Varginha 1996: Two Captured Creatures and Brazil’s Military Cover-Up

On the morning of 13 January 1996, people around Varginha in Minas Gerais, Brazil, reported a large object flying low and descending through white smoke. A university professor who approached the area said the debris was extremely light and smelled of ammonia and sulphur. Military trucks arrived and pushed civilians away. Seven days later, three girls saw a brown-skinned, red-eyed, three-toed creature crouched beside a wall. That same day, military and fire-service vehicles filled the streets.

That night, military police officer Marco Eli Chereze was said to have caught another creature with his bare hands. Two weeks later he entered hospital with a severe infection and died on 15 February. His family was told the cause was sepsis and pneumonia. People who retold the event said the body was to be buried quickly and that soldiers controlled the hospital.