An extraordinary, gripping survival story that also reveals the struggles for social justice of the Indigenous people of Colombia and the Amazon.
In June 2023, four children—Lesly, Soleiny, Tien, and Crispin—were found alive in the Colombian Amazon, forty days after the aircraft they were traveling in had crashed and killed the three adults on board (the pilot, the co-pilot, and the children’s mother). The eldest child, thirteen-year-old Lesly, took the decision to leave her dying mother, gather her siblings—aged nine, five, and eleven months—and head into the jungle. She kept herself and her siblings alive for forty days and nights, finally emerging when heavily armed soldiers closed in, yelling her name above the sound of barking dogs.
Forty Days in the Jungle follows the stories of those involved in the crash and what followed: Maria Fatima Valencia, the children’s grandmother, who had taught Lesly how to survive in the jungle; General Pedro Sánchez who led the rescue team; the shady figure of Manuel Ranoque, the father of the two youngest children; and even the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro.
But there is much more to this than an extraordinary survival story. Interwoven chapters address key questions about Colombian and Latin American history, society, and political economy—the answers to which shed light on the socio-political state of much of the world today. Colombia’s problems mirror, in many ways, the rising Global South in its 21st-century struggles against colonial histories and a globalized world.
“Forty Days in the Jungle penetrates the mysteries and secrets of the Amazon jungle. Far more than the death-defying saga of four children who hid for weeks in the forests after surviving a deadly plane crash, this gripping tale is a path into the rugged day-to-day life of those who live in the Amazon. The mythological Hollywood stereotypes of the Amazon are exposed in this gripping true story that shows those living inside the famed forests to be as socially complex as its biodiversity … Forty Days in the Jungle is a tale of hope and injustice written with a deep respect for all we have yet to learn from this ecosystem known globally as The Lungs of the Planet.”
Jonathan Franklin, author of 438 Days
“Forty Days in the Jungle achieves that rare feat of taking a headline news story and revealing it to be twice as jaw-dropping as we could ever have imagined. Deploying his extensive journalistic talent and intimate knowledge of Colombia, Youkee deftly takes us beneath the surface of the most famous rescue mission for years. In doing so, he unveils not only a tale of human perseverance and courage, but also the searing fault lines that continue to divide and destabilize this beautiful yet fragile country. A triumph of storytelling reportage.’
Oliver Balch, author of Viva South America! and Out of Amazonia
