Pereira – OK, look, I'm analyzing with the knowledge we have today in our planet, with the knowledge our current stage of science has achieved. This is the caveat to be consider. So, if we consider only this knowledge, I reject every possibility of anyone coming from outer space to Earth. And it gets more complex if we go further because Alpha Centauri does not seem to be a planetary system. Let's move then to the portion of the Universe astronomers call "inhabitable zone", which seems to be many light years from Earth.

UFO - Is the understanding of this situation beyond our control?

Pereira – The starting point is the technology we have today to understand the universe. I wouldn't say no one might have advanced a million years ahead somewhere else. On the other hand, the technology we have today on Earth fully dismisses the possibility of someone from out of the solar system to arrive here. I humbly insist that our knowledge must still be insignificant to comprehend all of this. We can see by what happened over the last hundred years with discoveries ranging from penicillin to the airplane.

UFO - Spacecraft coming to Earth certainly do not use the same propulsion technology we used to explore the Moon, Mars or Venus. Do you think this should be openly discussed by civil society?

Pereira – No, they probably don't use rocket engines like our spacecraft sent to space. My opinion on Ufology is that it must approach scientific fields in the near future, such as astronomy, astrophysics, and astronautics in order to form a more consistent scientific group. I don't refuse the idea of philosophy entering this range of subjects, with its modern concepts aiming to quickly address the issues we couldn't solve to date: who we are, where we came from, and where are we going to... Since Aristotle we make the same questions and no one answers. Ufology in combination with these other subjects might be a way to these answers.

UFO - Your open and frank position matches those of a few other Brazilian military. However, the same is confronted by some sectors within the military who prefer UFO matters to be kept out of public discussion. Do you think it is time to break such resistance?

Pereira – Look, I believe the mere opening of secret files to be delivered to the press and the public in general is something that can be done tomorrow morning without any problem. But I think this is not enough, not sufficient. Ufologists might even get disappointed when they see those files because I feel they expect more concrete evidence and maybe they won't find what they long for in those folders. However, I think that an official example of opening UFO archives – especially when this attitude comes from the military – comes to favor and empower other people that fear to discuss the issue. I think that from the moment the government opens the subject for debate all the fear people have towards this subject will be gone and things become more transparent. No one fears transparency; instead people fear the lack of it. So I believe that such an opening is really helpful and has a very favorable effect in this discussion.

UFO - And what to do while we do not achieve this relying only on testimonials of thousands of highly credible people who have experienced UFO phenomena?

Pereira – One must consider all different sorts of evidence surrounding UFOs. As in any police work, we have documental, testimonial, and circumstantial evidence each with their own weight. Documental evidence, for example, has its own impact as has a testimonial. Has anybody seen something in the sky? Great! But it's even better when we have 50 people witnessing it. Especially when these people don't know one another and live in different communities. This is how testimonial evidence becomes stronger. And, at last, we have the circumstantial evidence, which is the most fragile of all. We must separate these three kinds of evidence we have today concerning Ufology. Circumstantial evidence are present in high volume, so are testimonial ones, and 90% of these have a scientific explanation while the remaining 10% do not. Regarding material evidence, we have none.

UFO - Would you call the occurrence of May 20th 1986, the so called Official UFO Night in Brazil, as a circumstantial evidence of the UFO phenomena?

Pereira – As far as I know, observations in that occasion were testimonial evidence from people who saw it.

UFO - Jet pilots who were sent by the Air Force to intercept those objects were very experienced.

Pereira – Yes, they were. That's why those are testimonial evidence, situations in which witnesses saw something and radars detected that same thing. Look, radars may present a false echo, they may be affected by many different factors, but when we have more than one radar spotting the same target, then we have something serious enough to be ignored [in an assured tone]. This equipment operates in different frequencies.

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