Colombia continues with anguish the search and rescue efforts of the missing indigenous minors in the dense jungle of Caquetá, after the accident of the plane in which they were traveling on May 1. Eighteen days later, on Thursday afternoon (local time), the military gave the news that they had found fresh footprints that correspond to the children and could help to find their whereabouts.
"Our Special Forces, with more than 100 men involved in this humanitarian mission, found footprints near a stream that would be those of the missing minors in the Caquetá jungle," the Colombian Military Forces reported in a statement. Next to it, some images were disseminated in which foot prints can be seen in the mud, near a stream that makes its way through the thick vegetation.
The news came a few hours after the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, denied the information that he himself had given the day before, where he stated that Lesly Mucutuy, 13 years old; Soleiny Mucutuy, 9; Tien Noriel Ronoque Mucutuy, 4, and baby Cristin Neriman Ranoque Mucutuy, 11 months, had been found alive and in good health. A jug of cold water for the hopes of the family (and the country).
The children's grandmother, who lost her daughter in the accident, recorded a message so that her voice would sound over the loudspeaker of the helicopter that works in 'Operation Hope', according to the local newspaper El Tiempo: "I am your grandmother Fátima "You have to be still. They are looking for you. Listen to the loudspeaker, be still, so they can bring you. If you feel distressed, only my God knows."
The Cessna 206 plane, operated by the Avianline Charter's company and in which seven people were on board, disappeared from radar on May 1. Last Monday the aircraft, which suffered an alleged engine failure while flying between Araracuara, a remote town located on the border between the departments of Caquetá and Amazonas, and San José del Guaviare, was located in a rural area of the Palma Rosa hamlet from the municipality of Solano (Caquetá) with three of its deceased occupants: the mother of the children, an indigenous leader and the pilot.
It then remains to locate the four minors, who the rescuers believe are in the jungle looking for help. Where the accident occurred is a thick and rainy area that makes the search work carried out by more than one hundred members of the Military Forces more difficult, together with three dogs trained in search and tracking, as well as indigenous people from the region, all supported by by helicopters.
Before finding the recent traces, the last thing that the Army and the Aerocivil had found was "a shelter built improvised with sticks and branches", where they found some "scissors and some 'bows' that women usually use to hold hair", and even pieces of fruit that supposedly could have been eaten by children.
Before, in another place, a dog that is part of the search found a bottle, which is presumed to have been used to feed the baby. The plane was found upside down, indicating that the crew may have attempted to land on gigantic trees with huge roots in an emergency.
As for the three fatalities, the Colombian authorities announced that they had recovered their bodies on Thursday. The remains recovered are those of the pilot Hernando Murcia Morales, those of Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, mother of the disappeared children; and Herman Mendoza Hernández, a Uitoto leader who worked in the National Organization of the Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (OPIAC).
The bodies, detailed the Civil Aeronautics, were "transferred to the municipality of San José del Guaviare (departmental capital of Guaviare) and delivered to Legal Medicine to carry out the corresponding judicial procedures."
OPIAC mourned the death of Mendoza, whom it said was a person committed to "life, culture, joy, affection" and the "brotherhood of indigenous peoples, with respect in the midst of differences."
