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I just wish that those kids had never gotten on that airplane.

To the left, on course. 350. Over.

They were all alone. They had nothing.

What will the baby eat?

How are they doing?

-

It's as if Mother Nature had other plans in mind for those kids,

and she didn't want them to ever leave that place.

Those children are Colombia's children.

Lesly!

Hello and good morning to all of you who are just now tuning in

to our broadcast today.

We thank you for taking the time out of your day to listen.

Here is the top story for today.

Attention. It's 12:28 p.m.

An aircraft that was flying the Araracuara-San José del Guaviare route

has gone missing.

It is a C206 aircraft.

The plane was carrying a total of seven passengers,

four of the passengers minors.

And this story gets even more tragic.

Onboard, there were four Indigenous children and their mother,

who were travelling to meet their father in Bogotá.

The last reported location of the aircraft was deep in the Amazon jungle,

in a remote area that is difficult to access.

We are live with Manuel Ranoque.

He is the children's father, and he spoke about his missing family.

The woman's name is Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia.

The 13-year-old girl, Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy.

Another child was

a nine-year-old girl, Soleiny Ranoque Mucutuy.

A four-year-old boy, Tien Noriel Ranoque Mucutuy.

And an 11-month-old girl.

Our ancestors were nomads, you know?

They traveled on foot, from one place to the next,

gathering fruit to eat.

When I first learned… that the plane crashed,

I thought, "The children are dead."

That hit me really hard because they always sat over there.

See the drawings up there? They would sit in that corner at those desks.

And then it felt empty. Oh my god.

I felt as if my own kids had suddenly died.

Oh my god.

I thought about the youngest one.

Hmm.

I mean,

I said to myself, "When you're in a plane crash,

there's no time to panic."

Relief agencies have intensified the search for a plane

that went missing last Sunday.

We have received reports that a squad of elite soldiers

will be deployed immediately to the area,

to the location of the signal transmitted by the aircraft's beacon.

My general called me and gave me the order to join the search.

Every available command was immediately deployed.

The plane went down here, in the Arara area.

We'll search the entire northern sector, according to command.

In an unprecedented rescue effort,

the country's special forces are being deployed

in search of the missing plane.

They are heading into a territory

where former FARC dissidents currently reside.

The area of jungle that we searched is… massive.

The entire area is inhospitable.

The jungle is very dense.

Me and my men, we just stared at each other.

It's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

We landed, and then

we set out on our first task to look for the plane.

It's possible that they survived the crash.

But over several days, some of them may have died after the crash,

and that would attract wild animals.

Obviously, after the crash, the more time that passed,

the less likely we were to find them alive.

I cried so much when I heard the news about my sister and her children.

Well, they were like my children.

My son always had such a great time playing with Soleiny.

He did everything with Soleiny.

She was always so cheerful.

It was like she didn't even know what sadness was.

Tien Noriel, that kid was just so… you know, silly.

And he was very affectionate.

Lesly, she liked to take a lot of selfies,

and she loved to listen to music all the time.

Cristin, she was just a baby.

So innocent, you know?

Here, for the ground.

Put this one for the ground, and the other for cover.

We were informed that the aircraft

was giving out emergency signals as it was going down,

but unfortunately the exact location of where it crashed

could not be determined.

We began to canvas each quadrant thoroughly,

traveling in consistent patterns.

The quadrants divided every few kilometers,

from the north to the south.

There were two things

that, at every moment, we had to keep an eye out for.

The plane and the enemy.

This area is known for having a strong presence of FARC dissidents,

a group of guerrilla fighters, terrorists,

which authorities say are financed by drug trafficking operations.

We want you to see their efforts, but we cannot show you their faces.

So why exactly do we need to be whispering out here?

So as to not be detected by the enemy.

We've received information that there's a group of Indigenous communities

that are also looking for the aircraft.

But there are concerns about the intersection

of these two search teams.

Tensions between the military and the Indigenous communities

are extremely high, due to a history of confrontations.

I heard that one of our leaders was a passenger on the plane.

We are from the same clan,

the ethnic group, Huitoto.

That is one of the main reasons

I joined in the search to help find the plane.

But there is another reason that… I'm searching.

I sort of wanted to, you know, run away from some problems with my wife.

We'd separated.

I wanted to leave as a way of

escaping the situation that I was in.

It has been a week since the crash,

and so far, there has been no sign of the plane.

