NEW YORK — “There is no flying saucer controversy in my
country,” said Brazil’s top UFO investigator, Dr. Olavo T. Fontes, in an
interview.
“Too many people - thousands - have seen these objects at close range in
Brazil over the past 16 years. And there have been many dramatic incidents,
including a number of brief landings, power failures directly attributable to
the presence of these objects, and cases in which people have had to be
hospitalized after suffering burns and other injuries apparently caused by
these things.”
A prominent physician in Rio de Janeiro, Dr. Fontes is a professor at the
National School of Medicine and an officer in leading medical societies.
For the past 12 years, he has studied the widespread reports of unidentified
flying objects in Brazil and has personally investigated over 300 cases. He
has just concluded a visit to the United States where he conferred with
leading scientists, such as astronomer Jacques Vallee of Northwestern
University, and government officials concerned with American UFO
investigations.
He was invited to the U.S. to participate in closed discussions designed to
establish closer co-operation between interested members of the world’s
scientific community to study the UFO phenomenon on a global scale. The
initial meetings were held in Chicago under a cloak of secrecy.
SHROUD OF SECRECY
Speaking of secrecy, Dr. Fontes explained: “In Brazil, the government does not
scoff at UFO reports, or try to explain them as stars or 'swamp gas'. The
Brazilian Air Force carefully investigates the more important reports but
never releases its findings. It just never says anything.”
However, he pointed out, in earlier years the Brazilian government did issue
some positive statements on the subject.
In 1958, then-president Dr. Juscelino Kubitschek personally released to the
press copies of photographs of a saturn-shaped flying object taken off the
island of Trindade by scientists aboard the IGY ship, Almirante Saldanha. But
in more recent years the Brazilian government has fallen silent and its
agencies flatly ignore queries for UFO information.
DATA AWAITED
“We are told,” said Dr. Fontes, a slight, dark man with a sober mien, “that
the United States Air Force is making a thorough study of this situation and
the rest of the world seems to be waiting for them to release their findings.”
“Early in my research,” Dr. Fontes said, “it occurred to me that the UFO
reports were following a 26-month cycle. That is, the reports increased in
startling numbers every 26 months. But since 1964 this cycle seems to have
been abandoned. The UFO activity has been almost constant for the past two
years, and the world- wide reports are coming in in greater numbers than ever
before.”
Dr. Fontes is particularly concerned with the reports of unidentified flying
objects over military bases, power plants, reservoirs, and fresh water sources
and examining installations.
‘PACIFIC INVASION’
He believes the UFO activity suggests a pattern of military survey which is,
perhaps, preparatory to what he prefers to call “a Pacific invasion.”
He refuses to speculate on the possible origin of the flying saucers but he
suggests that the present buildup of reports indicates that they may be nearing their ultimate goal . . . contact.
“We may have all the answers within the next three years,” he says.
HOMEPAGE