Original subtitles

When I got to the airstrip

my mom said, "Lesly, we're flying to Bogotá"

We were going to live with my stepfather

I didn't want to go

I was living with my grandma, Fátima

I was going to school

I was actually very happy there

This was my first time on an airplane

It wasn't too long after we took off then

The plane began making a lot of strange noises

I was getting really scared

And then the engine sounded like it was going to stop

The pilot called to the control tower

"We need help"

He couldn't control the plane

Mayday Mayday Mayday

Then, all of a sudden, we started to fall

That's the last thing I remember

At about 08:30 in the morning, I got a call

"What happened?"

"Magdalena's plane never arrived It must have crashed in the jungle"

My sister Magdalena was on it with her four children

That's when it hit me

The sadness

My other daughters kept calling me, "Mom, don't worry"

How could I not worry?

When a plane crashes, no one is spared Never

My heart ached

My daughter left with her kids and didn't even tell me she was going

Magdalena had called me

She said, "I'm on the plane with the kids"

But they never arrived

I didn't know what to do

I couldn't stop thinking about my wife

My only son

His life had just begun, and the thought of losing him

My baby daughter

My two stepdaughters

My dream was for them to come and live with me in Bogotá

Are they still alive?

Are they dead?

Today, a Censa-Doscientos-Seis aircraft

that flew from Araracuara was swallowed up by the jungle

Search efforts have begun with aircraft and helicopters in the area

These works have been seen to be complicated by the forests' weight

The authorities do not rule out the fact

that the migrants continue to live in the middle of the jungle

When I finally woke up, we were on the ground

There was so much blood on my face, all over my clothes, everywhere

I was in so much pain

I saw Tien

Zeleny was crying

I saw my mom

My leg hurt really bad

The seat had collapsed and my shoe was stuck

I needed to get to Cristin

I could see that she was trapped under my mom's body

She couldn't breathe

So, I slipped my foot out of my shoe and left it there

I struggled, but I was able to get my siblings out of the plane

I needed to try and stop the bleeding that was gushing from my head

I found the first aid kit

Cristin cried and cried She was thirsty and hungry

I searched through the bags

and found a hammock

a mosquito net

and Cristin's bottle

I arranged some leaves on the ground

and we all lay down

Cristin just wouldn't stop crying

I wasn't able to sleep My head and my leg hurt too much

For five days,

the Colombian Air Force flew back and forth over the area,

searching for the missing plane, but we didn't find anything

Each day that passed greatly reduced the chances of finding them alive

The high command called and said,

"Pedro, we need you on this It's time to do a ground search"

This was my first rescue mission We don't often get a chance to save lives

As Special Forces, our assignments usually involve fighting guerrilla groups

Using the plane's last verified coordinates

and after calculating a reasonable margin of error,

we were able to establish a search area of approximately 320 square kilometers

The terrain was very dense

It's an untouched jungle with trees up to 40 meters tall,

with dangerous animals and poisonous snakes

But the greatest risk we faced was getting lost in the jungle

The jungle is like an enormous carpet

It's like searching for a needle in a haystack

We moved quickly to search for the plane,

and hopefully find survivors

Let's advance a little further

Listen for anything unusual

Let's go

We were prepared to encounter the worst

Narco-guerrilla groups like the FARC

are known to operate in this area

We've been at war with them for 60 years

The FARC at one time, actually controlled many parts of Colombia

They commit acts of violence, drug trafficking, and kidnappings

In the process of fighting them, we've lost many soldiers

We made ourselves as invisible as possible to go undetected by the enemy

Currently, 60 commandos are keeping hope alive

that they will find survivors

Manuel Ranoque is living with the uncertainty of this tragedy

My four kids and my wife are missing

I couldn't stand by and wait for the military to locate the plane

I'm going to go out there and search for my family

I'm not coming back until I find them

I needed to ask for the help of my indigenous friends

from the Araracuara community

We know how to navigate the jungle We're experts at it

The jungle is a part of us because we grew up here

I volunteered No questions

Because those in danger are a part of our indigenous family

It was a long journey,

about 12 hours by boat from the nearest town

No one lives there

We believe that the jungle finds a way to connect man to nature,

and then through nature, to the creator

But the jungle is also very dangerous

Certainly because of the things you see,

but especially because of the things that cannot be seen, not with human eyes

As we finally entered the jungle,

the weather changed drastically

It rained and rained

Our elders believe that when a spirit, an enchanted being, if you will,

gets angry, it causes a storm

I fell behind my companions

I called out to them, but they were nowhere to be found

I tried retracing my steps three times

I kept thinking, "Is a spirit playing with me?"

