Colombia plane crash: custody battle breaks out between relatives of children
Officials are the interviewing family members of the children who survived 40 days alone in the rainforest to determine who should care for them
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.
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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.
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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.
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Manuel Ranoque, the father two of the Indigenous children who were found alive after being lost for 40 days in the Colombian rainforest following a plane crash. Photograph: Raúl Arboleda/AFP/Getty Images
Narciso Mucutuy, the grandfather of the 4 rescued Indigenous children, speaks to the media Photograph: Iván Valencia/AP
Officials are the interviewing family members of the children who survived 40 days alone in the rainforest to determine who should care for them
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