Colombia
40 days in the jungle: children in military hospital cared for
Search parties found the children after 40 days in the rainforest in the south of the country. photo
© –/Colombia’s Armed Forces Press Office/dpa
After a plane crash in the Colombian rainforest, four siblings struggle through the wilderness for a month. The knowledge of their indigenous people saved them. Now they must gather strength.
After the rescue of four children from the Colombian rain forest who had been missing for weeks, the siblings are being cared for in the military hospital in the capital Bogotá. “Given the circumstances, they are in acceptable condition,” said military doctor Carlos Rincón Arango. “They have several minor injuries and are malnourished. We are now doing a series of pediatric tests and getting them back on their feet. They will probably need to stay in hospital for two to three weeks.”
Search parties found the children on Friday after 40 days in the rainforest in the south of the country. They crashed on May 1 with a Cessna 206 propeller plane in the Caquetá department. Private small planes are often the only way to cover longer distances in the impassable region. The children’s mother, the pilot and an indigenous leader died in the accident. For more than a month, soldiers and indigenous people searched for the siblings in the impassable area until they were rescued – and the redeeming news spread like wildfire.
“I visited them. They are very exhausted, poor people,” grandfather Filencio Valencia told the newspaper El Tiempo on Saturday after meeting his grandchildren at the military hospital in Bogotá. “They are sleeping. They are malnourished. They are thin, very thin.” Grandmother Fátima Valencia also visited the siblings in the hospital. “I weep with joy. The children are exhausted, but I have my daughter’s flesh and blood back.”
Father was also involved in the search
The children – a boy and three girls, the youngest just one year old, the oldest 13 – belong to an indigenous community. Their knowledge of the region may have helped them survive in the jungle after the crash. They apparently subsisted on wild passion fruit and mangoes, as well as food parcels that the military had dropped over the jungle in the hope that the stray children would find them.
“Humans can survive up to 30 days without eating a balanced diet,” nutritionist Liliana Dávila told RCN television. “If the children are well hydrated, it is possible to survive for a long time without food. In the jungle, it is easy to collect rainwater.”
The father of the siblings aged 13, 9 and 5 years and one year also took part in the search. After the children were found, he accompanied them to the military hospital in Bogotá. “I’ve also been admitted. I’m sick,” said Manuel Ranoque. “I have a high fever. I’ve been fighting for 40 days to find my children.”
On the flight to Bogotá, he asked Special Forces General Pedro Sánchez to become godfather to his youngest daughter. “It’s an honor for me,” he replied, the officer told Caracol television. “I went home and said to my wife: We’re going to have a daughter. Even if she has a different last name, it doesn’t matter. It’s about what you feel in your heart, in your soul.”
Search dog is missing
Colombian President Gustavo Petro also visited the children in the hospital. Photos showed him standing by the siblings’ bedside and thanking the nurses. “Today was a magical day,” he said after returning from Cuba. There he had announced a truce with the left-wing guerrilla organization ELN, and Petro learned about the rescue of the children immediately after landing. “They were alone, but they set an example of survival that will go down in history. So today, these children are the children of peace, the children of Colombia.”
A dog involved in the search operation is missing. The Belgian shepherd named Wilson had not returned from a search in the dense rainforest, according to the armed forces. “We never leave a comrade on the battlefield,” said the commander of the armed forces, General Helder Fernan Giraldo Bonilla. “We continue to search for our dog, Wilson, who strayed from the troops and got lost in his eagerness to find the children.”
According to media reports, the children had been with their mother on their way to their father, who had fled the region because of constant threats from a splinter group of the guerrilla organization FARC. Although the security situation between the government and FARC has improved since the 2016 peace agreement, parts of the South American country are still controlled by illegal groups. Indigenous peoples, social activists and environmentalists in particular are repeatedly targeted by criminal gangs.