The father of the two youngest Colombian jungle survivors has admitted to Newstimesuk.com that he cheated on their mother before the astonishing survival ordeal.
Manuel Ranoc, 32, admitted having an affair behind wife Magdalena Mukutuy Valencia, 34 – who died in a plane crash and miraculously survived her four children for 40 days before being picked up from the rainforest.
‘I’m made of flesh and bones and make mistakes,’ Roanoke told Newstimesuk.com, who exclusively revealed he cheated on a woman in the Colombian capital, Bogota, and even brought her back to his indigenous Amazonian community.
Sitting down with us in a Bogota hotel, he admitted: ‘Yes I had a woman, but never leaving Magdalena.’
And he insisted the affair was now over, saying: ‘It was just a one-off thing – what happened, happened.’
Before he died in a small plane crash in the Colombian Amazon jungle, Manuel Ranoc admitted he had cheated on his wife.
Exclusive photos show four siblings, Leslie, 13, Soleni, nine, Tien Noriel, four, and baby Christine, one, safe in their hospital beds at a military hospital in Bogota, Colombia.
Roanoke has appeared outside the military hospital several times since the children were taken there after their surprise rescue on Saturday. He was very vocal about claiming his rights over the four survivors
‘We didn’t know Magdalena was leaving with the children,’ Dairo, the dead woman’s brother, told Newstimesuk.com. The most painful thing is that my sister never said goodbye to us.’
Magdalena’s brother Dairo Mukutui, 30, revealed that Ranoc first went to Bogotá to complain that he was being threatened by a dissident group of FARC guerrillas in his southern tribal area.
But once his wife of seven years had an affair in the sprawling city that sits 8,600 feet above sea level on a plateau in the Andes.
Ranoc then took the woman to their community in the Amazonian village of Aracuara which broke Magdalena down, insisting her brother.
The pilot and an indigenous leader died in the Magdalena plane crash
He later moved back to Bogotá, but kept the distraught mother hanging on in hopes that they could rekindle a relationship, Dairo, 30, told Us.
And it was that hope in her partner’s relationship that made her suddenly – and unbeknownst to her family – gather her children for the ill-fated light plane ride to the city of San José del Guaviare en route to the nation’s capital.
‘Manuel went back to Bogotá, but he left a bag for her and inside was a piece of paper with a phone number,’ Diro said.
‘Magdalena was communicating with him. But we noticed when he talked to her she would hide. And we sometimes heard her cry.
‘We believe that somehow he was fooled into trying to come to Bogota. We are not sure of the exact reason.’
Sitting in the lobby of his hotel, Roanoke depicted the animosity between the two sides of the family when he said of Dario: ‘He’s bringing these things. But he will end up in a difficult situation.’
The story that tragically gripped the world began when the blue and white Cessna light plane carrying Magdalena and her four siblings suffered engine failure and crashed on May 1 in Solano, Caqueta, near the Ecuadorian border.
Lesly Jacombaire Mucutuy, 13, Soleiny Jacombaire Mucutuy, nine, Tien Noriel Ronoque Mucutuy, four, and one-year-old Cristin Neriman Ranoque Mucutuy survived the injury and miraculously managed to survive for 40 days before being bitten by the snake. .
They are recovering from their ordeal at a military hospital in Bogotá, amid allegations of a custody battle between the family’s mother and Ranoc.
Manuel Ranoc initially dodged questions from Newstimesuk.com as he stood outside a Bogota hospital where four children were recovering. This time he admitted cheating on his wife
Magdalena Mukutui Valencia was hanging on to the hope that they could fix the relationship, according to her brother.
Colombian Air Force soldiers and staff from the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) treat children who survived a Cessna 206 plane crash inside the plane.
However, the father revealed that all four are still struggling, with family visits limited.
‘They’re fine, they’re still sick,’ he said. ‘I have not seen the two youngest today. In fact I did not see them for four days due to their condition.
‘They are not enough to visit. They have flu and headache.
‘I hope they recover soon but the Lord will have the final say. I have not been told when they will be released from the hospital.’
Roanoke revealed that even if the children were well enough to visit, he was still forbidden to see the oldest two. Their father is Andres Jacombeire, who Newstimesuk.com understands is also in Bogotá but is not in good health.
‘I’m not fighting because I know I’ll see Leslie and Soleni eventually,’ Roanoke said.
The father – who has previously been vocal about asserting his rights over the four survivors – added: ‘I’m not going to fight for custody either.
‘But (I would say) that the kids need to be with me. I fought for them when I helped them find them, and I fought for them in their lives.
‘The four children must be with me, not apart.’
Manuel Ranoc believes that his two children and their half-siblings should not be separated. But she said she won’t fight for custody even though she believes they should all be together
Cessna crashes in dense forest in southern Colombia, killing three adults on board, but miraculously survives four children
Four Aboriginal children are pictured after their rescue. They were missing for six weeks in the Colombian Amazon jungle after the plane crashed
The FARC waged a 50-year campaign against the Colombian government that left more than 200,000 people dead before agreeing to a ceasefire in 2016. Dissident groups continue to fight
Roanoke refuses to detail the first of the four children to him after their dramatic rescue in a military operation.
‘I’ll wait for them to tell their own stories,’ he said. ‘They were very happy to see me because I was part of their lives. But let them say.’
On the public allegation that Magdalena’s father, Narciso Mukutui, had physically abused his wife, he insisted: ‘It is not true. Many people who heard it were angry at such falsehood.
‘I could tell you all the nice things about me, but when the children can talk you will get the truth from them. I’ll let the kids speak for me.’
Roanoke, meanwhile, has doubled down on its public announcement that Magdalena and the children were forced into tragic flight by threats from an armed dissident band of FARC guerrillas operating in their area – despite public denials by the group.
The father, who has a community role in the area, told Newstimesuk.com: ‘Yes, they threatened me. I can’t talk about it. Yes, they threatened to kill me.’
He claimed this week: ‘The Carolina Ramírez Front (FARC) wants to kill me. I am being threatened because of them. I am a target.
A baby bottle was found in the woods near the crash site. The youngest child, Christine Mukutu, was only 11 months old at the time of the accident, although it was her first birthday
‘I know the whole area. I know that these shameless people can put pressure on me with my children and I won’t let that happen.’
But the group, which calls itself the Central General Staff and has about 3,500 active fighters, categorically denied the claims in a statement.
It said: ‘It is not true and because of the statement of the father of the minors in front of the media we do not know that the child and the wife fled due to threats from Puerto Sabala and the Cahuinari River region. Our unit.’
The group describes itself as ‘mobile, nomadic guerrillas’ who ‘reach out to indigenous communities in the south-east of Colombia with whom they seek friendship’.
The FARC – the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – waged a 50-year war of terror against the Colombian government that left more than 200,000 dead. A peace deal signed in 2016 has largely held but dissident groups have rejected the deal and refused to disarm.
The Carolina Ramírez Front continues to fight for control of much of the south of the country. The group is fighting another breakaway FARC group and tensions flared last November when two dozen people were killed in a gun battle in Puerto Guzmán, 300 miles from Aracuara.
Dairo Mukutui blasts Rano for his comments about being targeted by guerrillas, saying they could put the whole family in danger.
He tells us, ‘It’s very dangerous to say those words. ‘It’s potentially putting us all in the spotlight.
‘It is a very serious thing to say. There is no evidence that he was threatened. But the consequences of his words could create a dangerous situation for our family.’
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