The tragic first words of children who survived 40 days in the Colombian jungle have been revealed by their rescuers.
After wandering alone for more than a month, the indigenous Huitoto children, ages 13, nine, five and one, were rescued and airlifted from the Amazon on Friday and were recovering at a military hospital in the capital Bogotá two days later.
In a television interview on Sunday, members of the rescue group – themselves members of the indigenous population – recounted the first moments after meeting the children.
They described how the oldest child with a baby ran towards them when they saw them coming.
“I’m hungry” and “My mother is dead,” the rescuers were told.
The tragic first words of children who survived 40 days in the Colombian jungle have been revealed by their rescuers. Soldiers from the Colombian Air Force and staff from the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) provide medical care to the surviving children of a Cessna 206 plane crash on an airplane
A Colombian Air Force soldier carries one of the surviving children to the plane. After wandering alone for more than a month, the indigenous Huitoto children, ages 13, nine, five and one, were rescued and airlifted from the Amazon on Friday and were recovering at a military hospital in the capital Bogotá two days later
One of the children holds a surgical glove with a happy face while being airlifted to Bogota in San Jose del Guaviare
“The eldest daughter, Lesly, ran towards me with the little one in her arms. Lesly said: “I’m hungry,” Nicolas Ordonez Gomes, one of the search and rescue workers, told public broadcaster RTVC.
“One of the two boys was lying. He got up and said to me, “My mother is dead.”
“We immediately responded with positive words, saying that we were friends, that we had been sent by family, father, uncle. That we were family,” Ordonez Gomes added.
In a video released Sunday showing the children shortly after their discovery, the children appeared emaciated from their time in the wild.
You can see their rescuers singing, smoking tobacco – a plant considered sacred to many jungle dwellers – and partying.
The four children had been lost in the jungle since the Cessna 206 they were traveling in crashed on May 1st.
The pilot had reported engine problems just minutes after taking off from a deep Amazon region called Araracuara on the 217-mile journey to the city of San Jose del Guaviare.
The bodies of the pilot, the children’s mother and another adult were all found at the crash site, where the plane was almost vertical in the trees.
But when the wreckage of the plane was found after weeks of hunting, not only were the children not found dead alongside the adults, there was also partially eaten fruit, suggesting they all survived.
That sparked a massive hunt through miles of dense and remote Amazon rainforest, culminating in the rescue on Friday, June 9th.
The children’s father told the press on Sunday outside the hospital that his wife was seriously injured in the accident on May 1, but that she died four days later in the presence of her children.
“The only thing that[13-year-old Lesly]cleared up for me is that her mother was actually alive for four days,” Manuel Miller Ranoque told reporters.
“Before she died, her mother said to them something like, ‘Get out of here. You will see what kind of man your father is, and he will show you the same great love that I have shown. You.”‘
Magdalena Mucutuy, the children’s mother, was an indigenous leader.
It was thanks in part to the local knowledge of the children and indigenous adults involved in the search, along with Colombian troops, that despite threats from jaguars and snakes and the ongoing rains that may have prevented them from making possible calls, the youngsters made possible calls hear, search parties were found alive.
“Child survival is a sign of the knowledge and relationship with the natural environment that is instilled in the womb,” according to the National Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Colombia.
Soldiers from the Colombian Air Force treat one of the children rescued from the Colombian jungle during the operation June 9
A soldier gives medical attention to one of the surviving children on an airplane
Colombian Air Force soldiers and Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) staff drop one of the surviving children from a helicopter while being flown to Bogota in San Jose del Guaviare, Colombia June 9
The children ate seeds, fruits, roots and plants they identified as edible from their childhood in the Amazon, Luis Acosta of Colombia’s National Indigenous Organization told AFP.
Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez, who visited them in hospital with President Gustavo Petro, said they were recovering but could not eat solid food yet.
Lesly Jacombaire Mucutuy, Soleiny Jacombaire Mucutuy, nine, Tien Noriel Ronoque Mucutuy, four, and one-year-old Cristin Neriman Ranoque Mucutuy remain at a military hospital in Bogotá following their amazing ordeal.
The two youngest children, now five and one, spent their birthdays in the jungle while Lesly, the eldest, aged just 13, guided them through the ordeal.
“It is thanks to her, her courage and leadership that the other three were able to survive with her care and knowledge of the jungle,” Velasquez said.
General Pedro Sanchez, who led the search operation, credited the indigenous peoples involved in the rescue with finding the children.
“We found the kids: wonder, wonder, wonder,” he told reporters.
Army chief Helder Giraldo said rescuers traveled more than 1,650 miles to locate the children.
“Something seemingly impossible has been achieved,” Giraldo said on Twitter.
In addition to jaguars, snakes and other predators, there are also armed drug smuggling groups in the area.
Petro hailed the success as a “meeting of indigenous and military knowledge” that pointed out a “different path to a new Colombia.”
A soldier stands next to the wreckage of the plane that crashed in the Colombian Amazon on May 19
Colombian army soldiers search for the missing children in the rainforest. They were missing for 40 days after the plane crash
A map showing the location of the plane crash in Colombia
On Sunday, the father of two victims and stepfather of the others expressed his frustration with hospital authorities preventing him from seeing two victims while they recovered.
He came back from hospital in the afternoon and was very emotional, telling : “I was so excited when I saw my children.”
He further told reporters, “You must understand that I cannot speak about the situation at the hospital because it is very sensitive…but I can say that they are doing much better.”
And he attributed their survival to their upbringing, saying, “The children are naturally obsessed.”
But he expressed anger at authorities who allegedly wouldn’t allow him to see the two older children.
