The four Colombian children rescued after spending 40 days in the Amazon jungle are recovering well, but will remain in Bogota’s central military hospital for the next three to four weeks.
The two older sisters, Lesly, 13, and Soleiny, nine, had a fever. The only child, five-year-old Tien Noriel, is being treated for possible food contamination. He was so weak that he couldn’t walk when they found him. Only the one-year-old baby, Cristin, remains in intensive care, but only to be monitored more closely.
It is now known that the mother of the four children survived four days. It was she who asked them to leave her on the plane, to try to survive.
The older sister, Lesly, carried the baby off the plane and for the first few days they all ate a packet of cassava flour found in the wreckage. Then they picked fruit in the forest.
In statements to journalists on Tuesday, the deputy director of the Colombian Family Welfare Institute, Adriana Velásquez, said that the brothers are excited, busy with books, drawing, painting and talking.
One of the drawings made by the children at the hospital shows Wilson, the dog who found them during the raids, but ended up disappearing into the jungle before the children were rescued.
Leslie, the girl rescued in the jungle in Colombia, drew Wilson the puppy. What appears next to the noble little animal, by the crest #VamosPorWilson pic.twitter.com/6EAK1q3vrV
– Jose Antonio Jerez (@jerezlagos) June 12, 2023
The Colombian Military Forces ensure that “no one is left behind” and launched “Operation Hope” to try to find the Belgian shepherd.
We advance in the search for our Wilson Canine Command. One controller doesn’t leave another controller, no one is left behind!
Over there #OperationHope in @FuerzasMilCol It does not finish #VamosPorWilson pic.twitter.com/qwpP79gjaA
– Colombian Military Forces (@FuerzasMilCol) June 12, 2023
The children will be in the custody of the State until the family dispute over custody of the children is resolved. The maternal grandparents affirm that they want to take in the minors, alleging that the father of the two minors mistreated the children, which he denies.
The four brothers from the Uitoto indigenous community survived 40 days in the Amazon jungle after the plane in which they were traveling with their mother -a Cessna 206- crashed into the treetops after an engine failure.
The plane was found on May 8, as were the bodies of the pilot, the mother of the children and a leader of the indigenous community, but the minors had already disappeared when the authorities arrived at the scene.
The hope that the brothers could be found alive was maintained during the raids after the discovery of various objects in the jungle, such as a diaper, a bottle, a makeshift shelter made of sticks and branches and half-eaten fruit.
The children were found dehydrated but without serious injuries. This is a region inhabited by jaguars, poisonous snakes and other wild animals and where torrential rains often fall.
More than 160 soldiers with tracking dogs, as well as 70 members of the indigenous community, participated in the raids, covering an area of more than 2,600 kilometers.
Source: TSF