I was filled with fear I can't deny it

I prayed, "Don't get angry I'm a child of the jungle

"I am indigenous

"I come here not to harm the jungle

"but to search for what is ours"

And just like that, my partners reappeared

We were all starting to get worried

"How are we going to find the plane with all this rain?"

There's no trace of anything at all

This went on for days

We were losing hope of finding the plane

Every day we searched, looking through the trees, bushes, vines

And in every direction you could look, it was nothing but green

And then, I saw something that stood out

It was something pink

A small baby bottle in the middle of this immense jungle

If you think about it, what are the chances of actually finding,

you know, a small baby bottle like that in a jungle of this magnitude?

We immediately start to imagine what could have happened

Could the bottle have somehow fallen out of the plane?

We were mentally prepared to find the family dead

Wherever we see the vultures around,

that's where we'll find the plane, and unfortunately, the bodies

We spotted a king vulture

We decided that we would try and follow it

Then we spot the vulture

He was sitting on top of something We could see that it was something white

I got a lump in my throat

Mrs Magdalena was lying there Her body was on the seat

It was terrible

"How will Manuel take the news?"

I couldn't believe that she was gone, that she had abandoned me

Magdalena was devoted to the children

to our home

We were trying to build a future together

No matter what, she would always take me back

despite my mistakes

My poor, sweet daughter, Magdalena

I have nine daughters

but she was always the most attentive

If Manuel hadn't called her to come be with him in Bogotá

she would still be alive today

I cried tears of rage, of anguish

I decided to burn all her things

My daughter is not coming back

She died with a grudge against me

because I didn't want her to go

Manuel asked about the children

I said, "I don't know Nothing has been confirmed"

The command informed me

that indigenous searchers apparently located the plane

The orders came in, "Verify it immediately"

We found the bodies of the adults

But there was no evidence that the children didn't survive

We kept wondering, "Why aren't they near the plane?"

Just the thought of it, four children,

13, nine, five, and 11 months, who just lost their mother,

all alone out there in the jungle

They are essentially food for the animals

For the first few days, we thought it best to stay by the plane

But no one came to rescue us

I packed two of the bags with whatever supplies I could find

I was crying from all the pain I was in

I was dragging my leg, crawling

We were searching for a way out, out of the jungle

Along the way, we ran into a couple of herds of tapirs

They tried to attack us

We stood still like statues

When we saw an ocelot

I froze with fear

Tien wanted to chase it

When there were animals, Lesly protected us

And I did too

They would run away because they were afraid

I told him to stop

Grandma taught us that whenever you're in the jungle

you shouldn't disturb the animals

They're dangerous

This made Tien so angry

He asked, "When is Mom coming to find us?

"She is all alone over there Why did we have to come here?"

I tried to explain to him "Our mother is dead"

"No," he said, and he cried

- Lesly - Lesly

Lesly

Lesly

We decided if there are survivors, we can't stay invisible

We have to call out to them and make our presence known

Lesly

It's worth the risk to find them

What are the chances of finding these kids alive?

If the impact wasn’t too fast,

it’s possible for the kids in the back of the plane to survive

Lesly

We hope they left in search of help and food

At this time of year,

there is a scarcity of fruit making it hard to find food

They are probably trying to find a river

and follow it to a village

A hundred and more Special Forces soldiers

saturate the jungle

But the rain makes the search difficult,

washing away any footprints

Leaving an entire country

holding its breath, and praying for a breakthrough

A shelter

Another sign of life

It was a bed made of palm leaves, cut with small scissors

It looked like three or four people slept here

My niece and I would always build little shelters

when we were younger

I've always been close with Lesly

We're both young girls and have a lot in common

We both like traditional dancing

and playing soccer

My niece Lesly is actually very similar to her mother, my sister

She's a very hard worker

But there's a definite difference between the two

Her mother didn't like to study, but Lesly is a very good student

Lesly has always been a quiet girl,

while Soleiny loves to laugh

Lesly is completely devoted to her little sister Soleiny

It was always the two of them who would be out there playing together

Lesly took very good care of her siblings,

of Cristin, of Tien, and that Tien is a real earthquake

She's like a mother to them

But I can't help wondering,

how's Lesly keeping the baby alive in the jungle with no food?

