007: From Chile With Revenge

Quantum of Solace is the 22nd spy film in EON Productions' James Bond film series, due for release in the United Kingdom on 31 October 2008. It is the sequel to the 2006 film Casino Royale, which rebooted the series. It is directed by Marc Forster, and features Daniel Craig's second performance as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade returned as writers. In the film, Bond battles environmentalist Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a member of a cover organisation called Green Planet, seeking revenge for the death of Vesper Lynd. Greene intends to stage a coup d'état in a Latin American country. Bond is assisted by Camille (Olga Kurylenko), who also wants revenge against Greene. The title was chosen from an unrelated short story in Ian Fleming's For Your Eyes Only (1960).

Producer Michael G. Wilson created the film's story whilst Casino Royale was shooting. The film was originally scheduled for a 2 May 2008 release, but it was pushed back to allow more time when Roger Michell dropped out as director. Second unit filming began in August 2007 at Siena and Madrid, before principal photography began in January 2008 at Pinewood Studios. Production designer Dennis Gassner took over from Peter Lamont, who retired after working on eighteen Bond films. He designed the five major Pinewood sets, which stand in for Siena, Bolivia and the MI6 headquarters. Gassner's designs are close to the modernism of Ken Adam, the first Bond production designer. Location filming will take place at Panama, Chile, Peru, Italy and Austria, before moving back to Pinewood in June. There will be more gadgets than in Casino Royale, though they will still aim to be realistic.

Filming

Dan Bradley was hired as second unit director because of his work on the Jason Bourne films, so the film would continue the gritty action style begun in Casino Royale. The town council of Siena gave permission to shoot at the Palio di Siena horse race on 16 August 2007. Fourteen cameras were placed around the arena, for shots which would be edited into the main sequence, shot during 2008. Aerial shots using helicopters were banned, and the crew were also forbidden from showing any violence "involving either people or animals". From 23-29 August, the second unit shot at Madrid. They spent three weeks (up until 15 February 2007) in Baja California, Mexico, filming planes in flight. Old propeller planes were used for a retro feel. From March 15-March 21, they were returned to Italy, to film at Malcesine and Limone sul Garda for a chase scene.

Principal photography was going to begin on 10 December 2007,but was pushed back to 3 January 2008. Production designer Peter Lamont, a crew member on eighteen Bond films, retired after Casino Royale. Dennis Gassner, who worked on Road to Perdition (2002) and The Golden Compass (2007), both which also featured Daniel Craig, was hired in Lamont's stead. Craig said the film will be "more of a classical Bond movie", with "a touch of Ken Adam," referring to the production designer most famous for creating the lairs of the villains in several of the early films. Michael G. Wilson also called Gassner's designs "a postmodern look at modernism".The rebuilt 007 Stage is being used to house three replicas of buildings in Siena. These include an art gallery used for a fight scene, and an MI6 safehouse hidden within the city's cisterns. Other soundstages feature Bond's "honeymoon" suite in a Bolivian hotel, and the MI6 headquarters with M's office.

Shooting at Panama City began on 7 February 2008 at Howard Air Force Base. The country doubles for Bolivia, with the National Institute of Culture of Panama standing in for the Grand Andean Hotel. A sequence requiring several hundred extras will also be shot at nearby Colón. Officials in the country will work with the locals to "minimise inconvenience" for the cast and crew, and hope the city's exposure in the film will increase tourism. The crew was going to move to Cusco, Peru for ten days of filming on 2 March, but the location was cancelled because of bad weather predictions. Twelve days of filming in Chile will begin on 24 March. Locations include the Paranal Observatory and Atacama Desert.

The first and second units will combine on April 15 in areas around Lake Garda for the opening chase sequence. The Siena officials have supplied €1 million to the filmmakers, to build four camera cranes, alter rooftops, and hire 300 extras needed for the scene. A cable camera is being used for the first time in a feature film. Filming will take place at the floating opera stage at the lake in Bregenz, Austria from 28 April-9 May 2008. The sequence, in which Bond chases a villain on to the stage during a performance of Tosca, will use 1500 extras. A short driving sequence will shoot at the nearby Feldkirch, Vorarlberg. By June, the crew will return to Pinewood, when new sets have been finished.

