Castaway sued for $1m over claim of cannibalism
Family of lost companion believe he was eaten during year adrift in Pacific
A FISHERMAN who survived 15 months lost at sea is being sued for £650,000 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 £30 to accompany him.
A vicious storm knocked out the 25ft boat’s communication systems, and washed their supplies overboard.
Mr Alvarenga radioed the 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 Mr 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 Mr Alvarenga not to eat his corpse, and to find his mother and tell her what happened.
According to Mr Alvarenga’s account, he kept the corpse for six days, chatting to it until he realised 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. Mr 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 that his experience as a fisherman and physical strength would just about make survival possible.
In March 2014, amid much media hype, Mr Alvarenga visited Cordoba’s mother, Rosalia Rios, and delivered the message from her son.
But soon the experience soured.
In January this year Mr Perlera, his previous lawyer, sued him for $1 million after Mr Alvarenga signed a book deal and switched firms. The book, 438 Days, was published in October.
Now Cordoba’s family have also begun a $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, Mr Alvarenga’s new lawyer. He said that Mr Alvarenga has always denied eating Cordoba.
Mr Cucalon said that his client has returned to his home town of San Francisco Menéndez, in El Salvador, where he lives in a rented house with his parents and daughter.
The book, he said, has done poorly in the US, with only 1,500 copies sold.
But that has not stopped Cordoba’s family from seeking a share of the profits.
In April they demanded that Mr Alvarenga hand over 50 per cent of the revenues.