A custody battle has broken out among relatives of the four Indigenous Colombian children who survived a plane crash and 40 days alone in the Amazon rainforest, with the father of two of them facing accusations of domestic violence.
The siblings, ranging in age from one to 13, remained in hospital on Monday and were expected to stay there for several days, during which time Colombia’s child protection agency will interview family members to determine who should care for them after their mother died in the 1 May crash.
Astrid Cáceres, head of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare, said in an interview with BLU radio that a caseworker was assigned to the children at the request of their maternal grandparents, who are vying for custody with the father of the two youngest.
“We are going to talk, investigate, learn a little about the situation,” Cáceres said, adding that the agency has not ruled out that they and their mother may have experienced domestic abuse.
“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.
On Sunday, grandfather Narciso Mucutuy, accused Manuel Ranoque, the children’s father, of domestic abuse against their mother, Magdalena Mucuty, telling reporters the children would hide in the forest when fighting broke out between the pair.
Ranoque acknowledged to reporters that there had been trouble at home, but he characterised it as a private family matter and not “gossip for the world”.
Asked whether he had attacked his wife, Ranoque said: “Verbally, sometimes, yes. Physically, very little. We had more verbal fights.”
Ranoque said he has not been allowed to see the two oldest children, of whom he is not the biological father. The Institute of Family Welfare declined to comment on why that was the case.
The children were travelling with their mother from the Amazonian village of Araracuara to the town of San Jose del Guaviare on 1 May when the pilot of the Cessna single-engine propeller plane declared an emergency due to engine failure. The aircraft fell off the radar a short time later and a search began for the three adults and four children who were on board.
For more than a month the children survived by eating cassava flour and seeds as well as some fruits they found in the rainforest, which they were familiar with as members of the Huitoto Indigenous group.
They were finally found on Friday and helicoptered to the capital, Bogotá, and then to a military hospital where they have been given psychological services and other support. Officials have sought to do so in a culturally sensitive way, arranging for spiritual ceremonies and food the children are accustomed to.
The children have told relatives harrowing details of their time in the jungle. The oldest said their mother was alive for about four days after the crash before dying, Ranoque said Sunday.
The plane was found two weeks after the crash in a thick patch of rainforest. The bodies of the three adults were recovered, but there was no sign of the children, prompting hopes that they could be alive.
During the weeks-long search, soldiers in helicopters dropped boxes of food into the jungle, and planes fired off flares at night to illuminate the ground for rescue crews. Rescuers also used speakers to blast a message recorded by the children’s grandmother telling them to stay in one place.
The children were ultimately found about 5km from the crash in a small clearing. Authorities said rescuers had passed within 20 to 50 metres (70 to 160ft) of the site on a couple of occasions but missed them.
