The four children who miraculously survived 40 days lost in a Colombian jungle, have been released from the hospital.
Manuel Ranoque, 32, father of thd two youngest kids, said that they have been placed into the custody of a government institution that cares for vulnerable children, teenagers, and the elderly.
He told DailyMail.com exclusively: ‘The kids left the hospital this morning (Friday). They are not with me, they will be looked after by the Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF).
‘They are totally recovered, they are in good health. I’m very pleased.’
Lesly Jacombaire Mucutuy, 13, Soleiny Jacombaire Mucutuy, nine, Tien Noriel Ranoque Mucutuy, four and one-year-old Cristin Neriman Ranoque Mucutuy are at the center of a tug-of-love battle between Ranoque and the parents of the children’s mother Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, 34.
They have spent six weeks in a military hospital in Colombian capital Bogota after their astonishing ordeal, in which they survived a light plane crash that killed their mom.
A spokesperson for Colombian president Gustavo Petro directed DailyMail.com to the ICBF for comment when asked for confirmation that the children have been released from the hospital.
After wandering alone for more than a month, the Huitoto Indigenous children were rescued and airlifted out of the Amazon to be recover in a military hospital in the capital Bogota.
The four children had been lost in the jungle since May 1, when the Cessna 206 in which they were traveling crashed.
The pilot had reported engine problems only minutes after taking off from a deep Amazon area known as Araracuara on the 217-mile journey to the town of San Jose del Guaviare.
The bodies of the pilot, the children’s mother, and another adult were all found at the crash site.
But when the wreckage of the plane was found after weeks of hunting, only the children were not found dead alongside the adults, and there was part-eaten fruit that suggested they had all survived.
That sparked a huge hunt across the remote Amazon rainforest, before they were recused on Friday, June 9.
The children’s father, speaking to the press on Sunday outside the hospital, said that his wife had been severely injured in the May 1 crash, but that she did not die until four days later.
‘The one thing that (13-year-old Lesly) has cleared up for me is that, in fact, her mother was alive for four days,’ Manuel Miller Ranoque told reporters.
‘Before she died, their mom told them something like, “You guys get out of here. You guys are going to see the kind of man your dad is, and he’s going to show you the same kind of great love that I have shown you.”
Magdalena Mucutuy, the children’s mother, was an Indigenous leader.
‘The survival of the children is a sign of the knowledge and relationship with the natural environment that is taught starting in the mother’s womb,’ according to the National Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Colombia.
The children ate seeds, fruits, roots, and plants that they identified as edible from their upbringing in the Amazon region, Luis Acosta of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia.
The youngest two children, now five and one, spent their birthdays in the jungle, as Lesly, the oldest at just 13, guided them through the ordeal.
‘It is thanks to her, her courage and her leadership, that the three others were able to survive, with her care, her knowledge of the jungle,’ Velasquez said.
General Pedro Sanchez, who led the search operation, credited Indigenous people involved in the rescue effort with finding the children.
‘We found the children: miracle, miracle, miracle,’ he told reporters last month following the rescue.
Army chief Helder Giraldo said rescuers had covered more than 1,650 miles to locate the children.
‘Something that seemed impossible was achieved,’ Giraldo said on Twitter
