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[eerie music playing]

[birds chirping]

[narrator] This is the true story of four lost children

in the Colombian Amazon.

A mystical but dangerous world where few humans venture.

-[whimpering] -[snorts]

Where animals govern.

And where it is believed that powerful spirits of the jungle exist.

They're powerful, they can even kill you.

[Captain Juan Pablo Cárdenas] When something falls in the jungle...

-[Hernando Murcia] Mayday! Mayday! -...the jungle swallows you up.

A fall like that...

don't you think that would kill you?

[William Cotua] Not a single piece of jungle

should be left uncovered by our men.

[barking]

We haven't found anything at all.

God willing, they're alive.

The jungle can't have swallowed them.

[narrator] This is the story of an incredible spiritual fight.

They are Gods. Gods, but from this land.

And Mother Earth wanted to pick them for herself.

[narrator] Of suffering.

He put his life in danger to save the children.

Well, the animals had scattered them. They were all bone already.

[narrator] And the story of heroes who refuse to lose hope.

When we work together as one united Public Force,

we can achieve anything.

I get this feeling that they are not dead.

[narrator] A story that captivated the world.

And the children?

[shushes]

They aren't there.

OPERATION HOPE: THE CHILDREN LOST IN THE AMAZON

[narrator] This film follows the real story of the people...

NARRATED BY GOYO

...that lived these extraordinary events.

Lesly's story is based on her real experiences

told to her family and other people.

The children and their mother are portrayed by actors.

CHUQUIQUE THE AMAZON, COLOMBIA

This story begins in a remote part of the Colombian Amazon

near the Caquetá river.

Home of a 13-year-old girl named Lesly.

[Lesly] My siblings and I grew up in the jungle.

I love the birds and learned their different songs.

[laughter echoing]

We were always outside playing together.

But because I'm the oldest, I had to make sure

the little ones didn't get into trouble.

Lesly was very quiet. And if you talk to her, she talked to you.

YERITZA MUCUTUY AUNT OF THE CHILDREN

And if you didn't talk to her, then she wouldn't talk to you either.

[Dairo Mucutuy] A very quiet girl, but intelligent.

She's also always been very dedicated to her tasks.

DAIRO MUCUTUY UNCLE OF THE CHILDREN

She always asked things that...

that she didn't understand.

That also characterized her as a very, very wise girl.

Her mom would tell her that at any time, on any day, something could happen, right?

So she taught her how to do her tasks.

She taught her from a young age,

how to take care of her siblings when they were little.

FÁTIMA VALENCIA GRANDMOTHER OF THE CHILDREN

While her mom worked, she gave the baby the bottle.

She fed her, Soleiny did.

[Dairo] Soleiny.

'SOLEINY' 9 YEARS OLD

She was very attentive, playful.

Those close to her called her Goldi.

'TIEN NORIEL' 4 years old

The boy Tien is a bit too stubborn.

[Dairo] Very intelligent. Very curious.

[laughter echoing]

[Yeritza] The baby, she was well behaved.

'CRISTÍN' 11 MONTHS

[Dairo] She was a girl who didn't cry much.

She was all laughter.

And she had the same laugh as my sister.

[Fatima] I had 10 children.

Magdalena, well, she loved me a lot.

I mean, out of all my children, she...

She would worry about me.

[all laughing and chattering indistinctly]

Anything people gave her she shared with me.

"Mom, take your share, Mom." That's how she grew up.

She didn't like to comb her hair.

And she didn't like it. No perfume.

That's why her other brothers and sisters told her that she was Cinderella.

[chuckles]

[narrator] But Magdalena is not happy with her life in the Amazon.

She wants to take her young family to live with her husband in Bogotá.

An idea that her mother Fatima does not approve of.

[ominous music playing]

[Lesly] Mom told us that we're leaving the jungle to live in Bogota.

But it's a secret.

And before I could realise it, we all got on the plane.

DAY 1

[Fatima] My phone rang, "Your daughter's travelling."

"What do you mean? Magdalena?"

"Yes," they said. "There's the plane, there."

I said, "But how?"

[Lesly] It's our first time flying, and we're nervous.

We're leaving our grandma and our old life behind.

I had never seen the jungle from so high.

It looks immense. It reaches as far as my eyes can see.

Suddenly I can feel something is not right.

[Murcia] Flight twenty-eight zero three to San José air traffic control.

Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

My motor failed.

I'm going to look for the river.

I have a river to my right.

[tower dispatcher] Message received. Please, update your position.

[Murcia] I'm one 103 miles from San José.

I'm going to try to land.

-[plane whirring] -[intense music playing]

[beeping]

[narrator] Back in Chuquiqué,

more than 150 kilometres away,

Fátima still doesn't know anything about her family's tragedy.

[Fatima] At eight, my mobile rang again.

"Dear Aunt,

"the plane on which Magdalena and her children left, it fell.

"It disappeared."

"It fell from a huge height, do you think those poor children..."

I said, "I thought of the children..."

It broke my heart.

[plane passing by]

[tower dispatcher] Point five one three circling over.

[narrator] The Colombian Civil Aviation Authority and Air Force

quickly deploy aeroplanes to the search area

to look for signs of the lost plane.

Captain Juan Pablo Cárdenas

joins the search due to his friendship with the pilot.