Experts say that any injuries the survivors might have sustained

will now almost certainly be infected.

The chance of survival decreases each and every day and any hopes of…

To help with the search,

I joined a small rescue group with their father, Manuel Ranoque.

It won't light.

It's just too wet.

Sometimes, when you're still very young, your father might take you hunting,

or he'll take you fishing,

so you can learn all about the jungle,

how to navigate it.

The sun is our guide through the jungle.

This is a way of life for our culture. Our origin, our roots.

It's a way of life that the white world greatly despises.

If any passengers had died,

the vultures would be circling over the plane.

We do what we do best, applying the skills we've learned.

The first week of the search, we found nothing.

Nothing at all. From the beginning, we were very worried.

One day, someone from civil aviation

provided us with the last known coordinates of the plane.

But the coordinates they gave us didn't exist.

It was 500 meters from the bank of the Apaporis River.

So we imagined the path the plane may have taken…

and continued on.

I told them, "Okay, guys, let's go."

We walked and walked, nonstop, all day.

At one point, a boy named Alejandro…

Alejandro.

This boy was only 14 years old.

He has never left the jungle. He has never seen civilization.

He says, "There's a blue house in the bush nearby."

Of course, I was so excited. I jumped with joy.

We found the plane.

But there wasn't a single living person inside.

So we told Manuel that all his kids had perished.

Honestly, he didn't react. He was silent.

That day, command tells me

the plane was found by some Indigenous people.

And my first task I had at the time was to

identify how many bodies were on the plane.

We found some tennis shoes, smaller in size.

We saw long hair,

and we were able to identify a lifeless body of a female.

To be honest, my sister Magdalena

was more like a mother to me.

I would tell her, the best way to put it is,

"With you, I feel like I'm completely protected."

We were very close. We'd talk a lot, always had a great time together.

I really wish she had never gotten on that plane.

On the one hand, we were so sad,

but we were also happy because our mission was to find the plane.

So we said, "Let's go home." You know?

However, our partner Néstor Andoque said to me,

"Henry, you know when a plane goes down,

the suitcases fly out," he said.

"I saw a suitcase near the plane,

and it looks like someone had rummaged through it."

I said, "What?"

Given the plane was in a vertical position when we arrived at the crash site,

it did not allow us to see how many bodies were on the plane.

Legionnaire, Legionnaire to Popeye.

I'm here, brother. Go on.

Then, all of a sudden, my sergeant relays to me,

"Captain, I found a baby's bottle."

A bottle in the jungle? Unbelievable. I was shocked.

After that, we came across some wild fruit.

Passion fruit.

It had human bite marks on it.

As we continued on, we found a refuge.

We continued searching the plane to find the rest of the bodies.

We confirmed that there were two more adult bodies.

But we could not identify any smaller bodies.

"The kids aren't in the plane."

How is that possible?

"The kids are not here!"

The children could still be alive.

That's when I knew they were alive.

"Oh my God. But who's going to search for them?"

"And where?"

It's like my heart had fallen out of my chest.

"What will these children eat?"

"What will the baby eat?"

"Are they doing okay?"

The four children have been lost for more than two weeks.

Army sources estimate that, up to this point,

the children may have walked around 100 kilometers

from the location of the plane crash,

giving the military rescue forces a search perimeter

of more than three times the area of Bogotá.

In a moment, we'll be speaking with…

The family asked me,

"General, at what point do you plan to stop the search?"

"How long will you keep searching? Do you know?"

I told them,

"Until we find all of them."

New evidence of hope

that four children may be alive after a small plane…

The operation to find the missing children has already been dubbed "Operation Hope."

The children are alive out there. We have to move fast.

Just, uh, uh, hours ago, the Colombian Military said

that they have supported the ongoing mission

with 50 extra commandos to help track down the kids.

Field conditions are rough.

It will be raining approximately 16 hours a day.

We are going to bring those four kids back.

Because the closest thing to creating a life is saving it.

We must employ every tactic possible. All right, now let's make some noise.

Lesly! Lesly!

Shouting out the children's names.

Lesly! Lesly! Lesly!

They brought with them Wilson,

an experienced military search-and-rescue dog.

A Belgian Malinois dog that is a year and a half old

and has extensive experience with searching and rescuing people.

…while the audio of the children's grandmother

is repeated over and over again.

Children, please, if you can hear this, stay where you are.

Please stay put.

If you can hear this announcement, stay where you are.