The Joker's Last Playing Card

Heathcliff Andrew Ledger (April 4, 1979 – January 22, 2008) was an Academy Award-nominated Australian actor. After appearing in television roles during the 1990s, Ledger developed a Hollywood career. He starred in both critical and financial successes, including Ten Things I Hate About You, The Patriot, Monster's Ball, A Knight's Tale and Brokeback Mountain, and completed the role of the Joker in the forthcoming movie The Dark Knight shortly before his death.

— "Absolutely Thanks, Soda!"

Soda Stereo is an influential Argentine rock power trio formed in 1982 (see 1982 in music) consisting of guitarist and vocalist Gustavo Cerati, bassist Zeta Bosio and drummer Charly Alberti. The band established what would become the template for many other popular Spanish-speaking pop and rock music groups: clever, often mysterious lyrics, pleasing musical arrangements and an elaborate and glamorous aesthetic image. In 1997, after a farewell tour through Mexico, Venezuela, Chile, and finally Argentina, they disbanded due to personal problems between the members and different artistic criteria. On September 20, Soda Stereo played their last show, in front of 75,000 people at the Estadio Monumental (or River Plate Stadium) in Buenos Aires. On June 9, 2007, amid rumours about a reunion, a tour named "Me Verás Volver" was announced, which started on October 19 at the River Plate stadium.

Overview

Formed in Buenos Aires, Argentina in early 1980. Gustavo Cerati, Charly Alberti and Zeta Bosio decided to create a power trio and a year later they released two demos and started to play regularly in a bar called "Bar Zero". After a few shows, a CBS producer decided to give the band a chance. In 1984, their eponymic debut album, Soda Stereo was released, produced by Federico Moura, lead singer of the band Virus. In October, 1984 they played at the Rock & Pop festival with INXS, Nina Hagen and Charly García.
Their second Album, Nada Personal was released in 1985 and afirmed the popularity of the band with some instantaneous classics such as "Nada Personal" and "Cuando Pase el Temblor".The video of the single "Cuando Pase el Temblor" was nominated in the category "Finalist Video" on the 12° World Festival of Video and TV.

Audio samples:
"Persiana Americana" (1986)
"Persiana Americana" was the first single released for the 1986 album Signos.
"En la Ciudad de la Furia" (1988)
The second song of Doble Vida was the opening track on their last album, El Último Concierto.
"(En) El Séptimo Día" (1990)
The opening track of Canción Animal is one of the few songs in the Argentine rock entirely composed in an odd time signature (7/4).

Released in 1986, Signos represented the breakthrough from Argentina to the rest of Latin America: this was the first Argentine rock album to be released on compact disc, although this version was released in 1988. Signos contained songs such as "Persiana Americana", "Signos" and "Profugos" that gave the band the possibility to conquer wider audiences. Soda Stereo embarked in an extensive tour through Latin America to promote the album, they gave 22 concerts in 17 cities. A live album called Ruido Blanco was released, it contained the songs recorded in the Signos supporting tour without the intention to be published.
After over a year recording new material, Doble Vida was released in 1988. The album, produced by David Bowie's guitarist Carlos Alomar, was recorded and mixed in New York. The first three songs of the album were released as singles, "Picnic en el 4B", "En la Ciudad de la Furia" and "Lo que Sangra (La Cúpula)". Languis was released as an EP in the next year, and contained only one new song, "Mundo de Quimeras".
It was their sixth album, Canción Animal, released in 1990 that represented the band's peak: the songs are among the band's strongest and most popular, the album contained the instant hit "De Música Ligera", the single "Un Millón de Años Luz", the exquisite "Té para Tres" and the anthem "(En) El Séptimo Día". Overall, the album is considered as the most consisted work by the band, along with Signos. On December 14, 1991 (see 1991 in music) they played a concert in front of 250.000 people on the 9 de Julio Avenue.
In late 1992 Soda Stereo released Dynamo, their least popular album. This LP was Soda's most ignored, and most experimental work. The band played the album almost in its entirety in Nicolás Reppeto's talk-show, Fax. This was the first stereophonic TV transmission in Argentina. Shortly after the release, bassist Zeta Bosio suffered the loss of his son in a car accident which pushed the band to stop touring and promoting the album and go into a hiatus during which singer Gustavo Cerati started his solo career with his debut album Amor Amarillo.
Their last studio album, Sueño Stereo was released in 1995 after a few years of silence. Three singles became hits after being released, "Ella Usó mi Cabeza como un Revolver", "Paseando por Roma" and "Zoom". Sueño Stereo reached platinum disc after only 15 days of the release. MTV Unplugged's Comfort y Música Para Volar was released a year later, and contained not only unplugged songs, it also contained outtakes. On 1 May 1997, personal problems between the members and different artistic criteria led the band to announce its end and started the final tour on July 1997. Their last concert given on 20 September at the River Plate Stadium was recorded and released in two parts, El Último Concierto A and El Último Concierto B.

