By Colombian President Gustavo Petro/Twitter
Colombian President Gustavo Petro shared the photo on social media with the words: “A joy for the whole country! The four children who were lost in the Colombian jungle 40 days ago appeared to be alive.”
CNN –
According to Colombian President Gustavo Petro, four young children were found alive after hiking for more than a month in the Colombian Amazon.
“A joy for the whole country! “The four children lost in the Colombian jungle 40 days ago have been found alive,” Petro tweeted on Friday.
Petro also shared a photo that appears to show search parties with the four children, whose condition is unknown.
The children are the sole survivors of a May Day plane crash that killed pilot Hernando Murcia Morales, Yarupari tribal leader Herman Mendoza Hernández and their mother, Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia.
Their subsequent disappearance into the deep forest had sparked a massive military-led search operation, with over a hundred Colombian special forces and over 70 indigenous scouts combing the area.
For weeks, the search turned up only tantalizing clues, including footprints, a dirty diaper and a bottle. Family members said the eldest child had had some experience in the forest, but hope dwindled the longer the children went missing.
Hopes were raised in mid-May when Petro falsely tweeted that the children had been found. He later had to back down.
The news that they are now surviving in the wild is all the more extraordinary at this young age. the oldest is only 13 years old and the youngest is still a toddler.