Former Brazilian Defense Minister Aldo Rebelo Confirms Varginha UFO Crash of 1996

In a major development for UAP/UFO research, filmmaker Jesse Michels of American Alchemy has released a 2-hour-37-minute interview with Aldo Rebelo, Brazil’s former Minister of Defense from 2015 to 2016, former Minister of Sports, and current presidential candidate for the Christian Democracy Party. Rebelo openly confirms that the 1996 Varginha UFO incident was real, involving a crashed craft and non-human beings. This carries the weight of a former U.S. Defense Secretary confirming the Roswell crash, representing a rare high-level on-the-record validation.

Rebelo served as Minister of Defense nearly two decades after the 1996 events. His statements draw from later access to armed forces archives and institutional knowledge rather than direct involvement at the time. He did not personally see the craft or beings.

The Varginha case, often called Brazil’s Roswell, occurred in January 1996 in Varginha, Minas Gerais. Three young women encountered a roughly 4-foot-tall humanoid creature with a large head, red eyes, brown oily/slick skin, and an unsteady gait. They initially mistook it for the “devil” or an injured being. Witnesses reported a cigar-shaped UFO in distress crashing nearby. Brazilian military forces quickly secured the site, recovered debris and one or more entities, some deceased and at least one possibly alive. Accounts include entities being taken to a local hospital.

In the interview, Rebelo provides direct high-level affirmations that elevate long-circulating witness accounts. He explicitly validates the credibility of key witnesses, including the three girls and especially neurosurgeon Dr. Italo Venturelli, who examined a living non-human being in a hospital. Rebelo states he fully believes the doctor’s testimony. He confirms a craft crashed and non-human entities were involved and recovered. He discusses a soldier, reportedly Marcos Shereesi, who died after contact with one of the beings, linked to an unknown bacterial infection never seen before according to autopsy findings. Rebelo acknowledges U.S. military strategic interest and implies possible involvement, such as the transfer of materials or remains. These statements represent some of the most direct high-level confirmations to date on Varginha, adding significant new political weight even if they align with decades of ufological research.

Rebelo also places Varginha in broader context with other major Brazilian cases the armed forces investigated, including the 1977 Colares Operation Prato, known as “Chupa Chupa,” where beams of light from UFOs caused burns, punctures, blood loss, and deaths among civilians, with a military task force documenting the events. He also referenced the 1986 Night of the UFOs, involving radar-tracked incursions with 21 objects exhibiting extraordinary performance, including high speeds and right-angle turns, during which Brazilian fighter jets were scrambled.

Some Brazilian UFO archives have been publicly released in recent weeks, including a major dump of 893 documented incidents from 1952 to 2023 by the National Archives. Rebelo notes that the Varginha/Minas Gerais region is rich in strategic minerals such as rare earths, niobium, and uranium, suggesting possible non-coincidental interest in the area. He reiterates his earlier public statement: “If the United States government reveals its documents, I will do the same if I am elected president of Brazil.” He emphasizes that Brazil’s armed forces maintain archives on these phenomena dating back to antiquity and that more classified information exists.

The interview also covers Rebelo’s political philosophy, Brazilian sovereignty, BRICS relations, and why disclosure is accelerating globally. It builds on decades of investigative work by researchers including James Fox of Moment of Contact, Marco Leal, and Vittorio Pacaccini. This high-level confirmation arrives amid growing international momentum for UAP transparency, including U.S. congressional hearings, whistleblower testimonies, and parallel file releases.