Exhausted but “happy”. The four children rescued after forty days of wandering in the Colombian jungle, have been resting since Saturday in a military hospital in Bogota, where they were able to see their families while the country continued to rejoice in this “miracle”. “My grandchildren have life (in them). Even though they are very exhausted, I know they are in good hands,” commented their grandfather Fidencio Valencia. “They are happy to see the family (…) they have all their senses”, rejoiced their grandfather this Sunday, in front of the military hospital and a crowd of journalists. How did the four children survive? Are they in good health? How did the rescue of the siblings go? A look back at the forty days of the four little “miracle victims of the jungle”, a disappearance that went around the world.
What happened Friday in Colombia?
Lesly (13 years old), Soleiny (9 years old), Tien Noriel (5 years old) and Cristin (1 year old) were found alive on Friday afternoon by rescuers. Originally from the Uitoto indigenous group, the children had wandered alone in the jungle since the May 1 crash of the small Cessna 206 plane in which they were traveling with their mother, the pilot and a relative. All three adults died and their bodies were found by the military at the crash site.
“We have achieved the impossible”, welcomed the Commander-in-Chief of the Colombian Armed Forces, General Helder Fernan Giraldo, while the whole country rejoiced at this quadruple “miracle”. For his part, President Gustavo Petro announced the news in the evening in the country, referring to “a magical day” and “joy”, praising “an example of total survival that will go down in history”.
According to the military, rescuers found the siblings about 5 km west of the crash site in the jungle of Solano, Caqueta state, Colombia. Photos released by the army show the children, in the middle of the thick vegetation, seated on tarpaulins, surrounded by soldiers and natives giving them food and drink. They are in jeans and filthy long-sleeved T-shirts for the two older ones, their feet wrapped in bandages. Two others are swaddled in survival blankets.
How did the research go?
More than 100 soldiers accompanied by detection dogs and dozens of natives have searched for the children since the discovery of the plane, their noses planted on the ground in the middle of thick vegetation. The army followed their trail with the discovery of a bottle, scissors, shoes, diapers, chewed fruit, footprints or even makeshift shelters. The Air Force joined the operation with three helicopters. Using a loudspeaker on board a device, a message recorded by the children’s grandmother was broadcast. Survival kits were thrown all over the jungle. Satellite technologies have also been deployed in an attempt to determine the path the children might have taken through this impenetrable green hell, which is flushed daily by torrential rains.
All the officials praised the cooperation on the ground of the commandos and the indigenous volunteers, in a country where decades of internal conflict and violence have rather left mistrust between these two actors. “Without the natives, their experience and their knowledge of the jungle, this unexpected result could not have been achieved, all the soldiers recognize it”, underlined Minister Velasquez: “they were the guides of our commandos in the jungle . »
According to the army, the rescuers traveled, in more than a month, nearly 2,656 km in this hostile and impenetrable forest. By “working with the troop”, the indigenous volunteers have “increased the State’s response capacity”, analyzed the head of the ICBF, the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare. This “meeting of indigenous and military knowledge” in favor of “the common good”, combined with “respect for the forest”, shows “a different path towards a new Colombia”, a “true path towards peace in the name of life”. , then praised on Twitter Gustavo Petro. For his part, Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez paid tribute to the various units of the army, “unwavering and tireless”, as well as to the natives who took part in the research, extended over 320 km and then 20 square km.
What happened during those forty days in the jungle?
The children’s chances of survival seemed to decrease day by day, in this very hostile environment where jaguars, pumas, snakes and other predators roam. Insects of all kinds are particularly voracious there, and there is also the question of vital access to drinking water.
It is the “warrior” nature of Lesly, the eldest of the siblings, which allowed them to survive, judged grandmother Fatima Valencia. “She usually always took care of her siblings when their mother was working. Gave them flour, cassava bread, fruits from the bush.” “Children of the bush”, they “survived at first by eating a little flour (which was on board the accident plane), then seeds”, added their grandfather. Thanks to Lesly, two of the children were able to celebrate their birthdays in the jungle: the youngest Cristin was 1 year old and Tien Noriel, 5 years old. For the National Organization of Amerindian Peoples of Colombia (Opiac), it is also their native condition, and this very special bond with nature “taught from the womb of the mother”, which played in favor of their survival. . And, in his journey, the siblings were for a moment accompanied by a dog. It is not known at this stage whether it is Wilson, an army detection sheepdog, who is still wanted by the military.
Are the four children healthy?
Helicoptered from the jungle and transported to the city of San Jose del Guaviare, the “four” were transported overnight by medical plane to Bogota, to be hospitalized in an army health establishment. On their arrival, they were evacuated on a stretcher and put on board several ambulances, to the applause of the soldiers and journalists present.
“They are weak. Let the doctors make their prognosis, commented Gustavo Petro before adding: they were dehydrated (…) But in general their condition is acceptable. They are out of danger. “Apart from “a few skin lesions and bites”, the children do not indeed present “no pathology or any degraded health situation”, specified a military doctor. “They are in stable condition” and are following a renutrition protocol. Their hospitalization is expected to last between two and three weeks. The four “speak little, but they are happy. […] They are starting to want to play, Cristin in particular, ”commented to journalists Astrid Caceres, director of the Institute for Family Welfare (ICBF). At the request of her father, Cristin, the little one with the big black eyes, will soon have as godfather the one who led the search operations, the charismatic General Pedro Sanchez.
And what happens to the lost Wilson dog?
The Army announced on Saturday that it is continuing to search for the stray Wilson dog while searching for siblings. “The search is not over. Our principle: we leave no one behind, ”assured the Colombian army on its Twitter account.
“The soldiers are continuing the operation to find Wilson”, adds this press release, photo in support of this magnificent six-year-old Belgian shepherd Malinois.