Among the many UFO-related cases in Argentina, several have attracted international attention due to their uniqueness. One such case is the “Vidal Incident” that occurred in May 1968 in Buenos Aires Province. At the time, the Vidal family was driving on Route 2 in Buenos Aires Province, heading from Chascomús to Maipú, when they entered a dense fog, lost consciousness, and upon waking, found themselves near Mexico City in Central America, having lost 48 hours.
This event drew global attention, but a few weeks later, a “veil of silence” descended upon the matter. Journalists and researchers could not access the direct parties involved, and once this veil of silence fell, no one dared to discuss it anymore. Various speculations and conjectures surrounded this incident.
The “Vidal Incident” later became one of Argentina’s most notable cases of teleportation or psychical transmission, a term used in UFOlogy to describe the transfer of people or objects (in this case, a vehicle and its occupants) from one place to another in a short time through unknown means, thus overcoming space-time barriers, essentially from Argentina in South America to Mexico in Central America. 
Let’s take a look at this case and the story that unfolded afterward.
The Lawyer Driving at Night
Numerous Argentine newspapers reported on this event at the time. Buenos Aires’ “La Razón” published the story with the headline “What’s Going On?” Other newspapers like “La Nación” (which did not mention the fog) and “El Cronista” (the only paper to report a UFO sighting in this case) also covered the story. Dr. Oscar A. Galindez, a renowned UFO researcher in Argentina, investigated these facts and provided a detailed account. The following information comes from Dr. Galindez’s investigation.
In early May 1968, a well-known lawyer from Buenos Aires, Dr. Gerardo Vidal, and his wife, Mrs. Laura de Vidal, attended a family gathering in Chascomús, a town less than 120 kilometers south of the capital. They left the party just before midnight and decided to drive to Maipú, a town about 150 kilometers south of Chascomús, where they had relatives and friends.
The Vidals drove along Route 2, with another couple ahead of them who also had relatives in Maipú. This unnamed couple arrived safely in Maipú, but the Vidals did not make it, causing concern. The couple ahead turned back along the highway to Chascomús in hopes of finding them, but to no avail, and they returned to Maipú without any trace of the Vidals or their car.
Approximately 48 hours after the Vidals went missing (please remember this time!), someone in Maipú received a call from the Argentine Consulate in Mexico City (6400 kilometers away). In this call, Dr. Gerardo Vidal informed them that they were safe and provided the exact date they were expected to arrive at Buenos Aires’ Ezeiza International Airport.
At the appointed time, the Vidals arrived at Ezeiza Airport as notified, where their friends and relatives were waiting for them. Mrs. Vidal was immediately taken to a private clinic for treatment of mental issues, while Dr. Vidal recounted to his astonished family the incredible ordeal they had experienced.
Dr. Vidal’s Account
Dr. Vidal stated that on the night they went missing, as they were about to leave the outskirts of Chascomús, a “dense fog” suddenly appeared before them, and from that moment, they could not account for the missing 48 hours of their lives.
When they regained consciousness, it was daytime, and they were still in the car, parked on an unknown road. Both were unharmed, but they had neck pain, and both felt as if they had slept for a long time. They stepped out of the car in surprise, noticing the car’s surface looked like it had been scorched with a blowtorch. However, the engine was in good running condition.
They drove along this unfamiliar road, encountering scenery they did not recognize, and when they asked people where they were, the answer was always the same: in Mexico! Their watches had stopped, but using the calendar, they confirmed they had been away from Argentina for 48 hours.
Later, they reached the Argentine Consulate in Mexico City, explained their situation, and from there, made a call to the Rapallini family in Maipú, Buenos Aires Province. The Argentine Consul, Mr. Rafael López Pellegrini, requested that they keep the matter completely confidential until the authorities had time for a thorough investigation. Dr. Vidal’s Peugeot 403 car was sent to the United States for study, with the U.S. authorities agreeing to provide a new car of the same brand and model in exchange.
That’s the entire story of the event. However, there are a few other points to mention.
