Colombian authorities have announced that the four young children who were found last month after surviving 40 days in the Amazon rainforest following an air crash have been released from the hospital and are in good condition.
The children, aged between 1 and 13, had been receiving treatment at Colombia’s Military Hospital in Bogota since their discovery on June 9. On Friday, they were discharged from the medical facility and are now staying at a shelter home, as stated by Astrid Garces, the director of the Colombian Children Welfare Agency (ICBF), during a press briefing.
The ICBF operates 188 shelters throughout Colombia, and the children are currently residing in one of these shelters. Garces expressed that considering the ordeal they went through, the children are doing well. She mentioned that their physical health is excellent and that they have received care from a team of psychologists and anthropologists during their time at the hospital.
The children, named Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy (13), Soleiny Jacobombaire Mucutuy (9), Tien Ranoque Mucutuy (4), and infant Cristin Ranoque Mucutuy, were left stranded in the Amazon jungle on May 1 following a tragic plane crash that claimed the lives of their mother, Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, other passengers, and the pilot.
The discovery of footprints, a dirty diaper, and a bottle led to an extensive search effort involving over a hundred Colombian special forces troops and 70 indigenous scouts. After weeks of searching, the children were found last month, earning them the moniker “children of the jungle,” bestowed upon them by Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
To survive during their time in the jungle, the children relied on consuming three kilograms (six pounds) of farina, a coarse cassava flour commonly used by indigenous tribes in the Amazon region, as reported by a Colombian military special forces official.
The ICBF has stated that it will present a case in a family court to determine legal custody of the four children through a process known as “reinstatement of right.” The children’s grandparents have already made an appeal for the children to be returned to them. Both the father of the two youngest children, Manuel Ranoque, and the maternal grandparents have expressed their desire for legal custody, and a family court will ultimately make the decision regarding their fate.
The ICBF refrained from providing further comments on the legal matter, citing its status as a private matter.