There were so many monkeys

They were laughing

The monkeys were teasing us

They jumped from tree to tree

They made the milpesos fruit fall,

and we caught them

We were so hungry, so we ate the milpesos fruit

I made sure to give the softest ones to Cristin

Cristin cried

She was so thirsty

I asked Soleiny to pass me the baby bottle

She looked all over but couldn't find it

It's just that we took a little rest

and I must have dropped the bottle It got lost

"How could you lose it?

"What do I do now?"

I tried using a bottle cap

to give Cristin one little sip of water at a time

We asked Manuel,

"Are your kids tough enough to make it through the forest?"

He said, "No, Tien is lazy

"He and the younger girl are not good walkers

"The kids can't be far"

Tien

Whoo

Lesly

Whoo Whoo

Finally, we heard a response We were so happy, "We found the kids"

But it wasn't the kids at all

It was a Special Forces team, Destroyer One

We knew the indigenous search team was in the area,

but we didn't know their exact location

There was a lot of tension between the two groups

It was a tricky thing, for sure How could we talk to them?

Over the years, there have been numerous altercations

between indigenous communities and the military

in the fight against drug trafficking

Our indigenous communities are poor

There are no roads

Many houses lack electricity

We're totally abandoned by the state

So, narco-guerrillas control our territory

Attention

They have weapons, so we have to do whatever they tell us to

Indigenous people end up working with the guerrilla groups

They grow coca, transport drugs The military can't allow that

So, that's why we fight the guerrillas

This includes the indigenous communities

that the guerrillas have infiltrated

That night, they set up camp quite a distance away from us

We put security measures in place We set traps and stationed sentries

We made sure to monitor their every move

We can't leave our weapons laying around

What if there's a guerrilla group out there?

We decided that the next day,

it would be best if we go our separate ways

Little by little, I tried to see if I could use my leg

I took some steps,

leaning on a stick that I had found on the ground

It only hurt a little

Thank God I was able to walk again

The army is looking for you

My love, please stay still

Please stay in one place

I heard a voice It was far away

It sounded like my grandmother

Lesly, this is your grandmother Fátima

I haven't abandoned you

Is it true? Is that really her? Is it?

We made a recording of their grandmother's voice

in Spanish and in their language, Huitoto, so the kids would be more trusting

Are they looking for us?

I didn't believe it

So, I wanted to keep walking

We were sure the kids could hear us

"Why don't they come out? Why don't they answer?"

We transitioned to stronger tactics, more aggressive

We dropped 10,000 flyers with the grandmother's message

We dropped food supplies

We laid 11 kilometers, or roughly seven miles of caution tape

We hung whistles on it so the kids could signal us

We blasted music like a big concert

Of course, with all that disturbance the weather turned bad

There's a spirit here that doesn't like the noise

The White man's technology and techniques

didn't work at all

It was time for a different approach

It was time to look with other eyes

So, we called for indigenous reinforcements

The team that found the plane was exhausted

Now it's our turn to go and rescue my nieces and nephew

The indigenous searchers found the plane, not us

So, we believe the indigenous people would also be able to find the kids

- When? - Always and forever

I received orders to bring in 85 indigenous people

from other parts of Colombia

and integrate the indigenous with the commandos

The orders said, "Trust but verify"

I ordered background checks for everyone to prevent any infiltration

by a narco-criminal group

We'll work together, as combined cells

Comrades salute

The search will benefit

from their Indigenous knowledge of the jungle

Courage Courage

The jungle is full of mysteries

that the military isn't equipped to solve

Our friends and family told us, "You need to bring an indigenous elder"

And for this, Don Rubio joined us He joined as a shaman

He is a leader

very well respected for his knowledge of our spiritual traditions

Don Rubio says, "Relax, we've got this

"We'll find those kids in four or five days"

First of all, take me to the crash site

As we approach the plane, my friend Faustino says,

"Prepare yourself, my friend You have to be strong

"You have to be very strong"

I saw my bag that my sister had borrowed from me

I saw the children's things and my sister's clothes, shoes

and a makeshift shelter of palm leaves

When I looked at that, I was

wracked with pain, overwhelmed

The kids slept like animals in the jungle

I thought, "My God Why is this happening to the kids?

