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Lesly, the 13-year-old "warrior": This is how she saved her little brothers in the jungle

2023-06-12 19:38:14Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA ANTONIO POLITO
Lesly, the 13-year-old "warrior": This is how she saved her little
A photo published on Twitter by the Colombian Armed Forces

The courage of the older sister and the indigenous mothers have allowed the four Colombian children to survive. The stepfather is accused of domestic abuse.

By Sara Gandolfi – Corriere della Sera

It's Lesly the "warrior" of the jungle, a 13-year-old girl who knows how to be a mother to three younger brothers, but also helped them survive for 40 days in the heart of a dark forest full of dangers, jaguars, anacondas , poisonous plant...

There's Lesly the "warrior," who out in the woods probably also had to fend off a bullying stepfather who's now banned from visiting her in the hospital.

In a world that still needs heroes, Lesly "la valiente" (the brave one), is the undisputed protagonist of the odyssey of the missing children in Colombia.

It rains sixteen hours a day in the forest of Guaviare, where a Cessna, a small plane carrying four young children, mother Magdalena, an indigenous leader and the veteran pilot, crashed on May 1. The little survivors said that the mother remained alive for four days, in agony.

Lesly also saved the mother, who shortly before she died, told them to leave the scene of the accident, to move, because in a tropical forest full of predators it is better to always be on the move.

Lesly Jacobombaire Mukutuy didn't say no, she knew it had to be done. The 13-year-old knows the secrets of jungle life well, her Uitoto indigenous grandparents taught her to know which fruits can be eaten or where to look for water suitable for consumption.

She knows how to be guided by the sunlight that filters through the trees, she knows stable paths, broken branches, edible mushrooms.

People from indigenous communities find their way easily in the Amazon forest and can walk 30 kilometers a day without walking shoes.

Lesly had grown up with those lessons and thus saved herself and her brothers. They ate a fruit known as "juan soco" and an Amazonian plant called "milpesos" by the locals.

They also found one of the 100 kits airdropped by the Military Forces, which Lesly and her brothers kept for 15 days.

"We also have to recognize not only her courage but also her leadership skills, because it was thanks to her that the three little brothers managed to survive by her side, with her care, and even with her knowledge of the jungle," said the Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, during his visit to the military hospital.

"It was the girl, the eldest, our heroine, who with her wisdom took care of and protected her brothers," explained Giovanny Yule, one of the indigenous agents who led the investigation.

Lesly and her little sister Soleiny also made a drawing of Wilson the dog (pictured below), who would have led them for days in the woods before losing their tracks.

Lesly, the 13-year-old "warrior": This is how she saved her little

They handed it over to Wilson's trainer, who is still searching for the six-year-old Belgian Shepherd in the dense Amazon bush.

However, it is a story with a happy ending with still many dark spots. Disturbing details emerge about Lesly's family and also what she and her younger sister may have been going through at home.

According to the testimony of several relatives on the mother's side, the stepfather Manuel Ranoque, the biological father of the 4-year-old boy and the 1-year-old girl, was reported to have attempted to abuse one of the girls and to have committed acts of domestic violence against his wife. his Magdalene.

Ranoque defended himself yesterday, recalling that he had lived with the children and Magdalena for six years.

"The two older girls are my daughters, I have given them education and food... this is an economic dispute between families," he said. - They treated me as a rapist, but the girl shut them up, explaining everything and saying that I am her father. I have nothing to do with any domestic abuse. They want to take my children from me and take possession of them. People who talk like that, were not even with me looking for children when I was sick."

Manuel admitted that he had verbally and physically attacked Magdalena and concluded, reports the weekly "Semana", that "internal problems, problems between husband and wife, should not become gossip for the world".

The authorities have forbidden him to visit his two daughters in the military hospital in Bogota where they are hospitalized.

Indigenous Yule, who took part in the research, added that Lesly also knew how to follow his instincts and the guiding spirits of the forest: "They had the wisdom of how to eat, get water and, of course, how to endure hunger."

According to the locals, no one ever gets lost in the forest, on the contrary, they are "welcomed" by it, and inside, among the dense foliage, they find creatures that guide them.

However, in the forest where the four children were found, many uncontacted indigenous tribes still live, who probably helped the little ones survive.

Villagers generally stop looking for missing people after ten days. This time it was different.

After several weeks of fruitless searches, the armed forces conducting Operation Hope realized that they needed the ancestral knowledge and sought the cooperation of the local military guard of the four jungle departments.

"There was a spiritual conversation with the spirits of the jungle mother, and in that conversation there was an exercise to lead the way, to be able to stay in the territory and make an agreement, for the jungle mother to give birth to the children," he says. Yule.


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