[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 k*ll you.
[Captain Juan Pablo Crdenas]
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 k*ll 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 Caquet 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.
FTIMA 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.
'CRISTN'
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 Bogot.
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 Jos 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 Jos.
I'm going to try to land.
-[plane whirring]
-[intense music playing]
[beeping]
[narrator] Back in Chuquiqu,
more than 150 kilometres away,
Ftima 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 Crdenas
joins the search
due to his friendship with the pilot.
[Juan Pablo Crdenas]
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 CRDENAS
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.
[Snchez] 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 SNCHEZ
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 Jos 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.
[Flrez Ortiz Robinson] Obviously,
you see many types of animals.
Jaguars. We found boas, huge,
enormous ones. Around three, four meters.
PROFESSIONAL SOLDIER FLREZ ORTIZ ROBINSON
COLOMBIAN MILITARY FORCES
As soon as we disembarked
from Licorio and Pnfilo,
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 k*ll 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, Boyac,
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.
[Snchez]
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. Ftima,
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.
Cristn 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.
[Snchez] 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...
ELICER MUOZ
INDIGENOUS GUARD
...well, news of that accident
is made known.
That moved me.
My name is Elicer Muoz 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
ELICER'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 Elicer
and his fellow guards to enter the jungle.
[Jiri Jiri elder] We perform this ritual
so that Elicer
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.
[Muoz] 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.
[Muoz] Because we claim them,
because they are children of our blood.
What we are here for is to reclaim them.
[narrator] Elicer believes that
the spirits of the jungle
are already watching
the new human visitors to their territory.
[Muoz] 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 DAZ 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 k*ll 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.
[Muoz] 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]
[Muoz] 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 Elicer was losing his voice.
[Muoz] 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.
[Ftima] 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 Cristn.
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.
[Cristn crying]
[narrator] Lesly and her sister Soleiny
have an additional physical burden.
During all these weeks,
they have been walking long distances
with baby Cristn 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]
[Snchez] 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.
[Snchez] 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.
[Ftima] 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 Cristn.
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 Elicer still hopes they aren't far
from the trail of the children.
[Muoz] 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.
[Snchez] 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.
[Muoz] 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.
[Muoz] An animal went down here.
[narrator] For Elicer,
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.
[Ftima] Lesly, child,
I ask you to please remain still.
Listen to the microphone, child.
Remain still there.
[Snchez] 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.
[Ftima] 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 Ftima.
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.
[Ftima's voice echoing]
[narrator] But despite the pleas
from their grandmother, Ftima,
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,
Elicer is also trying to understand
how he can gain favour with the spirits...
and why they are keeping the children
under their control.
[Muoz] 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 ANDRS 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 Snchez
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 r*fle, 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] Elicer 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.
[Muoz] 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.
[Muoz] 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.
Elicer 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.
[Muoz] Suddenly, something arrived.
Something one cannot explain.
That is where we found the tortoise.
[narrator] Indigenous people believe
that tortoises have special powers.
[Muoz] 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,
Elicer, once again,
goes deep into the jungle,
with renewed hope
that this time, he will find the children.
[Muoz] 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]
[Muoz] 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?
[Muoz] 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]
Elicer 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.
[Snchez] 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 Snchez has become
the godfather of baby Cristn.
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]
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Operation Hope: The Children Lost in the Amazon (2024)
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