“It’s not a game,” he said. ‘They are fine. I can’t talk to him [two older] Children, I cannot tell you anything about them until the Father, the Creator [apparently referring to God] allow me…
“You will never understand our world.” We are indigenous people. We can’t waste time on the training, we’ve proven our skills, what we’re capable of, we’ve found the plane, we’ve found the kids, what more could you ask for?
“May God continue to protect her.”
In an emotional state, he continued, “I could only see my two young children because the government will not allow me to see my other two daughters.” I don’t know why I can’t see them.
‘She [the authorities] “I didn’t quite get it, I’m from 40 days in the jungle, they think I’m from a bar or the street.”
He continued: “I want to thank the military hospital, the children are in good hands and I think after a month I will have my children with me, that’s my dream.”
‘She [the authorities] I don’t understand that I’m her father. The government took it as a joke and outwitted me.
“I am the father.” I’ve been looking for them, I’ve been looking for them and now that I’ve brought them back I can’t see them. How is that possible? And the other search teams, the other people, can see them.
“You are allowed to see them, take pictures with them.” And we, my colleagues who came out of need, did not receive any medical care. I fought on my knees in the jungle for 40 days.
“I only saw the two older children in photos. And that worries me.
“I am calling on the nation to respect that I am the father.” You [the older children] need to talk to me first. How come they talk to people who didn’t even send me a glass of water when I was in the jungle while I was dying of hunger and thirst in the jungle?
“I’ve never had support and now that the kids are here, people are trying to make money from it.”
Colombian Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez (centre) leaves the military hospital after speaking to the media
asked about his children’s future and he replied: “The children need to have a decent place to live, have access to education and there are many great things in store for my children.”
The father’s anger comes as sources tell that the Colombian authorities want to influence the future upbringing of at least the two older children.
Ranoque, who fled his area after being threatened by FARC guerrillas, said the two older children were brainwashed by the group into believing he was abusing them.
But he said on Sunday: ‘I’m not their biological father but they tried to tell them I was abusing them.’ Lesly shut them up and said I was their father.’
Her grandmother, whose voice rang out from airplanes over the jungle during the search to reassure the wanted youth, told reporters: “I have never lost hope, I have always supported the search.” I am very happy and I thank President Petro and my “compatriots” who have gone through so many difficulties.”
After the siblings were found alive, the Army radio was heard saying, “Miracle, miracle, miracle, miracle” – the Army code for a child found alive, repeated four times to reflect all four children.
Officials praise Lesly for her efforts to save her siblings, and family members said a survival game they played helped them prepare for the ordeal.
Lesly, the eldest, “knew which fruits not to eat because there are a lot of poisonous fruits in the forest.” And she knew how to take care of a baby,” aunt Damarys Mucutuy told Caracol news channel.
“She gave them flour and cassava bread, all the fruit in the bush, they know what to eat,” Ms. Valencia said.
“They were raised by their grandmother,” said John Moreno, a leader of the Guanano group in Vaupes, in southeastern Colombia, where the children grew up. “They used what they learned in the community and relied on the knowledge of their ancestors to survive.”
A baby water bottle and half-eaten pieces of fruit had been discovered prior to the animal shelter’s discovery
A dog stands next to a pair of scissors found in the woods in a rural area of Solano municipality while searching for the children
Between May 15 and 16, soldiers found the bodies of the three adults and the wreckage of the plane, which was wedged vertically in dense vegetation with its nose destroyed.
But the children were missing.
About 200 soldiers and local indigenous people combed a dense jungle area about 320 square kilometers (124 square miles) – about twice the size of Washington, DC
The Air Force had thrown 10,000 leaflets with instructions in Spanish and the children’s indigenous Huitoto language into the forest, telling them to stay there.
The leaflets also contained survival tips and the military distributed food packages and bottled water for the children.
The area was illuminated with powerful searchlights “to allow the minors to approach us,” Colonel Fausto Avellaneda, a member of the search team, told the TV show Noticias Caracol.
Huitoto children learn to hunt, fish and gather, and the children’s grandfather, Fidencio Valencia, had said that the children were well acquainted with the jungle.
At one point, the search team believed they were within 100 m (300 ft) of them, but storms, thick vegetation, and swampy terrain prevented them from reaching them.
Members of the indigenous community held traditional ceremonies where they “talked to the jungle” and asked it to release the children.
But the jungle began to offer tantalizing hints that the youngsters’ hopes were not lost. Photos released by the military showed scissors, shoes and hair ties among branches on the jungle floor.
A baby water bottle and half-eaten pieces of fruit had been discovered prior to the animal shelter’s discovery.
Then, almost two weeks ago, a footprint was found on the muddy jungle floor. Army officials assumed it belonged to 13-year-old Lesly.
Manuel Ranoque, the father of two of the youngest Indigenous children, on Sunday expressed his frustration at hospital authorities who have prevented him from seeing his children while they are recovering after being rescued on Friday
Colombian President Gustavo Petro (right) greets a nurse while visiting the four indigenous children who were found alive after being lost for 40 days in the Colombian Amazon rainforest
Colombia’s First Lady Veronica Alcocer (left) and Sofia Petro (right), daughter of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, visit one of the four indigenous children while they receive treatment
Leaders of the Huitoto indigenous group expressed hope that the children’s knowledge of fruit and their skills in surviving in the jungle would increase their chances of being found alive.
To feed the children, boxes of food were thrown onto the jungle floor. And yesterday, the effort paid off when one of the rescue dogs that tracked them down led soldiers to the group, the president confirmed.
They had followed footprints on the muddy ground.
“The jungle saved her,” said Petro. “They are children of the jungle, and now they are children of Colombia too.”