Comeback

During 2007, after 10 years of their dissolution, rumours stated that Soda Stereo would tour South America before the end of the year. A reunion tour was finally announced on June 9, 2007 as the "Me Verás Volver" tour (referring to lyrics on Doble Vida's "Ciudad de la Furia"). The tour started at the River Plate stadium on October 19, 2007, where they played "El Último Concierto" in 1997.
Me Verás Volver will feature concerts in different countries of America, and will end before 2008. After the tour, the members of the band plan to continue with their individual careers.90.000 tickets were sold in only 24 hours, and the band added one more show to the schedule, and after three days, the tickets for the first three shows were sold out, and the band added two more shows to the tour. The expected amount of fans attending the five shows is more than 300,000, making Soda Stereo one of the most wached public events, and the only Argentine band to play five times in the Estadio Monumental.
As of 20 October 2007, 21 shows have been confirmed, including one show in Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia and Panama; two shows in Peru's Estadio Nacional and in Chile's Estadio Nacional; three shows in the United States, one on The Home Depot Center (Los Angeles, California) and two in the AmericanAirlines Arena (Miami, Florida); four in Mexico and five in Argentina. Together with the new comeback tour, a compilation album was released, entitled Me Verás Volver (Hits & +). On the band's official website is available exclusive content to download using a special code featured on the CDs booklet.

Gustavo Cerati

Cerati worked with Daniel Melero in his 1992 album Colores Santos, he co-wrote and produced most of the songs and although the album was never formally presented, two singles were released, "Vuelta por el Universo" and "Hoy ya no Soy Yo". Cerati's first solo album was Amor Amarillo (1993), it contained collaborations by Zeta Bosio and his wife Cecilia Amenábar. After Soda's separation, Cerati released the studio albums Bocanada (1999), +Bien (2001) and Siempre Es Hoy (2002). He also released 11 Episodios Sinfónicos in 2002 and contained some Soda Stereo and solo songs played live with a symphony orchestra. Cerati's last release, Ahí Vamos!, is considered as a back-to-basics return.

Zeta Bosio

Bosio has had a low profile over the years. He is working with Proyecto Under, an online portal for musicians. He also produced albums with many bands, such as Aguirre and Peligrosos Gorriones. In a recent interview, he declared that he has no interest to play in a band. He is also the artistic director of an independient label, Alerta Records. In 1997 he produced Nacion Hip Hop, a CD compilation of local underground rap artists that's considered the founding stone of Argentine's hip hop scene. He also worked closely with hip hop act Tumbas (who opened for Soda Stereo in their last concert) and DJ Tortuga who later became part of the experimental hip-hop trio Koxmoz.

Charly Alberti

Alberti released only one studio album without Soda Stereo in 1994, Plum, along with his then girlfriend, supermodel Deborah de Corral, and since 1997 Alberti became interested in informatics, he was involved in running his company Cybrel Digital Entertainment, that aimed at generating and implementing content based technologies. He was named an Applemaster for his contributions to the music world. In 1998, he started two new projects, URL Magazine, a culture magazine, and URL Records, a discographic label. He is also the founder of YeYeYe and Musike, two portals about music and entertainment. Alberti recently formed another rock band with his brother, Andrés Alberti, and recorded their first album named as the band, MOLE. Alberti stated that he does not want Mole's sound to sound like Soda Stereo, he wants "Mole to live by itself."

― "A Night To Remember, Ten Years Ago"

James Cameron's Titanic is a 1997 American romantic drama film directed, written, and co-produced by James Cameron about the sinking of the RMS Titanic. It stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Jack Dawson respectively, members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ill-fated 1912 maiden voyage of the ship. Bill Paxton plays Brock Lovett, the leader of a treasure hunting expedition, while Gloria Stuart has the role of the elderly Rose, who narrates the story in 1996. The film was both a critical and commercial success, winning eleven Academy Awards including Best Picture, and became the highest grossing film of all time, with a total worldwide gross of US$1.8 billion.

