Case · C-041

Colares and Operação Prato 1977: the “chupa-chupa” lights investigated by the FAB

Colares and surroundings (Vigia, Santo Antônio do Tauá, Mosqueiro), Pará · Brazil · Oct 20, 1977 – Dec 5, 1977

In flight Mixed witness types Photos

What happened

In 1977 residents of Colares and other towns on Marajó Bay reported nighttime lights, called “chupa-chupa,” to which they attributed attacks; at the mayor's request the First Regional Air Command in Belém launched Operação Prato, in two phases between October 20 and December 5, 1977. The records, released by the government decades later and now at the Arquivo Nacional, contain 130 observation forms on “luminous bodies” with drawings and photographs, some filled out by the military team itself, but no conclusion on the nature of the phenomenon. In 1997 the former operational commander Uyrangê Hollanda told two ufologists that he had seen and filmed the lights; that footage has never emerged, and a lawsuit filed between 2021 and 2022 to obtain it from the Air Force was dismissed, including on appeal, for lack of evidence of its existence.

Proposed explanation

No official explanation: the records describe lights and objects without conclusions. Skeptical commentators and analysts point to rumors and collective panic, misidentifications of celestial objects, satellites and aircraft, and possible burns from fireworks fired at the lights; the records report sensations of heat or numbness reported by witnesses but do not document injuries, while injuries and deaths attributed to the lights are known only from later testimony.

Official investigation

Ministério da Aeronáutica – First Regional Air Command (I COMAR, Belém), Operação Prato; documents at the Arquivo Nacional

Official documents

1. Operação Prato – registros de observações de OVNI (CENDOC, envelope n. 10) · Ministério da Aeronáutica – I COMAR (Belém) (The Black Vault copy) · 1978

Sources

1. O Antagonista, July 25, 2026: the military mission in the Amazon that produced hundreds of records and photos (press)
2. Rafael Antunes Almeida, “Notas para uma reflexão sobre as ‘teorias da conspiração’,” Ponto Urbe (USP), no. 23, 2018 (analysis)
3. Metabunk: “1977 Colares UFO Flap / Operação Prato” (analysis, skeptical)
4. Migalhas, January 2026: the lawsuits to obtain military documents on Varginha and Operação Prato (press)

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