Uyrangê Bolivar Soares Nogueira de Hollanda Lima was a Brazilian Air Force officer best known as the retired colonel who, while a captain in 1977, commanded Operation Prato, the 1st Regional Air Command field investigation into reports from Colares, Vigia, and nearby Pará communities.123
His importance rests on two overlapping records: declassified Brazilian military files showing a serious intelligence inquiry, and Hollanda's 1997 interviews, where he gave stronger personal interpretations than the released paperwork publicly proves.14567
Military Background
Revista UFO identified Hollanda in 1997 as a 57-year-old retired FAB colonel with 36 years of service, including work in I COMAR administration, information operations, and jungle special operations.1 A Brazilian Air Force Santos-Dumont medal almanac separately lists Ten. Cel. Int. Uyrangê Bolivar Soares Nogueira de Hollanda Lima among medal records dated 17 June 1987, corroborating his Air Force career and intendance branch.8
Hollanda said he had returned from a course in Brasília when Col. Camilo Ferraz de Barros, in I COMAR's Second Section intelligence chain, handed him the UFO case file and assigned him the investigation.1 He later said he chose the code name "Prato" because a military operation needed a neutral coded title and "disco voador" would have exposed the subject too directly.1
Operation Prato
The origin of the case was local panic over luminous objects and alleged light-beam attacks in northern Pará. Senate hearing notes state that I COMAR intelligence personnel went to the region in October 1977 and that, beginning in November 1977, Capt. Hollanda was designated by Brig. Protásio Lopes de Oliveira to command the investigation Hollanda named Operação Prato.2
In his own account, Hollanda framed the initial task as verification: interview witnesses, register names, places, hours, and descriptions, prepare observation sites, and use radios, cameras, and film equipment during field vigils.1 The later Senate record repeats his claim that the team produced extensive photography and film, while also noting that a full final report and alleged media were not fully public.2
The strongest archive base is the Arquivo Nacional/SIAN record set. ARX 184 preserves the "Registros de Observações de OVNI" collection, ARX 197 preserves the I COMAR forwarding record tied to those observations, and ARX 322 preserves an I COMAR information file connected to the leaked first-mission material.5673
Later Public Statements
After retiring in 1992, Hollanda contacted Revista UFO following television coverage of government UFO secrecy and agreed to a long interview with A. J. Gevaerd and Marco Antonio Petit in Cabo Frio.1 He said he had avoided public statements while on active duty because any comment would have been treated as the official word of the Brazilian Air Force and because he lacked command authorization.1
The two UFO interview installments made his later testimony public: the first part covered his assignment, methodology, and command role, while the second part emphasized claimed close observations, filming, photography, and his belief that the events could not be reduced to ordinary misperception.14 Those statements are historically important because they came from the named field commander, but they remain testimony unless matched to released primary records or still-unreleased images and film.423
Death and Legacy
Hollanda died by suicide on 2 October 1997, shortly after his public remarks and before the first UFO interview issue reached readers.49 Marco Antonio Petit later argued in Revista UFO that conspiracy claims around the death were unsupported, citing his own follow-up with police, IML, and family context, and describing Hollanda's long-running depression rather than pressure from the Air Force as the central factor.9
The legacy is therefore precise rather than simple. Hollanda gave Operation Prato a named field commander, a first-person public account, and a bridge between official records and later civilian disclosure campaigns.123 The released archive supports the seriousness and scale of the investigation; his most extraordinary claims still depend on interview testimony and on materials that researchers say remain unreleased.423
Assessment
Hollanda is valuable as a command witness, not as settled proof of an extraterrestrial conclusion. The public record shows that the Brazilian Air Force investigated persistent reports in Pará, kept formal records, and later transferred key files to the national archive.2563 His interviews add the commander's interpretation of what the team saw and recorded, but responsible treatment keeps that layer distinct from what the declassified documents themselves establish.143