Incident · 20 January 1996 · Jardim Andere, Varginha, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Varginha incident
Also known as ET de Varginha, Varginha UFO incident, Varginha case, Caso Varginha
Partly explained. A Brazilian Army inquiry (1997) found no military involvement and judged the creature most likely a local man seen in a storm; two of the three soldiers' testimonies of the 1990s were later retracted, while the three women and new witnesses stand by their accounts. (Brazilian Army military police inquiry IPM nº 18/1997 into the Varginha case (Escola de Sargentos das Armas, 1997))
Brazil's best-known UFO case. On 20 January 1996, in Varginha, a city in southern Minas Gerais near the Army's sergeants' school in Três Corações, three young women said they had seen a strange creature crouching by a wall. Stories followed of a craft crashing days earlier, of firefighters and soldiers capturing two beings, of one taken to the regional hospital, of a military police officer who died after touching one, and of the beings being flown out, possibly by the U.S. Air Force.
The official record contradicts it: the Army's 1997 inquiry found no military involvement and judged the creature most likely a local man. Two of the three soldiers whose anonymous testimony spread the story in the 1990s later retracted it, one saying he had been promised money. The three women have never changed their account, and in January 2026 filmmaker James Fox presented new named witnesses in Washington: a crash witness, the forensic examiner who performed the officer's autopsy, the pathologist who examined his tissue, a neurosurgeon who says he saw a living being at the hospital, and a retired U.S. Air Force colonel tracing an alleged U.S. flight. Fox's documentary Moment of Contact (2022, updated 2026) tells the case.
Sources: Brazilian Army IPM nº 18/1997 (Superior Tribunal Militar) · Fantástico (Globo, 4 February 1996) · National Press Club press conference (NewsNation, 20 January 2026) · Brasil 247 on Globo's O Mistério de Varginha (January 2026)
Facts and claims
- claimed On the afternoon of Saturday 20 January 1996 Kátia Xavier, 22, and the sisters Valquíria, 14, and Liliane Silva, 16, said they saw a crouching creature with brown, oily-looking skin, large red eyes and bulging veins by a wall on a vacant lot in Jardim Andere, and ran away. Source: Fantástico on the Varginha creature: the three witnesses, the fire brigade and the hospital (Globo, 4 February 1996) at 0:00
- claimed In February 1996 the commander of the Varginha fire brigade, Capt. Alvarenga, issued an official note saying the brigade had not been called out to capture an extraterrestrial, and the regional hospital's management said no one with non-human characteristics had been admitted. Source: Fantástico on the Varginha creature: the three witnesses, the fire brigade and the hospital (Globo, 4 February 1996) at 2:14
- documented The Army's 1997 inquiry concluded that the creature was most likely a local man known as “mudinho”, probably dirty from the rain, crouched by a wall, and that the military movements cited were routine. Source: Brazilian Army military police inquiry IPM nº 18/1997 into the Varginha case (Escola de Sargentos das Armas, 1997)
- claimed Military police officer Marco Eli Chereze, 23, died weeks later of a fast-spreading infection. Ufologists and his family link his death to the capture of a creature; the forensic examiner who performed his autopsy describes a highly virulent, multi-drug-resistant bacterium, and a pathologist who examined his tissue raises the hypothesis of an alien origin. Source: Varginha press conference at the National Press Club: James Fox and the Brazilian witnesses (NewsNation live, 20 January 2026) at 1:15:40
- claimed In January 2026 Globo's documentary series O Mistério de Varginha reported that of the three military testimonies that spread the case in the 1990s, two were later retracted by their own authors, one saying a ufologist had promised him R$ 5 mil, while the third, still anonymous, maintains that he saw something like a burned body on a stretcher at a hospital watched by the Army. The ufologist accused, Vitório Pacaccini, denies any payment. Source: brasil247.com (archived)
- claimed Ubirajara Rodrigues, the lawyer and ufologist who first investigated the case, told the series that “o que há de autêntico no caso é apenas o depoimento das três senhoras”: only the three women's testimony is authentic. — Ubirajara Rodrigues Source: brasil247.com (archived)
Connected files
Claims
Documents
- Brazilian Army military police inquiry IPM nº 18/1997 into the Varginha case (Escola de Sargentos das Armas, 1997) (documented in)
Events
Documentaries
- Moment of Contact (subject of)
People
- A. J. Gevaerd (researched by)
- Armando Fortunato Filho (claims by) — He performed the autopsy of military police officer Marco Eli Chereze
- Carlos de Souza (witnesses)
- Fred Claussen (investigated by) — He traced the paper trail an alleged U.S. Air Force flight to Campinas in January 1996 would have left
- Ítalo Venturelli (witnesses)
- James Fox (investigated by)
- João Baptista Macuco Janini (claims by) — He examined tissue from the autopsy of officer Marco Eli Chereze
- Kátia Xavier (witnesses)
- Liliane Silva (witnesses)
- Ubirajara Rodrigues (investigated by)
- Valquíria Silva (witnesses)
Videos
- Fantástico on the Varginha creature: the three witnesses, the fire brigade and the hospital (Globo, 4 February 1996) (subject of)
- Citizen Hearing 2013: Documents & Proof (discussed in)
- Citizen Hearing 2013: South American Encounters, Part 2 (discussed in)
- Fantástico on Globo's series O Mistério de Varginha, 30 years on (g1, January 2026) (subject of)
- Varginha press conference at the National Press Club: James Fox and the Brazilian witnesses (NewsNation live, 20 January 2026) (subject of)
- SBT News: 30 years on, a doctor says he examined the Varginha creature (March 2026) (subject of)
- Moment of Contact: official trailer (subject of)
Mentioned in videos
- Fantástico on the Varginha creature: the three witnesses, the fire brigade and the hospital (Globo, 4 February 1996)
- Fantástico on Globo's series O Mistério de Varginha, 30 years on (g1, January 2026)