4 children lost in jungle for 40 days after plane crash found alive in Colombia

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Friday that authorities found alive four children who survived a small plane crash 40 days ago and had been the subject of an intense search in the Amazon jungle that held Colombians on edge.

The children were alone when searchers found them and are now receiving medical attention, Petro told reporters upon his return to Bogota from Cuba, where he signed a cease-fire agreement with representatives of the National Liberation Army rebel group.

Colombia’s Armed Force Press Office via Associated Press

Soldiers and Indigenous men tend to the four Indigenous brothers who were missing after a deadly plane crash in the Solano jungle, Caqueta state, Colombia, on Friday, June 9, 2023.

The president said the youngsters are an “example of survival” and predicted their saga “will remain in history.”

“A joy for the whole country! The four children who were lost 40 days ago in the Colombian jungle were found alive,” Petro tweeted Friday.

The children are the only survivors of a May 1 plane crash that killed pilot Hernando Murcia Morales, Yarupari indigenous leader Herman Mendoza Hernández, and their mother, Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, CNN reported.

Their subsequent disappearance into the deep forest had galvanized a massive military-led search operation involving over a hundred Colombian special forces troops and over 70 indigenous scouts combing the area.

For weeks, the search turned up only tantalizing clues, including footprints, a dirty diaper and a bottle. Family members said the oldest child had some experience in the forest, but hopes waned the longer that the children remained missing.

Early hopes arose in mid-May when Petro mistakenly tweeted that the children had been found. He was later forced to backtrack.

The children are members of the Huitoto people, and officials said the oldest children in the group had some knowledge of how to survive in the rainforest.

On Friday, after confirming the children had been rescued, the president said that for a while he had believed the children were rescued by one of the nomadic tribes that still roam the remote swath of the jungle where the plane fell and have little contact with authorities.

But Petro added that the children were first found by one of the rescue dogs that soldiers took into the jungle.

“The jungle saved them” Petro said. “They are children of the jungle, and now they are also children of Colombia.”