Firstly, on the night the Vidals mysteriously disappeared, a man was admitted to the hospital in Maipú for treatment. He claimed that while driving on Route 2, a strange dense fog appeared in front of him, but it soon dissipated, leaving him extremely frightened and feeling unwell. This man’s testimony seems to confirm the existence of the fog.
Secondly, the case of the Vidals exhibited many details similar to those reported in the 1961 Betty and Barney Hill abduction case. For instance, Dr. Vidal mentioned strange marks on the car’s surface, as if it had been scorched with a blowtorch. The Hills had also noticed mysterious shiny circles on their car’s trunk. The Vidals’ watches stopped, and so did the Hills’ watches.
The Notary’s Clarification
At the time, Argentine media “La Razón” reported in detail how the Vidal family had contacted a family surnamed Rapallini in Maipú from the Argentine Consulate in Mexico City. Everyone associated this with the notary Martin Rapallini in Maipú, assuming he was a friend or relative of the Vidals. However, it was later revealed that Rapallini was a pseudonym used to protect the real parties involved.
Two days later, Maipú notary Martin Rapallini also clarified the matter. He declared to reporters that there was no such call from Mexico City and assured them that he and his family knew nothing about the Vidals.
Peugeot 403 Car
However, this notary’s “denial” seemed more like a “confirmation” of the event, as there was a prohibition on discussing the matter at the time. Just a few weeks later, a young man claiming to be a relative of the Vidal family, named Matteyco, appeared on the highly successful “Saturday Interviews with Manzera” hosted by journalist Pippi Manzera, discussing these events. Finally, journalists noticed another strange but crucial point: almost all the Rapallini family members suddenly and quietly left Maipú, evidently to avoid further inquiries.
Later reports suggested that Mrs. Vidal was hospitalized due to the mental trauma from the experience. In his 1975 book “Mysterious Disappearances,” Patricio Gaston wrote, “But in those days, what did we encounter? What kind of beings did we fall into the hands of?” These were reportedly words from Mrs. Vidal. Meanwhile, other authors mentioned that Mrs. Vidal passed away in 1969 from cancer, more specifically leukemia, as a result of the incident.
Various Doubts
As we mentioned earlier, the entire event quickly disappeared from public view, with almost no one mentioning it. It wasn’t until decades later that the incident gradually came back into the public eye. Due to the difficulty in contacting the real parties involved and the unique nature of the event, this case became a classic in the field of UFOlogy worldwide. Authors from around the world considered it a notable UFO case.
However, doubts began to emerge slowly. The first to deny the entire event was Peter Rogerson. In his article “Notes on the History of Abduction (Part IV): Recovering the Forgotten Record” published in the September 1994 issue of “Magonia,” he revealed that someone in Buenos Aires confirmed to him that the entire event in May 1968 was a complete fabrication, invented to cover up the days Mrs. Vidal was missing while in a mental hospital.
A more convincing doubt came from the investigation by Argentine journalist and researcher Alejandro C. Agostinelli. His conclusion was that it was all fabricated to promote a sci-fi movie in Argentina at the time. In an article co-authored with Luis R. González (a Spaniard) titled “The Upcoming Flying Cars: Hoaxes, Rumors, and Science Fiction,” published in the third issue of the “UFO Research Handbook” in 2003, he mentioned interviewing filmmaker Aníbal Uset in 1996, who admitted that he, entertainment journalist Tito Jacobson, and other friends had concocted the Vidal incident story to promote a movie called “Che: UFO” that was released two months later.
“Che: UFO”
“Che: UFO” starred actors like Marcela López Rey, Jorge Sobral, Pera Caron, Juan Carlos Altavista, Javier Portales, and Erika Wallner, directed by Aníbal Uset, with a script by Jus. After its release, the film was heavily criticized by critics and received little attention until years later when some hailed it as the pioneering work of Argentine sci-fi cinema.