Children, please, if you can hear this, stay where you are.

Please stay put.

If you can hear this announcement, stay where you are.

In another area,

two members of the military connect their cell phones to a megaphone

to play the grandmother's message and help guide the children.

One hundred units

strategically placed inside each quadrant,

to maximize their effectiveness.

While the nation holds its breath,

praying for the lives of the four young children.

Colombian families across the country are glued to TVs,

watching the news, in restaurants, in the streets.

There's a lot of danger. Snakes, spiders. I don't think they'll make it much longer.

I don't think it's likely they'll survive.

Our kids are everything to us.

We would give our lives for them.

These powerful searchlights installed at strategic points

are intended to guide the four missing Indigenous children to safety.

We threw more than ten thousand flyers,

in Huitoto but also in Spanish.

And they said, "Stay close to the water. Don't move."

This Colombian Air Force plane

operates seemingly undetected, like a phantom.

It monitors and guides the military

in the most complex operations in the country.

This is the crew of the phantom Air Force plane.

They were added as reinforcements in the search for the children.

They launched flares over the jungle

to illuminate a path for the children to follow,

to locate them more easily.

Lesly! Lesly!

The noise, those lights, may attract threats as well.

Our search could attract terrorists, who might kill some of our men.

I think that, you know, the army, they're probably thinking

that they were… preparing to go to war or something.

But they did not prepare themselves for this mission. They weren't prepared.

Lesly! Lesly!

Lesly!

Lesly!

The Indigenous team did not want to search with the government forces.

They said they would search on their own.

Lesly!

So, right from the beginning,

every command had to be incredibly careful.

We had to be safe.

This flame is about to go out.

We would think, "What if they decide to attack us one day?"

That's what this is for.

The Indigenous people are good people.

However, there are criminals and murderers who infiltrate the Indigenous people.

Me personally, I'm not a fan of any armed group.

Not after everything that's happened in our region.

Several years ago, the army abducted a young man. They did.

There have been many cases of massacres and atrocities

that occurred during the armed conflict.

From the moment that Western man arrived and set foot in our territory,

we have been massacred, and our culture has been destroyed.

I remember

one day, it was raining a lot…

…and suddenly, I hear a soldier.

He said, "Don't move or I'll shoot!"

Of course, he was already positioned to shoot us, you know,

thinking that we were guerrilla forces.

I almost started to cry.

And right then, I thought, "Why did I come here?"

I began to have doubts about my ability as a leader.

In my community, I began taking on a leadership role in 1993.

I had high expectations when I started, of course.

But the truth is, we live in an area that has always been ignored.

We've been neglected, and that's why dissidents in our community

have been able to regain power, you know?

With groups like these, you have to do exactly what they say.

As a parent, your main priority is to work and provide what you can for your family.

One time, I got involved in some illegal activities.

At one point, I spent some time working in laboratories, processing coca.

As time goes by,

and you get caught up with drinking and corruption,

you get caught in a downward spiral.

Eventually, it becomes hard for people to trust you.

And I admit, those mistakes are on me, you know?

First of all, I'm not gonna lie to you,

I'm feeling really down, because this a bit like a… gut punch.

But I have a lot of faith that soon I will be with my children,

with my family, which is the most important thing.

I feel very confident and motivated.

I know we'll find them very soon.

That day was one of… the most difficult.

Because we pulled three bodies out of the plane crash…

and our dog, Wilson, got lost in the jungle.

This morning, military forces

airlifted the three bodies from the crash site out of the jungle,

using this Black Hawk helicopter.

After that, they were transferred to San José del Guaviare.

- Dear Lord… - Dear Lord…

- …who has power over all… - …who has power over all…

- …on earth and in heaven. - …on earth and in heaven.

- Let us… - Let us…

- …on this day… - …on this day…

- …locate… - …locate…

…our children.

Just imagine these children.

They experience this terrifying accident,

and then they have to see their mother dead.

My daughters are the most important thing to me.

You know, as a parent, I felt sort of helpless.

It really makes you wanna cry.

Yes, I felt helpless that day as well.

I said, "We're depleted."

"We have deployed the best our country can offer,

but they have not located our four children."

I felt like there was some sort of…

superior, evil force preventing…

our most advanced search-and-rescue efforts

to find those four kids.

General, the whole country is trying,

or rather, waiting for the four children to be found,

but it's been 20 days since the accident.

