President Gustavo Petro announced Friday that four indigenous children who had been missing for more than a month in the Colombian Amazon forest following a tiny plane crash were found alive.
“Today we have had a magical day,” Petro told the media in the capital Bogota after announcing their rescue.
“They are weak. Let’s let the doctors make their assessment,” he added.
The president had earlier tweeted a photo of several adults, some of whom were dressed in military fatigues, ministering to the youngsters as they sat on tarps in the bush. One of the rescuers placed a bottle in the mouth of the smallest child, whom he was holding in his arms.
“A joy for the whole country! The 4 children who were lost 40 days ago in the Colombian jungle were found alive,” he wrote on Twitter.
The youngsters were seen being hauled up into a chopper as it hovered over the towering trees in near full darkness, according to a video released by the Defence Ministry late Friday.
The children, originally from the Huitoto Indigenous community, had been wandering alone in the bush since May 1, when the Cessna 206 in which they were traveling crashed.
Only minutes after taking off from Araracuara in the jungle on the 350-kilometer (217-mile) trek to San Jose del Guaviare, the pilot reported engine troubles.
The bodies of the pilot, the mother of the children, and a local Indigenous leader were discovered at the accident scene, where the plane was nearly vertical in the trees.
Officials later revealed that the group was fleeing threats made by members of an armed gang.
Since then, a large search for the children has been undertaken, involving 160 soldiers and 70 Indigenous people with extensive knowledge of the jungle, gaining international attention.
Although the area is home to jaguars, snakes, and other predators, as well as armed drug smuggling groups, continuous evidence – footprints, a nappy, and half-eaten fruit – led officials to feel they were on the correct track.
Concerned that the children would continue to roam and become increasingly difficult to track down, the air force dropped 10,000 flyers into the jungle with instructions in Spanish and the children’s indigenous language instructing them to remain there.
The flyers also contained survival recommendations, and the military delivered food and bottled water.
Rescuers also broadcasted a message recorded by the children’s grandma asking them not to move.
Rescuers discovered the children approximately five kilometers (three miles) west of the crash scene, according to the military.
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The Huitoto children are taught to hunt, fish, and gather, and their grandfather, Fidencio Valencia, told AFP that the children are well acquainted with the jungle.
As children were found alive in the forest, the news of the rescue came as Petro returned home from Cuba, where he signed a six-month truce with Colombia’s last active guerrilla group, the ELN.
“Getting closer and attaining peace in the agreement that is moving forward with the ELN… And now I return and the first news is that indeed the Indigenous communities that were in the search and the military forces found the children 40 days later,” he told reporters in Bogota.
“They were alone, they made it on their own. An example of absolute survival that will go down in history,” he said.
Seventeen days after the children went missing, Petro announced that they had been found alive, but he retracted the statement a day later, saying he had been given false information.
On Friday, he praised “the effective coordination between the military and the Indigenous people” during the search, saying it was an “example of an alliance for the country to follow.”
Valencia told AFP that the children had been found by a native of Araracuara who had been participating in the search.
“I need a flight or a helicopter to go and get them urgently,” the grandfather said.
Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez paid tribute to the various army units’ “unshakeable and tireless” work, as well as to the Indigenous people who took part in the search.
Army rescuers “immediately took charge of and stabilized” the four siblings, who were to be transferred to San Jose del Guaviare, according to the minister.
“Tomorrow, depending on their medical assessment and condition, we hope they will be transferred to Bogota, to the military hospital,” Velasquez said.
