In the early morning hours of 25 April 1998, near the locality of Aznalcollar in Seville, one of the greatest ecological disasters to ever affect our country took place. The toxic waste containment pond owned by the Swedish-Canadian firm Boliden-Apirsa, overwhelmed by its hazardous contents, cracked and sent froth a “toxic wave” that covered the region, halting at the border of the Doñana Natural Park. The damage caused to this wildlife sanctuary was minimal, although all local residents are aware of the lethal effects of the toxic leaching into irrigation wells and riverine water supply into Doñana.
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The contents of the containment were, in theory, heavy industrial wastes consisting of mercury, lead, iron and derivatives of iron pyrite washing, although the possibility that it also contained toxic chemical wastes from the Huelva Chemical Industrial Park was also considered. In short, a highly dangerous content.
Around that time, in the area known as the “Magnetic Triangle” and whose vertexes are formed by the localities of Gerena, Aznalcollar and El Garrobo, there had been intense UFO activity (CE-1) in the area. On the very same night that the containment broke, a witness driving along N-433 toward a farm in Aracena was able to see an unidentified flying object flying over the property occupied by the containment well in Aznalcollar. Later that night, the containment broke. On the 30th of the same month (April 1998) four witnesses driving along N-433 toward Higuera de la Sierra were nocturnal witnesses to the mysterious flight of a formation of aircraft of unknown origin toward El Garrobo. The sighting was so precise and detailed that they were even able to make out the “holes” in the portholes.
All of these sightings, of course, were ratified by ufologists of the stature of Ignacio Darnaude and Joaquin Mateos Nogales, who have devoted their lives and available free time to researching the UFO phenomenon.
Consultations were made with the Weather Bureau, the Seville Airport Tower, INTA, etc. in an effort to find a logical and rational explanation to the sightings. These turned up negative. It was concluded at the time that what was seen that night by the witnesses was truly “something” that did not obey traditional, rational explanations. They were simply inexplicable from a scientific perspective and the only other possibility was to explain it as an unidentified flying object or objects.
Over a year has elapsed since the event and the facilities at Boliden-Apirsa have renewed their activities. The uncertainty experienced the workers in these facilities has been allayed and their work lives have resumed, but the renewal of all this mining activity appears to have “triggered” UFO activity in the area once again. Since April of this year (1999) the localities of Gerena, Aznalcollar and El Castillo de las Guardas have been at the receiving end of the customary, frantic activity of unidentified objects.
At sundown on April 18, 1999 (a Sunday), flight attendants Maria Angeles Rubio and Esther Marín were driving toward Seville along the N-431 from the community of Palma del Condado. Upon reaching the town of Sanlucar la Mayor, they were surprised to see the mysterious flight of a vehicle with three powerful lights on each of its corners, its fuselage constituting a triangular structure. The sighting took place over a seemingly long 20 second span and the witnesses were astonished. Parallel to this sighting, ufologist Ignacio Darnaude confirmed another sighting on the same date and with the same characteristics. The protagonists of the event are related to the renowned sensitive Malena Martínez. Joaquin Mateos Nogales, a resident of Gerena, confirmed that sightings had indeed occurred in the vicinity and were ongoing.
On the night of 22 April 1999 (a Thursday), Antonio Garrido, an agent for a well-known brand of soft drinks, was returning to Seville from Huelva along N-433. He was able to see a light following his automobile over the “Magnetic Triangle”. The light became smaller and broke into three new lights that alternated their colors from red to green. The three lights “seemed to want to tell me something” and after switching their colors to bright blue, “that thing, UFO or whatever it was, vanished in the dark in a sort of “Z’ configuration. It was startling.” The witness was so overwhelmed that he had to pull over on the shoulder and take in some fresh air after the sighting.
On 24 April, several people were able to see a mysterious luminous formation heading slowly from the locality of Chipiona toward Sanlucar de Barrameda (practically at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River). The García family happened to be at that location with the purpose of closing a rental deal on a home for the summer months. They remarked: “that cloud had a very odd shape and glowed in a very strange way. I don’t think there was anything natural about it. its shape was just too weird!” This curious sighting took place at 19:30 hours and it lasted so long that the witnesses stopped paying it attention, occasionally checking on it to see if “it was still there.
Article continues tomorrow, September 11, 2013