Plot

In 1997, treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team explore the wreck of the RMS Titanic searching for a necklace called “Heart of the Ocean”. They discover a drawing of a young woman reclining nude, wearing the Heart of the Ocean, dated the day the Titanic sank. News of this drawing on television attracts the interest of the woman in question, Rose Dawson Calvert, now 100, who claims to be the nude woman in the drawing. She and her granddaughter Lizzy visit Lovett on his ship, and recalls her memories as 17-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater aboard the Titanic. In 1912, young Rose boards the departing ship with the upper-class passengers and her mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater, and her fiancé, Caledon Hockley. Distraught and frustrated with her engagement to Cal and controlled life, Rose attempts to commit suicide, but a drifter and artist named Jack Dawson intervenes. They strike up a tentative friendship as he shares stories of his adventures traveling and sketching, and their bond deepens when they leave the first-class formal dinner for a much livelier gathering in third-class.

Cal is informed of her partying in the steerage and forbids Rose to meet Jack again. Eventually, Jack confronts Rose alone, but she is inclined to ignore their growing affection because of her engagement and responsibilities. However, Rose later changes her mind and decides to offer her heart to Jack in a forbidden romance. As a sign of her affection, she asks him to sketch her nude wearing only the "Heart of the Ocean." Afterward the two run away from Hockley's manservant, Spicer Lovejoy, where they go below decks to the cargo hold. They enter a car and have sex, and afterwards escape up to the ship's forward well deck. Rose decides that she will leave the ship with Jack. They then witness the ship's collision with an iceberg. Cal discovers Rose's nude drawing. He plots revenge, deciding to frame Jack for stealing the "Heart of the Ocean", and bribes the master-at-arms to handcuff and trap Jack in a room. Although Rose is at first indecisive, she later runs away from Cal, risking her chances of getting on a lifeboat with her mother, in order to find and rescue Jack.

Rose manages to free Jack with a fire axe, and finds that the third-class passengers are trapped below decks. Frustrated, Jack breaks through a gate, allowing Rose and others to make their way to the boat deck. Cal and Jack manage to persuade Rose to board a lifeboat, but after realizing that she cannot leave Jack, Rose jumps back on the ship and reunites with Jack in the ship's first class staircase. Infuriated, Cal takes Lovejoy's pistol and chases Jack and Rose down the decks and into the first class dining saloon. After running out of ammunition, he angrily shouts at them to die and realizes that he unintentionally gave Rose the diamond. Hockley returns to the boat deck and gets aboard Collapsible A by pretending to look after an abandoned child. This is one of only two lifeboats remaining on the ship. Although Jack and Rose manage to avoid Cal's fury, they find that the lifeboats are gone. With no other options, they decide to head after and stay on the ship for as long as possible before it sinks completely. Eventually, the ship breaks in half and begins its final descent, washing everyone into the freezing Atlantic waters. Jack and Rose are separated under the water, but eventually reunite. Around them, well over a thousand people are dying a painful death from hypothermia. Meanwhile, in Lifeboat 6,

Margaret "Molly" Brown tries to convince Quartermaster Robert Hichens to go back and rescue people, as there is plenty of room, but he refuses, thinking the boat will be swamped. Jack manages to grab hold of a wall paneling, and gets Rose to lie on it. While lying on the wall paneling, Jack makes Rose promise that, whatever happens, she gets out alive. When Fifth Officer Harold Lowe returns with an empty Lifeboat 14 to rescue several people from the water, Rose tries to wake Jack, but then realizes that he has frozen to death. Upon this realization, she begins to lose hope and wants to stay there to die with Jack, but remembers her promise. She does her best to call out to Lowe, but he does not hear her and rows away, seemingly leaving her to die. Still remembering her promise to "never to let go," Rose manages to unclasp Jack's frozen hand from her own, letting his body disappear into the sea. Throwing herself into the water, Rose takes a whistle from a dead Chief Officer Wilde and blows it. She is pulled to safety, joining the 5 other survivors from the water, and boards the RMS Carpathia. On the Carpathia's deck, Rose notices Cal looking for her. When he turns in her direction, she turns away, not letting him see her face. This is the last time she ever sees Hockley. Upon arrival in New York City, Rose registers her name as "Rose Dawson".

