1996 Varginha UFO incident

Purported UFO incident in Brazil in 1996

21°33′S 45°26′W / 21.550°S 45.433°W / -21.550; -45.433

The spaceship-shaped water tower at the central park of Varginha is a symbol of the UFO incident

On 20 January 1996, in the Brazilian city of Varginha, Minas Gerais, a craft allegedly crashed on farmland, civilians encountered one or more anomalous non-human beings in the Jardim Andere neighbourhood, the Brazilian military purportedly conducted recovery operations, and at least one entity was reportedly transported to hospital alive before being transferred via US Air Force aircraft to the United States without Brazilian government authorization — an operation characterized by researchers as a cover-up involving both Brazilian and American authorities. The episode, dubbed the "Roswell of Brazil" by Stanton Friedman and known as the 1996 Varginha UFO incident, is considered the most documented alleged UFO crash retrieval and non-human entity encounter in Latin America. The case was investigated extensively by Brazilian researchers Vitório Pacaccini, A.J. Gevaerd, and attorney Ubirajara Franco Rodrigues, and later by American filmmaker James Fox, whose fieldwork produced witness statements from police officers, firefighters, and RAEM military personnel who had participated in or were aware of the recovery operation. A 2010 official inquiry led by the Brazilian military concluded that the civilians had in fact encountered a homeless, mentally disabled man nicknamed "Mudinho" (Luiz Antônio de Paula) and that military vehicle movements had been routine.

20 January 1996: The crash

In the predawn hours of 20 January 1996, witnesses at a farm outside Varginha heard a loud boom at approximately 4:35 a.m.; truck drivers and a farmhand were among the earliest witnesses to the disturbance. The crash site was identified as the Varginha Farm, which James Fox later flew a drone over during production of his documentary Moment of Contact (2022); a geologist who viewed the documentary subsequently contacted Fox to report that the ground at the impact site showed geological anomalies consistent with high-energy compression. Recovered material from the crash site was described by witnesses as self-reforming metallic foil — light, like aluminum foil, that when crumpled would return to its original form — reportedly identical to material described in the 1947 Roswell case.

20 January 1996: The encounter

On the afternoon of the same day, around 15:30, three young women — Liliane Fátima Silva da Silva (16), her sister Valquíria Fátima Silva (14), and their friend Kátia Andrade Xavier (22) — were crossing a vacant lot near a subdivision on Dr. Benevenuto Braz Vieira street, in the Jardim Andere neighborhood of Varginha, when they encountered a creature crouching near a wall. They described the being as a large-headed biped, approximately 1.6 metres tall, with dark reddish-brown skin, "spots like veins on the skin and three bumps on the head," and eyes "like two red balls"; it emitted an overwhelming ammonia or sulfurous odor, and appeared wobbly, unsteady, and apparently injured. The three girls fled and told their mother they had seen "the devil" — a reaction that Diana Walsh Pasulka, examining the incident from a religious studies perspective, identified as culturally significant: the encounter occurred within a Catholic framework fundamentally different from the secular extraterrestrial narrative typically applied to it, and recurring witness details such as cloven feet and sulfurous smell reportedly corresponded directly to traditional demonic iconography, a layer of meaning largely invisible to secular investigators. The fire brigade was called to the scene.

Rumors afterward spread through the area, with additional witnesses reporting UFO sightings in the days prior, as well as claims of additional creatures being observed, an unidentified animal prowling a local forest, the death of a police officer, and unexplained animal deaths at the local zoo — reportedly one tapir, one ocelot, and two gray brockets. Ufologists later alleged links between these claims, including a claim that one of the initial creature witnesses was impregnated by the creature.

20 January 1996: Military response

Brazilian military and fire brigade units deployed to the area following the civilian encounters. The RAEM unit was involved in recovery operations. A Brazilian military officer, Marco Eli Chereze, physically handled one of the recovered entities during the operation. At least one entity was reportedly recovered alive.

Hospital

The surviving entity was allegedly taken to the Regional Hospital of Humanitas in Varginha, where the lead neurosurgeon was present with the captive being. According to James Fox, the neurosurgeon's testimony — secured after approximately 30 years of silence — reportedly constituted the first known instance in the history of the phenomenon of first-hand eyewitness testimony from a medical professional who had direct communication with a captured non-human entity in custody.