Have you considered the possibility that they might be dead?

Have you already seen that in the PMO? Thoughts on that?

To be honest, it's hard to say.

It all depends on the conditions that the four children were left in.

We haven't heard a baby crying, for example.

Naturally, you would expect that an 11-month-old would cry

or a young boy would call out, but we haven't heard any of that.

A couple of minutes ago,

several Indigenous representatives arrived here.

They are all gathered behind me, here, inside the unified command post.

We had to change our strategy.

It will be made up of five teams from an Indigenous community,

and our approach will be thorough and precise.

All four of the children have been found and rescued.

Good morning. It is 6:01 am. The military reports…

I heard on the news, on social media,

that there had been a plane crash.

…keep their hearts and eyes on their mission to find them.

They are still…

I said, "No, let the people who are qualified take care of it."

"This is none of my business."

Mm.

And then, that's when they said, "Nicolás, you should go."

"You have a deep knowledge of the jungle. You should go."

I was born there. I grew up there… in the jungle.

It's my home.

I like it. I like being there.

But I had spent a long time away from that environment.

At least 40 members of the Indigenous Guard

have arrived in San José del Guaviare

to join the search for the four children who are missing after the plane crash.

- Who are we? - We are the guard!

- Who are we? - We are the guard!

- For how long? - For all time!

- For how long? - For all time!

They came from Puerto Leguízamo,

from Caquetá and Cauca.

Today the rescue team was joined by 85 Indigenous people

who have a special connection to the jungle.

- For how long? - For all time!

- For how long? - For all time!

The first thing I did was try to find a familiar face.

And then I found one. Eliécer.

We saw the news about the kids on television.

About the accident, about the search, all of it.

We didn't pay much attention to it

because it seemed like government business.

And they never consider us, you know?

They always ignore us and underestimate our knowledge.

So, of course, we didn't wanna work with the military.

Until we heard on the news

that there were children missing after the crash.

And I thought, perhaps the father of those children

is going through the same pain I went through.

And I told my wife… That night, I told her "I want to go."

This is the first time that military forces and Indigenous groups

have joined together in an official joint enterprise.

Many of these Indigenous volunteers are wary of the military

after more than 50 years of internal armed conflict.

It has now been 21 days since the plane crash.

The human body cannot survive more than three weeks without food.

The window of time to find the four missing children

is quickly shrinking.

When reinforcements arrived, I greeted them.

"Hello, I'm Henry Guerrero, from Araracuara."

That's when I met the Putumayo guys, Eliécer and Nicolás.

We have to take a look at their trail, the path the children took from the plane.

We have to look at whether they went up or to the center.

If they went up the center…

Look, there are trails all over the place. But there's a central path.

We're going to sweep this entire place.

Go up ahead, and let's take the bend.

We all knew that there would be very strong, dark forces

working against us, you know?

Well, guys,

as we can hear in the background,

from above, the helicopters are sending messages to the children.

But this entire area's very… very complicated.

It's not an easy territory at all. So challenging.

You can feel the pressure.

There are times when we arrive at areas of the jungle considered sacred,

and that's when it starts to rain and to thunder.

I mean, look, when I arrived

at the entrance to the territory,

I was scared.

I was frightened by the power of Mother Nature.

Every single territory has its guardians.

It has beings that watch over it.

I would tell the kids that there are duendes.

There are animals that can transform into human beings,

and they can take us away.

I was so scared.

A duende is a spirit.

You feel it walking by, touching you,

but you won't see it because it's a spirit.

My job was to fight against the goblin.

Because the duende had the kids.

Of course, I was scared.

Our leader Don Rubio is our elder,

and he's in charge of our group, of our search for the children,

as the spiritual elder.

All I ask is for the kids to be returned.

Leave the searchers alone.

The issue is between you and me, so turn back.

We started to make a ritual in the jungle.

The white man believes that a ritual is to perform a ceremony, with a dance.

That's what he imagines.

But it's sitting and chewing coca.

The mambe that we chew is made from the leaf of the coca.

For us, tobacco and coca maté are very sacred.

I mix chuponbil, which is tobacco, with mambe,

so that I can silence my mind…

and close my ears.

Connecting with the nature around us,

that was moving for me, living that experience.

We have to do our best not to cut into too many roots

or damage too many trees

because this forest is not ours.

The Indigenous people are used to these supernatural things

that happen in the jungle,

with their rituals and those types of things.

