Kapetanovic, Vlado

Vlado Kapetanovic was a Yugoslav contactee who had his contact experiences in Peru in the 1960s.

Background

Kapetanovic was born in Kolasin, Montenegro in 1918 and came to Peru after the Second World War to work as a hydroelectric engineer. He was of Yugoslav nationality and wrote about his experiences under the pseudonym "Vitko Novi."

The First Encounter (1960)

His contacts began on March 10, 1960, at the Hydroelectric Plant of Huallanca in Ancash, Peru. One night the power went out; as the electrical technician in charge of the plant, he went outside to start the emergency system and encountered an intense light that seemed to make it appear as daytime. It was coming from a saucer resting on land between two nearby rivers. The security guard, Quiroz, told him not to approach, saying "they are persons that do much good up in the villages... they help us, make it rain and everything," and identified them as "friends from planet Apu."

Subsequent Encounters

Subsequent encounters took place in a small high-altitude settlement of shepherds (between 11,000–13,000 feet) above the right margin of the Quitaraxa River. During the 1960s and into 1961, Kapetanovic had frequent encounters with aliens who told him they came from a planet called APU, a world inhabited by beings with extraordinary powers and a degree of evolution never achieved by humans. On APU, selfishness does not exist, money does not exist, and wisdom is a priority. The mission of the Apunians, he was told, was to protect every living cell in the universe.

The Beings — The "Apunians"

The alien visitors met Kapetanovic several times on the high Altiplano mountain range and were treating native Altiplano people who had no access to medical treatment. They are described as human-looking and over 7 feet tall, considered very respectful and protective. They are said to come from another more evolved galaxy which Kapetanovic called "X-9."

What He Was Shown

Kapetanovic and some shepherds were invited aboard a craft, where on a glass screen they could see events on "time screens" that reproduced everything they thought. Among the things shown were the birth and life of Jesus Christ and how a section of APU was once connected with the Lake Titicaca region.

His Books

Kapetanovic wrote 170 Horas con Extraterrestres ("170 Hours with Extraterrestrials"), published in Spanish, German, and Italian, and also in English by Wendelle C. Stevens (though in the English version, "70 Hours" were mistakenly dropped from the title). His first book is considered more credible as it primarily narrates events. Subsequent books, like Galaxia X-9, are based on what he recalled and partially re-interpreted about the history of the world, the creation of the universe, and other things allegedly shown to him through three-dimensional "time screens" aboard an Apunian spacecraft.

Death and Legacy

He passed away in 2005 and was considered the first contactee to speak about the Apunians — a tradition that continued with other Peruvian contactees. Other primary sources for information about the Apunians include Peruvian contactees Ricardo González and Donato Cervantes.

Kapetanovic remains one of the more distinctive figures in South American contactee lore, notable for the benevolent, humanitarian nature attributed to the beings he claimed to encounter, and for the deep cultural resonance of the name "Apu", a word that in Andean tradition refers to the powerful spirits of the mountains.