COLARES

Opening

In 1977, people on the island of Colares, at the mouth of the Amazon in the Brazilian state of Pará, said lights were coming out of the night sky and shooting beams at them. They called the lights chupa-chupa, "suck-suck", because they said the beams drained blood and strength.

Villagers stayed up in groups, lit bonfires and set off fireworks to keep them away. The island's doctor treated dozens of people for burns and weakness. The mayor asked the Brazilian Air Force for help, and from 20 October to 11 November 1977, and again into December, an Air Force team called Operação Prato, "Operation Saucer", watched, photographed and filmed the lights.

Timeline

Mid 1977Reports of lights and beams spread through Colares and nearby towns. People keep night watches.

September 1977Mayor José Ildone Favacho Soeiro asks the Air Force for help. The First Regional Air Command in Belém sets up Operação Prato under Captain Uyrangê Hollanda.

20 October to 11 November 1977The first field phase. The team interviews witnesses, keeps watch at night and takes photographs and film of lights.

25 November to 5 December 1977The second phase.

Early 1978The operation ends, after about four months, with the official view that it found nothing unusual. The files stay secret.

1990Jacques Vallée describes Colares in his book Confrontations, after being shown military photographs and maps and interviewing the doctor.

1997Hollanda, now retired as a colonel, gives a long interview to ufologists Ademar Gevaerd and Marco Petit, describing far more than the official record: structured craft and figures. Three months later he is found dead at home, apparently by suicide.

2008 to 2009Prato documents are released to Brazil's National Archives after a campaign by Brazilian ufologists.

Key figures

Dr Wellaide Cecim Carvalho ran the health post on Colares and treated about 35 to 40 people who said the light had touched them. She described burns, small puncture marks, weakness and anaemia.

Captain Uyrangê Hollanda led Prato. What he wrote in 1977 and what he said in 1997 are very different, and it matters which version is being quoted.

Mayor José Ildone Favacho Soeiro made the request that started the operation.

Physical and documentary trail

The record: the released Prato reports, with mission logs, witness summaries and photographs of lights; Dr Carvalho's later accounts; and Vallée's interviews. Hollanda said in 1997 that the team took more than 500 photographs and hours of film. Only some have been released, and what they show is argued over: mostly points and blobs of light.

Still missing: a published medical series with case notes, any photograph that clearly shows a structured craft, and the full photo and film archive Hollanda described.

Things you might not know

• The name is a lollipop joke. In Brazil chupa-chupa is also a word for a lollipop, from chupar, to suck.
• The town fought back with fireworks. Villagers lit fires and set off fireworks, believing the noise and light would scare the objects away.
• The military took it seriously enough to go twice. Prato spent two separate field phases on the island, in October to November and again in late November to December.
• The commander's story grew. In 1977 the official result was nothing unusual. In 1997 Hollanda described seeing a huge craft and beings in suits.
• Some claims grew even bigger. Later retellings say the lights drained blood from 400 people or killed some of them. Those numbers don't come from the medical record.

Competing explanations

Unknown objects. Many witnesses, injuries treated by a doctor, and an Air Force team that saw and photographed lights it could not identify.

Fear and ordinary lights. A frightened population, sleepless nights, and boats, planets, aircraft or meteors seen in a state of alarm. Mass anxiety can produce real physical symptoms, and some burns could have other causes.

A secret test. Some have suggested a military or foreign technology trial. No evidence has been found for it.

Later life of the case

Colares is Brazil's most famous UFO case, and Hollanda's interview and death made it a fixture of documentaries. The town still tells the story.

Finding

The record shows a real wave of fear, real injuries treated by a doctor, and a real military operation that photographed lights it couldn't explain, then reported nothing unusual. The bigger claims, about craft, beings and deaths, mostly come from years later. What hit the people of Colares has never been identified.

What still will not resolve: what is in the rest of the Prato film and photographs, and why the commander's account changed so much between 1977 and 1997.