A father in Colombia whose children survived a fatal plane crash followed by 40 days alone in the Amazon jungle has been arrested, though few details regarding his arrest have been released.
The two children, ages 1 and 4, and two stepchildren, ages 9 and 13, of Manuel Ranoque, 32, were miraculously found alive on June 9 after surviving 40 days in the Amazon jungle alone. On May 1, the single-engine plane in which they had been flying with their mother, Magdalena Mucutuy, and two other adults crashed into the earth in the middle of the Colombian jungle. None of the adults survived the crash, but the four children, all members of the indigenous Huitoto people, managed to live until rescued, eating cassava flour found in some luggage, fruit from the jungle, and some of the care packages left by rescue teams.
Almost immediately after the children were found about three miles from the crash site, the children’s maternal relatives began accusing Ranoque of abusing Mucutuy during their seven-year marriage. “Once, he hit my daughter with a machete,” said Mucutuy’s father. “Another time, [the eldest child] hid in the forest with her siblings for three days to protect them from the beatings when [Ranoque] arrived home with alcohol breath and started hitting them without mercy.”
Mucutuy’s brother, Dairo, also alleged…
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