After completing her story, the elderly Rose alone travels to the stern of Lovett's ship. After she steps onto the railing, it is revealed she had the "Heart of the Ocean" all along, as Cal had slipped into her coat. She then drops the diamond into the water. Rose lies in a bed, next to photographs of her life's achievements, as the shot pans across her into darkness. The film ends with a vision of young Rose reuniting with Jack at the Grand Staircase, surrounded by those who perished with Jack on the ship. They embrace, and the people on the staircase start to applaud. It is left up to the viewer to dictate the meaning of the ending, specifically whether it is truly a vision or Rose reuniting with her love, Jack in the afterlife.

Cast

Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater: A first-class socialite, seventeen-year-old Rose is forced to become engaged to Caledon Hockley so she and her mother can maintain their high status after the death of her father. Feeling trapped, Rose becomes suicidal, but she soon discovers a whole new lease on life when she meets Jack Dawson.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson: A penniless artist who travels the world, Jack wins tickets to the RMS Titanic in a card game. He is attracted to Rose's beauty and convinces her out of an attempted suicide. His saving of her life brings him into first-class society, and he shows her a carefree way of life of which she had often fantasized but never realized of doing.

Billy Zane as Caledon "Cal" Nathan Hockley: The quintessential arrogant and snobbish first-class man, Rose's fiancé Cal becomes increasingly embarrassed, jealous, and cruel over Rose's friendship with Jack. He gives Rose the diamond The Heart of the Ocean as a reminder of her feelings for him.

Frances Fisher as Ruth DeWitt Bukater: Rose's widowed mother, who is marrying her off to ensure their high-class status. She loves her daughter but believes marriage to Cal is the right thing to do. The epitome of the shallowness and hypocrisies of high-class society, she scorns Jack, even though he saved her daughter's life.

Kathy Bates as Margaret Tobin "Molly" Brown: Brown is depicted as being frowned upon by other first-class women, including Ruth, as "new money" due to her sudden wealth. She is friendly to Jack and gives him a dining-suit when he is invited to dinner in the first-class saloon.

Victor Garber as Thomas Andrews, Jr.: The ship's designer, Andrews is depicted during the sinking of the ship as standing next to the clock in the first class smoking room. He gives Rose a life jacket so she doesn't drown in the icy water, and is last seen looking at his watch and adjusting the clock in the same room, accepting his fate.

Bernard Hill as Captain Edward John Smith: The film depicts the captain of the RMS Titanic as retiring to his quarters when the ships hits the iceberg. He goes into wheelhouse as it sinks, dying when the water bursts through the windows.

Jonathan Hyde as J. Bruce Ismay: Ismay is portrayed as an ignorant first-class rich man, who does not know who Sigmund Freud is. He cowardly takes the opportunity to get into a lifeboat, and looks back, guilt-stricken, as his ship sinks.

David Warner as Spicer Lovejoy: An ex-Pinkerton constable, Lovejoy is Cal's English bodyguard who keeps an eye on Rose and is suspicious of the circumstances of Jack's rescue of her.

Danny Nucci as Fabrizio De Rossi: Jack's Italian friend who comes aboard the RMS Titanic after winning a card game.

Jason Barry as Tommy Ryan: An Irish third-class passenger who befriends Jack and Fabrizio.

Bill Paxton as Brock Lovett: A treasure hunter looking for The Heart of the Ocean in the wreck of the RMS Titanic in the present. Time and funding to his expedition is running out.

Gloria Stuart plays the 100-year old Rose Dawson Calvert: She comes to give Lovett information regarding The Heart of the Ocean, after he discovers a nude drawing of her in the wreck of the RMS Titanic. She narrates the story of her time aboard the ship, mentioning Jack for the first time since.

Suzy Amis as Lizzy Calvert: Rose's granddaughter, who accompanies her on her visit to Lovett.
Lewis Abernathy as Lewis Bodine: Lovett's geeky friend, who expresses doubt at first whether Rose is telling the truth.

Eric Braeden as Colonel John Jacob Astor IV: A first-class passenger whom Rose calls "the richest man on the ship". The film depicts him and his 19-year-old wife Madeleine as being introduced to Jack by Rose in the first-class saloon.

