On Monday, February 2, 1996, the Varginha case gained massive public momentum. Just five days after initial local reports surfaced, the state’s largest newspaper published its first report on the incident,, marking a turning point in the visibility of the encounter. The report is shown in the attached picture. At that time, almost two entire weeks had passed since the sighting by the girls. The report states that the whole city was filled with various rumors about what was happening. A particularly persistent rumor involved a local radiologist. While at the Varginha Country Club tennis courts, he reportedly told friends that the Regional Hospital was not hiding extraterrestrials, but rather a pair of significantly deformed "dwarves," one of whom was allegedly pregnant. While hospital administration flatly denied these claims, the "dwarf" narrative gained traction when a second, independent report emerged from the Santana neighborhood. A witness there claimed to see a military transport at a local health center carrying two small, non-human-looking figures, with the soldiers on board appearing visibly confused and indecisive about where to transfer them. A researcher named Ubirajara (Franco Rodrigues) stated that he made contact with the Regional Hospital, where nurses and doctors dismissed the case. Afterwards, Rodrigues contacted other hospitals, the police, and the fire department, and stated, "These institutions were clearly involved in a disinformation campaign. "He believed that if something was truly happening, regardless of its nature, it needed to be shared with the public. He felt this was especially important for those who might be able to help solve the mystery of the alleged extraterrestrial. While the newspaper kept his identity secret, the doctor mentioned was later identified as Dr. Norberto Gobato, a radiologist at the Regional Hospital. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In 1998, this rumour about a "Dwarvern couple" would resurface in an English speaking documentary, "Beyond Truth". The series was produced by Bruce Burgess, who had previously directed the 1996 documentary Dreamland, about Area 51. Burgess’s body of work consists mostly of dramatized retellings about the paranormal and occult: ghosts, Bigfoot, Satanism, the Bermuda Triangle, etc. His most famous project is the 2008 doc Bloodline (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190537/) where he amplifies the claims of nightclub-owner-turned-“treasure hunter” Ben Hammot (an anagram for “The Tombman”), real name Bill Wilkinson. Ben claimed to have found in 2001 a tomb in southern France that proved Mary Magdalene was married to Jesus Christ. While experts state the clear inconsistencies and impossibilities, Burgess also admitted suspicion in 2010, as stated on the Arcadia Discussion Forum: (https://andrewgough.co.uk/hoax/ ) “When Ben\ found bottle three up on Blanchefort, I went with him… I have to admit I thought the whole treasure was ridiculous, so I took a nap in the bushes… And guess what—they found a crack in the ‘Guardian’ rock resembling (???) a crack on one of the Stations of the Cross in the church, where a stone marker was hidden; though they removed it, they recalled it pointed to a direction (???) leading to a rock under which, yes, you guessed it, the small brownish bottle contained clue three. Luckily, I was asleep off lunch.”* Even with this suspicion, Burgess did not attempt to question the narrative. He willingly continued to present the ‘discovery’, compellingly editing the events to better fit the story he wanted to tell, and a certain type of viewer wanted to listen. Knowing Burgess’s background and modus operandi may aid us in understanding Beyond the Truth’s seventh episode dedicated to the Varginha Event, "Alien Encounter"; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0kGHRePizY The episode leans heavily into extreme sensationalism, significantly distorting the Varginha narrative established by Vitório Pacaccini and other primary researchers. By altering key dates and shuffling character roles, the narrative creates a version of events that is mismatched with the historical record. Many of these details appear to be entirely fabricated for the show, as they are not cross-referenced with any other source. It’s the worst representation of the case in any media. In the first minutes, the UK’s former Ministry of Defence’s “UFO Desk” investigator Nick Pope) states, “I don’t think people are making this up. What I do think, and we have to check out very carefully, is the possibility we are dealing with a series of events which have been linked together by people very keen to come to particular conclusions, and that we are dealing with nothing more exciting than misidentifications and people putting quite extraordinary explanations on events