Missing baby marks first birthday as jungle search continues

Cristin Ranoque Mucutuy, the indigenous Uitoto baby who disappeared for 26 days in the jungles of southern Colombia along with her three siblings, after the accident of a plane in which they were traveling on May 1, celebrates her first birthday on Friday, Military sources reported.

“From all corners of the national geography, Colombians unite in prayer so that she and her three brothers are well and that soon we can celebrate life together,” said the Military Forces in a statement where they reaffirmed that they continue with the search for the minors in the Operation Hope.

The four brothers were traveling on a Cessna 206 plane from the indigenous reservation of Araracuara, between Caquetá and Amazonas, to San José del Guaviare with their mother, Magdalena Mukutuy, and the indigenous leader Hermán Mendoza, whose bodies appeared last week, along with the of the pilot, in the crashed aircraft.

The search operation led by the military for Lesly Mukutuy, 11, Soleiny Mukutuy, 9, Tien Noriel Ronoque Mukutuy, 4, and the baby, were joined last Sunday by some 85 indigenous people from various jungle areas of the country.

Before entering the jungle, the indigenous people held a ceremony to ask her for permission to let them enter this place in whose forests they must endure up to 16 hours of rain.

Barely a dozen clues have been found of the missing minors since May 1 in this area of ​​virgin jungle located in the middle of the unexplored Chiribiquete Park.

Among this evidence they found several baby objects such as used bottles and diapers that could belong to the baby who is celebrating her birthday today and a shelter located 3,600 meters from the place where the aircraft plummeted due to engine failure.