Bernard Fox as Colonel Archibald Gracie: The film depicts Gracie making a comment to Cal that "women and machinery don't mix," and congratulating Jack for saving Rose from committing suicide.

Ewan Stewart as First Officer William McMaster Murdoch: The film's most controversial depiction, Murdoch shoots and kills men who try to enter a lifeboat under Smith's order of women and children first, before committing suicide out of guilt.

Jonathan Phillips as Second Officer Charles Lightoller: The film depicts him arguing with Captain Smith that it would be difficult to see the icebergs with no breaking water.

Ioan Gruffudd as Fifth Officer Harold Lowe, the only officer who led a lifeboat to retrieve survivors of the sinking.

LOST in Friendship Island of Chile?...

LOST is an American serial drama television series that follows the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island, after a passenger jet flying between Australia and the United States crashes somewhere in the South Pacific. Each episode typically features a primary storyline on the island as well as a secondary storyline from another point in a character's life. The show was created by Damon Lindelof, J. J. Abrams and Jeffrey Lieber, and is filmed primarily on location in Oahu, Hawaii. The pilot episode was first broadcast on September 22, 2004. Since then, three seasons have aired. The show is produced by ABC Studios, Bad Robot Productions and Grass Skirt Productions and airs on the ABC Network in the United States. Its incidental music is composed by Michael Giacchino. The current executive producers are Abrams, Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, Jack Bender, Jeff Pinkner and Bryan Burk. Because of its large ensemble cast and the cost of filming in Hawaii, the series is one of the most expensive on television.

A critical and popular success, Lost garnered an average of 16 million viewers per episode on ABC during its first year, and won numerous industry awards including the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2005, Best American Import at the British Academy Television Awards, also in 2005, and the Golden Globe for Best Drama in 2006. Reflecting its devoted fan base, the show has become a staple of American popular culture with references to the story and its elements appearing in other television shows, commercials, comic books, webcomics, humor magazines and song lyrics. The show's fictional universe has also been explored through tie-in novels, board and video games, and an alternative reality game, The Lost Experience. In May 2007 it was announced that Lost will continue for its fourth, fifth, and sixth seasons, concluding with the 117th produced episode in May 2010. These three final seasons will consist of 16 episodes each, running weekly in the spring uninterrupted by repeats.

Secrets of Friendship Island
by Josep Guijarro

Since 1984, a group of ham radio operators has claimed to be in contact with a strange congregation known as "the Friendship"--composed of beings of a Nordic aspect and having strange accents who have considerable technical knowledge and have also predicted important scientific, political and social events, aside from forecasting UFO sightings. Could "the Friendship" be extraterrestrial in nature? Many believe that this is the case and that their bases are scattered around the world at seven different locations.
It rained intensely throughout the afternoon--an entirely normal event in that small coastal settlement in southern Chile. For many hours now, the dominant colors in Puerto Montt were shades of gray. Everything seemed enshrouded by a dense fog: the humble wooden homes, the fishermen's wharf, the pier. The scent of wet earth, the mud of the streets and the dampness of my clothes, above all else, brought me back to reality. Standing in front of the bus terminal I saw the last vehicle to board the ferry that crossed the Chacao Channel, the one slated to take me to Chile's southernmost point and to the gates of a mysterious island that does not appear on sea charts and which according to rumor, houses an alien base. The exciting adventure had to wait still one more day, although my research had started long before in Santiago, the Chilean capital.

