When this account was first published in English it made it into the Flying Saucer Review it was somewhat sensationalised but there was never any follow-up which was what FSR, sadly, often did. So cases proven to be hoaxes were left as 'genuine' and are still quoted today because it is easier to quote FSR than do research.
As far as I can find out the Valdes book has not appeared yet, at least there are no mentions on English language sites. The sources I have referred to are: Journal News Online has a shorter version of the above 07 Mar 2022. The Black Vault reproduces the UFO Casebook article; To save anyone looking the UFO Casebook now seems unavailable. Flying Saucer Review - Vol. 23, N. 5: February 1978. The APRO Bulletin, July 1977 and News Rebeat (online) 13th April 2023
On the 25th April, 1977, at 0400hrs, in Pampa Lluscuma (near Putre -50 air miles ENE of Arica, the larger city in Chile), Six members of an army patrol saw two bright objects descending from the sky; Cpl. Armando Valdes, the patrol leader, set out alone to investigate and, according to the men, simply vanished. Fifteen minutes later, they said, he reappeared, tried to speak and passed out.
This was what became known as The Arica Encounter.
Corporal Valdes was in charge of a patrol on routine assignment near Putre and he and his six-man patrol were sitting around a campfire alongside a wall of stones and mud at the army post of Pampa Lluscuma. They had been talking and singing for quite a while to stay awake with two of the men keeping watch several feet away. At 0400 hrs one of the men, Private Rosales, ran back to Valdes to report that two bright violet lights had landed, one of which was in sight and illuminated the whole area. The light approached closer.
Valdes ordered his men to cover up their fire with blankets. The violet light with a red spot at each end withdrew and then returned closer and the patrol was described (by themselves) as being terrified. The UFO was silent as it moved and any unusual noise would have been heard as the Chilean high plateau silent. Corporal Valdes stated “after praying to God and ordering the light to leave . . . after demanding that it identify itself, I moved a few meters away from my men.”
The corporal was watched as he moved toward the object and in front of his men he disappeared. Fifteen minutes passed with the troopers growing more concerned but the Valdes reappeared. He was shaking and his voice seemed different as he uttered: "“You don’t know who we are or where we come from but we will be back soon” after this he lost consciousness and for two hours the UFO remained in sight but vanished just as Valdes regained consciousness.
It was while taking care of Valdes that the troopers noticed he had a beard growth equivalent to several days without shaving and yet, before the UFO incident had been clean shaven. As Valdes awoke he told his men that “I don’t remember anything from the moment I left you.”and then ordered, “Get ready to leave because it’s 4:30 in the morning". In fact it was actually 0700 hrs; his calendar watch had stopped at 0430hrs but the date was five days ahead and showed the 30th instead of the 25th.
Many of the details were related some two hours after the incident to Pedro Araneda, a correspondent and lecturer. The presence of UFOs was not a surprise to Corporal Valdes as he and others in the interior of Chile near Arica, often saw luminous UFOs moving about the skies. Valdes stated that “The surprising thing was the way it approached us. As soldiers we are trained to deal with any situation. But this phenomenon didn’t seem to have any logical explanation. I would like to regain my memory of those fifteen minutes. I would even like to submit to hypnosis to draw out information about what happened.”
President and Commander in Chief Augusto Pinochet of Chile prohibited further interviews with the soldiers. Medical, psychiatric and eventually hypnotic tests were planned for the members of the patrol to confirm their stories.
In the meantime UFOs were still being reported Arica, Punta Arenas, Santiago, and other locations up and down the 2700 mile length of Chile.
Above: Valdes at the time around his encounter (c)2024 respective copyright owner
According to the APRO Bulletin: "The time factor in this particular case – increased beard growth and accelerated clock time – are elements which make this case exceptional and worthy of further consideration." Certainly FSR had a fun time with those aspects of the report.
It is stated that the Valdés Case is the most paradigmatic episode of Chilean ufology and has been dealt with in “La noche de los centinelas” (The Night of the Sentries), an 8-year -long journalistic investigation that looks into background events, locates the protagonists and “uncovers more than one surprise”. It is stated that the soldiers looked for Valdes but could not locate him until they heard the sub-officer’s voice pleading for help, and they saw him walking toward them unsteadily. He had a dense growth of beard despite having been clean-shaven just minutes earlier, and the calendar on his digital watch was five days fast. This was confirmed by the troopers and the case became a journalistic sensation and achieved global notoriety.
