Sixteen people have been found missing after they chose to cut themselves off from the world in a spiritual retreat in a mountainous region in western Venezuela amid media and social media speculation about their fate.

The group, consisting of two families, left on August 22 from the city of La Greta in the state of Tachira, on the border with Colombia, which is known as a place of pilgrimage for Christians.

Juan Escalante, mayor of Jaurega, the area in which La Greta is located, noted that “the missing persons were in a family retreat, deeply religious, and we can assume that it was a spiritual retreat.”

For its part, a source in the Office of Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigations told AFP that “after news of the group was interrupted and it was impossible to contact them, the father of two of the six children in the group, including a twenty-day-old girl, filed a complaint “. One of the relatives of the missing said that “participants of the trip took some children without permission.”

Members of the group reportedly did not take their mobile phones with them to the farm, where they were found in Paramo de la Negra, in the state of Mérida, near Tachira, a few hours from La Greta.

On Friday morning, 16 people were returned to La Greta, where they underwent medical and psychological examinations after more than 160 police, military and civil defense personnel were sent to look for them.