Survivor accused of eating castaway
NEW YORK • A fisherman who survived 15 months lost at sea is being sued for US$1 million by the family of his dead colleague, who accuse him of eating their relation.
Salvador Alvarenga, 36, is the only man known to have survived for more than a year at sea. He set out from the Mexican coast in November 2012 for a two- day fishing trip, having paid 22- yearold Ezequiel Cordoba about US$50 to accompany him.
A storm knocked out the eight- metre boat’s communication systems and washed their supplies overboard.
Alvarenga radioed t he boat’s owner and demanded to be rescued. His last words to land were: “Come now, I am really getting … out here.”
Cordoba, a novice fisherman, panicked, said Alvarenga. He suffered hallucinations and tried to throw himself overboard, where sharks were circling. The pair survived for several months by catching fish and birds, and drinking turtle blood and rainwater. But one bird they ate made Cordoba severely sick, and they found a yellow poisonous sea snake in its stomach.
Cordoba eventually died, extracting promises from Alvarenga not to eat his corpse, and to find his mother and tell her what happened.
According to Alvarenga’s account, he kept the body for six days, chatting to it until he realized his own insanity and threw it overboard. “I could see my death was going to be very, very slow,” he said.
But against all odds, he survived. Alvarenga washed up dazed and emaciated in the Marshall Islands, in the middle of the Pacific, in January 2014. His story was only believed after experts confirmed his experience as a fisherman and physical strength would just about make survival possible.
In March, 2014, amid much media hype, Alvarenga visited Cordoba’s mother, Rosalia Rios, and delivered the message from her son. But soon the experience soured.
In January, Perlera, his previous lawyer, sued him for US$ 1 million after Alvarenga signed a book deal and switched firms. The book, 438 Days, was published in October. Now Cordoba’s family have also begun a US$ 1- million legal action.
“I believe that this demand is part of the pressure from this family to divide the proceeds of royalties,” said Ricardo Cucalon, Alvarenga’s new lawyer. He said Alvarenga has always denied eating Cordoba.
Cucalon said his client has returned to El Salvador, where he lives in a rented house with his parents and daughter.
The book, he said, has done poorly in the U. S., with only 1,500 copies sold. But that has not stopped Cordoba’s family. In April, they demanded that Alvarenga hand over 50 per cent of the revenues.