[Juan Pablo Cárdenas] I think that the captain

first tried to fall in the river,

but he couldn't, he didn't have time to reach it.

CAPTAIN JUAN PABLO CÁRDENAS

Captain Hernando Murcia, well, the best of pilots.

As a person, very cheerful.

Let's say that we believed, perhaps, it was a fuel contamination.

And he notified that the plane turned off, that he was descending.

This fall affected all of us

because I did those flights two days before.

It could have been me.

One of the risks is that we fly single engines.

If it fails, we have nothing else to turn to.

I imagine that he may have had a few seconds of anxiety

and then devoted himself to fix the situation.

And the first thing he said was,

"I'm going to put it above the thickest place there is,

"the bushiest place there is, and try to save it."

When something falls in the jungle, well, it opens up and then,

once it descends, it closes.

There's no way to find you.

DAY 2, 3, 4

[narrator] After searching for four days,

there are still no signs of the plane.

So one of Colombia's most respected soldiers

is called to action.

[Sánchez] On May 4th, I got a call from my commanding officer

and he said, "Pedro, join the search for the plane."

COMMANDER OF THE JOINT SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND

BRIGADIER GENERAL PEDRO ARNULFO SÁNCHEZ

The Joint Special Operations Command is a unit

that gathers all military forces.

The most dangerous missions, but also the most sensitive.

Attention!

We immediately called an emergency meeting.

Not a single piece of jungle should be left uncovered by our men.

The key to this operation is perseverance and purpose.

[narrator] The plane that transported seven people,

the pilot, a passenger, Magdalena and the children,

was headed to San José del Guaviare, 300 kilometres north,

but with a wide margin of error in its last known position.

The search area is a huge 320 square kilometres

of dense virgin jungle.

Very quickly, I realized, we had to start the search by land.

Years ago, we had carried out operations in this area.

Many of them were to combat narcoterrorist groups.

To be there in the middle of the jungle,

in the middle of threats not only from criminal groups,

but also from the hostility in our Amazon jungle paradise,

we're going to be in a place where there is a supremely high threat.

But we don't sign a contract.

We take an oath to protect the Colombian people.

And that's what we're going to do.

[narrator] The general selects 26 people

from his elite Special Force commands

for the search and rescue mission.

The troops are divided into small units to search

using a grid system.

The GPS markers are sent to the base to check their progress.

PARALLELS TECHNIQUE BY TEAM

The plane has been missing for four days.

For any possible survivors,

every second counts.

Really, from the moment we go in, it becomes more tactical,

so we don't talk.

SEARGEANT JUAN CARLOS ROJAS SISA COLOMBIAN MILITARY FORCES

The majority of things is through signals

and if we talk, we do it in whispers.

[Sisa] Once we were on the terrain, we realised that it wasn't that easy.

It's jungle, virgin jungle, right?

In this terrain, you went five meters and you couldn't see

who was in front anymore or couldn't see your colleague anymore.

[Flórez Ortiz Robinson] Obviously, you see many types of animals.

Jaguars. We found boas, huge, enormous ones. Around three, four meters.

PROFESSIONAL SOLDIER FLÓREZ ORTIZ ROBINSON COLOMBIAN MILITARY FORCES

As soon as we disembarked from Licorio and Pánfilo,

the expectation is to find the children.

Hopefully they're alive, hopefully they're okay,

that we can get them out. That's what we have in our mind.

After inserting the troops,

what I felt is that, with this new technology,

we were going to find them quickly.

Two, three days.

DAY 6, 7, 8

DAY 9, 10, 11, 12

We covered 90 percent of the most probable area

where we could find the crashed plane.

We didn't find anything at all.

I said, "My God, the jungle can't have swallowed them."

[narrator] Twelve days have passed since the accident,

and the probability of finding survivors is quickly decreasing.

UBAQUE LAKE CUNDINAMARCA

But the military has rejected the offers of help from indigenous groups

fearing that they would not be safe from armed narcocriminals

that they believe are in the area.

[Luis Acosta] Technology is very important,

but the army with GPS, planes, everything, couldn't find them.

There's occidental technology,

but there's spiritual technology.

A harmonious greeting.

I am Luis Acosta.

I am the national coordinator of the Indigenous Guard.

[narrator] The Colombian Indigenous Guard protects its ancestral lands.

They believe that the jungle is occupied

by powerful spiritual forces that must be treated with respect.

We have languages that connect us with the jungle,

spiritual languages.

The caiman, the snake, the tiger, the anaconda,

all animals are spiritual beings,

they have spirits that guide us,

direct us and give us harmony.

The military didn't want us to go into the jungle.

But the Indigenous Guard are the perfect people

to help find the plane.

It was a very frustrating moment for us.

[narrator] With the search for her daughter and grandchildren

yet to reveal any signs,

all Fatima can do is wait for news.

[Fatima] What could we do?

Oh, I stopped sleeping.

I would cry. I stopped...

I mean, I was very distressed.

My brother called me.

My name is Fidencio Valencia,

and I am a Uitoto indigenous man from the Amazon.

Grand-uncle of the children that are lost in the Guaviare jungle.

They are family, it's blood.

But also I am a traditional doctor because I am connected.

The jungle has its spirit.

They are Gods.

Gods, but from this land.

I tell you, a fall like that, don't you think that would kill you?

Magdalena and yes... don't exist.

