Colombia. Plane crash and child survivors in Amazonia. Father accuses elder stepdaughter of sexually abusing him

Colombian prosecutors on Saturday filed sexual abuse charges against the father of children who survived a May plane crash in the Amazon region of Colombia. Manuel Ranoc is the biological father of the two youngest and the adoptive father of the two older girls.

According to the report, Ranok is accused of sexually abusing his 13-year-old stepdaughter since she was 10 years old. The man was arrested on Friday in the capital Bogota.

The four children, ages 11 months, 4, 9 and 13, were hospitalized for more than a month after they were found in the woods in June. Since then, they have been under the care of the above educational institution.

The cubs survived 39 days in the wild until they were found in early June. Ranok participated in the rescue operation along with the army and the tribals.

They were taken to the hospital and then to the Colombian Institute of Family Support (ICBF). They were sent there because of a complaint that their father had been ill-treated. The ICPF decided to investigate the matter and take care of the minors in the meantime. The father denied the allegations and demanded that government custody be transferred to him as soon as possible. “These are my children, not the president’s children,” he told El Pais in July.

According to prosecutors, it was at this institution that abuse was first suspected.

Maternal grandparents, Narciso Mukuduy and Maria Fatima Valencia, had previously complained of abuse of the family by Ranocall, including domestic violence. The grandfather said that the children would sometimes hide in the forest so that the father would not beat them when he was drunk. One such escape into the forest lasted three days. “Once he attacked my daughter with a knife,” Mukutui told the AP.

The grandparents have been fighting for custody of their four children for weeks. Not just with Ranok, but with their daughter’s first husband, and at the same time the father of her two eldest daughters. They argue that he has not been in touch with his family since the divorce.

A small Cessna 206 plane disappeared from radar on May 1 near San Jose del Guerrier in southern Colombia. Earlier, the pilot reported engine trouble. A short time later, the wreckage of the plane was found in the Amazon jungle, containing the body of the pilot, but no sign of the six passengers. The next day, it was announced that two more bodies had been found: a woman – the children’s mother – and a man who, according to local media, was the head of the Uitoto community, the tribe the travelers belonged to. However, four children are missing: siblings aged 13, 9 and 4 and an 11-month-old baby.

They went to Bogota to meet Ranok. According to El Tiempo, he is related to a local political leader who previously lived with his family in the indigenous reserve of Puerto Sabalo.

Immediately after the disaster, a massive search began. Rescue teams have occasionally found items such as toys, diapers, sports shoes, mobile phone parts and a towel, supporting hopes of finding the children alive.

39 days after the crash, the military found the children near the border between the Colombian provinces of Caqueta and Cuvier, not far from where the plane crashed.