that could be rather mundane.” The show then displays at 8:40 the “O Ovni do Capão Redondo”, quite possibly one of the best UFO recordings of what ufologists refer to as “probes”. The incorrect description of the video reads “01:00 hours, January 20th 1996, Varginha, Brazil”. The video was actually filmed on the 2nd of January 1998, in the neighbourhood of Capão Redondo in the city of São Paulo, 270km/168miles from Varginha. The editing and voice-over imply that the video was made by the couple of farmers, Eurico and Oralina, even though the footage is completely different from the Castilho Farm in Varginha, where they lived. The worst offender in the piece is the section regarding the military explanation for the events; After going into EsSA and requesting to speak with the “highest officer of the base” (as if he could demand such a thing), Major Calza, the PR officer on duty is quoted saying: “On the 20th of January, a heavy rain was pouring down. We had to get our trucks to Varginha to do their scheduled maintenance. A series of coincidences ensued. In one of Varginha's hospitals, a female dwarf was about to give birth to a baby. This coincides with the fact that the people at the hospital encountered a couple of ETs...” [The interview is abruptly cut while Calza is still speaking, transitioning to footage of a firetruck and a narrator questioning the validity of Major Calza’s unfinished statement.] It is critical to note that this episode aired in 1998, meaning Major Calza’s interview would have occurred one year after the 357-page Military Police Inquiry (IPM) report reached the conclusion that the girls had seen "Mudinho", a local man with physical and mental disabilities. In all its length, there is not a single mention of any dwarf or encounters at a hospital. This interview exists only in the heavily edited final cut of Burgess’s series, which raises significant concerns about its context. Burgess’s work is widely regarded as sensationalist, characterized by heavy editing to create dramatic narratives. As seen in the regional newspaper from February 2nd, 1996, 2 days before the case became a national story through Fantástico TV Show, witnesses did indeed state seeing a military vehicle with a dwarven couple on a small healthcare clinic. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I sincerely believe Major Eduardo Ely Fiório Calza was commenting on a real event that might have taken place and caused a stir, as shown by the February newspaper. Major Calza’s comments were recorded in 1998, a year after the official military inquiry (IPM) was published. That official report explicitly stated the army's conclusion: they believed the witnesses had simply misidentified a local man known as "Mudinho." Without debating whether that official explanation is actually believable, I want to point out something obvious: why would Major Calza explain the event using a story about a "couple of dwarves" instead of referring to the official military conclusion? In my personal opinion, the documentary was edited misleadingly. Calza's words appear to have been edited in a sensationalist manner by director Bruce Burgess in his 1998 documentary. You can see that the Major's comment is cut off right in the middle while he is still speaking in this shorter video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpGSfyIUiXA Based on all the evidence presented above, it is reasonable to infer that Burgess manipulated the narrative through editing. His primary interest appears to lie in crafting a compelling narrative to captivate audiences, rather than pursuing journalistic integrity. His trade is, after all, a "Mysterteinment" enterprise. Burgess’ track record of producing paranormal-themed documentaries with questionable accuracy and a flexible definition of journalism further undermines the credibility of claims made in this episode. Is the Varginha Case a hoax because of this? No. Is the Military Cover-up Theory impossible because of this? No. Is this a valid theory that peels some of the inconsistencies of the Varginha Case? Yes. PS: This would not be the first or last time that a media outlet manipulated footage to fit a specific narrative, and it certainly was not the last time Varginha was the target of such techniques. Even Dr. Cesário Lincoln Furtado, one of the seven doctors who participated in the treatement of Policeman Chereze, has said directly and objectively that his own testimony was intentionally edited by the Discovery Channel. His comments were framed to make it look like the policeman had given a deathbed confession about participating in a secret mission to capture a creature. In response to that portrayal, he gave this clear, unedited statement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVLiJYcgOYw submitted by /u/BoulderRivers [link] [comments]