"Why do they have to suffer through this?

"Why did my sister have to die like an animal?"

Then within me, deep within me,

I realized this is all the fault of that son of a bitch, Manuel

Magdalena talked about how Manuel pursued her relentlessly

until she agreed to live with him,

even though her mother disapproved

They moved away from her mother's village

When they first arrived at my community, the boy was one year old

She and I soon became close friends

Actually, more than friends We were like sisters

We loved going to the garden to harvest yucca

And we liked to party

She'd start dancing to get everyone in the mood

She's like, "Girlfriend, let's go"

She would hold her husband

and she didn't have a care in the world when she danced

At our community parties, we dance with whoever is there

Manuel liked to get very close to his dance partners

So, naturally, Magdalena would get jealous

This would make him very angry

The parties always ended the same way

He would beat her up

On a few occasions, it was brutal

That's why Manuel got in trouble

with the guerrilla authority

The guerrillas set rules of conduct

in order to keep people in line in our communities

They put a gun to his head

and made it clear to him,

"If you touch this woman again, we will not forgive you"

And now he had been warned

People make mistakes

We had arguments, like many couples do

Sometimes in drunken binges, things get out of hand,

but never anything serious, like domestic violence

Never

My blood was boiling

I was ready to attack Manuel with a machete

Rubio comes over and says, 'You have to control your anger

"Let's do it for the kids,

"and then once we find the children, the truth will be known"

That night we had a mambe session

Today, through our sacred plants, we are clearing the way

I had one pound of mambe, and one of ambil

Mambe is a powder made from coca

And ambil is a paste made from tobacco

You take them when you have a question in mind

that you need answering

Then you get the inspiration for whatever it is you're looking for

This way I can see which way the kids went

"Well, shaman, I am under your command"

I showed him the GPS

"This GPS is never going to get us anywhere because it's blank"

"Right now, you're the GPS of this GPS," I told him

In my meditation, I sensed the kids

I told the others, "Let's go this way"

When Don Rubio begins to search,

he tells us that he won't work with the army

However, the mission commander instructs us to work with them

and provide support It blew my mind

Working with indigenous teams, we were worried

How are we ever going to work together?

I received orders to follow 400 meters behind them

I told the guys that finding the kids shouldn't take long

The problem is that the military have no idea what they're doing

This way, boys This way

I was in front

And I saw small footprints

I followed the tracks

And further up, we came upon a small shelter

- Look at this - Mm-hmm

They used their teeth to cut it

A short while later, we found Cristin's little yellow shirt

We also found some diapers

And they're fresh

The kids must be close

- Lesly - Lesly

Whoa

Tien Lesly

The days continued to pass, and I was so hungry

Soleiny was too

All we had to eat was milpesos,

nothing more

Soleiny liked to talk about food, like the food she used to eat back home

Meat with sauce

Chicken

Rice and plantain

I thought about the times I wasted food and I cried

And at night,

I thought mostly about my mom and about how she died

I remember how my mom suffered a lot

I thought about the times she gave me advice,

and I never paid much attention

She always would say to me

someday you'll be an orphan, and then you'll remember me

And I cried and cried

Lesly thought that God was punishing her

We searched for days, but the kids were nowhere

Are the kids hiding?

After about three days, Rubio realized that we were following him

"You with me?" "No"

He was as sour as a lemon

He says, "I work alone" Got it Stubborn as a mule

I don't work with the military

My grandfather was afraid of people with weapons

because of the violence he experienced during the rubber trade

Many of our grandparents died this way

In our territory,

between the Putumayo and the Caquetá rivers,

there was the rubber trade

During that time, a lot of people arrived from the outside

They wanted to exploit our resources

They needed the rubber in their cities for their machines

They said, "Round up the indigenous by any means and collect the rubber"

We were enslaved

There were punishments

Starvation

More than half of our population was killed

We still live with the trauma of that genocide

The relationship with Rubio went from bad to worse

Until he accidentally cut himself with a machete

and needed our medic, so we were useful to him

Hey, Cháman, what’s happening?