At that moment, my sister started crying,

I went to my sister's to comfort her.

I was telling her that, "Well, I'm not giving up."

But the children have to be found by any means necessary.

I said, "I'm going to die."

DAY 15

On May 15, I had finished a presentation

at a legal panel in Tunja, Boyacá,

and saw on my phone a report that they had found a milk bottle.

I immediately communicated and said, "Spectacular."

How is it possible that we found a milk bottle,

something so small, and not the plane?

But it was the... The sign that we were in the area.

[narrator] Despite the military's refusal of help from the Indigenous Guard,

several men from Fatima's community have already arrived at the jungle,

determined to find the plane and its passengers.

And the general now makes a bold decision to ask for their help.

The troop said, "Look, we found this milk bottle.

"Go and look in that area."

The indigenous men left and hours later,

three or four hours later, they came back and said,

"We found the plane."

And 15 days later, the three adults...

no longer exist.

Well, the animals had scattered them.

They were all bone already.

I said, "My daughter doesn't exist anymore."

All the clothes, all scattered around.

The perfumes, the shampoos, all scattered around.

And the children?

They aren't there.

[Sánchez] What happened to the children?

Where are the children?

Where is a 13-year-old girl, the other nine-year-old girl,

the other four-year-old boy and the youngest, a baby, 11 months old?

"Oh," I said, "right, so the kids are alive."

I said, "They're going to find them soon."

Well, I was thinking all that. "They're going to find them.

"Keep calm, Mrs. Fátima, we will call you. Stay calm, don't worry."

And I was waiting for my phone to ring.

[Yeritza] The children were alive. Well, they were like...

It was a moment of sadness.

Sadness because I said,

"So my nieces and nephews will be found?

"How will they survive in the jungle?"

[intense music playing]

[Lesly] The accident was terrifying.

I hit my head and passed out.

And when I wake up in the jungle, and I can't see the sky,

I'm very confused, I don't understand what happened.

I manage to open the door

and take Soleiny and Tien out of the plane.

They're scared, but don't look seriously hurt.

Cristín is still in my mother's arms, so I carefully lift her out.

[baby crying]

[Lesly] I can see that my mom is dead,

as well as the pilot and the other passenger.

I'm really sad, and terrified,

but I try to hide it from the little ones.

[baby crying]

I know that I need to be their mom from now on.

[insects trilling]

[Lesly] At night, the jungle comes alive.

We can't see anything at all,

but can hear thousands of insects and animals moving around.

We are scared.

I had never been in this part of the jungle before.

I realised that we're completely lost.

I find food in a suitcase,

and I make sure that the little ones eat.

Tien keeps asking me when Mom will wake up.

He doesn't understand that she's gone forever.

I don't want to stay near where Mom died.

So I take some food, flour, nappies and clothes, and we leave.

I want to find the way out of the jungle,

so I decided to go west, using the sun as my guide.

Three civilians were found dead. So, no, it was terribly demoralizing.

But where are the kids?

We can find them and get them out.

It was a small door at the back of the plane

and that's where they went out.

So looking in circles, around the plane, we found another sign, a nappy.

Now they've found the signs, well, what with the nappies and all that,

that the girls had changed, well, we're super happy.

Then we started to find other signs.

The main problem was knowing in which direction the children had gone,

[narrator] The children have been wandering the jungle for 11 days,

could they still be alive?

Such small children...

Chance of survival is very, very, very, low.

We immediately moved more troops, and there we inserted more units.

And I said, "Tonight no one sleeps.

"We're gonna find those four children.

"We're very close. They can't sleep."

[Sisa] Knowing there was survivors, we have to change our approach.

Drop the stealth.

We need to make noise so the children can hear us

and know we're looking for them.

[rescuer 1] Lesly!

[rescuer 2] Lesly!

"Lesly, Lesly, Lesly, Lesly!"

Wherever we were going, we shouted a lot

because we knew it was the girl who was leading the group of children.

[rescuer 3] Lesly!

[barks]

[narrator] They've brought in search and rescue dogs to the area,

including one named Wilson.

More clues have been found,

and there is a lot of hope that the children are still alive.

[Sánchez] And we found a shelter with some scissors and a bow.

We found some footprints and then other footprints.

And the footprints were from... From a child.

And we concluded, you know what?

Let's put up 11 kilometres of black and yellow construction tape,

and we hang whistles on them so that the children,

estimating Lesly's height, can see them or bump into those tapes.

And they can make a noise with those whistles.

Colombia's throwing every resource at its disposal

as the frantic search to locate four missing indigenous children

in the Amazon rainforest carries on around the clock.

We found a small plane on the 15th, it was already the 18th.

We had found many pieces of evidence, but the children still hadn't turned up.

Then came the decision to bring in more indigenous people to the area.

All that magic or knowledge that surrounds indigenous culture...

It's practically unusual,

it's the first time, at least from what I know,

to carry out a joint operation with indigenous people.

[narrator] It's the call that Luis Acosta

from the Indigenous Guard was desperate to hear.

I initially start calling the Indigenous Guard

from all over the country because they are not all in one place.

I call indigenous people familiar with the jungle,

making sure they were ready.

[narrator] The news that the children miraculously survived the accident

spreads throughout Colombia.

And it reaches a remote village 250 kilometres away from the search area,

in the western Amazon basin.

