THE SANTIAGO BASE
Another area of concentrated, unusual activity in Puerto Rico is Salinas, on the south coast, particularly in the vicinity of the grounds and airspace of the US Army Reserve Base and the Puerto Rican National Guard’s Santiago Camp.
One night in October 1987, for example, many witnesses reported a huge boomerang-shaped object hovering over the base, seeming to cause an electrical power blackout. A military officer told Jorge Martin that it looked as if it was of a whitish plastic or porcelain texture, and that it emitted a blinding light.
It came very rapidly and stopped suddenly over a tree, suspending itself. In its central apex, or the V’s point, a sort of cabin or windows with lightbulbs could be seen. After 15 or 20 seconds, it shot away sideways, and got lost at a tremendous speed toward the north. That thing was as large as a 747 jumbo jet, folded in half, that big, but much wider. The most surprising thing was that it was totally silent.
The officer also said that each time such objects were seen over the base, electrical and weapons systems failed.
On many occasions, huge flying triangles, as well as flying saucers, have also been seen over the base. Jorge Martin, whom I know as a reliable, honest investigator, himself sighted a strange flying disc over the restricted airspace of the base, one afternoon in January 1993, together with his wife and co- investigator, Marleen, and three American investigators. ‘We all saw the object,’ said Jorge, ‘with a flat bottom and a small cupola or dome on its top part.’ The disc rose upwards with a swaying or rocking motion, until it disappeared in a cloud.
Many people have reported seeing the ground ‘open up’ in a certain part of the base located between two mountains, revealing a ‘hole’ emitting brilliant reddish-orange illumination. One of the most interesting incidents occurred during exercises involving the National Guard, in 1989. As an officer informed Martin:
We were in the field, and it was late at night. Suddenly, we all saw when one of the mountains on the north (at the back of the base) seemed to open up, and from the opening there emerged a strong light, orange-pink in colour.
Suddenly, we saw many flying saucers come out of the opening — UFOs that lost themselves in the sky. After they came out, the opening closed in the mountain, and everything disappeared. We couldn’t believe what had happened . . .
The next day, all of us who had seen what had happened were gathered together, as some [American] officials arrived in helicopters. They told us that what we had seen was real, but that we should not worry; that the US authorities, the military and NASA were dealing with the matter. They ordered us not to speak with anyone about what we had seen, because problems could arise. At no time did they tell us that what we’d seen was of extraterrestrial origin, but something in their manner of speaking seemed to indicate as much.
In the summer of 1979, José Luis Rodriguez and his cousin also claim to have seen flying discs emerging from a flat area near the Santiago base. The actual location was in the northeastern part of the base, between Rio Juan Mountain and a sector of the old State Road No. 1, near the restricted area where ground and air artillery exercises were carried out. The incident is said to have occurred at around 14.00, as the young men were riding horseback. ‘We heard a sound, and suddenly we saw that the earth was moving in front of us,’ Rodriguez told Martin.
A part of the ground arose, with dirt, rocks, underbrush, bushes — everything. They appeared like camouflaged platforms, covered with what looked like normal terrain. The platforms were raised by what appeared to be powerful hydraulic supports, and on the sides were what seemed to be nets with camouflaged strips and camouflaged underbrush, and so on.
Metallic walls extended deep into the ground. As the camouflaged platforms arose, the witnesses could see large rectangular openings, some 80 feet wide.
Then we felt a strong humming, and that’s when we saw two objects that flew out of the openings. They were flying saucers! They came out, flying slowly, and remained suspended at a height of ten storeys above the openings. They were beautiful, silvery and metallic, some 60 feet in diameter, and each had a section that had windows all around it in the centre, [from which] a strong light emitted.
What the young men claim to have seen on the centre of the flat, underneath section of the craft seems totally unbelievable: the acronym ‘URSS’ or ‘UPSS’, in low-visibility letters.
If the former is accurate, it was the Spanish acronym for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics! One could speculate that the craft might have been a secret development of either the Americans or the Russians, or both, derived perhaps from alien technology. As I reported at length in Alien Liaison, there is information that Americans have test-flown disc-shaped vehicles since the 1950s, at least. In any event, together with the hydraulically operated camouflaged platforms, the evidence suggests that the disc was of terrestrial origin.
As the witnesses continued watching the discs for two minutes, a jeep came speeding towards them from a distant white building. Assuming they had been spotted and reported to security by the pilots, the two men rode away fast.