We’re making arepas to share with the group from Araracuara

Don Rubio, say hello

We were running low on food, and they were willing to share theirs

They got closer to us, asking questions,

like about us not wearing shirts

"How come mosquitoes don't bite you? Look at us, covered in bites"

"No, not us

"Nothing bites us"

That night, Don Rubio invited me to their mambe session

They have one every night

Obviously, my rifle was strapped to my back

and one of my soldiers was on guard

Don Rubio says, "Popeye, are you going to try Mambe?"

Personally, I don't consider mambe to be a narcotic

For indigenous communities, mambe helps them do their daily work

They filled their mouths until their cheeks were full

So I did the same without knowing the right way to do it

It was a turning point

We are here on this land, Father Creator

You gave us this life

They shared ancestral stories

in their Huitoto language

Our beliefs tell of the first mighty beings on Earth

They abused the power they received from the Creator,

so he turned them into animals

These animals are ruled by the Duende

The Duende is a spirit,

a shapeshifter that can change into a tapir

a snake, a jaguar

The Duende has the power to take human form and lead you astray

And Don Rubio believes that's what the Duende was doing

with the kids

The children aren't lost

Who has them? The Duende

He appeared to them as their grandmother, Fátima

He said, "You are my grandchildren I'll lead you"

After that, he took the kids away

The Duende has them under his power

But what does he want with the children?

It was very strange to explain what was happening to my commanders

It wasn't easy because there was no logical way

to do it, to explain it

For example, I reported, "They say there's a Duende,"

and I didn't know how my commanders would take it

because Special Forces never talk about these kinds of things

My commandos said they needed four bottles of liquor

I said, "Okay, let's do it"

It's highly unusual for military aircraft to be used to transport liquor

But the decision from the high command was clear

Listen to what the indigenous people need

We don't want people to say that we didn't find the kids

because we weren't willing to listen

I asked my commander, "What's this for?"

He said, at midnight, place these liquor bottles

in the shape of a cross at the fork of a river

The Duende likes liquor a lot,

so he'll get drunk and let the children go

It was frightening

to get these kinds of orders

I'm not in a Brothers Grimm, you know, fairy tale

But whatever it takes to find the kids we have to do it

I knew where that river was because we had already checked it out

We searched and searched, and nothing

At some point, the laces from our sergeant's boots became untied

and the boots got tied together

This happened to him about five times

All of a sudden,

the compass started rapidly spinning like this

It wouldn't stop spinning

We were lost for about an hour, hour and a half

Our heads were about to explode

"What's going on?

"Let's get out of here before midnight"

We found a river, but not the river fork

We placed the four bottles of liquor there

It dawned on us that we weren't in control of ourselves at that moment

I am a Catholic

I never believed in supernatural forces

But I started to think

that perhaps a spirit might be preventing us from finding the kids

Lesly

I started taking mambe with them

"Hey, Shaman, it's time to go We have to search Come on"

I took a spoonful, and when we went out to search,

I didn't get tired, I didn't get thirsty or hungry

We’re doing an interview for the news here in the jungle

What’s your indigenous group called? Huitoto?

Yes, I'm muy tonto

- Murui - Moori?

- No, he's Murui - Murui

They took mambe, they meditated They truly searched with us

I’m counting on you

- if something happens to me - You got it

We were all part of the same group, just wearing different clothes

Together, we found more evidence

Diapers

the boy's shoes

The shoes had a huge impact on me

"My God, is the boy barefoot?"

They were totally unprotected

Through these clues, we began to see a pattern

The images show that more than 3,600 miles have been walked

The Indigenous children have made circular movements

Lesly

But despite the new clues,

with every passing day,

the hope of finding the children alive drops a little

How can the kids survive

after so many days?

In the jungle, there's plenty of water, but there isn't much to eat

And without food, they can't survive much longer

By this point, our commandos had covered almost 90% of the search area

We'd tried everything in our power

It wasn't like looking for a needle in a haystack

It was more like

looking for teeny tiny fleas in an immense carpet

And the fleas kept jumping and moving around

Leaving us guessing what their next move might be

Who are they running from?