Through the television media...

ELIÉCER MUÑOZ INDIGENOUS GUARD

...well, news of that accident is made known.

That moved me.

My name is Eliécer Muñoz Cabrera. I was born here in the shelter in 1974.

Well, I had a not-so-good childhood.

My mother passed away at a very young age.

I was five years old. It was very tough for me.

And it's something that...

I put myself in the shoes of those children.

It's the same situation that I went through.

Three adults who have already passed away.

Now we are left with, the uncertainty of the four children.

Because I get this, this... This feeling that they are not dead.

They must be suffering without food, without a place to sleep.

MERY ELIÉCER'S WIFE

You're the ones who know the jungle.

You're the ones who know the conditions out there.

But, what would you do if I wanted to go?

I would support you if you wanted to go.

But the decision is mostly yours.

If you want to go, then go.

Bye.

Thank you, love. Thank you.

[narrator] The small plane crashed in a sacred region called Chiribiquete.

The indigenous people believe it is home to powerful spirits

that could be guiding the children.

So, the elders of Jiri Jiri perform a ceremony

asking for permission for Eliécer and his fellow guards to enter the jungle.

[Jiri Jiri elder] We perform this ritual

so that Eliécer can go to other territories

possibly inhabited by other ethnic groups,

perhaps there are other spirits there that only those who are there know.

It's asking for permission that our friend goes in peace.

It's through these sacred plants, we ask the spirits

who are the guardians of the jungle to return them to us.

These children belong to us,

they deserve to be in the warmth of a home.

[narrator] The Indigenous Guard uses extracts from sacred plants

to communicate with the spirits that control the jungle.

They are called ambil and mambe.

[Muñoz] The ambil is the tobacco plant.

it is picked and prepared, from it, from that juice what comes is the ambil.

Mambe comes from the coca plant.

White people have it for another purpose,

and we use it in a very, very appropriate way.

The mambe and the ambil are part of our essence.

They are two very sacred plants for us.

Of great importance.

DAY 22

[narrator] The Indigenous Guards from all over Colombia

board the military helicopters that take them to the jungle.

When there are two different, possibly antagonistic knowledges,

the key to uniting them is the purpose, the mission.

Here we come together to find those four children.

To bring them home.

[narrator] And the general is there to motivate his new recruits.

You compatriots,

you from our indigenous community,

we are all united by something, which is this territory called Colombia.

I also have indigenous blood. I am from the Guanes tribe.

When we work together as one united public force, we achieve anything!

And that's why we are here, to make this country great!

To make this land great! To protect our homeland!

To bring those four children home.

Do we agree?

[all] Yes, we agree.

Welcome, comrades.

Thank you.

I approached them, hugged them, and said, "Welcome."

[narrator] Over the course of 48 hours,

nearly 90 Indigenous Guards arrive by plane

to join the military search.

Now, they must unite their forces for the first time in Colombian history

to try to find the children.

[Acosta] From the moment we stepped in, we said,

"They are alive, and we're going to find them."

[narrator] For the Indigenous Guards, it is crucial to connect with the spirits

as soon as they arrive,

and in the right way.

[Acosta] Before we entered we had to ask for permission

because that sacred site belonged to the Chiribiquete.

It's one of the sites with the strongest spiritual forces

in the entire indigenous territory.

Spiritual preparation is essential.

Right now, we have to sit down and spiritually ask to be allowed

to find or to be given the children.

[Muñoz] Because we claim them, because they are children of our blood.

What we are here for is to reclaim them.

[narrator] Eliécer believes that the spirits of the jungle

are already watching the new human visitors to their territory.

[Muñoz] We have this insect.

These beings have owners, and those owners are spirits.

Perhaps it was sent to check to see what we're doing,

if it's true or not.

[narrator] The Indigenous Guards have set up camp alongside the military.

They have asked permission from the spirits to enter their territory.

And when night falls, they get their answer.

All right, and the rest go to sleep. By around 7:30 in the evening,

the camp is quiet.

FLAVIO DÍAZ YEPES INDIGENOUS GUARD

[insects trilling]

[thunder rumbling]

[Yepes] First, I saw a light, big, close.

[wind howling]

And on top of that, the screams.

[screams echoing in distance]

They were immense screams coming from a narrow mountain path.

[screams continue]

[Yepes] Those were the spirits. It wasn't any woman.

[branches rustling]

[Yepes] Then a tree, a branch fell into the middle of the camp.

That was impressive

because it was shortly after the time we arrived.

[narrator] The next morning.

everything is calm, but it has been a terrifying night.

The indigenous searchers are now convinced

that the spirits of the jungle are holding the children.

The being that has the children is the Mother.

The Madremonte, as we call her.

She is the one who has the children.

There have already been many stories in indigenous communities,

including one in my village as well.

Today, we are realizing that all these stories are real.

[narrator] The indigenous people believe that the Madremonte is a powerful spirit

that will fight to protect all the living creatures of the jungle.

The Indigenous Guards now know they have a fight on their hands

with the Madremonte,

and the search has become much more daunting.

I am somewhat afraid of the spiritual punishments...

LUIS ACOSTA - NATIONAL COORDINATOR OF THE INDIGENOUS GUARD OF THE ONIC

...because spiritual punishments are powerful.

They can even kill you.

You can also become unconscious like a zombie.