But the commands there are all practicing Catholics.

And we believe that there is

one God.

And we all looked at each other in the face,

like, "This is totally abnormal."

Once I came back from the war,

I haven't been a fan of anyone carrying a gun.

I don't like it.

As a child, I was recruited by an armed group, an illegal militia.

I think I was probably around… 12 or 13 years old.

One, two, three, four.

The repercussions have been awful. So much damage. So many sad memories.

Arms, war, drugs.

Memories that lead you to question the very existence

of family.

I was there for a long time.

I lost myself.

Mm.

Eventually, I was too depressed.

Finally, when I was 17 years old, I returned to my community.

After wasting so much of my life at war,

smiles from my mother and hugs from my brothers,

they mean everything.

I returned to my family,

my community…

…and began my transformation.

I mean, the military approach is to walk in rows.

But our approach to the search was much different.

We chose to think like children, and children never stay still.

In other words, we moved through the jungle

like we were children ourselves,

never in one precise direction.

Instead, we all allowed our childish intuition

to guide us.

And eventually we started to find tracks… from the kids.

The search for the children continues.

The lid of a baby's bottle was found here.

Right here, you can see they found a used diaper.

Wow! I mean, we found a footprint.

We found one of the children's shirts.

A pair of shoes and a diaper were found in the middle of the jungle.

Nearby, they also found a green towel.

That's where the children last slept.

They changed Cristin's diapers.

- Take a look at this. - I wonder if there's more.

They must have been here four or five days.

They were here for a while.

Look, this is where they tried to eat.

Look, this one looks like it was bitten.

Look. They tried to chew on this. They tried to eat this for dinner.

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ Happy birthday, dear Cristin ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

I ask you, my Lord…

…that on this day…

…we can all witness…

…a miracle on Earth…

…on the birthday…

…of our sister Cristin.

- Amen. - Amen.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.

Let's go, guys.

Lesly!

Lesly! Lesly!

Lesly! Lesly!

Lesly!

I felt their pain, the pain the family was going through.

I lost family too. I lost my father and my only brother.

Mm.

My father, I would always visit him.

At least until…

one day, suddenly, he disappeared.

He was gone.

So many of us have suffered a great deal because of the war.

Making people disappear,

it's a crime against humanity.

I'm not completely sure which armed group recruited him.

My brother, we don't know why they took him. We have no idea.

So I quit my job, and I set out to search for them.

Justice! And reparations! Stop the disappearances!

It's been 23 years.

But I haven't stopped searching for them.

I felt like I was caught up in a never-ending spiritual battle.

I was afraid, truly afraid. I thought the duende would kill me.

He could kill me.

Every day it gets harder.

The kids have to be here!

It's been three days, and nothing.

We all got extremely sick. All of us.

Okay, here.

We got this cough. Our chests were hurting so bad.

We had the chills, fever. Awful.

Many of the others began to leave.

There are five journalists, an officer,

and six Indigenous people who are… all extremely sick.

And two more from GROEA as well.

At the same time, Elder Rubio got sick.

He was very sick.

He was coughing up… blood.

I thought, "This man will die here in the forest."

This is not a disease. It's not a cough. It's not COVID.

The duende is strangling me.

Because he wants me to pay.

We did not want to ask the military for any assistance.

But we knew that we needed

to… team up with them.

I'll do my best to help. It's okay, we'll help you.

We arrived, and they were all sick.

Drink a lot. Stay there, I'll be back.

So, I serve as the official medic, and I take care of the entire survey team.

We had to make them concoctions with all sorts of stuff.

They were sick for days.

This'll work, Don Rubio.

And it got worse yesterday, right, they told me?

If he doesn't get better in two days, warm him up.

I mean, it was difficult for me to get used to the idea

of working with the military.

But that didn't matter. It was the right thing to do.

You've been walking around wet.

You've been wet for days, so it may be pneumonia.

They'd leave their rifles at their camp, and come over to our camp

just wearing their camouflage, and they'd talk to us.

The next time I go out again,

I'm gonna make sure that I bring some mint with me.

I think that's a good idea.

It may not save your life,

but at least it'll make your breath smell good.

I'm just glad we could help you.

Hopefully everyone starts feeling better soon.

Yeah, you just have to add water to this. That's it.

The chicken teriyaki is probably my favorite.

It's way better than my brother's cooking.

This is so good. I need to ask the chef for the recipe. I'll be back.

