When it was learned that the four children lost in the Guaviare jungle had turned up on the afternoon of June 9, a story derived from that story seemed to be published at the same time. Story of a castaway in which Gabriel García Márquez recounted the survival at sea for 10 days of a sailor. But the case of minors, one, four, eight and 13 years old, has more elements of a miracle. Not only were they lost for 40 days in a wild environment, where the thick foliage prevents them from seeing 20 meters away, but they had previously survived the plane crash that put them in that place and in which their mother died. The story that children can make of such an experience will be known in part thanks to Wilson, a six-year-old Belgian shepherd dog who helped in the search and is still lost somewhere in the jungle today.
The animal was taken to help in a mission that kept the country in suspense since the remains of the crashed plane and the corpses of the adults who were in it were found. The dog was born and raised among the military. On June 8, the day before the children were found, the Army reported that Wilson had been lost in the jungle. One of the hypotheses that explained his disappearance was that, due to the difficult terrain, humidity, and unfavorable weather conditions in the area, he had become disoriented. But he was close, judging by the footprints that were sighted on the ground, and not only from the Army, but also from the children, whose features had been found a short distance away.
More than 100 members of the Special Forces of the Military Forces, apart from members of the Civil Defense, military dogs and more than 70 indigenous people who know the jungle were still in the search, which ended with joy on Friday afternoon. It was announced that, together with the children, the animal had been located. However, it was not so. That was another of the dramatic twists in a story that was accompanied by inaccurate information and false alarms.
At the same time, social networks, which served as a thermometer for euphoria, gracefully elevated Wilson to the dignity of a hero: “Put Wilson on the $200,000 bill,” wrote one user. Others painted fast-moving cartoons on the Internet.
newsletter
Analysis of current affairs and the best stories from Colombia, every week in your mailbox
RECEIVE THE
The dog, judging by the account of Lesly, the eldest of the children found, had indeed found them. The director of the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare (ICBF), Astrid Cáceres, gave details about what the children had, this Saturday at noon: “Lesly smiled at us, she gave us hugs, she told us about the puppy.” The same one that was lost and on which all the attention of the soldiers who remain in the Guaviare jungle is now focused. General Helder Giraldo, commander of the Military Forces, gave the order to follow in the dog’s footsteps: “A fallen comrade is never abandoned on the battlefield. Operation Hope advances in the search for our canine Wilson, who, tracking and in his eagerness to find the children, distances himself from the troops and gets lost.”
The Army has insisted that Operation Hope, as the jungle search was dubbed, will not end until Wilson shows up. General Pedro Sánchez, who commanded the operation, assured this Saturday that since the dog was lost on May 18, the military made contact with it on two occasions, but on both occasions it was lost again. According to the general, when the children met the animal, it was emaciated, a product of the natural difficulties of finding food in that area. The new objective of the mission is to get Wilson out of the jungle so that the joy, which is already enormous, can be complete.
subscribe here to the EL PAÍS newsletter on Colombia and receive all the key information on the country’s current affairs.
#Wilson #rescue #dog #latest #drama #story #children #lost #jungle