the details of the rescue of missing children in the jungle of Colombia

The hours continue to pass in Colombia and while the children rescued from the jungle recover in the Bogotá Military Hospital, the details of the search and stories of the survival of the minors gradually appear.

This time it was Manuel Miller Ranoque, the children’s father, who spoke to the media and released information about what his disappeared children had to experience in the robust and unexplored Colombian jungle area.

Ranoque stated that Lesly, the 13-year-old girl, clarified that her mother lived four days after the plane crash and later died. Although it was reported that Magdalena Mucutuy —the mother of the children— had died, the Army had not specified where her remains were or those of the indigenous leader who accompanied her.

These statements by the father are added to the statements of the grandparents, who described Lesly as a “warrior” and “very intelligent”, emphasizing that it was she who kept her nine-year-old Soleini brothers alive; Tien Noriel, five; and Cristin, the baby who turned one year old in the jungle.

The father, who participated in the search, also denounced that the dissident groups, which separated from the FARC after the 2016 Peace Agreement and live in the jungle, intimidate the residents of the area, a place that is very difficult to access without private flights and does not have roads.

“The only thing they want is economic interest and as long as you don’t accept what they say, you are an enemy for them,” he said.

The version indicates that the father had already escaped and that he was waiting to meet his family, who was fleeing at the time of the tragic accident.

Ranoque also fears for the lives of minors, who, according to him, may be in danger. “That’s what I’m most afraid of because I know that those shameless people can start putting pressure on me with my children first of all,” he added.

Currently, the four children are out of danger, medical reports indicate. In addition, they are under treatment that includes psychological care, soft meals and traditional care of indigenous peoples.

The search details

Despite the fact that the operation included more than a hundred soldiers and sniffer dogs, the government has stated that indigenous wisdom was fundamental in finding the lost children in a context of thick vegetation, wild animals and constant rain in an unknown territory.

“You only enter the jungle with permission,” Jarvy Gómez, one of the members of the indigenous communities who joined the search and who finally found the children, had told France 24, contributing his natural knowledge and the beliefs of their people.

While Nicolás Ordóñez Gomes, a member of the search and rescue teams, was interviewed by the public channel RTVC and detailed the first sentences of the children when they found them.

“The eldest daughter, Lesly, with the little one in her arms, ran up to me and said ‘I’m hungry,’” she said. “My mom is dead” were the first words of one of the two children who were lying down.

Ordóñez Gomes explained that they tried to gain trust with them by saying “positive words”, as if they had been sent by relatives. “I want bread and chorizo” was the response he found from one of the minors.

Luis Acosta, national coordinator of the indigenous guard of Colombia, spoke with France 24 and highlighted the alliance that local communities forged with the Army. “It was essential to keep us hopeful,” he stressed.

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“We shared ancestral and technological knowledge. It was important to combine these two wisdoms. While some were guided by GPS, others sang in the jungle under the protection of the spirits”, he explained.

For Acosta, the association between both sectors is key to “send a message of unity and peace to Colombia in times of uncertainty.”

While he highlighted ancestral knowledge as “a fundamental element”. “If we don’t know the jungle, if we don’t know about the jungle, it’s impossible to move,” he said.

Finally, he supported the statements of the children’s father, who warns of threats from FARC dissidents who are fighting to have territorial control in the area. “There are many difficult situations for indigenous peoples, all the time. That is why displacements occur, having to leave the territories, ”he described.

Acosta asked the government institutions to accompany the children and their family. “It is the most beautiful thing that we can give so that the lives of these four children continue,” he concluded.

With EFE, AFP and local media