The skies over this remote coffee-growing town turned charcoal black, the heavens opened, and one of Brazil’s greatest mysteries was born.
“It really was something unique,” recalls Marco Antônio Reis, a zoo director who was at his ranch outside Varginha during a stormy day in January 1996 when, he says, an otherworldly creature came to town.
Reis and other locals claim the unusually fierce downpour heralded a series of disturbing and seemingly paranormal events.
At least six of the zoo’s animals, including a spider monkey, a tapir, and a raccoon, died mysteriously after a horned intruder with bulging red eyes was spotted nearby by a woman who had stepped out for a smoke. When a vet examined their bodies, “they were all black inside,” Reis claims.
On a nearby wasteland, three young women saw a strange, foul-smelling being with a heart-shaped face and three lumps on its head crouching beside a wall. “I’ve seen the devil,” one of the witnesses later told her mother.
Soon after, rumors spread that an unexplained infection had killed a strong police intelligence officer who was said to have grappled with the oily, unidentified being.
Three decades later, Reis says he is convinced Varginha received a non-human visitor. His only doubt is where it came from.
“We don’t know if it was extraterrestrial or intraterrestrial,” the 71-year-old says as he climbs a staircase to the veranda where the smoker claims to have seen what became known as the “ET of Varginha,” a nod to Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film. A two-foot statue of a two-toed alien now marks the spot.
“It’s possible it was an intraterrestrial, from inside the Earth… They don’t just come from space,” Reis says. “It might have come from the depths of the Earth, too. We don’t even know what it’s like at the bottom of the sea, do we?”
As Varginha marks the 30th anniversary of the enigma that turned the little-known agricultural city into a household name, debate continues to rage over the events of January 1996.
A recently released documentary series, The Mystery of Varginha, suggests much of the story was a hoax, fueled by attention-seeking ufologists, ratings-driven TV executives, and key witnesses who allegedly fabricated their stories for financial gain.
“It was all built on assumptions, untruths, and general nonsense,” says Ubirajara Rodrigues, the ufologist who first claimed the three young women had seen an alien, in the program.
One remorseful witness—a former soldier who once sensationally claimed troops had captured an alien in Varginha—admits to spreading fake news after being offered a bribe worth thousands of dollars. “There’s no such thing as the ET of Varginha,” he says, calling claims of a military cover-up “one of the biggest farces ever.”
An army investigation—published in full to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the sightings and to refute allegations of a conspiracy—also concluded the story was a sham, possibly the result of mass hysteria that led people to link ordinary occurrences, such as the animal deaths, to the initial sightings of the “ET.” The report suggested the three young women had mistaken a local man sheltering from the heavy rain for an alien.
But Reis and many others in Varginha remain convinced something extraordinary happened.The incident is still being covered up to this day, he says while touring the locations where the extraterrestrial visitor is said to have been spotted.
“I believe,” says Felipe Ramos, a 33-year-old city hall official, adding, “I think there were three of them.”
New witnesses have also come forward, such as neurologist Ítalo Venturelli, who used a recent documentary to break his three-decade silence about the white alien he claims to have seen at Varginha’s hospital in 1996. “Its skull was droplet-shaped… it had a small mouth and lilac droplet-shaped eyes,” says the doctor, who did not respond to the Guardian’s interview requests.
The ET museum in Varginha hosted a two-day UFO conference this year.
Ufologist Vitório Pacaccini, author of the book The Varginha Incident, said, “Thirty years on, I remain convinced something extraordinary happened in Varginha in January 1996.”
Pacaccini, whom the new documentary accuses of paying witnesses for interviews that support the ET story, rejected the program’s “tendentious” findings. He insisted Varginha had witnessed “an event of unconventional nature, possibly involving an extraterrestrial presence.” The ufologist claimed there is ample evidence suggesting a UFO crashed in the region, triggering “a large military operation to capture and remove its occupants.”
Whatever the truth, the saga has been good for business in Varginha, where authorities are trying to capitalize on unexpectedly becoming Brazil’s “Land of the ET.”
Varginha’s tourism secretary, Rosana Carvalho, praised the city’s ET museum.
The city’s tourism secretary, Rosana Carvalho, said 200,000 visitors from nearly 40 countries, including New Zealand and Japan, have visited Varginha’s flying saucer-shaped ET museum since it opened in 2022. The gift shop offers a wide range of themed merchandise, including ET mugs, key rings, and T-shirts stamped with cartoons of green aliens and the words “humans are terrible.” In January, the museum hosted a two-day UFO conference.
Carvalho said the government recently acquired the weed-covered wasteland where the three young women supposedly saw the ET and plans to build a monument to the region’s most famous guest. American investors have visited this mountainous part of Minas Gerais state—a seven-hour drive from Rio—with plans for a theme park. “We really see the chance to turn this into a substantial economic activity for the municipality,” Carvalho said, citing the multimillion-dollar tourist industry that grew around Scotland’s Loch Ness Monster.
Those who claim to have encountered the extraterrestrial have also tried to monetize Varginha’s fame. “If you’re paying a fee, I can talk to the girls,” one of the three witnesses told the Guardian when contacted about a possible interview. After being informed that this was against the newspaper’s policies, she replied, “I’m very busy, thanks, OK.”
Others were happier to share their thoughts.
The saga has been good business for Varginha.
Sitting in the shade of a spaceship-shaped bus stop, not far from Varginha’s rocket-shaped city hall and near a mural asking passersby, “Have you been abducted?” José Reis dismissed claims that his hometown had received a visit from beyond.
Reis supported the official version: that the three young women had mistaken a scrawny man for an alien as he sought shelter from the rain. “I don’t believe any of it—but it’s not for us to judge,” the 71-year-old said.
As Reis spoke, another commuter furrowed her brow in disapproval. “Young people don’t lie,” said Helena Narciso, 47, insisting the close encounter story was 100% true.
What’s more, Narciso…Iso believed the aliens would one day return to Varginha because of supernatural powers, which she said allowed her to perform “the miracle of the sun.”
“I think they are looking for me,” she said with a conspiratorial glance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Of course Here is a list of FAQs about the 30th anniversary of the Varginha UFO incident framed in a natural conversational tone
Beginner General Questions
1 What is Varginha and why is it called Brazils UFO capital
Varginha is a city in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais It earned this nickname after a famous masswitness UFO sighting and alleged alien creature encounter that happened there in January 1996 which attracted global attention and ongoing investigation
2 What exactly happened in Varginha 30 years ago
In January 1996 multiple independent witnesses reported seeing a strange tubshaped object crashing or flying low over the city Shortly after three young women encountered a bizarre small creature with oily brown skin large red eyes and Vshaped feet This sparked a massive military and police response rumors of a captured alien and a major coverup story
3 Were the creatures ever caught What did they look like
According to witness testimony and researchers military personnel captured at least one of the creatures Descriptions consistently mention it being about 45 feet tall with brown oily skin a large head huge red eyes three protrusions on its head and distinct Vshaped feet It appeared injured or sick
4 Is there any proof
There is no single piece of irrefutable proof like clear video but there is a large body of circumstantial evidence numerous credible consistent eyewitness accounts official documents showing unusual military movements and the mysterious deaths of several animals at the zoo where a creature was allegedly taken The case is built on this collective testimony
5 What did the Brazilian government say about it
The official explanation from the Brazilian Army was that the witnesses mistook a mutant dwarf for an alien This explanation is widely rejected by witnesses and researchers as an inadequate coverup for a much more unusual event
Advanced Detailed Questions
6 Why is this case taken more seriously by researchers than other UFO stories
The Varginha case is considered one of the worlds most significant because of the