Transport and American involvement

From the hospital, the entity or entities were allegedly transported by helicopter to Campinas. Two helicopters reportedly flew from Campinas to Varginha and returned, after which something was loaded onto a US Air Force aircraft that had been waiting at Campinas — which then departed for the United States without authorization from the Brazilian government. Every military contact Fox interviewed purportedly confirmed American involvement in the retrieval; Fox himself only discovered this dimension of the case at the very end of his twelve-year investigation: "I spent over twelve years investigating on and off with my buddy Marco Leal in Varginha, Brazil, that UFO crash case and only found out last minute, the last time I was there, that the Americans were involved."

Death of Marco Chereze

Marco Eli Chereze, the military officer who had handled one of the recovered beings during the operation, subsequently died of a bacterial infection attributed to direct physical contact with the entity. His death became one of the most consequential aspects of the case, paralleling accounts of biological hazards associated with UFO crash retrieval operations elsewhere.

Investigation

Brazilian researchers Vitório Pacaccini and A.J. Gevaerd, together with local attorney Ubirajara Franco Rodrigues — who became the principal long-term investigator of the case — conducted extensive fieldwork beginning in 1996, producing witness statements from police officers, firefighters, and RAEM military personnel. Pacaccini and writer Maxs Portes published Incidente em Varginha in 1996, the first Portuguese-language book on the case, and Rodrigues later published O Caso Varginha (2001). Stanton Friedman, the nuclear physicist and veteran UFO researcher, was in the area shortly after the incident and met original witnesses; when he later encountered Fox at a conference, Friedman urged him not to dismiss the case, telling him: "I think this is going to be the Roswell of Brazil."

James Fox began investigating the Varginha case around 2010, spending over twelve years on the ground with his colleague Marco Leal. Fox's documentary Moment of Contact (2022) revisited the case with new witnesses and new military testimony.

During the investigation, a Brazilian general who had previously refused to discuss the case on camera reportedly provided off-the-record confirmation. After a formal interview was completed and cameras shut down, the general, seated in his vehicle, allegedly looked up at Fox and Marco and said simply: "It happened."

An anonymous source who had been assisting Fox's investigation through encrypted communications — supplying detailed intelligence about Varginha-related aircraft movements — was eventually revealed to be a retired United States Air Force colonel who was also a personal UFO experiencer. When Fox finally asked his identity, the source replied: "I'm a retired United States Air Force colonel." He had directed Fox to track specific flight information from a particular airport to a specific base, which Fox corroborated through independent investigation. The colonel's identity was later revealed in Fox's documentary The Program (2024).

The neurosurgeon who had been present at Regional Hospital of Humanitas reportedly broke approximately 30 years of silence and agreed to give testimony for Fox's follow-up documentary, which was in production as of late 2025 and was expected to include audio from surgeons and insiders who handled the beings. Members of Congress briefed on crash retrieval programs were described by Fox as attentive when Varginha was raised in discussions, indicating institutional awareness of the case.

Official inquiry

An official inquiry led by the Brazilian military concluded in 2010 that the young women had encountered a homeless, mentally unstable man nicknamed "Mudinho" (Luiz Antônio de Paula). The Commander of the 24th Police Battalion Military "presented photographs (...) a citizen known as Mudinho, who probably has some mental disability and whose physical characteristics matched the description (...) make it likely that the hypothesis that this citizen, probably being dirty, due to the heavy rains and seen crouching by a wall, was mistaken by the three terrified girls as a space creature." The inquiry also reported that military trucks and personnel had been performing routine duties on the night they were observed, and that the presence of firefighters in Jardim Andere, the parking of Army trucks near a maintenance concessionaire, and the departure of EsSA vehicles "were real facts... incorrectly interpreted as Firefighters and the Military participating in the capture and later the transport of the alleged creature to Campinas."