There is little surprise that within days, its protagonists slipped into obscurity as Chile was under an authoritarian military dictatorship between the
Twenty-five years later, journalist and researcher Patricio Abuselme took up the challenge of reinvestigating the case and interviewed its main protagonists covered in his book La noche de los sentinelas, an in-depth journalistic investigation on the incident published in late 2010 by Terra Incognita (his own publishing house). No English language version has appeared. He wrote that:
“This is the case that made Chilean ufology known worldwide. However, no one bothered to conduct a serious, in-depth investigation of the case. I took up the challenge in 2002, and it took me eight years to compile the protagonists’ accounts and reassemble this “impossible story,”.
In just under 300 pages, Abusleme provides a comprehensive view of the case from the first journalistic dispatches reporting the incident to exclusive interviews with the main protagonists, including Corporal Valdés (Ret.) uncovering unpublished details. Abusleme writes:
“When I started this investigation, I did so in the secret hope of explaining the whole case in conventional terms. And I thought I was well on the way until the main protagonist of the story debunked the cases most controversial aspects – the growth of his beard and the wristwatch’s date change – by providing conventional explanations.
"The problem is that when I tried to corroborate it with the other witnesses, they provided a version that was mutually congruent, but at odds with the one offered by Valdés. For this reason, the book poses a controversy.
“If someone is looking for a story of mystics in direct contact with Martians, he or she won’t find it here. What they will find is information, information and more information. The outcome of a detailed journalistic investigation that enables the reconstruction of an intriguing real case that captured headlines over 30 years ago.”
In fact these cases are never simple and on the 26th September, 2003, Valdes gave an exclusive interview with Terra.cl. In this interview Valdes claimed that from the start he knew ha had not been abducted; he stated that his story had been misinterpreted, “although the matter of the beard and the wristwatch was true.” That last part is worth noting as it will be referred to again.
Valdes spoke about his current project: a book that should by the end of 2003 in which he retells his version of the events. The following is from that interview.
Terra: Recently, you have been engaged in discreet research into your experience. Is this true?
Valdes: Yes, in fact I’ve been fully involved in developing my book and furthermore, looking into my experience, since I wish to be as factual as possible in my story.
Terra: As a result of this research, have you returned to the scene of the events?
Valdes: Yes, I went back in November 2002–25 years later… Pampa Lluscuma and the remains of the horse stables where the events occurred. There, in the company of researcher and journalist Patricio Abusleme, we recreated the events and made a series of measurements, gathering very significant background information.
Terra: How did you feel about going back?
Valds: As you can imagine, it was shocking. It was the first time I went back after two decades. It was a motivating experience which allowed me, first and foremost, to confirm or recall certain details which were lost with the passing of time.
Terra: While much was said about the “abduction” of Corporal Valdés, there was none. What’s your version?
Valdes: Truly, I wasn’t abducted. This is the reason for the sensitive nature of what I’m putting forth in the book. Some important background details are being released.
Terra: Did you think at any time that you had been abducted or did you always know this wasn’t the case?
Valdés in the exact spot of the 1977 incident in 2002, when he gave Patricio Abusleme his revisionist version of the case. Image credit: Patricio Abusleme
Valdes: Look, it’s really complicated to explain it all. That’s the reason behind my trip to Putre, my scientific studies and the book I’m writing, because it’s all very complicated.
Terra: But did you think at first that you’d been abducted?
Valdes: I would say that I knew immediately how things had happened. What I’m explaining in my book (are) the reasons for which certain items went off on another track.
Terra: In other words, your initial story was misconstrued?
Valdes: Indeed. I didn’t think at first that I’d been abducted, although the matter of the growth of beard is true, as well as the subject of my wristwatch. But for this reason I have taken to writing the book to explain the reasons behind all of these things.
Terra: Lately you have been silent in the media. Why is this?
Valdes: What’s happening is that I’m engrossed in finishing my book. I wanted to work in silence until the task was done.
Terra: When can we expect the book to be published?
Valdes: Regarding the book itself I say that it’s been a serious mistake to promise dates. Many special situations have occurred–some very strange things–but I’m making an effort to finish it by the end of the year. I’m giving it my all, since I’d like to finish it as soon as possible.
Terra: Any options to publish the book abroad?
