They were “children of the bush”, as their grandfather said. If the four miners, found alive after a forty-day wandering in the Amazonian jungle of southeastern Colombia, have been able to survive all this time, it is thanks to their knowledge of the forest. This was what their family clung to, from the start of the search, the day after the accident that claimed the lives of the mother of the family and two other adults. Finally, their knowledge of the jungle, of nature, of its rules, its dangers and its codes, saved their lives.
“Child survival is a demonstration of the knowledge and relationship that indigenous people have with nature, a bond taught from the womb,” said the National Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Colombia (Opiac). They actually survived by eating flour from the crashed plane, scavenging some of the food randomly dropped by army helicopters. But also by consuming “seeds”. They fed on roots, seeds and plants that they had identified and knew to be edible, said Luis Acosta, national head of the indigenous guards of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (Onic).
“They are indigenous children and they know the jungle very well. They knew what to eat and what not to eat. They managed to survive thanks to that and their spiritual strength,” assured Luis Acosta, who took part in the search operations. This theme of “spiritual strength” comes up regularly in the mouths of these indigenous leaders commenting on the adventure, Luis Acosta thus promising to post an indigenous guard on duty in front of the military hospital in Bogota where the children are cared for, for the accompany “spiritually”.
“We have a special connection with nature”, summarizes Javier Betancourt, another leader of Onic. “The world needs this particular connection to nature, to favor those who, like the natives, live in the forest and take care of it. »
Of the 40 days that the search lasted, soldiers and natives combined their strength for about twenty days. President Gustavo Petro, like many officials, praised this “meeting of indigenous and military knowledge” in favor of “the common good”, combined with “respect for the forest”.
The army started the day after the accident, on May 1, with classic methods, including broadcasting from helicopters audio recordings of the children’s grandmother asking them not to move and warning them that they were looking for them.
“It was President Petro who then helped us get together,” Luis Acosta told local media. “At a first meeting, eight days after the search began, the president told us that we had to go out together because the army could not do it alone. »
“We organized, we coordinated and we started,” explained the Onic leader. Nearly 84 volunteers, members of the indigenous guards of the departments of Caqueta, Putumayo, Meta and Amazonas, then joined the hundred commandos of “Operation Hope”. Operating in several provinces, these “indigenous guards”, armed only with sticks and colored scarves, ensure the security of communities and the surveillance of indigenous territories, facing or in cohabitation with the multitude of armed groups active in the country. Their relations are sometimes also difficult with the military.
In the Guaviare jungle, the duo worked. Every day, they drew up a joint report of the operations, the natives doing their own rituals for the “spirits” of the forest, using their traditional mambé (powder made from coca leaves and ash) and chirrinchi, a fermented drink.
Using machetes and spray paint, rescuers left marks or small “traps” (cut or strategically placed trunks) here and there to guide the children.
The medicinal knowledge of the natives was also used to adapt to the hell of the jungle, in particular to treat scrapes, splinters, insect bites, exhaustion and physical pains.
The natives “worked in the rain, in the storms and in many difficult situations, but always with the hope and the spiritual faith that we could find them”, recounted Luis Acosta. And finally, it was a native guard who found the children, in an area not yet explored.