[narrator] With these fears in mind,

the Indigenous Guards join forces with the military

with the aim of finding the children.

[Muñoz] On the second day, we began our search.

So what we did was trace from the plane crash towards the east.

[narrator] All the indigenous searchers

immediately begin to deploy their special knowledge about the jungle.

[blows whistle]

[Muñoz] One signal is where we are,

two, a footprint, right?

Three, if we find the children.

That's the signal.

So, more than anything,

what we look for are tracks where they might drink water.

Because when they go down to drink, they have to break some branches.

That's what we're looking for.

They have skills, abilities that perhaps we don't have.

We usually orient ourselves with a compass, or with GPS.

They make their way based on what they see,

using a lush tree ahead as a reference.

They reach that, then take another reference point,

and so on.

So, their level of orientation in the jungle is very, very, very sharp.

We had the opportunity to spend a lot of time together,

walking and eating, sharing food with the indigenous groups.

We set aside any prejudices, and in the end,

it was as if they were also members, as if we were one company, one team.

[narrator] But at the beginning of the search,

there seemed to be more signs

that the spirits might have turned against them.

Many of them started to get sick after two days, three days,

even though they're used to these types of situations, right?

They had, honestly, a type of general discomfort,

fever, bone pain.

They got the flu,

so they spent, like, two days

where they couldn't even move from the hammock.

And they said the spirits were attacking them,

and Eliécer was losing his voice.

[Muñoz] That affected me.

A lot.

Until I ended up losing my voice.

The spirits of the jungle gave us fever.

They gave us an upset stomach.

That's what happened to us.

But we always stayed strong.

Even though I was unwell, I didn't take one step back.

[narrator] Any day lost due to illnesses could be very detrimental.

It's a race against time to find the children alive.

DAY 22, DAY 23

DAY 24

Columbia's military has deployed

more than 100 survival kits in the Amazon,

where those four children have been missing.

Officials are hoping the children will find and use the kits,

which would then help the military locate them.

[narrator] The food and milk

the children took from the plane have run out.

And finding a small survival kit in the middle of the dense jungle

will be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

So their only chance to avoid starving

is to rely on the lessons learned in their village.

[Fátima] From a young age, one has to teach them

which foods are useful in the forest.

All my grandchildren know where I go,

and they know where to walk,

and which seed is poisonous, and which seed is good in the forest.

Sometimes, in the forest, there are, like, little fruits.

Little milpesos fruits, and fruits of that palm tree you see,

but small ones.

But then I got desperate.

They left and threw away the bottle. The bottle.

Well, if she made juice or something,

and the bottle was left there, I thought,

"Does she know how to make a cup to drink from?"

Because they didn't have anything.

Nothing. Nothing to collect water with.

[narrator] After more than three weeks lost and alone in the jungle,

Lesly has to improvise different methods if she wants to keep her siblings alive.

[Lesly] We lost the baby's bottle,

so we tried using some leaves to give water to Cristín.

But it's very hard to get her to drink.

I'm very worried that she might get sick.

Sometimes, we're lucky and find fruits from the palm tree on the ground.

And sometimes we see monkeys in the trees,

and they throw fruits at us as if they were trying to help.

[monkeys chittering]

But it's not easy to eat.

And I have to chew the seeds well so they become soft for the little ones.

But it's hard to find enough food and we feel very hungry.

[narrator] Lesly's knowledge of the jungle will give them a chance to survive

if they can find enough fruits, seeds, or even worms or insects.

But such a limited diet will have a significant effect

on their frail young bodies.

[Robinson] I wondered how they were doing after such a long time.

I kept worrying about whether they had died of starvation or hunger.

It's a pretty extreme situation.

[Cristín crying]

[narrator] Lesly and her sister Soleiny have an additional physical burden.

During all these weeks, they have been walking long distances

with baby Cristín in their arms.

[Lesly] Moving through the dense jungle with the baby and with Tien Noriel,

who is still so young, is very complicated.

I keep looking for a way out,

but I never know if we're going in the right direction.

[Dairo Mucutuy] In that despair, the girl, well, would cry and cry from hunger.

Sometimes from thirst.

And then the exhaustion...

the desperation.

She didn't want to go on anymore...

'cause she felt too exhausted.

[crying]

But still, her heart was strong with a deep sense of responsibility

for her younger siblings.

[narrator] Lesly must also somehow face the devastating psychological trauma

of losing her mother in the accident.

She was very, very confused,

also with everything that was happening.

That pain.

The pain of truly losing their mother.

Coming to actually feel that impact,

it's almost like taking one's life away.

DAY 24

DAY 25

[narrator] Now, there's a combined search team

of over 200 people on the trail of the fallen object,

and the footprints left by the children.

But they encounter a new obstacle.

Mother Nature intervenes.

[thunder rumbling]

[suspenseful music playing]

[Sánchez] But it was raining extremely hard.

Sixteen hours a day it was raining.

[Yepes] Due to the rain,

we couldn't make a fire or anything all night.

[narrator] Wilson, the rescue dog,

who has been a vital part of the team from the beginning,

suddenly gets scared by the thunder and lightning.

[Sánchez] There was a very strong storm.

And there was a somewhat concerning reaction

from Wilson.

He got scared, broke his collar out of fright,

and ran off.

We had lost Wilson.