Skeptic Brian Dunning criticized sensational media accounts and ufologists' claims, stating: "It is the most compelling example of a case where literally nothing at all happened that was remotely unusual, and was magnified into a case considered unassailable proof of alien visitation by many. To those believers, I would suggest recalibrating where you set the bar for quality of evidence."

Cultural impact and tourism

The incident markedly affected tourism to Varginha. Grey alien dolls with football uniforms are sold at the location of the incident. Grey alien designs were used in advertising campaigns for the municipality. Bus stops were built in the form of spaceships, and a 20-metre-tall water tower with a disc-shaped reservoir — the Nave Espacial de Varginha — was erected in the town centre.

Books

• Incidente em Varginha, a 1996 Portuguese-language nonfiction book by ufologist Vitório Pacaccini and writer Maxs Portes.
• O Caso Varginha, a 2001 Portuguese-language nonfiction book by Ubirajara Rodrigues[pt], an ufologist and the main investigator of the case.
• UFO Crash in Brazil, a 2005 English-language nonfiction book by American surgeon and ufologist Roger Leir.
• O.V.N.I L'affaire Varginha, a 2009 French-language comic book by author Philippe Auger.
• Varginha, Toda a Verdade Revelada, a 2015 Portuguese-language nonfiction book by ufologist Marco Antônio Petit[pt] (Revista UFO[pt]).
• Ginho – o ET de Varginha, a 2016 Portuguese-language comic book by cartoonist Marcio Baraldi.
• ETs de Varginha: Montando o Quebra-Cabeça, a 2022 Portuguese-language nonfiction book by ufologist Edison Boaventura Jr.

Films and documentaries

• Alien Encounter, episode 6 of the first season (1998) of Beyond the Truth directed by Bruce Burgess.
• 1996, a 2020 short film by director Rodrigo Brandão revisits the event in a horror story made along the lines of a documentary (in the style of The Blair Witch Project).
• Alien Castaways, episode 7 of the first season (2012) of National Geographic channel's Chasing UFOs series.
• Moment of Contact, a 2022 documentary film by director James Fox.
• O Mistério de Varginha, a 2025 documentary series by directors Ricardo Calil and Paulo Gonçalves, revisiting the case with unreleased archives and new testimony.

Games

• Incidente em Varginha, a 1998 Brazilian video game by Perceptum Informática inspired by the events.
• ET Varginha, a 2022 Nintendo Switch game.

Summary

The 1996 Varginha UFO incident involved a series of events in 1996 when residents of Varginha, Brazil reportedly claimed seeing one or more strange creatures and at least one unidentified flying object (UFO). The reports garnered extensive media coverage. According to media reports, a creature was allegedly sighted on the afternoon of 20 January 1996, by three women ranging from 14 to 22 years old. The women purportedly described the creature as a large-headed biped with "spots like veins on the skin and some bumps on the head [...] eyes were two red balls"; the creature (later termed the "ET de Varginha") seemed to be wobbly or unsteady, and the girls assumed it was injured or sick. They reportedly said that they fled and told their mother that they had seen the "devil".

Other associated claims allegedly include the capture of one or more extraterrestrial beings by the Brazilian authorities, animal fatalities at a zoo, and a woman impregnated by an extraterrestrial. An investigation by the Brazilian Army concluded that a city resident was mistaken for an alien creature and that the movement of military personnel in the region was routine.

Bus stops were built in the form of spaceships and a 20-metres-tall water tower with a disc-shaped water reservoir was erected in the town centre called the Nave Espacial de Varginha.

See also

• UFO sightings in Brazil
• 1986 Brazilian UFO incident
• Operação Prato

References

External links

• Caso ET de Varginha (Mais Varginha) (in Portuguese)
• Revista UFO (UFO Magazine), Special Issue #13, July 1996, published by CBPDV (Centro Brasileiro para Pesquisa de Discos Voadores - Brazilian Center for Flying Saucer Research), Editor Ademar José Gevaerd (in Portuguese) English translation
• Revista UFO (UFO Magazine), Web Site Varginha Incident (in Portuguese)
• #1976 - James Fox. youtube.com. 2023-04-26. Retrieved 2026-03-15. ＋

This article incorporates material from the Wikipedia article "Varginha UFO incident", as of 2024-11-11, released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.