Indigenous kids are afraid of the military

because they are not familiar with them

They aren't afraid of the jungle, they're afraid of people

They may be thinking, "If Manuel finds us, what will he do to us? Let's hide"

The relationship between Manuel and Lesly was awful

Manuel didn't allow Lesly to play soccer

or hang out with other girls

She was not allowed to have any kind of a social life

Magdalena told me that Manuel wanted to take Lesly out of school,

so they did

He made sure she spent all her time doing housework,

and taking care of her siblings

She had to obey She was like a slave

And if she didn't, Manuel would get angry

One time, Lesly came running outside so that Manuel wouldn't hit her

and hid behind my husband

Manuel was carrying a stick He was going to hit her

Lesly was crying

So, she was always anxious, withdrawn

She was very timid

One afternoon when they were visiting, I asked Lesly,

"Do you want to go to school here?" "Yes, Grandma"

So, I said, "Magda, do me a favor

"Leave the girl with me when she starts sixth grade"

"No," Manuel refused

"Magdalena works, so who will take care of the baby?"

I told him, "You treat Lesly like a donkey,

"making her take care of the baby"

I was looking for a river so we could have water

And I saw something moving

A tortoise

Tien picked up a stick, and I told him not to do that

"No, Tien"

Tien kept asking me, "Why are we here?

"Why can't we find a way out of this jungle?"

I kept telling him that we were lost,

and he refused to believe me

He would get angry and throw tantrums

I've been caring for Tien since he was little

Since he was four months old, I stayed home with him

I made his food every day

I'm tired of it all

Soleiny and Tien walked so slowly I was feeling desperate

I couldn't carry Cristin anymore

I wanted to leave my siblings behind and go on my own

We couldn't find the kids, and we were getting more and more worried

We couldn't find a trace of them,

because every day the Duende took them to a new spot

Despite my knowledge, I was being outsmarted here

Don Rubio and the indigenous group were very tired

They were extremely sick

Almost all of them had pneumonia

We in the search team were eating well, and yet despite that,

we're still falling apart

It's impossible for the kids to survive much longer

I wish that I was the one suffering, not the kids

Manuel was relaxing in the hammock, complaining as usual

The Duende attacked me in my nightmares

It wasn't easy to fight such a powerful spirit

I said, "Brother, stop whining

"If you had any brains, you wouldn't have made those mistakes

"with my sister, so shut up"

Someone called us and said that

Manuel was bringing another woman to the community

And no one had warned Magdalena

"What? This will be a big problem"

Magdalena went to the port and the other woman was there with him

Manuel said that the three of them would live together

Manuel was acting crazy

saying, "This is what our grandparents used to do"

He would prove that he could have two wives

to show how tough he is

And Magdalena got so angry at him that day

Lesly ran off with the kids

After Manuel took out a machete, they ran to the forest for safety

They spent the night there

Magdalena came to my house at about 1:00 am,

with the baby in her arms

She said, "Yoli, Yoli"

I shined a light on her and said, "What happened to you?

"You two fought again? I told you to leave him

"What are you doing?"

She was bleeding

This whole part of her face was bleeding The machete hit her here

You could see, it was all bloody

Manuel left in a boat

'cause there were witnesses to their fight

So, before the guerrillas found out what he'd done to my sister, he ran away,

because they would have killed him

First of all, I'd like to say that the reason for this meeting today

is to let you all know that the Destroyer One group

has officially received orders from our commanders

We were told that we are to return to our base in San José

My team had been in the jungle for almost a month

Everyone was exhausted

Another team will be here to take our place

For us, we want you to know that you’re family

We are going to stay in this fight

We won't give up until the goal of finding the kids is achieved

When they said they were leaving, I lost my focus

I said, "Guys, if we don't find the kid soon

"they'll be dead"

We said, "Rubio

"My brother, you told us that it'd take five days to find those kids

"It didn't happen

"The truth is that this jungle has dominated us

"You know what it's time to do

"It's time for yagé

"We have no choice It's our last resort"

They gave me a phone number for some indigenous people

and asked me to contact them to arrange for a preparation of the yagé

And when it was ready, we were to deliver it to them

The elders in the community are the ones who have the authority

to make the yagé

Yagé is an ancestral drink It's also known as Ayahuasca

I imagine that it would induce intense hallucinations

For us, yagé is not a game

Taking yagé is not like drinking liquor

It sends you flying, high above the trees

While waiting for the yagé to arrive,

we built a longhouse where the yagé itself would be taken

We're going to do this right

Sometimes I was very dizzy

so I would lean on the trees

One day, Soleiny found a little piece of paper

It said that they were looking for us and we should stay in one spot

Tien and Soleiny wanted to stay

because they were tired and didn't want to walk anymore

Soleiny kept falling down and hurting herself

Tien could hardly stand up anymore

The baby wasn't well

All she had to eat or drink was water

I was afraid that she wasn't going to survive

So, I decided that we would stay right where we were

I set up a shelter for us to sleep in

I hope they're coming soon to rescue us

The yagé brew arrived

This was our last tool to try

If the yagé doesn't work, then we'll pack up and leave

Brothers, are you ready?

