A custody battle has erupted among the families of four indigenous children who miraculously survived a plane crash and 40 days alone in the Amazon rainforest of southern Colombia over allegations that their father was a domestic abuser.
The siblings, aged one to 13, remained hospitalized on Monday and are expected to stay for several more days. The Colombian Child Protection Agency uses this period to interview family members to find out who should take care of them.
On Sunday, grandfather Narciso Mucutuy accused his son-in-law Manuel Ranoque of hitting his wife Magdalena Mucuty.
Narciso told reporters that when fighting broke out between their parents, his grandchildren would hide in the woods.
Mr Ranoque acknowledged to reporters that there had been trouble at home but described it as a private family matter and not “gossip for the world”.
When asked if he had assaulted his wife, Mr Ranoque replied: “Sometimes verbally, yes.” Physically, very little. “We had more verbal arguments.”
Mr Ranoque said he was not allowed to see the two eldest children in hospital.
Four indigenous children miraculously survived a plane crash and 40 days alone in the Amazon rainforest of southern Colombia
Narciso Mucutuy, the grandfather of the four rescued indigenous children, speaks to the media from the entrance of the military hospital housing the children who survived a plane crash in the Amazon that killed three adults and then the jungle for 40 days braved before they were found alive medical care in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday June 11, 2023
Indigenous man Manuel Ranoque (centre), father of four indigenous children found alive for 40 days in Colombia’s Amazon rainforest after a plane crash, speaks to the press before arriving at the military hospital
Exclusive photos show the four siblings Lesly, 13, Soleiny, nine, Tien Noriel, four, and baby Cristin, one, safely in their hospital beds at a military hospital in Bogotá, Colombia
Handout image released by the Colombian Army showing a soldier standing next to the wreckage of a plane that crashed in the Colombian Amazon forest in the municipality of Solano, department of Caqueta, May 19, 2023
Astrid Caceres, head of the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare, said in an interview with local BLU radio that a social worker had been assigned to look after the children at the request of their maternal grandparents, who are fighting with the father of the youngest two.
“We’re going to talk, do some research and learn a little bit about the situation,” Ms Caceres said, adding that the agency hadn’t ruled out that she and her mother might have experienced domestic violence.
“The most important thing at this moment is the children’s health, which is not only physical but also emotional, the way we accompany them emotionally,” she said.
Caceres refused to comment on why Mr Ranoque was not allowed to see his children in hospital.
The children were traveling with their mother from the Amazonian village of Araracuara to the southern Colombian city of San Jose del Guaviare on May 1 when the pilot of the single-engine propeller plane Cessna declared an emergency due to an engine failure.
A short time later, the plane disappeared from radar and the search for the three adults and four children on board began.
All of the adult passengers were found dead in the wreckage of the plane, which was hanging almost vertically in the air after crashing into the trees.
But more than a month later, the children were found disheveled, malnourished and dehydrated – but miraculously alive.
They survived by eating cassava flour, seeds, and fruits they found in the rainforest and were familiar with as members of the Huitoto indigenous group.
Army members are assisting four tribal children who were found after being lost in the Colombian Amazon jungle for more than a month
Lesly and Soleiny Mucutuy have made touching color drawings of Wilson, the Belgian Shepherd rescue dog who went missing during the rescue mission
The Chief of the Colombian Armed Forces, General Helder Giraldo, accepts the moving drawings of the missing rescue dog Wilson made by two of the children
A traditional doctor performs a ritual during the press conference of Luis Acosta (right), the coordinator of the indigenous guard in charge of finding children lost in the Amazon jungle
Luis Acosta, coordinator of the indigenous guard in charge of finding the children lost in the Amazon jungle, speaks to the press in Bogota, Colombia, June 11, 2023.
The children were picked up on Friday and flown by helicopter to the Colombian capital, Bogotá, and then to a military hospital, where they received psychological care and other support.
Officials have attempted to do this in a culture-sensitive manner, arranging spiritual ceremonies and foods that the children are used to.
As they recover, the children have shared harrowing details of their time in the jungle with their relatives.
The eldest, Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, said her mother was alive for about four days after the crash before she died, Mr Ranoque said on Sunday.
“To be clear, the girl (Lesly) knows everything,” he said.
“The only thing she made clear is that the mother was alive for four days.” Before she died…she said to them, “Go!” And you will find out what your father is made of…and like love your father’s.”
Meanwhile, over the weekend, child rescuers revealed the tragic first words of the severely malnourished children upon their rescue.
They described how the oldest child with a baby ran towards them when they saw them coming.
“I’m hungry” and “My mother is dead,” the rescuers were told.
The tragic first words of children who survived 40 days in the Colombian jungle have been revealed by their rescuers. Soldiers from the Colombian Air Force and staff from the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) provide medical care to the surviving children of a Cessna 206 plane crash on an airplane
A Colombian Air Force soldier carries one of the surviving children to the plane. After wandering alone for more than a month, the indigenous Huitoto children, ages 13, nine, five and one, were rescued and airlifted from the Amazon on Friday and were recovering at a military hospital in the capital Bogotá two days later
One of the children holds a surgical glove with a happy face while being airlifted to Bogota in San Jose del Guaviare
“The eldest daughter, Lesly, ran towards me with the little one in her arms. Lesly said: “I’m hungry,” Nicolas Ordonez Gomes, one of the search and rescue workers, told public broadcaster RTVC.
“One of the two boys was lying. He got up and said to me, “My mother is dead.”
“We immediately responded with positive words, saying that we were friends, that we had been sent by family, father, uncle. That we were family,” Ordonez Gomes added.
In a video released Sunday showing the children shortly after their discovery, the children appeared emaciated from their time in the wild.
Their rescuers were seen singing, smoking tobacco – a plant considered sacred to many jungle dwellers – and partying.
Magdalena Mucutuy, the children’s mother, was an indigenous leader.
It was thanks in part to the local knowledge of the children and indigenous adults involved in the search, along with Colombian troops, that despite threats from jaguars and snakes and the ongoing rains that may have prevented them from making possible calls, the youngsters made possible calls hear, search parties were found alive.
“Child survival is a sign of the knowledge and relationship with the natural environment that is instilled in the womb,” according to the National Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Colombia.