(Bogotá) The four indigenous children rescued from the Amazon jungle in Colombia were released from hospital on Thursday evening after a month of treatment in a military hospital, the national child protection agency said on Friday, which will temporarily have the child care.
“They took over […] weight, they are even very well,” said Astrid Caceres, director of the Colombian Institute for the Protection of the Family (ICBF), during a press conference.
Since their rescue on June 9, Lesly (13), Soleiny (9), Tien Noriel (5) and Cristin (1), have been hospitalized at the military hospital in Bogota.
According to Mme Caceres, there are no physical consequences from their 40 days of wandering in the Amazon jungle, where they ended up after a plane crash in which their mother and two other adults died.
Even Cristin, who was less than a year old when the plane crashed on 1er May, is “completely recovered in terms of physical development,” added the official.
So far, only images of when a group of natives found them among the vegetation are known. The video, filmed on a cell phone, shows them haggard and terribly thin.
In the hospital, special treatment was given to them and they were fed with preparations of the Uitoto ethnic group to which they belong, such as cassava flour.
The ICBF said it will retain guardianship of the siblings for at least six months because “further investigation is needed into the circumstances and family environment” of the children.
After the rescue, a battle erupted between the maternal grandparents and the father of the two youngest children over who will have custody of them. According to a complaint from the grandfather, the man abused the mother.
In the meantime, they will live with other children in an ICBF shelter, the location of which has not been disclosed. Mme Caceres only assured that they would live in a rural area, where they would feel “comfortable”.
The Colombian government jealously protected the siblings from any media exposure. President Gustavo Petro recently announced the preparation of a documentary on their survival in the jungle.