Valdes: Yes, there have been offers from abroad, but I don’t want to entertain them until the book is finished. My greatest desire is for everyone to read it, since I have a message for all humankind in it. Therefore its publication in Chile or elsewhere is unimportant. We will decide where to publish it at some point.
Terra: I understand that you are a (born again) Christian and an evangelical. Is this true?
Valdes: Yes, I am, and a teacher of the evangelical faith.
Terra: How have your religious surroundings influenced your story? Or rather, how has your story been received?
News coverage of the Cap Valdés case
Valdes: My story and explanations have been accepted to a certain extent, and I have told them certain things and in a certain manner. There are many who hold points of view different from my own and I don’t have to deny that there are contradictions. But as I said, the story is mine and they have not influenced me at all regarding my book. In fact, there are those who may agree or not agree with my book tomorrow, and will not stop what I’m doing.
Terra: Would you say that the experience you underwent in Pampa Lluscuma was more of a spiritual than a ufological event?
Valdes: There are mixed items. The term UFO today is contaminated by another type of thing, and I prefer to speak in terms of FANI (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena). I think that in my experience there is a bit of everything–a good measure of paranormal phenomena, strange effects, lights, many things acting in unison and this is what I am showing in my book, although it’s been hard for me to convey on paper what I felt, what I experienced and what really happened.
Terra: Finally, are you in touch with those who also took part in the unusual event and who formed part of your patrol?
Valdes: Yes, over the phone more than anything. For some reason we haven’t been able to have a closer relationship, but we are in touch by phone and I must say that we currently have disagreements over the events that occurred. Some are telling another story.
– Terra Networks Chile S.A
I know it is a little confusing, I must admit that the fact Valdes confirms the watch aspect as well as the sudden growth of beard in 15 minutes, but then denies certain things confuses the issue. Here is what Valdes claims happens:
Firstly, Valdes continued to support the story of the ball of light (UFO) hovering near the soldiers but told a journalist that he never disappeared inside the UFO. He is now claiming that he left the soldiers to urinate and then stood behind a wall for the key fifteen to twenty minutes of his alleged disappearance.. He claims that he decided to play a trick on the soldiers by pretending to be missing. He explained the beard growth by saying he hadn’t shaved for several days and that his wristwatch didn’t work and that the date change was just a coincidence.
Valdés’ confession is not as simple as it may seem since the other soldiers continue to support the original version but Valdés became a devout evangelical Christian many years ago, a member of the Union of Biblical Centers of Temuco, of which he is now bishop. It is believed that this new found religious belief has made him recant the original account and it may be why the other soldiers and he are not on friendlier terms though he does occasionally speak to them by phone.
I have, over the decades, come across cases in which percipients/witnesses will not recant their original account of on board a UFO experience or just a sighting. However, due to not being able to find easy answers as well as pressure from other people suddenly realise that what happened was either demonic, a religious experience or (becoming born again Christians) a delusion and it made them realise that they needed to find God. Therefore, Valdes becoming an Evangelical Christian wherein UFO encounters tend to be dismissed for various reason, is nothing new and the other soldiers just do not matter.
I find it odd that Valdes claims the beard was due to his not having shaven recently and yet none of the other soldiers realised he had a beard until after the alleged event? As for hiding when a UFO appeared as a trick -again the logic escapes me. At the same time he has confirmed the beard growth and watch aspects as reported by the soldiers. Is it any wonder that the men are not that close to him?
"It happened as described but just did not happen as described" shows a mind in some conflict and trying to balance facts and making a mess of things -again, something I have seen in these cases before. One person believed that they were a UFO abductee and gave a detailed account and spoke to me a few times. Then she became a born again Christian and felt it was all demonic and later went back to the abduction but adding and twisting aspects. The problem was that Ufologists she contacted (in the UK) simply dismissed her initial claim as "she has also seen a UFO on more than one occasion". In other words she was a "repeater" and Ufologists were having none of that back in the 1970s and some still will not.
As it stands the Valdes case is still considered genuine but rather than Ufologists muddying the water it is the main percipient. Was the encounter genuine? For me the fact that Valdes suddenly decided to offer silly explanations and refuted what the other witnesses still insist happened, and yet we have no new information on what supposedly happened in the missing 15 minutes before any religious contamination is added means it gets a Low Strangeness rating.