The Origin--A UFO Incident

Santiago is the home of Octavio Ortiz--married, father of three daughters and a business agent who matches his professional and family life with his devotion to radio. He owns a 27 megacycle CB base station with which he shares comradeship with other ham operators. His handle is Lucero ("bright star"). In mid-1984, while manning his station, Octavio would receive a distress call from the Mitilus II, a ship working for the Department of Oceanography of the University of Chile, and which was apparently cruising in the vicinity of the Mitagüe lighthouse in the southern reaches of the country. Alberto, the ship's master, was anxious to reach Iquique because he was in the thrall of a mysterious light that inflicted damage to the ship's electronic gear. The strange object began to descend and hovered over the ship. It must have radiated a great deal of energy, because some of the sailors began to experience considerable hair loss.
But the strangeness was not circumscribed to the above. Hector, captain of the Black Web, which sailed in the vicinity of Mitiagüe Light and witnessed the UFO incident in astonishment, also noticed that an incredibly powerful radio station broke into the communications underway. The VU meter's needles jumped past the +30 mark and a tense silence followed. the object disappeared soon after.
Octavio could not believe what he was hearing, and being willing to serve as a "bridge" to eventual communications with Iquique, he took the microphone decisively and rendered assistance. "That was how I met the mysterious Alberto," he reminisced, sitting in a rocking chair in his home. "We struck up a good friendship and less than a year later, he told us that some gringos who'd hired him had taken him to an island and outfitted his ship with strange equipment."
Alberto had acquired his vessel through a loan from CORFO (Chile's development corporation) and like may others, he was unable to withstand the jump in interest rates during the economic crunch of the '80s. Mired in terrible debts, he ran south and became a pirate. There he met Ernesto de la Fuente, a sound engineer taken by the winds of fate to the small town of Quemchi and who had just recently met some strange gringos who claimed to belong to a shadowy congregation dubbed the Friendship. De la Fuente recommended Alberto's services to these curious characters, who needed supplies brought in, and in return, they would liquidate his debts and would also rearrange his life.

The Mystery of the Friendship

The gringos looked nothing like Americans: they were handsome, tall beings with blond hair and dressed in curious outfits. Who were they, indeed?. They professed ignorance about the most elementary items of our society, but were gifted with a remarkable knowledge of physics, biology and mathematics. Their speeches were swathed in spiritualism and they concealed their identities by taking the names of angels as their own. The Friendship claimed to have its headquarters on a base lost amid the Chonos and Guaytecas Archipelago, consisting of over 3,800 islands, and also claimed to possess highly advanced technology in the fields of medicine and astronautics.

UFO Sightings By Appointment

Over the course of a year, Alberto and Octavio would have frequent discussions about life in the disquieting island and its mysterious occupants over their ham radios. A while went by without the skipper of the Milius II taking to the air, but when he reappeared, he introduced Octavio and his family to Ariel, one of the island's quizzical occupants, who clearly possessed an amazing grasp of medicine, architecture and communications. "Whenever this happens," Octavio explains, seated in front of his base station, "the needle indicates the maximum--a tremendously powerful broadcaster." Curiosity over the true identities of those who conceal themselves under the guise of "angels of the Lord" disrupts the Ortiz family's life: the radio remains on at all hours and Cristina, Octavio's wife--a shrewd and restless woman--makes an effort at getting to the bottom of the greatest question: the origins of their interlocutors.

"We are not of this world," they reply, "but we are part of Humankind."

It isn't until August 17, 1985 that the Ortiz family realizes that they are truly facing the extraordinary. Around 2:30 p.m., Cristina, who was glued to the radio along with her daughter Claudia, heard a call from the Friendship, saying: "Come out! Come out!" Cristina went out to the patio of their farm in La Florida and looked heavenward. In a matter of minutes, she was able to make out a shining object suspended in the sky. Excitedly, she made contact with Ariel and suggested certain movements which were obediently carried out by the shining object. Was the Friendship controlling that flying saucer? That is what can be deduced by reading the transcript of the communications. Thousands of citizens were made aware of the object's presence. A crew from Televisión Nacional (TVN) even managed to capture it on film. Elsa Marina, an eyewitness, stated that she "felt like weeping and felt insignificant in the face of what was taking place in the sky over her home..."
Gustavo Rodríguez, who subsequently became assistant director of the air traffic department of the Dirección de Aeronáutica [Chile's equivalent of the FAA---Ed.] was at the home of one of his siblings celebrating a nephew's birthday when he witnessed the event: "It was a light having the apparent size of an orange and which gave the impression of spinning on its axis. It was hanging in space and exhibited little or no movement."

