Colombia's president retracts claim children were rescued

The Colombian president on Thursday admitted he had been mistaken to announce the rescue of four Indigenous children after their plane crashed in the Amazon Rainforest.

Declaring "joy for the country,"President Gustavo Petro had written on Twitter that the children, one of them a baby, were found after "arduous search efforts" by the military. DW was among the news outlets covering his initial comments.

Early in the morning of May 1, the plane carrying seven people between Araracuara, in Amazonas province, and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province, had suffered an engine failure.

While the three adults, including the pilot, died in the plane crash — it was suspected that the four children aged 13, 9 and 4, as well as the 11-month-old baby, survived the impact.

How was the mistake made?

Writing on Twitter, Petro said he had deleted his tweet from Wednesday night when he had announced the children's rescue.

He explained that he had received the information from the  Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) but that the rescue teams had not confirmed the news.

"I am sorry for what happened. The military forces and Indigenous communities will continue in their tireless search to give the country the news it is waiting for," said Petro.

"At this time there is no other priority other than moving forward with the search until you find them. The children's lives are the most important thing."

Petro's announcement on Wednesday had been met with confusion. It lacked details about where or how the children had been rescued, or how they had survived alone in the jungle. Alongside the uncertainty, the military had not confirmed any rescue.

The ICBF confirmed that it had passed the news to the presidency. It said officials had received a report from the area that the children aboard the aircraft had been found alive and were also in good health.

With this news, "and with knowledge of reports made by indigenous communities in the area," the ICBF said it had contacted other government entities to ensure the children's care.

"Immediately, this information was also transmitted to the Presidency of the Republic for the president to communicate the news to the country."

"However, the military forces have not yet been able to establish an official record due to the difficult weather conditions and difficult terrain, which is why they tirelessly continue the search efforts that have yielded several finds in the area and would allow the information to be corroborated."

The rescue operation

On Wednesday, armed forces said that the rescue efforts were intensified when remnants of a "shelter built in an improvised way with sticks and branches" were found.

The search, dubbed "Operation Hope," was made more difficult by heavy rainfall, the fear of wild animals, and huge trees that can grow as tall as 40 meters (131 feet) — obscuring the view from the air.

The rescue operation was conducted in the dense Amazon jungle of Colombia's Caqueta province by joint efforts of the military, firefighters, and civil aviation authority officials. The region where the plane crashed has very few roads and is difficult to access by rivers as well, so air travel is commonly used.

More than 100 soldiers along with sniffer dogs were deployed for the search operation.

One of the three helicopters used in the search operation hovered over the jungle and played a recorded message from the children's grandmother telling them to stop moving in the jungle.

mf, rc/msh (Reuters, AFP)