Between August and December 1977, the Brazilian Air Force secretly deployed a six-man team to Colares, Pará, after hundreds of fishing-community residents reported beam-emitting lights that left radiation-like burns and puncture wounds. Captain Uyrangê Hollanda's Operação Prato produced more than 500 photographs and 16 hours of film, then was immediately classified.

Locals called the phenomena 'chupa-chupa' (sucker-sucker). Physician Wellaide Cecim Carvalho treated dozens of burn victims at the Colares health clinic, describing wounds unlike any conventional injury pattern. Hollanda gave a candid interview to UFO researchers in 1997, then died three months later in disputed circumstances. The files were partially released in 2004 and more fully in 2009 under Brazil's declassification ordinance.