Wilson is a canine that measures 60 centimetres,

and it will be difficult to find him in the jungle.

Predators pose a danger to Wilson.

The risk level for him increases.

[narrator] They have lost a key weapon in their arsenal,

but the extreme weather has further complicated

the searchers' efforts.

The rain completely erased every footprint that was there.

It went from clues to uncertainty.

And it was one of the moments where I felt the most powerless.

So helpless.

[narrator] The family can only imagine how scared the children must be.

The relentless torrential rains are a huge threat to their young lives.

[Fátima] Well, I became desperate then.

Well, almost, like, 25 days had passed.

I mean, in that dark forest

with lots of thunder and lots of lightning and a lot of rain.

I was worried about that.

That they were just stuck there.

It was raining, lightning was flashing.

I mean, what will it be like?

How are they experiencing this in the forest?

How are they taking shelter?

Hopefully, the prayers...

Well, we kept praying.

Of course, when it was raining you'd think,

"Oh, my God, those children over there.

"At least we have a tent and everything, but they are getting wet."

[narrator] Even in the warm jungle,

temperatures can drop at night.

So, if the children are soaked,

they risk suffering from hypothermia.

Especially little Cristín.

The storms challenge Lesly to resort to survival techniques

she learned while growing up in the jungle,

skilfully weaving thick leaves to protect herself

as she did when she was little.

They used to make palm huts over there. Lesly, Goldi.

I would go there and I would give them banana and plantain leaves

and they would make their little hut.

[narrator] The rain has erased all recent footprints.

But Eliécer still hopes they aren't far from the trail of the children.

[Muñoz] Knowing that the children are lost

and not knowing how to find them is a challenge for me.

[narrator] Finding the remains of Lesly's shelter

is a good sign that they might still be alive.

Here, we found a shelter.

They cut these leaves, folded them, and ripped them with their teeth.

This was all done with teeth, right?

Because they didn't have anything to cut with.

She was smart and had patience to take care of her siblings.

So it's something very important for us to learn from childhood.

[narrator] Then, other search teams find a used survival kit...

and a fresh footprint.

More signs that the children are still alive.

DAY 27

The evidence that the children are still alive

inspires everyone to double their efforts.

[Cotua] Good morning. Take a seat.

[narrator] At the barracks, the team of General Cotua

is deploying cutting edge technology along with ground search specialists.

Our satellite systems allow us to track each specific step

taken by our commandos and special forces.

And this data is transmitted to us in real time.

There were long hours with my whole team,

analysing each piece of information.

We began to notice there were areas that were not registered.

That is, locations we had not walked on, that we had not searched.

And it was then we decided to send a team, within the special forces,

that is more specialised in tracking.

They're the most important elite force we have,

with greater capabilities and skills

in both awareness techniques and tracking techniques.

[narrator] But somehow, the children continue to elude the rescue team.

[Sánchez] We have searched everywhere.

At times, we felt as if we were on a stationary bicycle.

'Cause there was nothing.

I found absolutely nothing.

Where are the children?

DAY 27, 28, 29

DAY 30

[narrator] The combined forces have covered

thousands of kilometres on foot.

Almost to the last centimetre of the entire search area.

Therefore, it is a real mystery that the children have not turned up,

especially since now there is evidence

that the soldiers have been very close to them.

When we compared the footprints of our children with the track,

with the record by the GPS with our commandos,

we said, "My God,

"but we were 40 meters away from the children.

"Why didn't we see them?

"Are they hiding?

"Why? What is happening?"

[narrator] Nobody knows exactly why the children could have been hiding.

Is it because they are afraid

the soldiers could really be hostile criminal forces?

Is it that they are traumatised and confused?

[shushing]

[helicopter hovering]

For the Indigenous Guards and the family,

the mystery has a very different explanation.

The powerful spirit of Madremonte

is keeping the children hidden in the jungle.

[Muñoz] We were afraid that the spirit would want to keep the children.

The spirit might want the children to stay with it in the jungle

and to never return home.

Mother Earth wanted to keep them for herself.

But they had already become wildlings.

I mean, already turned into her,

already turned into Madremontes as well.

They are left, so to speak, enchanted in the jungle.

Alive, but already with her thoughts.

They remain normal, but already with Mother Earth's thoughts.

[Muñoz] An animal went down here.

[narrator] For Eliécer,

his belief that the children are controlled by spirits

seems to be confirmed when they make a discovery.

It went up here. It's the trail of a tapir.

And always, where we find the children's footprints,

we find the tapir's trail.

[narrator] The indigenous people believe

that spirits can control any creature in the jungle.

But the tapir has a strong connection with spirits...

which could be using it

to guide the children into their clutches.

We believed and assumed that it was her transporting the children.

[Dairo] The tapir is a special creature

that we know can connect with the spirits of the jungle.

A tapir has great power.

It brings destruction, evil, illnesses. It brings all of that.

DAY 30, 31, 32

DAY 33

The entire nation is still holding its breath

to see how this frantic search and rescue operation

at this moment ends up.

One of the techniques that they use to make contact with the children

is to blast out of helicopters messages,

audio messages from the grandmother of those children

in their own indigenous language.

[narrator] If it's fear

that's making the children go into hiding...

the General thinks there is something that could calm them down.

We made a recording with the voice of the children's grandmother

to broadcast it directly to them.

