The 18-year-old cousin of the renowned ‘Lost Children’ – three indigenous siblings that survived 40 days alone in the remote Amazon rainforest – has been confirmed as a fatal victim of fierce fighting between ex-FARC groups in the Colombian Amazon.
Daniela Mucutuy was identified among 48 bodies recovered from a remote area of the southeastern Guaviare department following fierce clashes between rival factions of former FARC commanders Iván Mordisco and alias Calarcá.
According to reports, ex-FARC fighters forcibly recruited Mucutuy from her Indigenous Muinane community in Puerto Santander, Caquetá, in 2023.
The then 15-year-old school student was living with her mother but disappeared around the same time that her three younger cousins survived a plane crash in the remote Amazon, launching them to international attention as they spent 40 days alone in the jungle before being rescued by searchers from Indigenous communities supported by the Colombian military.
The incredible story of the Mucutuy siblings’ resilience spawned numerous books, articles and documentaries on both Netflix and National Geographic. Less attention has been paid to children lost after joining the ranks of the armed groups.
According to Mucutuy’s grandmother, Fatíma Velancia, the family was distracted by the search for her cousins at the time of her forced recruitment.
“She was studying when they took her. Her mother called me later, and since I was busy with the missing children, I honestly wasn’t thinking straight,” she told Caracol Radio.
Valencia said the family lost contact with Mucutuy after she was taken, apart from very sporadic phone calls which described an “atmosphere of violence” in the Guaviare region she was abducted to.
Mucutuy constantly warned about the intensity of the conflict between rival factions, said the Muinane grandmother.
“She told me, ‘You have to be careful because there’s a lot of fighting going on among those same people.’”
Rights violations
Mucutuy’s case highlighted the persistent forced recruitment of children, particularly from indigenous communities, according to the National Commission of Indigenous Territories (CNTI).
“This constitutes a serious violation of human rights and international humanitarian law. It is not an isolated case,” said the commission in a statement this week. “No armed group can claim legitimacy while it recruits, uses, and exposes children to war.”
The commission called on the Colombian state to “implement urgent measures” for the protection of families, especially in indigenous and rural territories where risk is highest.
“Forced recruitment and armed violence against children are not only war crimes but also constitute an extermination that fractures generational succession and irreversibly destroys the physical and cultural survival of indigenous peoples in Colombia” it said.
Daniela’s remains were found among 48 bodies which included 10 other minors, three of which were female, according to official reports by Medicina Legal, the state forensic service. Some are still being identified.
The deaths occurred during fighting around the rural hamlet of Banco Colorado on the Rio Meta, 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of the town of San José de Guaviare. The area is contested by war fronts of the Estado Mayor Central (EMC) faction, led by Mordisco, and the Estado Mayor de Bloques and Frentes (EMBF) led by alias Calarcá.
Hunted down
Both armed groups are descended from the same powerful FARC guerrilla units that ruled the vast jungle area before the peace process of 2016. Dissident fighters rejected the 2016 deal but restarted talks with the current Petro government in 2022 under his ‘Paz Total’ (Total Peace) plan.
The government suspended these talks in 2023 after the dissidents killed four indigenous youths in Putumayo, another Amazon province. The four were forcibly recruited by the dissidents, then hunted down and executed after attempting to escape back to their communities.
The dissidents then split when the new EMBF faction opted to continue peace negotiations with the Petro government under the Paz Total initiative, despite accusations it continued to commit war crimes, including child recruitment.
Between them the EMC and EMBF dissident factions were responsible for more than half of the 260 known cases of child recruitment recorded in 2025, said a report earlier this year from state human rights entity Defensoría del Pueblo. Actual figures would be much higher as many abductions went unreported, said the Defensoria.
Kept hidden
NGO workers involved in the dangerous task of protecting children from forced recruitment, speaking on conditions of anonymity, told The Bogotá Post that indigenous communities were often targeted because families frequently lived in isolated settings and had less resources to move children to safety. Once forced into the ranks, children and youths were often shifted to other regions to train and fight.
Commanders were desperate for young recruits that could replace older fighters and strengthen the armed groups against rivals, said one front line worker.
“They’ll take Cauca children to Guaviare, and Caquetá kids to Cauca. It makes it harder for them to escape, and harder for families to rescue them,” she said.
Families were constantly devising ways to keep their children out of the clutches of recruiters, sometimes hiding them or keeping them from outdoors activities.
“It causes terrible mental stress both at family and community level,” she added.
Last week the Colombian military announced the capture of a woman named only as ‘La Suegra’ whom they accused of recruiting indigenous children for the Frente Carolina Ramirez, part of the EMC operating in the Caquetá region where Daniela Mucutuy was taken three years ago.
At the time of her capture, La Suegra was found transporting six indigenous children aged between three and eleven years old, according to local authorities. They have now been placed in the hands of social services.
