Custody battle breaks out over children who survived 40 days in jungle after Colombia plane crash

A dispute over custody has erupted among relatives of four Indigenous children who miraculously survived a plane crash and spent 40 days alone in the Amazon rainforest in Colombia.

The Colombia family welfare agency said they were not ruling out the possibility of domestic abuse experienced by the mother who died in the crash.

Four children, Lesly, 13, Soleiny, nine, Tien Noriel, four, and one-year-old Cristin, survived in the dense Colombian jungle teeming with snakes, jaguars and mosquitos for over a month.

The children, who were travelling with their mother, were stranded in the rainforest after their Cessna single-engine propeller plane crashed due to engine failure on 1 May.

The children, who belonged to the Huitoto Indigenous group, survived by eating cassava flour, seeds, and fruits they found in the rainforest.

The siblings were the only survivors of the crash which killed everyone else onboard – including their mother Magdalena Mucutui Valencia.

The head of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare, Astrid Caceres, said they are investigating the family background as the maternal grandparents of the children are vying for their custody with their father.

"We are going to talk, investigate, learn a little about the situation," Ms Caceres told BLU radio.

She said they are not ruling 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.

The children, who are currently receiving treatment in the hospital, have been assigned to a caseworker by the welfare agency at the request of their maternal grandparents.

The decision came after Narciso Mucutuy, maternal grandfather of the children accused their father, Manuel Ranoque, of beating his daughter, Magdalena, saying that the domestic harassment forced the children to hide in the forest when fighting broke out.

Speaking to the reporters, Mr Ranoque acknowledged there had been trouble at home, but he characterised it as a private family matter and not "gossip for the world".

Mr Ranoque said: "Verbally, sometimes, yes. Physically, very little. We had more verbal fights."

He claimed that he was not allowed by the agency to meet the two oldest children at the hospital.

The children were travelling from the Amazonian village of Araracuara to the town of San Jose del Guaviare when the pilot of the plane declared an emergency and the aircraft fell off the radar a short time later.

The authorities began their search for three adults and four children who were on board with around 200 soldiers and Indigenous people who knew the area dispatched to comb through the jungle.

After days of relentless search through storms, thick vegetation, and marshy terrain, army radios could be heard saying: “Miracle, miracle, miracle, miracle.”

The children were found with signs of dehydration and insect bites and have been offered mental health services.

Revealing the harrowing details of their survival in the jungle, eldest daughter Lesly said their mother was alive for about four days after the crash before dying.

Mr Ranoque said that their mother likely asked the children to “go away” and asked them “to leave the wreckage site to survive”.