Because her voice was familiar to them, they would trust it more.

I said the audio both in Spanish and in our native language.

[Fátima] Lesly, child, I ask you to please remain still.

Listen to the microphone, child. Remain still there.

[Sánchez] Let's place some big searchlights, some big loudspeakers,

as if it were a big concert with the grandmother's voice,

so it attracts the children.

[Fátima] And if you're exhausted, God knows that.

And then I said to her, "Hey, Lesly..."

Lesly, I'm asking you a favour.

It's me, your grandma Fátima.

Child, I ask you to please remain still.

Listen to the microphone, child. Remain there.

That was it.

In my own words, "Remain still, standing, sitting down, whatever," I said.

[Fátima's voice echoing]

[narrator] But despite the pleas from their grandmother, Fàtima,

it seems that not even her voice

could release them from the clutches of the jungle spirits.

[Lesly] I can hear my grandmother's voice clearly.

But a spirit in my mind tells me not to answer.

[Yeritza] I think she felt that...

someone was accompanying her.

She felt as if someone was watching over her.

All of those weird creatures in the jungle...

And that evening, I dreamt Magdalena, my daughter, came to me.

First, she whispered in my ear.

She said to me, "Mum, why are you fighting for my children?

"I am going to take them. They are mine!"

And I was afraid.

So Mother Earth, in spirit, has the children.

[narrator] While he tries to track the children,

Eliécer is also trying to understand

how he can gain favour with the spirits...

and why they are keeping the children under their control.

[Muñoz] The beings that exist in the jungle...

for them, we are the bad guys...

destroying nature.

It makes the children believe we are the bad guys.

That is why, sometimes, the army passes by them

and does not see them.

So what it is,

we are trying to get them away from that being,

for it to hand them over to us.

That is what we have to face,

and that is what we plan every night with the team.

Everything is done through the prayer that our grandmothers taught us.

[narrator] While the rescue team cannot find the children,

either with technology or with spiritual wisdom...

[Wilson barking]

it seems that Wilson, despite still being lost in the jungle...

has managed to find them.

[Lesly] The dog finds us in the jungle.

We love him and we love being with him.

We don't know his name.

He stays with us for days.

It's as if he was watching over us.

But after a while, he leaves us.

We don't know where he's gone.

[narrator] And except for a brief moment,

the soldiers do not see Wilson again either.

[Wilson barking in distance]

[Villegas] My teammate managed to see him,

and tried to play with him, tried to beckon him to come...

CARLOS ANDRÉS VILLEGAS CIVIL DEFENCE OF COLOMBIA

...but the dog was still scared.

He just looked at them and turned and once again turned back,

and was once more lost in the jungle.

[narrator] Did the spirits take him?

[Acosta] In the end, the jungle claims him as part of her,

as a sacred offering.

The dog that stayed, put his life in danger

in order to save the children.

Some believe it was a trade.

The life of four children for Wilson's life.

The jungle decided that.

We believe that it was just a strong reaction by Wilson.

That he got nervous and we lost him.

DAY 33, 34, 35

DAY 36

[narrator] There are no more signs of the children to provide renewed hope.

The lack of food and drinking water,

the threat of diseases and dangerous animals mean that...

after more than five weeks lost in the jungle,

few people have hopes that the children are still alive.

Somehow, the searchers

have never entirely crossed paths with the children

while they wander through the dense jungle.

But now, at last,

the children are too tired to keep on walking.

[Lesly] I'm tired.

We are so hungry.

We simply cannot go further.

We sit down and make a small camp.

I sit with the baby between my legs...

and we stay there, just waiting.

[narrator] Taking almost 100 indigenous searchers to the jungle

seems to have ended in failure.

Many guards start to return to their villages.

But the general cannot stop thinking about the children.

I pictured them hungry, desperate, sad, abandoned,

and it was torturing me so much.

Some of them told me,

"General, why are you still looking for them?

"They must be dead already."

But there were also other voices that said to me, "They're alive."

One of them was my wife. She told me...

"They're alive.

"If perhaps it was a child of the city, they would be dead.

"But I feel it in my heart that they are alive."

I also prayed every day.

And that day, I went into the chapel to pray.

I hope to God they're alive.

I asked him to guide me, to help me,

to show me a sign of what to do.

The message was clear.

I immediately organized everything

and went to the jungle to look for our four children.

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] It is not often that high-ranking commanders

join first-line soldiers.

But hope, belief and duty

make General Sánchez be committed to making

every effort possible.

When we arrived there, the first thing I did was

embrace our commandos and join them in prayer.

I put on my knapsack, my rifle, my helmet,

and we started the search by yelling, "Lesly, Lesly, Lesly."

Lesly, my darling.

[whistle blowing]

-[dog barks] -[rooster crows]

[narrator] The children's family is also determined

to keep hope alive.

We have to be strong. We have to pray for the children,

to come out alive and healthy, I say.

The children, we have to pray a lot for the children to make it out.

I was crying.

And the pain I felt, the anguish I felt...

I felt I wasn't gonna make it through the night.

Fidencio was praying all night that nothing happen to the children,

that they'd be all right, that they'd sleep,

that they'd tell the spirit that had them to go away.

And then Fidencio said, "I'm gonna pray tonight.

"God willing, they will find them tomorrow."

[Fidencio] I did not lose hope.

