How 4 Children Survived in the Jungle for 40 Days  

By Shlomo Maital

Colombian special forces and the children

    Here are the bare bones of this amazing story.

    On May 1, a Cessna 206 aircraft  carrying four children and their mother was flying from Araracuara, in Amazonas province, to San José del Guaviare, Colombia.  The ages of the children:  13, nine, four and one, a baby.  On the way the plane crashed in the jungle.  The three adults on the plane, including the mother, were killed.  Somehow all the children survived the crash.  They wandered off to find help. 

    When the wreckage of the plane was found, there were no children there, nor were there the children’s bodies.  A search began across many miles of thick jungle.

     Incredibly, 40 days later, Colombia special forces military found the children alive, tracking footprints and food remnants, helped by a tracker dog.  The dog, Wilson, has not yet been found.  When found, the children were weak but OK.

      The press of course covered the survival story.  Of course, it is fascinating.  But beneath it is a deeper tragedy. 

      Survival:  According to the BBC,  “The children’s grandmother, Fatima Valencia, said after their rescue: “I am very grateful, and to mother earth as well, that they were set free.”  She said the eldest of the four siblings was used to looking after the other three when their mother was at work, and that this helped them survive in the jungle.  “She gave them flour and cassava bread, any fruit in the bush, they know what they must consume,” Ms Valencia said.

     Let us honor them by noting their names.  Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, aged 13, Soleiny Jacobombaire Mucutuy, 9, Tien Ranoque Mucutuy, 4, and infant Cristin Ranoque Mucutuy. Special kudos to 13 year old Lesly, who cared for her siblings.  The children are all indigenous, members of the Huitoto or Witoto.

       Tragedy:  There is a back story, not covered at all, by any of the media, not a single word.  This is from Wikipedia: “The Witoto people were once composed of 100 villages or 31 tribes, but disease and conflict have reduced their numbers. At the early 20th century, Witoto population was 50,000. The rubber boom in the mid-20th century brought diseases and displacement to the Witotos, causing their numbers to plummet to 7,000–10,000.  …The Peruvian Amazonian Company extracted and sold Amazonian caucho rubber. The company relied on indigenous, including Witoto, labor, and   kept workers in unending servitude through constant debt and physical torture.   By the time the company’s work ended, indigenous populations in the area had declined by more than half of their original numbers.  Since the 1990s, cattle ranchers have invaded Witoto lands, depleted the soil, and polluted the waterways. In response to the incursions, the Colombian government established several reservations for Witotos”.

    Reservations!  Sound familiar??

    Once there were journalists who would have worked to cover the back story. It took me three minutes.   This marvelous group of indigenous people has been nearly destroyed by greedy capitalists.  As a result, we will lose all the wisdom, resilience and earthiness that these incredible children embody. We are defiling Mother Earth and her people.

     Alas.