A custody dispute has erupted between relatives of four children who miraculously survived a plane crash in the Colombian jungle. Colombia’s family welfare agency said it could not rule out the possibility that the mother who died in the crash had been abused, the Independent reported.
One of the four children was found alive.
The four children - Lesly, 13, Soleiny, nine, Tien Noriel, four, and Cristin, one - spent 40 days in a jungle infested with snakes, jaguars and mosquitoes in Colombia after the plane they were travelling in crashed due to engine failure on May 1.
The four children, members of the Huitoto indigenous people, survived on cassava flour, nuts and fruits they found in the rainforest. They were the only survivors of the crash that killed everyone else on board the plane — including their mother, Magdalena Mucutui Valencia.
How are the 4 children who survived 5 weeks in the Amazon rainforest after a plane crash doing now?
The head of the Colombian Family Welfare Institute, Astrid Caceres, said they were investigating the family situation because the four children's grandparents were fighting for custody with their father. According to Caceres, they could not rule out the possibility that the children and their mother may have been subjected to domestic violence.
The four children, currently being treated in hospital, have been placed in the care of a welfare officer by the welfare agency at the request of their grandparents.
The decision came after the children's maternal grandfather, Narciso Mucutuy, accused their father, Manuel Ranoque, of beating his daughters, saying the children had to hide in the woods every time they witnessed domestic violence.
Mr. Manuel Ranoque, father of four children
Speaking to the press, Mr. Ranoque admitted that their family was not happy, but he said that this was a private family matter and not "a trivial matter for the world to gossip about".
Revealing the story of her and her siblings' survival in the woods, eldest daughter Lesly said their mother survived for four days after the accident before passing away.
Their mother may have asked the children to “go away” and asked them to “leave the rubble to survive,” Mr Ranoque said.
Miraculously, 4 children survived after plane crash, lost in jungle for more than 5 weeks
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