From the jungles of Guaviare there is still a hero to return. This is Wilson, the tireless Belgian Malinois shepherd who, with his perseverance and skills, was the protagonist of the incredible story of the four children found in the jungle.
Wilson was the dog that found the crashed plane and, just two days later, with a bottle from Cristin, the youngest of the Mucutuy sisters, thus restoring hope to the rescue teams of finding the survivors.
Now, the Colombian authorities, in gratitude, confirmed that they will continue looking for Wilson, who is still missing in the thick of the jungle.
"The search is not over. Our premise: No one is left behind. The soldiers continue the operation to find Wilson," the Army said today on its Twitter account.
The protagonists of the miracle of surviving in the jungle for 40 days are the girl Lesly Mukutuy, 13, and her brothers Soleiny Mukutuy, 9; She has 4-year-old Noriel Ronoque Mukutuy and a one-year-old baby, Cristin Neruman Ranoque.
The four were traveling in a Cessna 206 plane operated by the Avianline Charter's company that crashed on May 1, an event in which their mother, the pilot and another adult died, whose bodies were found two weeks later.
The minors were found in a remote point between the departments of Caquetá and Guaviare where they were searched tirelessly for weeks by some 200 soldiers, including commandos of the Army's Special Forces, and indigenous people from the area, all integrated into "Operation Hope ".
With an emotional message issued through its Twitter account, the Military Engineers Brigade announced that the search operations for Wilson, the hero dog, do not end.
When the news of the discovery of the minors was released, social networks erupted in jubilation and many people highlighted the work of Wilson, a Belgian Malinois shepherd who, however, was lost and has not been found so far.
"Our premise as commandos: a fallen comrade is never abandoned in the field of combat. Operation Esperanza advances in the search for our canine Wilson, who, tracking and in his eagerness to find the children, distances himself from the troops and loses," said the commander of the Military Forces, General Hélder Giraldo.
The dog got lost in the Amazon jungle in the south of the country while tracking the four children. Wilson was key in the search operations, as he found Cristin's bottle in the middle of the vegetation, the youngest who turned one year old during the amazing journey through a habitat where jaguars, pumas, snakes and other predators roam.
Astrid Cáceres, director of the state entity that watches over children's rights, reported that the minors indicated that they had met a dog in the jungle, without specifying if it was Wilson.
Lesly, 13 years old and the eldest of the siblings, "told us about the puppy," the official told the press.
He added that the children speak "of the puppy that was lost, that they do not know where it was and that it accompanied them for a while."
The Army registered the disappearance of the animal on Thursday and advanced a hypothesis: "Due to the complexity of the terrain, the humidity and the adverse weather conditions, it would have become disoriented," the institution said in a bulletin.
The military also claimed to have "found footprints that belonged to the minors and very close to those that could have belonged to the dog."
The name "Wilson" is trending on Twitter in Colombia, where people highlight the dog's work and ask to keep looking for him.
"Wilson is missing. Minister (of Defense) Iván Velásquez (...) What this great friend achieved in Operation Hope, the love that animals give us and the importance they have in themselves, demand that we not abandon it. For Please look it up, let us know," Senator Andrea Padilla, of the Alianza Verde party, said on Twitter.
Carlos Villegas, a member of the Civil Defense who worked in the search for the children, assured Blu Radio that Wilson was essential in finding the minors.
According to Villegas, Wilson was the one who "gave them clues" about the whereabouts of the minors.
"He looked at us and wanted to tell us something, but he went out and went back into the jungle," he said of the tracking dog, which the Colombians hope will also be found alive soon.
