2023-06-13 12:23:57
More and more details are being learned, with the passing of the hours, about Operation Hope, which allowed the rescue of four indigenous children, last Friday, June 9, who wandered through the jungle for 40 days exposed to the dangers of nature and illegal groups that have a presence in Caquetá and Guaviare.
One of those stories that highlights the courage and audacity of minors to have survived in that territory is the one told by Edwin Manchola, one of the members belonging to the Jirijiri indigenous reservation. In her story, Manchola highlights the resourcefulness of Lesly, the eldest of the Mucutuy siblings, to protect and care for her three younger siblings in the midst of this adversity.
”She (Lesly), with her teeth, cut and bit into some banana palms to make the shelter where they camped for approximately four or five days,” Manchola recounted, calmly and at the same time proudly for Noticias Caracol. And he specified: “There we found some disposable diapers, we found a child’s suit”.
Manchola, after evoking what he had heard about Lesly’s heroic acts towards his brothers, continued to recount: ”The big girl was the one who went out to look for pepas or another kind of fruit to give to her little brothers’‘.
For his part, The head of the Murui Indigenous Guard of Putumayo, Miguel Romayo Capojui, also praised Lesly’s resourcefulness and expressed: “As an indigenous person, one is also surprised.”. She added: “Being a thirteen-year-old girl to respond, especially for a girl, the youngest, who doesn’t eat food, just pure breast milk, that’s something amazing, something miraculous.”
Romayo similarly declared: “A girl, responding in the middle of the jungle where there is no food, only God knows how the process she went through for food was.”
Finally, Romayo referred to Lesly’s ability to manage to feed and keep her brothers safe every night. He explained that, commonly, the indigenous people know the territory where they live, in addition to knowing what to eat and what not, which animals are part of the environment and which are the safe routes for humans. However, he acknowledges: “In a virgin jungle, where you don’t know, especially children who are innocent, (to) that girl have the courage to respond, and know each point where there is fruit.”. He highlighted: “It was hard for us, too, as a Guard because we didn’t know the territory.”
Lesly, the youngest under 13 years old, has earned the admiration of her community, the indigenous people, and Colombian society for her courage in putting the well-being of her siblings first..
The minors continue to recover from their malnutrition and injuries from the accident at the Central Military Hospital in the city of Bogotá.
A flashlight, a music box and an awning: what helped them survive for 40 days
According to Henry Guerrero, one of the indigenous people who participated in the search operation and who arrived at the point where the minors were when they were rescued, they also located a briefcase where the children carried a flashlight, an awning, some towels, a music box, and a soda bottle that was used to store water from the streams through which they passed.
“The eldest was the one who directed everything, she is very intelligent,” said Guerrero, who came to the Military Hospital to find out the state of health of the children whom he had helped search in the middle of the dense jungle.
He said that he and another important group of indigenous people were interned in the jungle for more than 40 days looking for the minors and following every clue he gave them. She even said that the girl told them when she was found that the dog ‘Wilson’ he had been with them playing.
“When we found them, the child was the weakest, they told us that they had been there for four days, at that same point waiting to be rescued, They were very malnourished, but we appreciate that they never lost consciousness,” said Guerrero.
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