Case description
Before dawn on 4 February 1978, fishermen at Dique La Florida in San Luis reportedly watched a luminous object near the shore. Later interviews identify their vessel as La Vallejo, a large fishing barge approximately twenty metres long and four wide, moored after the party returned from another barge during windy conditions. The six men named in fuller accounts are Manuel María Álvarez, Pedro Sosa, Regino Salvador Perroni, Genaro Sosa, Jacinto Lucero and Ramón Sosa. Accounts differ about how many were awake; Ramón recalled seeing only a departing glow after sleeping.
The contemporary police account identifies Pedro Sosa, Manuel Álvarez and Regino Perroni as the three awake observers. They described an inverted-bowl-shaped object about fifteen metres across, hovering roughly three metres above the ground. White light shone underneath, with red and green lights above. A ladder extended from it. A tall, blond, human-looking man in a bright silver suit approached the lakeside. His face and short blond hair could be seen through a transparent bowl-like helmet, and his hands were covered by mitten-like gloves. He raised his palms; later comparisons with a lotus flower or a gesture of peace are interpretations rather than a demonstrated message. The sources do not establish a spoken exchange.
The figure reportedly returned to the object, which rose and departed. Size estimates, departure direction and the exact number of direct observers vary between summaries. These discrepancies are retained rather than forcing all six men to have witnessed every stage.
A later newspaper interview also describes a scientific-police and university-geology investigation involving soil, rocks, grass, photographs and drawings. Large footprints were claimed, but analyses did not establish radioactivity, magnetism, alterations or foreign agents. The reported encounter and claimed prints therefore remain distinct from a verified anomalous laboratory finding.
