San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
4 children survive 40 days in Amazon
BOGOTA, Colombia — Four Indigenous children survived an Amazon plane crash that killed three adults and then braved the jungle for 40 days before being found alive by Colombian soldiers, bringing a happy ending to a searchand-rescue saga that captivated a nation but also prompted questions about their extraordinary survival.
Officials in the South American country announced their rescue Friday, following days of highs and lows as searchers frantically combed through the rainforest hunting for the youngsters, members of the Huitoto people and aged 13, 9 and 4 years and 11 months.
As the children received treatment Saturday at a hospital in the capital, Bogota, authorities were yet to explain how the siblings endured their time alone in the remote area. Earlier, officials had said the oldest children had some knowledge of how to survive in the rainforest.
President Gustavo Petro celebrated the news upon returning from Cuba, where he signed a cease-fire with representatives of the National Liberation Army rebel group. He visited the children Saturday.
Petro called them an “example of survival” and predicted their saga “will remain in history.”
Damaris Mucutuy, an aunt of the children, told a radio station that “the children are fine” despite being dehydrated and with insect bites. Mucutuy, who arrived at the hospital at dawn with other family members, said the children had been offered mental health services.
Defense Minister Iván Velásquez told reporters Saturday the children were being rehydrated and cannot eat food yet.
“But in general, the condition of the children is acceptable,” he said.
An air force video showed a helicopter using lines to pull the youngsters up because it couldn’t land in the dense rainforest where they were found. The military on Friday tweeted pictures showing a group of soldiers and volunteers posing with the children, who were wrapped in thermal blankets. One of the soldiers held a bottle to the smallest child’s lips.
Gen. Pedro Sanchez, who was in charge of the rescue efforts, said that the children were found 3 miles away from the crash site in a small forest clearing. He said rescue teams had passed within 66 to 164 feet of where the children were found on a couple of occasions but had missed them.
“The minors were already very weak,” Sanchez said. “And surely their strength was only enough to breathe or reach a small fruit to feed themselves or drink a drop of water in the jungle.”
Fidencio Valencia, an uncle of the children, told reporters outside the hospital that the survivors were happy to see family members, who are taking a “day-by-day” approach to the situation.
“When the plane crashed, they took out (of the wreckage) a fariña, and with that, they survived,” Valencia said, referring to a cassava flour that people eat in the Amazon region. “After the fariña ran out, they began to eat seeds.”
The crash happened in the early hours of May 1, when the Cessna single-engine propeller plane with six passengers and a pilot declared an emergency due to an engine failure.
The small aircraft fell off radar a short time later and a frantic search for survivors began. Two weeks after the crash, on May 16, a search team found the plane in a thick patch of the rainforest and recovered the bodies of the three adults on board, but the small children were nowhere to be found.
Sensing that they could be alive, Colombia’s army stepped up the hunt and flew 150 soldiers with dogs into the area. Dozens of volunteers from Indigenous tribes also helped search.