Dr. Rafael A. Lara's

MEXICO WATCH

The MIB in South America: A Sampling of Cases

In spite of the dismal theatrical release with the classic Hollywood overtones, the phenomenon of the "Men-in-Black" represents a bona fide mystery within those associated to the UFO phenomenon. On this occasion, we present our dear readers with some little-known cases corresponding to this highly unusual phenomenology.

In 1967, the wave of apparitions which stunned Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay with over 110 UFO sightings in a space of 24 hours on June 24th alone, was preceded by a singular MIB event: four days prior to the June 24th "night of lights", a man dressed in black showed up at the newsroom of Cordoba, Argentina's "Los Principios" daily, where he dropped off a letter addressed to the editor stating that before the week was out, the Southern Cone would experience a massive fly-over involving hundreds of extraterrestrial craft. The day before the sightings began, the newspaper received a strange phone call stating: "Attention, it will begin at any moment..." The UFO flap began almost immediately, but the strange MIB remained anonymous.

The famous "Cobrea Case", which took place in the eponymous city in Argentina's Santa Fe province, captured the attention of that country's media. During several days in August 1968, witnesses observed strange lights moving around the sky and no less enigmatic reflections being seen in the remotest areas of the wilderness. Local residents were surprised to find considerable amounts of burnt grass and earth with huge toadstools growing around them. Several animals -- small dairy cattle -- also turned up dead, apparently as a result of radiation exposure. Nonetheless, the most interesting experience was that of the Rodriguez family, who witnessed a Jeep carrying four men (2 of them dressed in blue coveralls, the other 2 dressed in black) drive along the only access road to the property. One of the men asked the landowner where they could find an exit, and the startled Mr. Rodriguez asked them how had they gotten there in the first place! There were, in fact, no tire-marks on the ground, nor had the barbed-wire fence surrounding the perimeter been cut. The owners of neighboring fields later told police that they had not allowed the transit of such outlandish characters and their vehicle through their own fields. Curiously enough, after the Jeep-driving MIB departed, UFO activity in the area came to a complete halt.

In 1971, two physicians -- Arguello de la Mota and Antonio Arocha -- were in San Juan de los Morros, a small town not far from Caracas, Venezuela when they were startled by the unexpected arrival of two characters dressed in black who drove into the dusty town in a sporty Mustang. Unaware that they were being watched, the MIB exchanged remarks and donned orange-colored belts. Suddenly, a brilliant object appeared in the sky, descending rapidly to the surface. The physicians, swore that the object was a 60-foot wide disk-shaped craft which produced a parabolic ladder while hovering inches off the ground. The MIB entered the vehicle, which rose into the skies and vanished out of sight (no information is available on the fate of the brand-new sports car they left behind). The story was circulated worldwide by United Press International.