Aníbal Uset, the producer of “Che: UFO”
The movie tells the story of a tango singer hitchhiking at night who gets picked up by a Peugeot 403 car (just like in the Vidal incident), driven by a beautiful blonde woman. After a romantic scene, the driver is put to sleep by a strong light from a UFO while driving. The frightened blonde woman exits the car and is stripped by the UFO. Subsequent scenes show the driver continuing to drive in daylight with a brunette woman beside him, presumed to be from outer space, driving on a road near Madrid, Spain. Then, as in the Vidal incident, a teleportation scene occurs.
The film also includes other scenes and teleportation to London, ending at Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires, where the protagonist is drawn onto a plane, presumed to be a UFO disguised as an aircraft, filled with beautiful flight attendants.
Uset revealed to journalist Alejandro C. Agostinelli that the “Vidal Incident” was conceived by him and journalist Tito Jacobson to promote the movie, an idea they had during a trip between Montevideo and Buenos Aires. Due to the passage of time, Uset could not remember the source of the story’s material when speaking with Agostinelli, but he believed the entire event might have been based on a case that occurred in Argentina or in Britain, where he had lived for several years.
“Che: UFO”
The person who appeared on “Saturday Interviews with Manzera” claiming to be a witness to the Vidal incident was none other than Uset’s personal assistant and a supporting actor in the movie, Juan Alberto “Moncho” Matteyco, now a well-known TV show host.
Uset expressed that when the Vidal incident story became widely known and the “snowball effect” grew larger, he felt panic, which was one reason he kept silent. He said:
“So many people came to tell me they knew the Vidals, I began to doubt, and the confusion was such that I even started to feel that our fabricated story and actual events were overlapping.”
Later, Uset did not want to discuss the matter further, and Agostinelli noted that obtaining his testimony was very difficult. However, nearly forty years after the event, Uset’s account seems to indicate that the “Vidal Incident” was a hoax.
A Confirmed Fact
Is Uset’s account reliable? Some evidence seems to confirm that what he said is true.
The first piece of evidence comes from the poster of “Che: UFO.” From the image, the car on it matches the Peugeot model. It’s likely that this brand sponsored the movie, as Peugeot cars appear multiple times in the film, and the protagonists also use a Peugeot. This is the same car brand involved in the “Vidal Incident.”
Poster for “Che: UFO”
Secondly, as many have pointed out, although the “Vidal Incident” seems to have many witnesses, when you try to delve deeper into the core of the matter, you find that no one has actually met the Vidals. All “witnesses” have heard the story secondhand. You could call it testimony or rumors.
Researcher Alejandro Cionetti visited Maipú in Buenos Aires Province around 1980 to interview the Rapallini family, seen by the media as the only indirect parties in the case. However, no one knew who linked this family with the mysterious couple “teleported to Mexico.” Then, as we mentioned, Martin Rapallini declared he knew nothing about the whole affair.
Although this might have been the best opportunity to debunk the entire hoax, the media at the time had the opposite effect. “La Razón” and “Capital” (the media outlets that created this supposed exclusive news) reprinted the “witness’s” denial statement with a deliberate air of skepticism. In the published news, between the lines, they implied he was “covering for the Vidals” because they claimed there were “strict rules prohibiting further dissemination of the case.”
It can now be confirmed that there was never any concrete evidence that a couple experienced such an encounter at that time and place. It has also been confirmed that the plot elements of the movie “Che: UFO,” released two months later, were directly lifted from this case, and the film’s production began long before this “news” spread. Therefore, one of the cases that sparked a UFO craze in Argentina in 1968 was likely a publicity stunt for a movie. Due to the clever storytelling and the cultural inclination to accept such stories at the time, the tale, once it entered the social imagination, grew in credibility, eventually becoming what is now called an urban legend.
While many teleportation incidents have occurred in Argentina and worldwide, the famous “Vidal Incident” was entirely a fabrication, which indeed comes as a surprise. However, this event also highlights the importance of re-examining UFO incidents, even those considered classics in the field of UFOlogy.
