Operation Hope met its objective on June 9 of this year to find alive Lesly (13), Soleiny (9), Tien Noriel (4), and Cristin Neryman (1), four indigenous children who were lost in the jungle de Guaviare after his plane crashed and 3 adults lost their lives, including his mother.

The Colombian Military Forces, more than 150 soldiers, local indigenous people and sniffer dogs submerged themselves in the foliage of the jungle in order to be able to shout “Miracle, miracle, miracle, miracle”, a word that they had agreed to announce for each child if the they found alive

But on May 18, it meant a new mission for the Colombian military team after a member of their group got lost during the operation. Wilson is not just any member.

Its body consists of four legs, a short and smooth coat between brown and black tones, erect ears and a very agile sense of smell for a multitude of uses in the field of detection. A male between 61 and 66 cm tall and 25 to 34 kg. Its demeanor gives the impression of elegance and robustness and its posture remains alert to fulfill its tasks.

The dog, a Belgian Shepherd Malinois breed, has been part of the Colombian Military Forces since he was a puppy, completing the necessary training in “search and rescue of living people,” as explained to La Estrella de Panamá, Colonel of the Colombian Army, Gustavo Narváez.

“Wilson has two years of life, which have been lived in training with our team and specifically his guide,” he emphasized.

On May 18, the K9 carried out its search tasks as it had been done for days, but on this day, the dog did not return. He was called by his master and there was no response or return from the dog. “During this time, our priority was to find the children, so our energies were focused on Operation Hope, as such,” the colonel explained.

“By finding them and giving them the necessary medical attention, we were able to start tracking our dog Wilson and since then we have had around 60 men trying to find his whereabouts,” he said.

The Guaviare jungle is an Amazonian lushness with a complicated forest area and humidity close to 80%, where all kinds of animals live such as margays, water dogs, black deer, boas, four-nosed snakes, rattlesnakes, and jaguars, animals that they could easily identify Wilson as part of their diet. In its 104 kilometers, high rainfall prevails with an average of 330 millimeters, especially in the months of May and June.

An area of ​​great risk, for which reason the Colombian military team is exhausting efforts every day with the mission of finding that faithful member, a great friend of man, who was lost more than 35 days ago in the dangerous jungle of the Guaviare.

Beginnings of a K9

Wilson joined the Colombian Military Forces shortly after he was born. “He came to us as a puppy and immediately began his police training,” Colonel Narváez explained.

“Wilson has two years of life that he has lived through in live search and rescue training. His training has been hard and long ”.

Narváez explained that part of his training consisted of smelling certain people’s clothes so that he could find them in the canine. “When you meet the goal, you are encouraged with toys and snacks,” he stated. “Wilson is a very well-trained dog and was instrumental in our mission to find the missing children in the jungle.”

The soldiers who were part of Operation Hope are sure that the K9 remained firm to the mission, even after separating from their pack, since when they found the human footprints of the minors, they were accompanied by the footprints of a can, very similar to those of Wilson. Some media claim that the eldest of the brothers, Lesly, explained to them that part of her journey through the jungle was accompanied by a dog very similar to the police dog.

the rescue plan

Colonel Narváez explained to the newspaper that since June 9, when he carried out Operation Hope, his efforts were redirected to find his faithful member of the military corps. “Currently we have more than 60 men who are inserted in the jungle together with Wilson’s master.”

“Different techniques are being used such as the guide’s voice on the loudspeaker, the location of his favorite food at strategic points where we believe the dog could have been, we are returning to the spaces where we last saw Wilson or where we have found his footprints. In the same way we have resumed the route that we covered while looking for the children ”.

The truth is that the team is hopeful of finding the four-legged member. “The men have the expectation, hope and faith to find the dog alive,” said the colonel. “We have not diminished the techniques and processes with which we are searching for Wilson. On the contrary, we think that every day we have the opportunity to cover more ground and implement new search techniques with the intention of finding it”.

countless versions

The challenge of this mission has not only involved finding Wilson, but also ignoring all the versions that have been heard by indigenous groups or other people, or read in different media.

The newspaper El Tiempo published information about Mia Vanegas, a woman who has become famous because she supposedly has the ability to communicate with animals. Vanegas assures that Wilson is a soul that has fulfilled her purpose and that the answer to everything “is love.”

“Souls have missions, souls have purposes, and he fulfilled his purpose,” he assured on his Tik Tok account.

El Tiempo also published a note explaining that the indigenous community is sure that the animal “remained in Guaviare as an offering.”

Jesús Dagua, a member of the Cauca Indigenous Guard, assured that Wilson “was exchanged. He remained as an offering for the spirits that had the children. Colonel Narváez and his team prefer to ignore all these versions and stick with “what is real and true”, as he commented to the Panamanian newspaper.

“I can confirm that Wilson went missing on May 18 while we were doing one of the explorations to look for the missing children. The dog went out to do his homework and did not return to where he loved it. This is the truth and the version with which we are left so far, ignoring everything we have read and heard.

The colonel added that since May 18, they have managed to see the canine twice but it has not been so easy to catch it. “We have seen it on May 20 and June 6,” he commented. “In both meetings, the master has not been present. The moment in which the group is face to face with Wilson is 5 to 10 seconds where they are about 15 to 20 meters away, which in the jungle is a difficult distance to cover because we are crossed by trees, branches and the rest. Wilson, upon seeing the military, flees and goes into the jungle again.

A second part of the operation

The first part of Operación Esperanza culminated on June 9 when the four indigenous children missing for 40 days were found alive. However, the operation involved a second mission in order to find a faithful member of the Colombian Armed Forces and the police team remains hopeful of being able to complete the operation.

“At the moment we do not have the intention of stopping the mission and we have all our hopes and strength placed in being able to find Wilson at any cost,” said Narváez.