Come on, come on. Don't go.

The magic question we have to keep in mind is,

"If we're here, and healthy, with everything we need,

how are the children doing?"

Are they all sick?

Are the four of them together,

or has one of them died?

I assume so. We can do that tomorrow.

But if not, I mean, we'll just continue to look and think about other strategies.

- Good morning. - How are you doing?

- Good. And you? - Mr. Shaman.

Which direction do you think we should continue the search?

We're going to ask them,

and they'll tell us where to go.

After we discussed our approach,

the commands walked in the direction that they were instructed.

They didn't use the same strategies and technology as the military.

They relied on their Indigenous knowledge.

This map prepared by the military forces

shows that, after the accident, the children walked towards the west,

traveling around 500 meters.

Then, as you can see on the chart, they began to move toward the northeast

for almost two kilometers.

The search area is now reduced

to 20 square kilometers of jungle.

The search area's beginning to get smaller,

but the chances of finding the children alive

are also shrinking.

How's it going?

Why can't we find the kids?

- According to this, we're heading south. - What does it say?

Even if they're dead, why can't we find them?

Perhaps they didn't understand that… the armed government forces

were the good guys.

Lesly!

They've oppressed us so much in the past.

Lesly!

So of course, we all start to feel a little skeptical.

We start to doubt.

I understood what was going on.

Lesley wanted to hide.

I mean, she didn't want to be found because she didn't want to see Manuel.

To be honest, I hate that man so much.

Because of what happened to my sister.

Lesly was always such a quiet girl.

She was too quiet. She barely talked in class.

She liked to read. She liked to draw.

She was good. She was good at drawing.

When I'd see her looking sad, I would check in.

I'd ask, "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

She'd just lower her head.

Sometimes, she would come in looking like she had been crying a lot.

She was the one who saw everything, how my sister Magdalena was treated.

It was Lesly.

It's true, he abused my daughter, Magdalena.

He took a curved stick and hit her with it.

A Planera stick.

And she had scars right here

because her hair worked as a shield.

He could have cut her head off.

And that's why the kids ran from the forces.

That's why they hid.

I mean, the kids hid from the search because they were scared.

That's why they couldn't find the kids.

Lesly!

Lesly!

The people who were searching for them had no idea

what had happened to their mother or what they'd seen.

Lesly!

They thought that he was a good father,

who cared about his children.

Good morning to all units.

First of all, I wanna thank you

for all the hard work you are putting in for this search.

And we have a lot of faith that today we are gonna find the kids.

I wish nothing but success to all the special command units

that are out here searching for the kids with us.

Thank you for your support.

The jungle knew he was a bad father.

Shaman, what are you doing?

We are making arepas. Sicomoro or chabeco?

- Sicobeco. - Sicobeco arepas, military style.

To share with friends from Araracuara.

How's the mambe, Mr. Eliécer?

- Perfect. - Really?

Every day we come back from searching, we do this. We analyze.

Join in thinking about how the children are doing.

If they're well,

or if they are sick, or maybe getting weak.

Where they may be right now.

Even if the children were hiding themselves somewhere,

they're out there.

So why can't we find them?

Things happened out there.

I mean, I don't know how to explain it yet.

At night, sometimes we felt like people were walking around the area,

watching us.

You could feel it in the air that something was going on out there

that wasn't normal, you know?

We started our searches later, looking for the children at night.

Strange things happened.

The compass, on the GPS, started spinning around and around,

as if there was magnetism in every direction.

Someone was out there. I was scared.

We didn't… know what was going on around us,

who was out there with us.

Don Rubio told me that the duende was out to get the captain.

I'm a practicing Catholic.

I'm a firm believer that God exists.

But there are supernatural things in life.

I'm well aware of that. It's very clear.

We thought that maybe it was Mother Earth's way

of trying to send us a message or something.

While living on earth, we've hunted and killed,

cut down and destroyed her forests.

Not just here, not just us,

but so many people have done it in different areas throughout the world.

The jungle

was angry.

"And giving thanks, He broke bread,

then gave it to His disciples,

and He said to them,

'Take this, all of you, and eat from it,

for this is my body.'"

I thought that we weren't going to find them alive.

"'This is my body, which will be given up for you.'"

I wanted symbols or signs.

There was nothing.

And so I decided that it was necessary to relieve our troops.

For several days, there has been no evidence

that the children are alive.

