Presidio tourism department proposes international UFO festival

By ALBERTO TOMAS HALPERN

PRESIDIO, OJINAGA – When people who live in border communities talk about little green men and aliens, we’re usually referring to Border Patrol agents and immigrants entering the United States illegally. Not this time.

Presidio Tourism Director of Tourism Brad Newton has proposed a new annual festival to be celebrated in Presidio and neighboring Mexican communities. It’s being called the Border Zone International UFO Festival.

“It all started a couple months ago. I heard a rumor about a UFO crash between Candelaria (Texas) and Coyame (Mexico),” Newton said. “It’s not a story we’re trying to create, it’s a story that’s already out there,” Newton continued. He was referring to a story that is the focus of the 2007 book by authors Noe Torres and Ruben Uriarte, “Mexico’s Roswell.”

According to the authors, the story goes like this: On August 25, 1974, an unidentified flying object was spotted on radar traveling at more than 2,000 miles per hour. The UFO was spotted over the Gulf of Mexico, nearing Corpus Christi. Before entering U.S. airspace, the UFO turned south heading in the direction of Brownsville. The UFO’s flight path then followed the Texas and Mexico border on the Mexican side near Matamoros, all the way to the northern part of the state of Chihuahua. It was just on the other side of Candelaria where the UFO and a small plane from El Paso bound for Mexico City crashed midair over the desert.

A spotter plane from Ciudad Chihuahua searched for the crash site the next day and to the pilots’ surprise, near the wreckage of the small plane was a silver disk shaped object, intact.

Soldiers from Ojinaga were dispatched to the crash site for recovery.

What they found was a six-foot tall, 16-feet in diameter, classic saucer shaped object.

U.S. military officials listened in the whole time.

The Mexican soldiers all died as a possible result of a chemical leak from the UFO. The U.S. military stepped in to recover and contain the crash site.

According to the authors, the U.S. recovered the UFO and destroyed the crash site with what could have been a special atomic munitions device.

Dangling from a U.S. helicopter, the UFO travelled back into the United States over the Davis Mountains and on to Atlanta.

Newton added that the UFO “went where all UFOs go to hide.”

With this story in mind, Newton hopes to create an annual festival similar to one that takes place in Roswell, New Mexico.

“Ours is a companion festival to Roswell,” Newton said. “We’re looking for a hook for Presidio to draw people from other countries. This is something that people travel all over the world to do.”

The festival has the support of the Mexican Consulate in Presidio, and will coincide with Charlie Angell’s Dude of the Dead Festival in mid to late October. The authors of the book are in support and have offered to give speeches and bring other speakers to talk on the subject. Newton also wants to involve the Presidio ISD rocketry team. A request will be made to city council to put the festival on the city’s calendar of events.

Asked if he believes in UFOs, Newton said, “I have never seen a UFO but there’s a lot of things I haven’t seen that exist.”