After 40 days of uncertainty, the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, reported this Friday, June 9, that the Armed Forces and representatives of the country’s indigenous communities found the four children who remained missing. The whereabouts of the minors were unknown since the plane they were traveling in crashed on May 1 in the Colombian Amazon.
First modification:
The case that had Colombia in suspense for 40 days ended with the news that the entire country was waiting for: the Armed Forces and representatives of the indigenous communities found the children who had disappeared in the Amazon jungle on May 1.
The whereabouts of the minors were unknown since the plane in which they were traveling with their mother and two other adults, who were found dead, crashed in the Colombian Amazon.
President Gustavo Petro confirmed the news on his Twitter account. “A joy for the whole country! The 4 children who were lost 40 days ago in the Colombian jungle appeared alive,” the president wrote.
A joy for the whole country! The 4 children who were lost 40 days ago in the Colombian jungle appeared alive. pic.twitter.com/cvADdLbCpm
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) June 9, 2023
The children were found by the military and indigenous people who had been looking for them for more than five weeks, as confirmed by Gustavo Petro upon returning from his trip to Havana.
“Now that I am back, the first news is that indeed the indigenous communities that were in the search and the Military Forces jointly found the four children alive after 40 days,” Petro said.
In the photos released by the Army, the four minors are seen covered with blankets and surrounded by soldiers and indigenous people. The children would be in good health, but they would have marks of malnutrition.
“Gift of Life”
“They were alone. They themselves achieved an example of survival that will remain in history, so today those children are the children of peace,” said the president..
Petro described the news as “a gift to life.” He also said that, depending on the health status of the children, they will be transferred on Saturday to Bogotá or Villavicencio, where their relatives are waiting for them. The president hopes to visit them shortly.
The minors had been identified as 13-year-old Lesly Mukutuy, 9-year-old Soleiny Mukutuy; Tien Noriel Ronoque Mukutuy, four years old; and the baby Cristin Neriman Ronoque Mukutuy, who completed his first year in the jungle.
The search for the brothers was a very complicated operation, since the Guaviare jungle is a dense and inhospitable territory where it rains 16 hours a day and where there are still towns that have not been contacted. The rescue teams had a visibility of only 20 meters inside the jungle.
Astrid Eliana Cáceres, director of the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare (ICBF), interviewed by France 24, stressed the importance of ancestral beliefs in the arrival of children.
“Military tactics alone are not worth it, if there is no heart with the families, if there is no connection with their beliefs and I think that was the bet we made,” explained the ICBF director who said she was “very happy” to the news.
And of course, also our deep gratitude to the indigenous people of the Siona and Araracuara communities, whose participation in the search operations was decisive for the discovery of the minors. https://t.co/1jol0F5ssC
— Iván Velásquez Gómez (@Ivan_Velasquez_) June 10, 2023
Defense Minister Iván Velásquez also thanked the indigenous communities that made the rescue of the children possible.
End of ‘Operation Hope’
The four children were traveling in a small plane with their mother, another adult and the pilot when the plane crashed on May 1. At the moment when the plane and the bodies of the three adults were discovered, but without the presence of the children, a gigantic search operation began.
The country’s Armed Forces joined hundreds of representatives of indigenous communities. An unconventional alliance in the country that sought to knot knowledge. The military and indigenous people walked thousands of square kilometers of jungle and used helicopters and planes trying to locate the children.
All kinds of techniques were used, such as light reflectors at night, loudspeakers with which they broadcast messages from their grandmother, rescue dogs or helicopters with heat sensors, among many others. The authorities had also left kits of survival with water and food in various places in the jungle. In addition, they had placed flyers in the search area, written in Spanish and Huitoto, the brothers’ language.
In the weeks of searching, several signs had been found that suggested the children were alive, including footprints, a bottle, used diapers, a phone case and a makeshift shelter. In addition, the authorities had explained that, if they were dead, finding the bodies of the children would have been quite fast.
However, as the weeks passed, the idea of finding them alive became more and more strange. The matter had also escalated when the president had falsely announced that the children had been found. An erroneous information that the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare had given him and that had to be rectified by Petro. But this time, the president was able to confirm the historic news.
with EFE