In the measure that the sun went down, Rodríguez noticed the presence of a darker sphere. The second object was opaque and appeared to follow the same trajectory as the first, heading toward the mountains. In fact, the phenomenon was witnessed in Argentina, as shown by newspaper clippings of the time. Were those objects UFO's?
Agents of the Weather Bureau, who confessed having seen the mystery object, noted that no rational explanation could be ascribed to the phenomenon--at least not from the perspective of their profession. Astronomers at the Cerro Calán observatory--Carlos Torres, Guillermo Carrasco and Herbert Wroblewsky--managed to photograph the object through their telescope and discarded the possibility that it might have been a weather balloon. "First of all, it had an entirely different configuration," recalls astronomer Torres. "Nor could it have been an artificial satellite, because it would have had to have been massive in size to resemble what was seen."
All three astronomers agreed on the fact that the object was surrounded by a shining "ring" and some sort of antenna!
Renowned ufologist Jorge E. Anfruns made note of a highly important detail: "Some of the ham operators were phoning the newspapers to report interference with their sophisticated equipment." The Friendship at work?
It was imperative to find out if a CB broadcast could cover the more than three thousand kilometers which separate the archipelago from Santiago. In the opinion of analyst and DX'er Gabriel Osses Valdés, "with a properly calibrated antenna, meaning one that is on the frequency one intends to use, it is possible to have a small setup and communicate properly across long distances," adding that "long distance communication is much more feasible from the small islands of the south than from anywhere else, since the ocean acts as a reflector for the waves and there's nothing to get in their way." Cristina and Octavio, however, believe that Ariel was aboard that object. "If not, how could they have seen the airplanes approaching the object? How could they remotely guide that object at a distance of thousands of miles?"

The Official Investigation Begins

The excitement caused by the sighting was such that on the following day, Aeronáutica's director, Sergio Piñeiro, ordered Rodríguez to begin an investigation. As the official report (to which I had access) indicates, at 15:40 LMT, radar picked up an unidentified object located 20 nautical miles to the west of the El Tabón beacon and moving slowly toward the west. "The radar return," explains Rodríguez, "is fair to poor, and only the raw primary signal can be seen." At 16:00 LMT, a number of flights make contact with the object. On the one hand, a Boeing 727 coming in from the north, and on the other, Ladeco Flight 061 and the CC-LHL flying between Limache to Tobalaba. According to eyewitness accounts, the UFOs were at a considerable altitude and were moving very slowly in an eastward direction, remaining visible until 19:30 hours. Might they have been balloons?
Despite the fact that some newspapers latched on to the weather balloon explanation, such a device is unable to remain static in the same location for five hours. The report of the Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil, on the other hand, concluded that: "the manifestations of that day, until the closing of this investigation, remain an enigma and go on to enlarge the file on unexplained phenomena."

To dispel any doubts, a few days later, Melbourne, Australia's chief meteorologist, Dr. J.W. Zillman, issued a press release regarding the possibility that the objects belonged to his country. "They do not form part of any project of the Australian weather bureau...the endurance of these balloons is not sufficient to allow them to fly as far as Chile." "At the time," explains Anfruns, "the U.S. Navy was holding exercises off Valparaiso," making reference to the UNITAS maneuvers conducted with allied countries in the Pacific Ocean. "If we monitor airspace with over seven thousand satellites, why can't extraterrestrials monitor our war games?"
The fact of the matter is that at the time that this extraordinary event took place, a number of sightings occurred throughout the length of the country. But what was their connection to the mysterious island? And if so, what were they up to? It would seem that the object, in fact, had come up out of the south. This is confirmed by the photograph acquired by Jorge E. Anfruns from a man who was travelling in the interior aboard a rural bus: he pointed his camera out the window in the vicinity of San Fernando, a town located 140 km. south of Santiago.
According to the trigonometry study which took into consideration the distance and size of telephone poles and automobiles, the UFO was located barely 370 meters over the surface.

A One-Way Ticket

What did the Friendship want to prove with this show of force? According to veteran researcher Hugo Pacheco, the Friendship carefully selects its contacts and after a trial period, invites them to their mysterious island and readies them to travel to another planet.
Pacheco, 73, remains youthful. He is a public administrator, an engineer and glider pilot. One of the pioneer ufologists in his country, his beliefs leaned more toward radical scientism than the current mystical trend. On Saturdays, he holds a small group of people at his home to read and discuss biblical texts from a ufological perspective. According to the rumors that reached me, Pacheco's meetings welcomed an individual who chose members of the group to visit the mysterious island. Meeting this person was imperative...

Josep Guijarro is another outstanding member of Spain's "third generation" of UFO researchers and has the distinction of being one of the few investigators to have witnessed one of the so-called Grey aliens during the course of researching an abduction case. Today, Josep is the senior writer for KHARMA-7 magazine (very similar name to DHARMA-6), his country's longest-running paranormal publication.