On the contrary, the more I prayed, the more understanding came through.

I thought, "There is something here...

FIDENCIO VALENCIA GREAT UNCLE OF THE CHILDREN

"Yes, there is something."

[narrator] Fidencio prays and prays,

begging the spirit to release the children from its clutches.

[Fidencio] If you are sensing something, if your mind is opening,

it's because you're going to achieve it. I was able to do it. I didn't lose it.

[narrator] Eliécer wants to continue looking in the jungle,

but he's on the verge of exhaustion.

Soon, he will also be taken back to his village by plane.

That is why he is using the sacred plants, Ambil and Mambe,

in a final effort to establish the right connection with the spirits.

[Muñoz] We were so humble. We begged, we implored.

In our mambeo ceremonies, we always said...

"Father, forgive us for the bad deeds we've done in life."

[thunder claps]

[narrator] And throughout Columbia,

the indigenous elders are also praying for the release of the children.

[Acosta] We, the indigenous people who were in the jungle,

communicated with our elders

who spiritually guided us from the territories

on how to move through the jungle.

[Muñoz] When we managed to approach the jungle spirit correctly,

the spirit was finally able to release the children from its grasp.

[thunder claps]

[suspenseful music playing]

DAY 36, 37, 38, 39

DAY 40

[narrator] Astonishingly,

the children have been lost in the jungle for almost six weeks.

Eliécer is running out of time.

In just four hours, he has to leave in a military helicopter.

Finally, the jungle offers him an extraordinary gift.

[Muñoz] Suddenly, something arrived. Something one cannot explain.

That is where we found the tortoise.

[narrator] Indigenous people believe that tortoises have special powers.

[Muñoz] This is the one that is going to give the children back to us...

because we always carry with us

the fact that she is a mysterious animal.

If you ask her for a wish, she is going to grant it.

But if she grants you the wish, you have to release her.

Tortoise, you are the one that is going to give me back the children,

so come with me.

[narrator] Inspired after having found the magical tortoise,

Eliécer, once again, goes deep into the jungle,

with renewed hope that this time, he will find the children.

[Muñoz] We go on after picking up the tortoise, wrapping it.

I continue to carry it while I climb hills,

go down hills,

walk along a river's edge,

and we continue to climb.

As we go on, we go up another hill.

[narrator] Suddenly, they hear a strange noise.

[baby crying distantly]

[baby crying in distance]

[Muñoz] Quiet. What was that?

[baby crying]

It's the children, and we ran to pick them up.

We found they already had a small shelter up,

and even a small canopy

tied up with leaves on top and everything.

Blessed be the Lord. We found the children, see?

[Muñoz] And the first thing I see...

three.

And I ask, "And the boy, where is he?"

And the boy, he was lying down.

He could not stand up any longer.

Completely weak.

We helped him stand up, picked him up.

In about 10 minutes, 20 minutes at most,

a group of soldiers had arrived.

And there, we handed them over to the military.

It's serum, it's serum.

Here, drink this.

Help the child sit up. Help him sit.

Dad is coming soon.

Dad is coming, okay?

They're cold.

No, no, I'm not giving them food. Only serum.

At that moment, I immediately thought, "The tortoise."

"Right, I must release her," and I went to fetch it.

"Thank you, tortoise, for granting me my wish.

"Thank you," and I released her.

"Go ahead, you're free."

Miracle, miracle, miracle.

It is an indescribable feeling,

joy in our hearts knowing that we had found them alive.

We finish this Friday with great news.

Forty days in the jungle...

I'm very grateful that they got them out.

Thank you, my Lord, thank you.

Thank you, Heavenly Father. You listened to me.

The Colombian jungle has borne witness to a real miracle

starring four children.

I felt such joy.

I said, "Thank God, they found the children."

So thrilled that my nephew and nieces were back home.

"A remarkable testament of survival in the Amazon rainforest."

That's how the President of Columbia describes

the rescue of four indigenous children

who'd been missing since the first of May.

I cried, but tears of joy, thinking that we did it.

Because while I was looking for the children,

I felt like I was carrying a weight.

But after we found them, I was able to breathe.

I calmed down.

It was as if that weight was lifted.

[narrator] The four children are flown out of the jungle on a plane,

and taken directly to the hospital.

They're seriously malnourished.

And all of them might not have survived much longer.

[boat engine whirring]

Eliécer Munoz has returned to his home and his wife

in the village of Jiri Jiri.

As of today,

it has made me reflect a lot,

change my way of thinking...

tell myself that I'm a hero.

For me, it was an effort by everyone.

But the Lord Our Maker...

did most of it.

The rest was done by the elders from their seats.

We have to start to value ourselves and one another,

because our essence as indigenous people cannot be lost.

[narrator] The cooperation between the military heroes

and the Indigenous Guard

has been praised as a significant milestone

in the history of Columbia.

[Sánchez] I have no doubt that without the Indigenous Guards,

we would not have found them that day.

The success of it all lies in having fostered that trust,

which, in the end, is the strongest value that money cannot buy.

[narrator] General Sánchez has become the godfather of baby Cristín.

The children have started to recover from their terrible ordeal.

Lesly is getting up to speed with school and looking to the future.

Without a doubt, her resilience and perseverance

will become the weapons she'll wield

to face any adversity that she may find from now on.

[instrumental music playing]