Missing children in Colombia: leaflets and survival kits dropped in the jungle

2023-05-23 13:26:35

All means are good to find the four children who disappeared in the Colombian jungle, safe and sound, after the crash of their plane which occurred 22 days ago. A hundred survival kits and 10,000 leaflets were dropped and disseminated this weekend from helicopters through the dense forest of the Amazon, around San José del Guaviare, in the department of Caquetà in the south of the country.

In detail, the leaflets have been written in Spanish and indigenous languages ​​and indicate how to contact the emergency services, while the survival kits contain food and water.

A search area of ​​approximately 323 square kilometers

More than 160 soldiers are engaged in the search to try to find the children aged thirteen, nine, four and an eleven month old baby. Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced on Twitter last Wednesday the rescue of these four children before retracting the next day, indicating that the search was continuing.

Military forces believe they could roam an area of ​​about 323 square kilometers, or 80% of the area of ​​Bogota, a city of eight million people. The search carried out on land revealed a footprint, belongings including a bottle, as well as a makeshift shelter and some nibbled fruit.

The Cessna 206 in which they were traveling had disappeared from radar on May 1 in the vicinity of San José del Guaviare, in the department of Caquetà (south). He was found on May 15 with his nose crushed to the ground. Three bodies were recovered by the emergency services, those of the children’s mother, the pilot and a leader of the Uitoto indigenous community, to which the passengers belonged. They were the only adults on board the small plane.

Other means are implemented to find missing children.

The military forces rely in particular on satellite images to determine the path that the children could have taken in the jungle. A group of aborigines drawn from seven indigenous peoples from all over the country, accustomed to the jungle, are also taking part in the research. They “carry out spiritual processes of talking to the jungle and asking it to talk” and helping them locate the children, the Colombian military said.