor has blessed us.
You tell him the mayor said...
This is Eric Lopes?
Let me just... Hold on, please.
Let me ask you a question. Please.
- He is his friend not... - Oh, okay.
What?
Hold up, hold up.
Just ask him one question for me.
Will he ever come forward to make a statement?
What's happening?
This is the house of Eric Lopes.
- Yeah. - But he doesn't like to talk.
And the threat is that they might shoot us
because we're on the property, trespassing.
They're talking right now.
- So, Eric won't talk? - No.
What just happened? I'm trying... What happened?
Is that Eric Lopes?
- Who is that? - Yeah, Eric Lopes.
That's Eric Lopes.
He doesn't want to talk at all.
- Okay. - Yeah, let's go.
Oh, my God. That was Eric.
Just saw him.
Okay, okay. We'll go talk.
Did you get him? Dave, did you get him?
Please tell me you got him. That was Eric Lopes.
Oh, my fucking God. Did you get him in the window?
- Yeah. - Holy shit.
He was on the window the whole time.
Oh, my God. You got him?
This, here. I'm ready to go at this.
You'll be shot if you don't live here.
- He will shoot you? - Yeah.
Fuck!
If that guy had nothing to hide, he would have just said so.
That guy was driving the car that Marco... was in.
Write what we just did.
I got the interview yesterday. It was pretty good.
For what?
No. Right now was pretty gnarly.
Ask him if we can talk about what we just did.
Okay, okay.
Which way did he go?
To the left.
We're stopping here?
Okay.
God, this is...
What exactly did he say?
And he believed that Eric Lopes was serious?
Yes, he was.
If his story is true,
he is walking around with a level of confirmation
that only a handful of people on this planet have.
What does that feel like?
May 8th, 1996,
with mounting pressure from media and witnesses,
the military base, ESA, holds a press conference.
General Lima, addresses the crowd.
The accumulation of aspects,
the girls who saw something,
the other people in the town who saw something,
this wasn't an isolated event where you got one witness
saying, "Oh, I saw something extraordinary."
Not at all.
They seem to be relatively naive young girls,
and there were fire department people involved,
who saw the beings, too.
And one nice thing about it is that
it takes the onus away from saying things only
happen in the United States.
Well, there was the United States involvement,
and it wouldn't surprise me
if they paid to pick up the wreckage
and you know all the rest of the stuff.
Why not?
Makes sense. Cheap way to get information.
Let the other guy to the work.
I believe that the Varginha case
is much more important today because it is more recent
and some of the events have not unfolded yet.
Did she have any connection with eyes?
Did she make any... Like she saw eye to eye
- with the being? - Mmm-hmm.
Were there live aliens seen walking around this town?
Mmm-hmm.
I have deal with this case in 1996
because I have some friends from there.
He told that, "Oh, you don't know what is true. But I know what I saw."
Oh, James.
Oh, yeah. Really.
Weight off the shoulders.
- Mmm-hmm. - Yeah.
I just wonder like what they said
to these witnesses that 25 years later,
they still don't want to talk about it on camera at all.
It's, like, unbelievable.
It's like you over them... Even compensation that they still won't do it.
I know. It's like money doesn't...
Well, they won't do it. That's weird.
The reason why they haven't made
overt contacts is because we're so aggressive.
Come on.
Would that smell make a good perfume?