Yes We’re ready

Here we are, partners

Mm-hmm

- One person will guide us Our shaman - Mm-hmm

Mm-hmm

We ask of you Father Creator

to deliver what we’ve been looking for

The time had come Manuel must take the yagé

so that he understands why this tragedy happened

I was caught off-guard

I was worried

A little after 01:00 am, Manuel drinks it

With yagé, you leave your body and go to another dimension

to find the creator

With yagé, nothing is impossible

You'll always receive an answer

But the one thing is you have to be pure

Before long, Manuel was snoring

This guy isn't under its influence This guy is sleeping

Twenty minutes later, he woke up

Rubio and I just looked over at each other for a second

"What happened here?"

We were all shocked

Just as I was about to reach the kids,

the Duende attacked me and blocked my path

When tragedy strikes,

sometimes you're compelled to tell a story,

the story of your life

If you lie, there are consequences

After Manuel hit my sister with the machete,

she arrived at our house all bruised

"Sister, don't worry We're here for you"

My sister Magdalena said,

"All right, I have to move on with my life

"I'm just going to live here and send Lesly to school

"And I'm going to get a job"

I said, "Where is Manuel right now?"

She said, "Manuel went to Bogotá"

I left because of the issue with the guerilla,

but I stayed in touch with Magdalena In fact, I left her a letter

Manuel had left a bag behind, and Magdalena found a note inside the bag

She read it over and over

And then it's like she completely changed

She didn't eat, she didn't sleep

She said, "Yeri, I think I'm leaving"

I said, "Where to?"

She goes, "To the city Manuel has a beautiful house

"We can live there My kids will go to school"

"Magdalena, please These are all lies I don't want you to go"

I called Manuel

"Tell me the truth Do you love my sister?"

"I don't know

"But Magdalena's love is overwhelming She'll never leave me Never"

A few days later, we went out

And Magdalena stayed back at the house

When we returned, there was no one there

No one in the house

Just a mess left behind

Such a horrible man

She said that she can't stay away from him

I can't blame her I'm in a similar situation

When my husband goes out and ends up drinking too much,

he beats me

Maybe that happens to a lot of women

If you love that person, you may fall into the same trap

Magdalena couldn't wait to leave

Lesly said, "Mom, I don't want to go

"You go alone I'll stay here with my grandma"

Magdalena pulled her by her hair and said, "We're going"

What happened to Magdalena?

I don't know Maybe this guy brainwashed her or something

I think he bewitched her

At 06:00 am, they got on the plane

Who is to blame here?

That man is to blame because of his lies

The guys were quiet They were depressed

I told them, "Don't worry We still have the last dose of yagé"

At 03:00 am, I took it

At night, Soleiny was frightened

when animals came close to sniff at us

I used the flashlight

When I shined the light, the animals would run away

I had a dream

It was about Duendes

They looked like people

They completely surrounded us

I couldn't understand anything they were saying

I felt that no one was ever going to find us out here

I thought we would be stuck here for the rest of our lives

After taking the yagé, I fought with the Duende

He squeezed me like this

I couldn't breathe

He grabbed me and carried me up a tree

He spun me around like this

Then, like an iguana, I went down to the ground

I yelled at the Duende "I need you to give me the kids

"These children are innocent

"The family wants them back"

The Duende told me, "I've been protecting the children

"I'll give them to you

"But only if you take care of them

"If you don't, beware the consequences"

He left and said, "Go up the hill There is a platanillo tree

"There you will find what you need"

Search over there

Rubio said, "No matter what, this is the last time we search

"You go that way, you go this way, you go that way"

"Around 03:00 pm, we'll all meet back here"

He said, "You are going to find them" "Okay"

