The Colombian army has publicly acknowledged for the first time that it is "unlikely" that they will be able to find Wilson, the dog that helped in the search and rescue efforts of Cristin Neryman, Lesly, Soleiny and Tien Noriel, the four children who were lost for 40 days in the Guaviare Amazon jungle.
As the minors explained then, the dog was accompanying them before they were found by the rescue teams. The army has been looking for the animal since the moment the children were found, on June 9, but so far they have not found any trace of it.
The person in charge of communicating the news has been General Pedro Sánchez, who was the leader of the search for the children and is commander of the Special Forces: "We have done absolutely everything in our power, we have spared no effort to find him, but we are aware that it is practically improbable that we will be able to find him", he pointed out in a tribute to the participants of Operation Hope held in Bogotá.
In this ceremony, in which personalities such as the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro or the Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, participated, General Sánchez appreciated the importance of the animal for the army: "Wilson will be remembered in our hearts and in the soul of this Colombian people as we will do with the other canines and with our soldiers and police officers who have offered their lives."
Wilson, a six-year-old Belgian shepherd, was recruited to help in the search for the four children dubbed Operation Hope that kept the world on edge for a month. On June 8, one day before the success of the mission was known, the army reported the disappearance of the animal.
From that moment, the efforts that up to that moment had been invested in finding the children were focused on the search for Wilson. “A fallen comrade is never abandoned on the battlefield. Operation Esperanza is advancing in search of our canine Wilson, who, tracking and in his eagerness to find the children, distances himself from the troops and gets lost," said General Hélder Giraldo, commander of the Military Forces, at the time.
Despite the fact that more than 70 members have participated in the search for the animal agent, the mission has failed. Among the techniques that were applied to try to find the dog, the recruitment of two females in heat to try to attract it stood out. However, the Colombian army has chosen to surrender and, thus, Wilson's story does not seem to have a happy ending.
