X-Files
Chile is unusual in being among a number of countries that officially take UFOs seriously, so much so that in 1997 the government set up CEFAA (which is pronounced see-fa) to analyse and study all sightings of UFOs and strange air phenomena reported in the country. Once CEFAA is certain an object is truly unidentifiable, it officially releases the footage.
The agency is open about its findings and is governed by the 2008 law 20.285, known as the ‘Transparency Law’, designed so that government agencies act in an open and transparent manner. Most countries that have released UFO records have done so primarily in the area of government paper files but none have released hard physical evidence like Chile’s CEFAA. It has released a different category of ufological evidence including photos, video and extraordinary audio recordings from pilots witnessing UFOs.
We went to pay a visit to CEFAA in Chile’s Aeronautics and Space Museum in Santiago. The museum reminded me a bit of the Museum of Science and Industry inManchester, although it was obviously dedicated to planes and space. It was a huge old hangar space, with some mad old planes and exhibitions on space travel. CEFAA was actually based out the back, in what was, without being rude, pretty much basically just a couple of Portakabins knocked together to create a small office. I don’t know what we were expecting, really. I suppose it was never going to be some huge command centre like you see on the Apollo missions or in that film War Games , where that kid Matthew Broderick nearly sets off World War Three by hacking into the US military computers. He’d get sent down for about 135 years if he did that in real life now. The CEFAA team were really friendly though, and welcomed the crew in and made them tea and biscuits, which was nice of them. They had a big map of Chile on the wall, with pins stuck in where there had been various UFO spottings that they were investigating.
This Chilean real life X-Files team is headed up by an ex-Air Force dude called General Ricardo Bermúdez. He and his team investigate and document any reported unidentified flying objects, and then, and this is the difference with every other country, they release their findings and make them available to the public. General Ricardo Bermúdez is a pretty friendly dude, and happy to discuss their findings face-to-face and on camera. The most important thing he says is, ‘We can say that this phenomenon is present in our controlled air space and outside it as well’, i.e. he thinks UFOs exist, according to all the official evidence that he’s seen. So, we’ve onlybeen here twenty-four hours and we’ve already had the head of a government department telling us, on camera, that after seeing all the evidence they had, he’s sure UFOs exist. Not a bad day’s work.
After a night’s kip back at the hotel, I’m up early for my first full day proper of UFO hunting. Well, I say early, but I’ve got two young kids, Lulu and Pearl, so 7.30 a.m. is a lie-in for me these days. I’m usually up around sixish most days. Get up and make a cup of coffee if the kids aren’t up. Probably get roped into watching some cartoon if they are. Or maybe take them for an early morning swim as we’ve got an indoor pool out the back of our house.
One of the main guys the production team wants me to meet while we’re here is Antonio Huneeus, a renowned ufologist, who has been studying UFOs for twenty years. He’s led quite a mad life, old Antonio. He’s from Santiago and studied journalism at the University of Chile before moving to New York when he was still quite young in the late seventies, and he had all sorts of jobs there, but began to make a name for himself writing about UFOs. He’s written a few books on UFOs and was awarded ‘Ufologist of the Year’ at the National UFO Conference in Miami in 1990, so he knows his shit. He’s now editor and reporter for a UFO organization in the States
Chile is unusual in being among a number of countries that officially take UFOs seriously, so much so that in 1997 the government set up CEFAA (which is pronounced see-fa) to analyse and study all sightings of UFOs and strange air phenomena reported in the country. Once CEFAA is certain an object is truly unidentifiable, it officially releases the footage.
The agency is open about its findings and is governed by the 2008 law 20.285, known as the ‘Transparency Law’, designed so that government agencies act in an open and transparent manner. Most countries that have released UFO records have done so primarily in the area of government paper files but none have released hard physical evidence like Chile’s CEFAA. It has released a different category of ufological evidence including photos, video and extraordinary audio recordings from pilots witnessing UFOs.
We went to pay a visit to CEFAA in Chile’s Aeronautics and Space Museum in Santiago. The museum reminded me a bit of the Museum of Science and Industry inManchester, although it was obviously dedicated to planes and space. It was a huge old hangar space, with some mad old planes and exhibitions on space travel. CEFAA was actually based out the back, in what was, without being rude, pretty much basically just a couple of Portakabins knocked together to create a small office. I don’t know what we were expecting, really. I suppose it was never going to be some huge command centre like you see on the Apollo missions or in that film War Games , where that kid Matthew Broderick nearly sets off World War Three by hacking into the US military computers. He’d get sent down for about 135 years if he did that in real life now. The CEFAA team were really friendly though, and welcomed the crew in and made them tea and biscuits, which was nice of them. They had a big map of Chile on the wall, with pins stuck in where there had been various UFO spottings that they were investigating.
This Chilean real life X-Files team is headed up by an ex-Air Force dude called General Ricardo Bermúdez. He and his team investigate and document any reported unidentified flying objects, and then, and this is the difference with every other country, they release their findings and make them available to the public. General Ricardo Bermúdez is a pretty friendly dude, and happy to discuss their findings face-to-face and on camera. The most important thing he says is, ‘We can say that this phenomenon is present in our controlled air space and outside it as well’, i.e. he thinks UFOs exist, according to all the official evidence that he’s seen. So, we’ve onlybeen here twenty-four hours and we’ve already had the head of a government department telling us, on camera, that after seeing all the evidence they had, he’s sure UFOs exist. Not a bad day’s work.
After a night’s kip back at the hotel, I’m up early for my first full day proper of UFO hunting. Well, I say early, but I’ve got two young kids, Lulu and Pearl, so 7.30 a.m. is a lie-in for me these days. I’m usually up around sixish most days. Get up and make a cup of coffee if the kids aren’t up. Probably get roped into watching some cartoon if they are. Or maybe take them for an early morning swim as we’ve got an indoor pool out the back of our house.
One of the main guys the production team wants me to meet while we’re here is Antonio Huneeus, a renowned ufologist, who has been studying UFOs for twenty years. He’s led quite a mad life, old Antonio. He’s from Santiago and studied journalism at the University of Chile before moving to New York when he was still quite young in the late seventies, and he had all sorts of jobs there, but began to make a name for himself writing about UFOs. He’s written a few books on UFOs and was awarded ‘Ufologist of the Year’ at the National UFO Conference in Miami in 1990, so he knows his shit. He’s now editor and reporter for a UFO organization in the States
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