On The Trail of the Chupacabras

by Dr. Virgilio Sánchez Ocejo (Miami UFO Center)

We shall try to summarize the most crucial elements collected during our field research in the Chilean towns of Calama, María Elena and Tocopila. Names will be omitted for obvious reasons, nor will we repeat information gleaned from the reports so kindly provided by Ms. Liliana Núñez and which can be seen in our Miami Chupacabras website under the heading "Chupacabras in Chile." It is unnecessary to state that we met in person with many of the witnesses appearing in these reports to corroborate and expand details on their accounts, which shall appear on our website shortly.

The information appearing herein is documented with photographs, video and recordings.

It all started on March 17, 2000, when a vast light illuminated the skies over Calama and María Elena, being seen as far away as Tocopila. The first attacks to occur in this 2nd Region of Chile began on the outskirts of Calama. These are some of the accounts: a witness told us that he was able to see "two stars" which moved around the area whenever the attacks occurred. Another witness driving along the road from Baquedano to Calama saw a Chupacabras-creature carrying a dead fox on the edge of the highway. A llama and a goat were enigmatically slain within their cages at a grammar school without the night watchman ever hearing anything at all. Together with the school's director, we calculated that a total of 17 liters of blood was obtained from the slain animals and that it is impossible to know how the Chupacabras was able to enter and exit [the cage] through a space measuring barely 30 centimeters. A cyclist stopped in front of the local Lions' Club when he heard a moaning sound: he was startled beyond words to see a Chupacabras holding onto an exsanguinated dog. Caught in the act, the creature "levitated" toward the cyclist, still carrying the dog in its arms; gripped by panic, the cyclist pedaled away from the area as fast as he could. These are just some of the accounts not covered by the local press obtained directly from the eyewitnesses.

Over the course of the days we spent in María Elena, the testimonies we collected were so numerous that many of them are still under evaluation. Awaiting us in the town was a group of students we had coordinated beforehand over the Internet to obtain statements and collect plaster casts. We were surprised to find that a cast of one of the prints was IDENTICAL to the print casts from the 1996 Miami attacks. Comparative study is crucial in ufology, and it leads us to ask many questions, such as: how is it possible that the same creatures are appearing, now, in another country? Why did they wait 4 years [to do so]?

Taken to site where the students had made the plaster casts, we were able to see thousands of similar prints scattered throughout the terrain. My attention was drawn to the fact that the site is crisscrossed by the high-voltage lines next to the tracks employed by the local mining company's trains. The students pointed out three strange holes with a circumference of some 60 centimeters and 25 centimeters deep at the site. The measurements are not exact due to the wind and dust erosion, but I asked each of the students to stand on each of the three holes while I climbed onto a nearby mound, photographing and calculating the measurements of the triangle they formed: there was a distance of 4 meters between holes A and B and some 7 meters between B and C. Had I discovered the tripodal landing gear of a UFO that landed to disgorge the blood predators?

According to the triangle, I calculated that the object would have had a circumference of some 30 meters and was heavy enough to leave an imprint 25 centimeters into the ground. But that wasn't all: from the mound on which I stood I was able to see the thousands of prints going off in a single direction--toward the town of María Elena. There were no prints on the sides nor toward the back, where the tripodal landing gear marks could be seen.

I can honestly state that the misnamed Chupacabras phenomenon is part and parcel of the UFO phenomenon. I was able to ascertain that it isn't a genetic terrestrial experiment, as I thought, nor the product of some known or unknown animal. I have no doubt that it forms part of the UFO phenomenon.

This fact will create a new chapter within the field of research, and I'm certain that many will call it into question and attack me. My intention isn't to convince anyone, but my conscience will not let me conceal the evidence discovered during my field research. I hope others may be able to verify it.

But the matter doesn't rest here. We arrived at María Elena on Saturday, July 22nd, and learned from eyewitnesses that at 8:30 a.m. on July 20th, the Chilean Air Force had dropped a bomb at a location between María Elena and Pedro Valdívia. The explosion caused tremors and shattered glass throughout María Elena, causing panic among the population.

The first explanation spread among the townsfolk was that it was a bomb accidentally released by a fighter. The second one is that a Chilean Air Force jet had broken the sound barrier flying at low altitude, and finally, that the bomb had been dropped to kill some Jotes (vultures).

Witnesses claimed that following the explosion, pebbles landed on rooftops and that this had not been the only bomb dropped. Another bomb was dropped near the town of Quillagua, approximately 100 kilometers northwest of María Elena, on July 13th. We tried to drive along the road that leads to Pedro Valdívia to see if we could find the crash site, but were detoured at an intersection by the Carabineros (the Chilean quasi-military police). The site was still cordoned off by the authorities and cars could not pass. We were forced to return to María Elena.

I now ask you: If I say that the Chilean Air Force bombed two Chupacabras lairs, who is going to believe me? What type of bombs have been designed to slay these entities? If these entities conceal themselves in the region's caves, why didn't they employ dynamite to seal the caves and avoid widespread panic? What kind of pressure or desperation in controlling these attacks the Chilean and U.S. agencies involved in the process to choose to drop bombs in broad daylight, unmindful of the repercussions on the inhabitants? I have more questions than I do answers.

I was able to verify certain things, such as strange van-type vehicles and armored cars transiting along the highways, black helicopters flying almost noiselessly and at light-post level, chasing a Chupacabras from one rooftop to the next. At the Calama Airport, one witness looked under the tarp covering a private LearJet and saw that it had a NASA logo on its tail and wings. U.S. nationals using Mexican interpreters were seen throughout the region.

On the other hand, the María Elena Museum featured a display entitled Las Ofrendas del Desierto (Desert Offerings) which explained that the Atacaman Indians made animal offerings to their gods (UFOs). The gods (UFOs) returned the animals completely drained of blood and the Indians consumed the flesh, burying the remains under stone structures dubbed apachecta. The display showes the corpse of a dog found under one such apachecta or ceremonial structure.

We couldn't stand before this display and not think that today, given the absence of native peoples, that the gods (UFOs) have created the blood-carrying Chupacabras and released them in the communities that provided them with animal blood in ages past--voluntarily, as offerings--to obtain the blood that they appear to need from time to time.

In closing, I will say that in the days I spent in María Elena it was possible not only to feel the presence of these entities in my bedroom at night, but their foetid smell as well. When I complained, my hosts changed my lodgings, only to have the experience repeat itself. I was later told that under María Elena there are caves through which these entities move about, and that efforts have been made to clean them out due to the foul odor that rises to the surface. What is more--upon my return to Miami, my family was also able to perceive the smell and we are currently trying to wash and re-wash all of my travel garments to no effect. Even the suitcase has been left open in the garage to see if the penetrating odor can be dispelled.

This experience was not mine alone. I was able to corroborate it with Mr. Jaime Ferrer of the Calama UFO Center, with whom we spent time in Calama and María Elena.