The eldest kid among those saved after surviving a plane crash that killed at least three people, including her mother, was hailed for her bravery and “heroic role” in caring for her three younger siblings, according to her grandfather.
The plane crashed on May 1, and the survivors were lost for more than a month in the deep Amazon jungle.
Wilson, a lost rescue dog who kept them company, is now being searched for.
Wilson, a Special Forces search dog who accompanied them multiple times in the bush, went missing and was last seen on May 18.
According to Colombian military spokesperson Pedro Arnulfo Sanchez Suarez, the children had spent three or four days with him, during which time the dog appeared emaciated and frail.
The Colombian Defence Ministry published a video of the children’s grandfather, Narcissi Mucutuy, explaining how Lesly saved her siblings.
After discovering her mother’s death, she drew out her siblings. She fed her young brother Cristin milk from a bottle until it ran out, at which point she resorted to giving the baby water.
According to officials, they survived by eating farina, a coarse cassava flour utilized by local groups in the region.
The survival skills of the family were attributed to their indigenous background. According to Colombian President Gustavo Pedro, “Their learning from indigenous families and their learning of living in the jungle has saved them.”
The children waited around the crash site for four days, expecting rescue missions to come and save them, but instead, they walked away from the crash site, leaving backtraces where they slept until they couldn’t travel any further.
Manuel Ronoque, the father of the two youngest Mucutuy children, had been assisting in the search, which resulted in the discovery of the survivors.
Others are still searching in the hopes of discovering their missing family members.
“We have a saying that ‘we never leave an element behind,’ and we would not leave Wilson behind, even if we didn’t have four children.” “But we are also aware of how difficult it is to locate him in the depths of a hostile but blessed jungle,” Suárez remarked.
The four rescued toddlers are being treated in a hospital in Bogota and are scheduled to be monitored for three weeks.
This tragedy spurred a large military-led search for the survivors and the rescue dog, which involved more than 100 special forces men and over 70 indigenous scouts.