After all this time, it is hard to imagine

that a baby could survive such inhospitable conditions.

The country wants them to be found alive, but it is also preparing for the worst.

It wasn't the same group anymore.

The group had gotten much smaller.

There were definitely moments when I thought,

yeah…

"Those poor little kids…"

"…must be dead."

Mm.

We no longer have anywhere else to look.

I mean, we'd completely failed. We'd failed the mission.

I told them, "Brothers, have faith."

There was one more thing that we could still try.

Yagé is god.

Yagé was our last option. There was no other solution.

Yagé is better known as ayahuasca.

It's like a nuclear weapon for us.

Yagé will be the one to tell us where the kids are.

I had General Sánchez's number.

So I decided to call it, to ask him for a favor.

The community started to prepare the yagé, and they prayed for us.

And the yagé arrived by helicopter.

We try it first with the father, with the kid's father.

It was a wasted bullet.

The jungle rejected Manuel.

We didn't know why.

I told him, "Seriously, you need to get out of here."

However, there was one more shot left,

so, I told Elder Rubio, "Rubio, tonight is your night."

"It has to be you. If you fail, we'll leave tomorrow."

"Right away. That's it."

It's my turn.

This is the final attempt.

He takes me… or I take him.

Father creator, Yagé,

tell me directly, where are the children?

I drank it.

And I turned into a tiger.

I left the world of darkness.

Now I am in the world of light.

The first one who came to see me was Henry.

He asked, "How did it go, brother?"

I said, "Fine, brother."

"We'll find the children today at 3:00 p.m."

"We'll find the kids today," he said.

I had already arranged

for the helicopter to arrive and pick us up.

Whether we find them or not, we're leaving.

Well, guys, this is our last day here.

You must always remember.

Use the tobacco.

That day, something felt different.

The jungle was at peace.

Elder Rubio said I needed to head out toward the northwest.

"The children are on that side."

I stayed back at the camp.

We were all about to leave.

We always walked separate from each other,

searching so carefully.

And then rescuers began to return to the camp.

As they arrived, I asked them how it went. "Nothing. Nothing on the plateau."

The four guys that had joined from Putumayo

had not come back.

Just before two o'clock in the afternoon, we sat down.

We were waiting.

That's when Eliécer says, "You know,

I leave with sorrow in my soul."

I said to him, "As a Putumayo man, I leave with sorrow."

We were already walking up a hill because all of us were on our way out.

As we continued walking,

the jungle got thicker and thicker.

And just like that,

all of a sudden…

We immediately all stopped in our tracks.

"Where? What is it?"

They were silent.

And then I lifted up my head,

so I could see where my companions are.

And then I saw the kids.

They looked scared.

As if they wanted to run away from us.

So I raised my arms like this, and I said,

"Family."

God has blessed us with a miracle. We finally found the children.

- Here are the four children. - The four kids are alive.

Thank God.

- Here's the 11-month-old baby girl. - They're alive.

Here's the 11-month-old girl.

At that moment, I was like a parrot,

singing something I don't even understand,

while holding the girl in my arms.

The faith we had in him.

God never fails us when we ask for something with sincerity.

And the first thing the boy said was,

"My mom had died on the plane."

Had we found the children one or two days later,

the boy would have died.

He was so weak.

"Okay, guys."

"There are four children and four of us."

"Each of us carries a child, okay?"

"Let's go."

We were talking along the way.

Reminiscing.

I just wanted her to talk a little or just make noise.

I would say…

"After all this time and all that searching,

now here she is with me."

"Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name."

"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done…"

After the accident, I don't know how long I was unconscious.

When I woke up, there was a lot of blood,

and I had a large cut on my left side,

which was very painful.

I could hear my siblings crying and crying.

My mother was… making noises,

then she stopped.

Maybe if I had woken up earlier, I could have saved her.

I pulled my sister out from underneath my mother.

I knew we couldn't stay and we had to abandon the plane

so we could find more food and find something to drink.

My leg was hurting so much,

and I could hardly even stand and walk at all.

I got all the strength I had and dragged myself on my knees.

I did that for the first 20 days we were lost.

I knew that I just had to keep going.

My biggest worry the whole time was keeping baby Cristin alive.

I had to take care of her.

I knew that she needed more food than we did.

My mother had taught me about fruits we could eat in the jungle,

like milpesos.

I made a fishing rod out of what I could find.

