They had been lost after a plane crash in southern Colombia. The searches never stopped and in the end Lesly Mukutuy, 13 years old; Soleiny Mukutuy, 9 years old; Tien Noriel Ronoque Mukutuy, 4, and one-year-old Cristin Neruman Ranoque were taken to safety
The four children who had been lost since May 1 in the jungles of southern Colombia after the plane crash in which they were traveling with three adults were found alive by the soldiers who participated in their search.
“A joy for the whole country! The 4 children who were lost 40 days ago in the Colombian jungle appeared alive,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced on his Twitter account, confirming the news announced a few minutes earlier by Radio Caracol.
The protagonists of this miracle of surviving in the jungle for 40 days are the minors Lesly Mukutuy, 13 years old; Soleiny Mukutuy, 9 years old; 4-year-old Tien Noriel Ronoque Mukutuy and one-year-old baby Cristin Neruman Ranoque . The minors, brothers to one another, were found in a remote point between the departments of Caquetà and Guaviare which were searched non-stop for weeks by about 200 soldiers, including commandos of the Army’s Special Forces, and indigenous peoples of various tribes who they knew the jungle.
As soon as he got off the presidential plane from Havana, where a temporary bilateral ceasefire agreement was signed today with the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN), Petro confirmed the news to the country.
President Petro’s announcement
“Now that I’m back, the first news is that the indigenous communities and the military forces together found the four children alive after 40 days,” Petro said.
The Army has released several photographs showing the four children sitting in a clearing in the middle of the jungle, covered by blankets and surrounded by soldiers and natives. They are fine even if they appear emaciated and undernourished , as is obvious after the odyssey they have experienced. The four children were traveling with their mother, another adult and the pilot of an Avianline Charter Cessna 206 plane that crashed on May 1st. The three adults died in the crash and their bodies were found several days later, but the four children, from an indigenous community, survived.
“They were alone. They were protagonists of an example of survival that will go down in history , so today those children are the children of peace”, added the president. Since the plane was found, a gigantic search operation for the four children has begun, during which the military and the indigenous people have traveled thousands of square kilometers of jungle and made numerous flights by helicopter and by plane until today they were finally found.
The children are already in Bogota
They were transferred to Bogota during the night by military helicopter. Images of the rescue were released by the army. The children are seen one after another in the arms of a soldier and embarked in almost complete darkness. Originally from the Uitoto Indigenous group , the four children had been wandering alone in the jungle since the May 1 crash of the Cessna 206 in which they were traveling with their mother, pilot and a relative. The three adults died and their bodies were found by the army shortly after the crash. According to the army, rescuers found the children about 5 km west of the crash site. “They are weak. Let the doctors make their prognosis,” said Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
Lesly, the older sister saved everyone
At 13 and with a “warrior” nature, Lesly kept her younger siblings safe, says the grandmother of the four indigenous children who were found alive after surviving a plane crash and stranded in the Amazon for 40 days colombian. “She always took care of them when their mother worked. She gave them farinita, casabito (flour and cassava bread), any fruit from the bush,” Fàtima Valencia, the mother of Magdalena Mucutuy, who died, told AFP in the plane crash while traveling with her children. Indigenous women “are very warlike”, underlines Valencia, who is waiting in a hotel in the city of Villavicencio (downtown) for the moment to see her grandchildren.
“I just want to see them, touch them,” adds Fidencio Valencia, the children’s grandfather, also in Villavicencio. Like little Lesly, her brothers Soleiny (9) and Tien Noriel (4) “are very good at walking” through the jungle, the 47-year-old Huitoto indigenous man told AFP in another interview. Little Cristin, who turned one during the incredible journey of the minors through the forest, also survived.
