AME3071. BOGOTÁ (COLOMBIA), 07/14/2023.- The Vice Defender of the People of Colombia, Luis Andrés Fajardo, speaks today at a press conference with the director of the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare (ICBF), Astrid Cáceres, in Bogotá (Colombia ). |EFE/ Carlos Ortega
The Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) will take care of the four indigenous children who were lost for 40 days in the Colombian Amazon jungle, after surviving a plane crash in which they were traveling with their mother, another adult and the pilot , for six months.
This was confirmed this Friday by the director of the ICBF, Astrid Cáceres, the same day that the departure of the children from the Military Hospital of Bogotá was confirmed, where they had been since their rescue on June 9.
At the moment, after leaving the medical center, the four brothers remain in an ICBF child protection center whose location has not been revealed, although Cáceres indicated that a rural environment has been sought so that the children feel comfortable.
“They have expressed feeling calm, in all decisions they are showing the routes.” She added the director of the ICBF to indicate that her return to daily life will take six months, during which the defender in charge of the case will investigate the environment and family context to make a decision on her future custody.
“At this time, there must be more context about the family framework,” said Cáceres, a task for which they will have the help and accompaniment of indigenous communities.
The objective of this second phase that is starting, the official continued, will be to care for and protect them until there is a safe environment for them outside of ICBF custody.
The miracle of children
The four brothers are very well, after they were rescued on June 9 after 40 days lost in the jungle and transferred to the Military Hospital, where they arrived with a pronounced state of malnutrition, dehydration and infections.
Cáceres confirmed that the children “have recovered height and weight and that they felt very protected when they left the hospital since they had the accompaniment of indigenous organizations.”
This is the 13-year-old girl Lesly Mukutuy, who was in charge of taking care of her brothers Soleiny Mukutuy, 9; Tien Noriel Ranoque Mukutuy, 5 years old, and Cristin Neruman Ranoque, a baby who completed her first year of life in the Amazon jungle located between the departments of Caquetá and Guaviare.
The children were found in a remote point between Caquetá and Guaviare where they were searched tirelessly for weeks by some 200 soldiers, including commandos from the Army Special Forces, and indigenous people from the area, all of whom were part of Operation Hope.
Custody of the four could fall to the maternal grandparents or to the father who, according to various media, is accused of sexist violence against the mother.
The plane crash of a Cessna 206 plane operated by the Avianline Charter’s company in which they were traveling occurred on May 1 and caused the death of the pilot, the mother of the children and an indigenous leader who accompanied them.
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