In the words of UFO researcher Mercedes Casas, based in Salta, Argentina "Ever since the famous 1978 crash on the border between Bolivia and the province of Salta, UFO activity never ceased in the Tarija region. Reports of nocturnal lights moving in odd patterns - zigzags rather than straight lines - continued for months after the crash when everything had ostensibly quieted down. There is a tremendous influx of Bolivians into Salta, looking for better opportunities," she continues. "They all have stories to tell involving bizarre nocturnal lights, particularly those hailing from the rural areas."

A History of Blackouts

One of the most fascinating and disturbing aspects of UFO activity in Latin America, from Mexico down to Tierra del Fuego, is the effect of unidentified craft on the power grid. Entire cities have witnessed strange objects over their streets before blackouts, and others have written detailed reports on their impact on specific power stations. One of the most important characteristics of the November 2009 incident at Joaquin V. Gonzalez centers around the electromagnetic effect exerted by the cigar-shaped "mothership" over a turbine at the El Tunal power station and a number of light posts along a highway - spaced at regular intervals on a road that appears to have visited by the enigmatic object.

This "EM Effect" can be traced back to cases 40 years in the past. Argentinean author Roberto Banchs mentions the July 4, 1968 blackout that darkened the entire sector of Tigre (province of Buenos Aires). During this incident, a number of witnesses reported seeing a UFO. A woman named Isabel Gómez stated that the object "seemed to emit light. It was the only lighted object at the time." The unknown object was reported at 2300 hours that evening, and described as a "large, splendid source of light".

A few months later, the city of Chascomús was plunged into darkness. Mrs. Blanca Davis witnessed a UFO measuring some 7 or 8 meters in diameter hanging motionless in the air, directly above the town square. "When we looked toward the west," she reported, "we saw two [more] discs and another one which gave the impression of being ready to land. Suddenly the UFOs headed toward the lagoon area, from which twenty more objects appeared, flying from north to south at fantastic speeds." Banchs reports that electricity was restored the moment the objects disappeared.

Not even majestic Buenos Aires was spared these sudden power failures. On December 26, 1965, the city and all of its suburbs in a 40-mile radius were left in the dark. Hours turned into days before service was restored - even as the country experienced one of the great UFO flaps of the decade.

In 1974, it was the city of Cordoba's turn to light candles as unidentified flying objects flew overhead. Marcelo Lublinksy, a correspondent for the defunct CEFAI research organization, reported that a 30 minute, city-wide blackout had taken place on the 16th of October even as people reported having seen luminous objects flying overhead toward the northeast. "The electric company reports that no defects were found in its equipment."

Back to the Present

Early on November 26, 2009, while Northern Argentina endured the rigors of an unusually hot summer for the Southern Hemisphere, people either tossed and turned in their beds, waiting for the expected relief of a thunderstorm that would never come in the end, while others sought relief in the open air, whether from eating frozen desserts or simply sitting at outdoor restaurants open at that late hour. This, at least, was the scene in the community of Joaquin V. Gonzalez (Lat. 25.0833, Long. 64.1833), named after the famous Argentinean educator. Most reports coincide on 0200 hours as the time when over a hundred witnesses, at last count, were treated to the awe-inspiring sight of an otherworldly object, described in newspaper articles as "a strange, gigantic luminous creature, elongated and weightless" embarking on a precise trajectory toward the hydroelectric power station at El Tunal on the Juramento River, twenty-one miles distant toward the southeast, part of the massive Cabra Corral system, perhaps the most important in the Argentinean Northwest. The object made flew over the bemused onlookers, making intermittent flashes of light and with a fixed red beacon on its forward structure.

Click on the 'NEXT' arrow for page 4

Share this article with: