Nexus - 0404 - New Times Magazine-pages

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The Bloodsuckers Mysterious In 1995-96 a strange vampire- like creature went on the rampage in regions of Puerto Rico, Mexico and southern USA, killing animals and even attacking humans. With links to UFOs and age-old fables, these ‘chupacabras' incidents still defy explanation. here's a dangerous, mysterious beast lurking in the wilds of Puerto Rico," the San Juan Star newspaper announced on 19 November 1995. A similar creature that locals say punctures its victims and leaves bloodless holes made headlines in 1996 in Miami, Florida; Tucson, Arizona; San José, Costa Rica; and in Juarez and several other areas of Mexico. But it was Puerto Rico where the current cycle of vampire-like attacks was first reported. On 11 March 1995, near a town called Orocovis in the centre of the island, Enrique Barreto Hernandez found eight of his sheep dead. Each sheep had three strange puncture holes in the chest, and the wounds were described as "bloodless". Over the spring and summer months, reports of similar attacks spread from the centre of the island to far-flung towns such as Gudnica on the southwest coast, Naguabo on the east coast, and Canovanas between San Juan and El Junque rainforest. As word spread that blood was being sucked from sheep, goats and other farm animals by an unidentified creature, the Spanish words chupar ("to suck") and cabras ("goats") were put together in a catch-all word, chu - pacabras, as a name for the marauder. By November, several hundred animals including goats, sheep, rabbits, chickens, dogs and guinea hens had been found with puncture holes which averaged about a quarter-inch wide and three-quarters of an inch deep. Veterinarian Dr Carlos Soto of Levittown, Puerto Rico, examined one rabbit that had an exceptionally deep wound. He reported that the "puncture wound was half a centimetre wide at the base of the jaw and extended about three to four inches into the base of the brain. There was no haemorrhaging either; no blood at all. I don't know what kind of natural predator could do that." Eyewitness descriptions have varied in different parts of the island. On the west end, in the Sabana Grande and Lajas regions, there have been reports of a primate-like creature. For instance, on 21 December 1995 near Guanica on the southwestern coast, 44-year-old mechanic Osvaldo Claudio Rosado was washing his car at 3 am, but when he went to shut off the water faucet he was suddenly grabbed from behind. As Rosado tried to fight off the intruder, he was shocked to see a black-haired "gorilla", about five feet tall. The ani- mal ran off and Rosado drove to the Tito Mattei hospital in Yauco to have doctors exam- ine and treat cuts in his abdomen, possibly torn by fingernails or claws on the animal's hands. I visited the University of Puerto Rico Primate Center which studies rhesus and patus monkeys now living inland. Those animals escaped from an island south of Lajas where a government research project was conducted in the 1960s. A Civil Defense investigator told me: "Back then, they didn't know those monkeys could swim. But they can, and now those monkeys live north of Guénica and Sabana Grande." However, rhesus and patus monkeys don't stand five feet tall and are basically vegetarians, not bloodsuckers. At the other end of the island in towns such as Dorado, Aguas Buenas and Canovanas, residents have come face to face with a large-eyed creature that has red-coloured feathers or spikes from its head to the bottom of its spine. Some say the eyes glow red in the dark. Homicide detective Eliezer Rivera Diaz from Carolina, Puerto Rico, told television reporters that he watched the spikes on such a creature glow with light as it rose straight into the night sky. The chupacabras' hands and feet are described as having only three toes and fingers but with two-inch-long nails. It is also said to have small, pointed ears and "thin, patchy or spotted hair" in shades of grey, brown and orange. "It smelled like a wet dog or like it had been in a sewer," said one Canovanas police officer who shot at a peculiar creature while it attacked his dog. by Linda Moulton Howe ©1996 LMH Productions PO Box 300 Jamison, PA 18929-0300, USA Telephone: (215) 491 9840 Fax: +1 (215) 491 9842 E-mail: LMH333@AOL.com LMH Productions PO Box 300 Jamison, PA 18929-0300, USA Telephone: (215) 491 9840 Fax: +1 (215) 491 9842 E-mail: LMH333@AOL.com JUNE - JULY 1997 NEXUS -65