- CIOVI, the pioneer organization
in the study of the UFO phenomenon, says farewell after half a century
without obtaining any proof of alien life. The Uruguayan Air Force receives
40 reports of "sightings" each year.
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- By Andres Lopez Reilly
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- 10-29-7
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- In 2008, the commission that began studying UFOs in Uruguay
will celebrate its 50th birthday. It will be a celebration and farewell
party, because "people are no longer interested in the subject."
The Uruguayan Air Force, however, received 40 reports of sightings over
the past year.
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- On April 29, 1958, a group of youngsters inaugurated
UFO research in Uruguay, inspired by Hollywood-produced "flying saucer"
movies and the stories of sightings and strange phenomena arriving from
all over the world. They formed the Centro de Investigacion de Objetos
Voladores No Identificados (CIOVI Center For UFO Research).
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- These Uruguayans are now in their Seventies and openly
admit that the force that motivated them at the time was having an encounter
with "beings from outer space".
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- While dismissed as "crazy" by many, they approached
the subject seriously and systematically, to the extent that the investigation
system devised by CIOVI was adopted years later by the Uruguayan Air Force's
Comision Receptora de Denuncias Ovni (CRIDOVNI) which has been in operation
since 1979.
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- CIOVI is a non-profit civilian organization which in
fact stopped engaging in research years ago, although it maintains a web
page and its members remain in touch, always attentive to the news items
that emerge all over the world on the subject. The only two members who
remain from the original group are Milton Hourcade, who currently resides
in the U.S.A., and German Vazquez, whose employment in the personnel office
of the defunct "Alpargatas" factory made him the ideal choice
for interviewing UFO sighting witnesses.
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- The remaining six members make up the current board of
CIOCI, which shall celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. However, its
birthday party shall be its farewell party, because "people have lost
interest in the subject and are no longer surprised about anything,"
said German Valdez to El Pais in an interview from his home in the Malvin
district. 50 yeas later, Vazquez summarizes CIOVI's research in a single
phrase that many may not care to hear: "The UFO phenomenon exists,
but it's sociological. If intelligent alien life exists, it never reached
Planet Earth."
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- Attraction for "flying saucers" began on June
24, 1947 in the U.S. when Kenneth Arnold saw 9 objects rising and falling
amid the peaks of Mount Rainier. "Arnold said they were like saucers
skipping on water. Had the pilot been Uruguayan, he would have said "haciendo
sapito" (making like small toads). He never said they were flying
saucers. When he drew the object, he depicted them with a triangular shape,"
added CRIOVNI's founder.
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- "The press took hold of the expression and talk
of flying saucers began. But what is curious and most eye-catching is that
after Arnold, who did not see them, everyone began talking about saucers,"
Vazquez continued. "I always tell my comrades, when I see someone
who brings me a photo of a saucer-shaped object, I begin to mistrust. This
was a journalistic invention with no basis in reality."
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- The most typical UFO pilgrimage place in Uruguay by those
who want to have some sort of "contact" experience is the La
Aurora de Salto ranch, where a strange phenomenon occurred in the 1970s
which, according to researchers, was purely meteorological.
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- CRYONIC shares Cove's belief that no strange phenomenon
ever occurred in "La Aurora".
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- Sources of the Uruguayan Air Force told El Pays that
the first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong, visited the ranch on
two occasions as a reporter for Newsweek, researching claims on sightings
and strange phenomena, but "never as a representative for NASA".
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- La Aurora is a agricultural and livestock ranch located
only a few meters from the Salt-Payson bridge over the Drayman River. The
ranch extends into both of these departments.
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- In a recent report on the Santos Pendants program of
El Spectator, one of the ranch's owners, Tulia Tuna, recalled the event
that made the place prominent 31 years ago. "What we witnessed was
as from February 1976. Very powerful lights appeared out of nowhere producing
burns on trees, animals and people. That's what we saw. Then a very powerful
light would light up all of the ranches in the vicinity at night. And well,
people saw it. It was hard to conceal this because the whole world could
see what was going on."
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- This phenomenon, described by the Uruguayan Air Force
and COVE as "ball lightning", left the soil charred and some
dead animals were found.
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- "A local doctor from Salt began picking up radiation
and some Japanese working at the Salt Grande Dam came over with a gadget
that uncovered the presence of high radiation. And that's what happened
to famous Mob tree. It was necessary to close the doors, obviously, out
of a concern for people and some stories that circulated that were untrue,"
said Tuna.
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- Access to Estancia La Aurora is through a dirt road that
splits off from Route 3. It is not a tourist ranch, as many believe, although
it is a popular destination due to is proximity to the well-known Padre
Pio grotto.
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- German Vazquez warns that "some people profit off
of this subject" and charge up to $2000 for a visit to La Aurora.
"They prepare you for what you're going to see and then they make
you see what they want," he stated. "A friend paid $2000. He
brought some binoculars along and he was told to stare at a fixed point.
When he did so, all he saw was a star. Other people wept and said "We
saw it! We saw it!," he explained.
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- (Translation (c) 2007, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks
to Luis Eduardo Pacheco, Proyecto Stratocat)
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