Father of ‘miracle’ jungle survivor kids targeted by cocaine guerrillas

The father of the four children who survived more than a month in the Colombian jungle after a plane crash that left their mother dead, says he is the target of a violent guerrilla group that controls drug trafficking in the Amazon — and now worries that the rebels will go after his miracle kids.

Manuel Ranoque, the father of the two youngest children who survived the May 1 plane crash and stepfather to the others, said he has been in hiding in the Colombian capital of Bogota since a dissident group of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) threatened to kill him.

The Carolina Ramirez Front is named for a former guerrilla combatant and controls drug trafficking in Vaupes and Guaviare, in the southeastern part of the country where the indigenous family is from, according to reports.

“The Carolina Ramírez Front is looking for me to kill me,” Ranoque told a group of reporters earlier this week outside the military hospital in Bogota where the four children — ages 13, 9, 5 and 1 — are recuperating. “I have received threats because I am a target for them. I know that those shameless people will start using my children to pressure me, and I am never going to allow that. They have an economic interest, and while you don’t do as they say, you are their enemy. They are going to look directly for me here, they are going to send someone directly here.”

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Ranoque is related to the governor of the Huitoto Los Monos reservation in remote Puerto Zabalo. He has been in hiding for the last few months, he told Colombian journalists.

Last month, the Colombian government suspended its six-month truce with the dissident FARC group following the May 17 murder of four indigenous adolescents from the Murui tribe who the group had forcibly recruited.

The teens were killed after they tried to flee the guerrillas, according to the National Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon.

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Herman Mendoza Hernandez, a leading member of OIPAC and the leader of the Huitoto tribe, was on the Cessna 206 that carried the children and their mother, also members of the tribe.

The mother, Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, 33, died four days after the plane crashed, according to Ranoque who spoke with the children after they were rescued Friday. Mendoza Hernandez also died in the crash along with the Cessna’s pilot, Hernando Murcia Morales.

The group was traveling from the Amazonian village of Araracuara to San Jose del Guaviare when the plane went down after one of its engines failed, according to reports.

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Ranoque said that he was scheduled to meet the children and their mother at San Jose del Guaviare before traveling together to Bogota. Mendoza Hernandez was also on his way to Bogota where he is the head of the non-profit Yetara Foundation of Indigenous Professionals, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Led by their eldest sibling, Lesly Mucutuy, the children survived for the first few days by eating a sack of cassava flour, and relied on the 13-year-old to scout non-poisonous fruit and seeds during their nearly 40 days in the jungle. Lesly also used leaves and twigs to construct a lean-to to protect her siblings — Soleiny Jacobmaire Mucutuy, 9, Tien Ranoque Mucutuy, 5, and Cristin Mucutuy, 1.

Ranoque said he participated in the search for the children along with dozens of members of Colombia’s armed forces, who used tape-recorded messages from their maternal grandmother broadcast from loudspeakers on low-flying aircraft to reassure the children and let them know help was on the way.

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After the rescue, Ranoque came under fire from some of Mucutuy Valencia’s family who said that he had allegedly abused his wife and tried to sexually abuse one of her daughters. In an interview El Tiempo Monday, Ranoque vigorously denied the allegations

A custody battle over the children has reportedly begun.

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Ranoque now wants the Colombian government of President Gustavo Petro to help him with the children, and to compensate him and the other indigenous leaders who helped with the rescue effort.

“President, respect our principles as an indigenous people,” he said. “I hope you compensate all my comrades who were involved in the search. The truth is, I don’t even have enough money to buy my comrades a coffee.”