I'm very tired Really messed up

He left and disappeared

We never saw him again

- Lesly - Lesly

Lesly

Hours pass, and it's already 02:00 pm,

and we're really far away,

like, nine kilometers from our camp

My group and I had already combed the area over there

We had already searched over here

Nothing Nothing

By this point, I'm too sick to keep searching

I can't go on I'm going back

Back to the camp

But our group decides to keep walking and searching

We started to go up a hill

Hey, come here

We quickly headed over

"Oh, brother"

A morrocoy

A tortoise

The elders say that if you threaten it, your wish will be granted

I told it, "You're going to give me the children

"If you don't give me the children,

"the first thing I'll eat is your liver, because that's my favorite

"Nicolas will drink your blood"

Now we have dinner for sure

We all stand still

I hear some voices and footsteps close by

But I see nothing

- Nothing at all - Lesly, Tien

I walk with my head tilted towards the sound

I raise my head

and thank God the children are there

We found the children

We found the children

Thank God We found the children

God has blessed us for the faith we have in Him Mm-hmm

I felt like I was going to faint

It was from all the emotion

"I'm finally getting out of the jungle"

We were happy to find them alive

Two more days and they would have died one by one

The boy says, "I'm hungry

"I want farinha with chorizo"

"We want to eat tamales We want to eat rice pudding"

Well, let's give them some food, only a little bit

Otherwise, it might make them sick

Then we remembered to release the tortoise because it fulfilled the wish

"Thank you for granting our wish

"You can go"

"Brother, let's go It's getting dark"

To get back to camp, it took almost three hours

And the kids are on the verge of dying

I was shocked "Son of a gun, we found them"

I asked Lesly, "Do you know how long you've been missing?"

She says, "About eight or ten days"

It's actually been 40 days

She's not 100% aware of what she's talking about

We need to evacuate them if they're going to survive

As rescue pilots, we sometimes get a call

If they say "reaction," don't question it

Run

When I heard the baby, Cristin

My joy was overwhelming

Tien stared up at me,

It was utterly shattering to see him like that

I said hello to Lesly and Soleiny

It was

Lesly, we're going to leave soon Soleiny, we're leaving soon

I went to them

The first thing I do is hug the 13-year-old girl,

and greet the nine-year-old girl

Then I took my son and daughter and I just held them

As we approached the location,

it's so dark, the jungle turned into a black carpet

The cloud cover was so thick, the separation between sky and earth

was difficult to to differentiate

They were going to evacuate the children I said, "Not without me"

I told Manuel, "You can't go

"Please don't go with the kids

"You'll traumatize them"

"The kids are coming with me"

I didn't want to live with my stepfather again

I was afraid

We start the first extraction with Manuel, and the baby, Cristin

They were going like this, like a swing, back and forth

I felt disoriented, confused

A shadow appeared and started draining the life out of me

That spirit was strangling me

It starts swinging towards the trees

It moves faster and faster

My crew is yelling, "Stop moving or we're going to crash"

"God, don't let me hit a tree"

I strap in Soleiny and Tien, and I went up with the two of them

It was as if there was an energy

that was trying to impede us from succeeding

I felt as if the helicopter was somehow being pulled

It required more power to be able to handle it

"This doesn't feel right"

Only Lesly remained

The rope pulls me up, and I'm so scared

Am I really going up in an airplane again?

Children on board, father on board, rescuers on board

"Guys, let's get out of here quickly before this jungle swallows us"

Tell me, what was the most difficult day?

Cristin was crying and crying

I thought, "I want to leave my siblings behind

"and go alone, leave Cristin"

And I took a deep breath,

and then I thought about leaving my siblings

But I said, "No"

So, I decided to stay there with them

That must have been very difficult

Yes

I was in an accident like this, see?

Like this

And my mom died

And Lesly was protecting us

Look at all that you went through and all you did to save your siblings,

to survive

"People say you're a miracle," I told her

"Why, Auntie?" she asked

"Because you fell from the sky and survived for 40 days

"No one does that"

I'm going to win Wait Wait for my sisters

Come on, hurry

Come on

I told her, "You are free now

"You won't be anybody's slave

"You will have a real life

"Think of it as a movie, and this is the end of the movie"

This search in the Amazon jungle needs to start a phase of understanding

between the state and the indigenous communities,

the majority of whom have been excluded for centuries