Colombian President Gustavo Petro delivered surprising news on Wednesday: four children were found alive in the middle of the Amazon jungle after two weeks of search efforts.
The children were traveling in a small plane that had crashed on May 1st in the Guaviare department in the southern part of the country.
The other three passengers on the plane died at the crash site, but the whereabouts of the children could not be determined by the rescuers who arrived there.
For the search of the children, the national government ordered the deployment of over 100 uniformed personnel.
On Wednesday, the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF), responsible for issues involving minors in the country, informed President Petro that the search had been successful.
The children have been identified as siblings Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, 13 years old, and Soleiny Jacobombaire Mucutuy, 9 years old; Tien Noriel Ronoque Mucutuy, 4 years old, and Cristin Neriman Ranoque Mucutuy, 11 months old.
However, doubts have been raised about whether the children have actually been found. In fact, the president himself deleted the tweet where he had announced the news on Tuesday.
Several local media outlets have also indicated that the information received by Petro was incorrect.
The army found traces of the children near the crash site.
The plane crashed while covering the Araracuara – San José del Guaviare route with seven people on board, including the pilot. Among the fatalities was Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, the mother of the children, who died at the time of the accident.
However, following the president’s statement, the National Army confirmed to local media that they had not been able to establish contact with the children to assess their current health status.
Radio station Caracol reported on Wednesday that the special forces of the Armed Forces did not have the children in their custody and that the closest lead they had was through the trail of a search and rescue dog assigned to the operation.
Meanwhile, relatives of the children stated that they only knew what had been reported by the president and the media.
“We don’t know much, they tell us that the children were found by a peasant and a local resident,” Fátima, the grandmother of the four children and mother of one of the deceased victims, told El Tiempo newspaper.
The company that owns the crashed aircraft also stated that they have not been able to confirm the news of the discovery.
According to a statement released on Wednesday, one of the pilots involved in the search had received information that the children might be alive, but they had not been able to gather more data.
Around 100 uniformed personnel are currently in the area carrying out rescue operations.
On May 1st, the disappearance of the airplane was reported, which initiated an intense rescue operation that led to the discovery of the crashed aircraft and the bodies of three adults on Monday.
Subsequently, the disappearance of the children was reported, and a search began that intensified after the rescuers came across an “improvised shelter made of sticks and branches,” leading them to believe there were survivors.
Images released by the Colombian military showed scissors and a hair tie among the dense vegetation of the jungle.
A baby bottle and a partially eaten fruit were also found in an area away from where the plane had crashed.
A baby bottle was found near a makeshift shelter that the children may have built.
“We assume that the children who were inside the aircraft are alive. We have found some traces in a different and distant position from where the aircraft was located (…) We have also found
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