With the rod, we were able to catch some fish.

We ate the fish raw.

It tasted horrible.

Children, please, if you can hear this, stay where you are.

Please stay put.

If you can hear this announcement, stay where you are.

We kept trying to follow the voice that

we heard, but it would fade.

Please stay put.

If you can hear this announcement, stay where you are.

I would try to get my sisters and my brother to go to sleep each night.

I didn't really sleep.

One night in the jungle, we almost sat on a snake.

I was able to kill it with a stick though.

Tien became so weak

that he could no longer stand on his own anymore.

One day I dreamt they would never find us.

My heart was beating fast, and I struggled so hard to breathe.

I got up and decided to leave my sisters and my brother by themselves.

I walked away to be on my own.

But after 20 minutes, I realized I had to go back.

I knew I had to protect my brother and my sisters.

Cristin and Tien were both very close to dying.

When I saw the man, I collapsed.

Family.

"Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name."

"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven…"

I no longer had to keep my brother and sisters alive.

They were now both safe.

- Here. - Your plate.

- Are you going to eat anything? - Yeah, have some water. It's hot.

Today we have handed over all four of the children

to the officials, to the Colombian armed forces.

We found them at a distance of 4.5 kilometers from our last camp.

They are now safely in the custody of the armed forces,

and they are receiving medical attention.

We need to make sure they eat something

before we get them on the helicopter.

The father is going to be excited to see them.

I was on the radio with the commander.

And he said, "Hold on, hold on. One sec. Hold on,"

I remember it so well. "Hold on," he said.

He said, "It looks like they found the children."

I said, "What's that?"

And I immediately hugged them.

And then we cried.

Oof.

All of us.

I remember that. We just hugged each other.

Everyone, all of us.

I watched the videos of the army's reaction

when they were informed.

We have to get rid of that trash over there.

I have great news to share. We just found the children.

We found the children! We just found them.

Yes, all four kids are alive.

They found the kids? I said, "What?"

I said, "Oh, bless the Lord, they found the children."

"Bless the Lord! The children are alive. They're all alive."

"And we're going to take care of them as if we were their mother."

The children were found alive!

After 40 days of intense searching,

and without giving up or losing hope of finding the four children,

they have finally been located.

Incredible story of survival.

The nation, uh, came together

in hope that they could be found alive.

However, after finding the four children,

Wilson, the military search dog, has not yet been located.

Unfortunately the dog was not with them.

I made the call.

I was the first person to call General Sánchez

and tell him the news.

This is unbelievable. This is a miracle.

Miracle, miracle, miracle.

- Bleeding? - No.

- Pupillary response? - Fine.

Okay. Good vital signs?

Yes, signs are perfect. She's being treated.

And over there, it's reading 225.

- My name is Claudia. - Can you hold this please?

- It's amazing they survived. - You are so cute, you know that?

Here, let me help you with that.

I'm going to take this off.

It's saturating at 100%.

The heart rate is high but stable.

And I said, "It was worth it."

Our commands, all of our brave commands,

alongside our Indigenous people,

made the impossible possible.

Here in Colombia, 88% of the population are mestizos.

That means that most of us have Indigenous blood.

If we all contribute,

regardless of our race, creed, or social status,

we can achieve whatever we set out to do.

Well, today was a magical day

that will end up in history books.

So let's honor what they've accomplished.

The children from the jungle are now Colombia's children.

My wish is that Operation Hope

has taught all of us,

the whole of Colombia…

that we have the ability to work together.

I promise you this.

If tomorrow they tell me, "Leave behind that camouflage,

and tomorrow there'll be peace in Colombia," I'll do it.

Because I wanna leave peace behind for my daughters.

That made all of us… so happy.

For us Indigenous people,

this mission reminded the entire world that we exist.

That we are here, and we can contribute.

When I took on the responsibility of leading the group, our team,

the truth is, that changed me a lot.

I felt, even at my age, I know I can make a difference.

I was filled with joy

to see how happy the family was to have them back.

Up until now, I couldn't achieve something like that.

Feeling complete happiness.

But thanks to this mission, I'm part of a new family.

I have a bigger family now, and that fills me with joy.

The process of finding the children

made me feel like I had also found myself in the process.

In a way, I was rescued along with the children,

with the love and the respect

of my entire Indigenous culture,

the deep and lasting identity

of a thousand-year-old Indigenous community.

And I am proud of all the children

and our entire culture.