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The commander in charge of the search for the children in the jungle of Colombia: "We were a hundred meters from them"

2023-05-29T21:11:13.951Z

Highlights: Authorities insist they are close to the four brothers lost in Colombia's jungle, even though they have been missing for 28 days. The military has assured that they have found recent traces of the minors thanks to their commandos and the indigenous communities. The visibility problems are due to how dense the Amazon rainforest is, where it is always night and rains 16 hours a day. The children were flying with their mother, with an indigenous leader who accompanied them and the pilot, who was the one who warned the control tower that the only engine that has that model of plane, the Cessna 206, had failed.


The authorities are convinced that the four brothers are alive because if they were dead they would have already found them.


Authorities insist they are close to the four brothers lost in Colombia's jungle, even though they have been missing for 28 days. The commander of special operations in charge of the search, Pedro Sánchez, has been very optimistic on Monday: "We believe that we have passed about 200 or 300 meters from them. We have found evidence and we have corroborated with the GPS, as when we found the two diapers, one used, that we passed about 100 meters from them. But it is that there at 20 meters you can no longer see anything, "said Sanchez. The visibility problems are due to how dense the Amazon rainforest is, where it is always night and rains 16 hours a day.

The military has assured that they have found recent traces of the minors thanks to their commandos and the indigenous communities that participate in the search. The indigenous people have a deep knowledge of the jungle and can walk for hours where outsiders are lost. The children – aged 1, 4, 9 and 14 – are children and are experienced in getting into it, which makes the authorities enthusiastic about the possibilities of finding them.

Sánchez explained on Colombia Hoy Radio that they feel very close. The highest probability, according to him, is that the minors went to the San Jorge River, a totally virgin area where there are no communities. There they were able to head north towards the Apaporis, the same river on which the plane in which they were traveling fell. "This is how the search is reduced," the uniformed man insisted. The children were flying with their mother, with an indigenous leader who accompanied them and the pilot, who was the one who warned the control tower that the only engine that has that model of plane, the Cessna 206, had failed.

The area in which they are looking for them is as extensive as going from there to Quito, Ecuador, and back. An extensive jungle with the presence of snakes and predatory animals. The trackers have covered 1,250 kilometers of terrain. The military has used helicopters to fly over places where children are believed to be and have dropped flyers with messages and survival kits. They also have built-in speakers that broadcast the voice of the grandmother in her native language. They search for them even by satellite and with aircraft that detect heat and take pictures 30 centimeters above the ground.

"They are alive; If they were dead it would have been easier to find them because they would be static and the canines of the search would have detected them by smells," the commander said. He ruled out that the children are in the hands of FARC dissidents, who have a presence in the area. Another theory is that they have been found by uncontacted tribes hidden deep in the jungle. A law prevents access to their territories and initiating contact.

2.8 kilometers from where the plane fell, an abandoned camp of the dissidents of Iván Mordisco was found, a FARC guerrilla who did not accept the 2016 peace process, but with whom the Petro Government hopes to open a negotiation process soon. Sanchez said they don't believe the brothers are accompanied by anyone, as the footprints they've found are small. They are sure that the traces are of the oldest, the 13, who walks barefoot.

At this moment about 30 kilometers are tracked. "It's not like looking for a needle in a haystack; It's looking for a tiny flea on a huge mat. It is a supremely inhospitable place, but we keep the faith intact; We embrace the impossible and face adversity," the commander explained very graphically.

Gustavo Petro has given absolute priority to finding the children. The president went so far as to tweet that they had been found, but it was a false alarm. Colombia continues with its heart in a fist the search, which is about to turn a month. Every day that passes reduces the possibility of finding them alive, but the reality is opposed by the optimism of the authorities.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-05-29

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