CANNIBAL CASTAWAY? Jose Salvador Alvarenga, who survived 14 months at sea, accused of eating colleague Ezequiel Cordoba's remains in relatives' $1M lawsuitBY DAN GOOD NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, December 15, 2015, 2:21 PM
That's no way to treat your fishing buddy.
Jose Salvador Alvarenga — who famously survived after being lost at sea for 438 days — is accused of eating his colleague's remains in order to survive, according to a $1 million lawsuit filed by the man's relatives.
Alvarenga has long denied cannibalism claims, and his attorney believes the lawsuit was financially motivated.
Alvarenga stated following his March 2014 rescue that fisherman Ezequiel Cordoba died around four months into the voyage. After Cordoba died, Alvarenga says he kept the body on board for six days, afraid of the loneliness.
Alvarenga and Cordoba, a 22-year-old novice fisherman, set out for the Mexican village of Costa Azul on Nov. 17, 2012. The journey was supposed to take two days, but their 25-foot fiberglass boat got caught in a storm, and the boat's motor and radio died.
As their boat drifted, the castaways ate raw fish, uncooked birds and turtles, and drank their own urine, Alvarenga said later.
Cordoba wasn't as skilled of a survivalist and fell ill after eating a bird. The partners later found a venomous sea snake in the bird's gut.
Cordoba's emotional state deteriorated, and he tried to throw himself overboard, Alvarenga said later. As his physical and emotional states deteriorated, Cordoba reportedly had two promises for his partner — not to eat his corpse, and that he find Cordoba's mother and tell her what happened.
Alvarenga kept the second promise after coming ashore on an outpost of the Marshall Islands.
"I want it understood that I am not blaming this person, Alvarenga, nor am I declaring him guilty of anything," the man's mother, Diaz Cueto, said at the time of the meeting.
Jose Salvador Alvarenga came ashore in early 2014 on an outpost of the Marshall Islands.
CASTAWAY LOST AT SEA FOR 13 MONTHS MOSTLY THOUGHT ABOUT TORTILLAS, CHICKEN, SUICIDE
But now, Cordoba's family alleges that Alvarenga ate their relative's remains.
Alvarenga has not been charged with any crimes, and Cordoba's body was never recovered. Alvarenga's lawyer, Ricardo Cucalon, says that the lawsuit is financially motivated following the release of Jonathan Franklin's book about the fisherman's story, "438 Days."
"I believe that this demand is part of the pressure from this family to divide the proceeds of royalties," Cucalon told the El Salvadoran newspaper El Diario de Hoy. "Many believe the book is making my client a rich man, but what he will earn is much less than people think."
Cordoba's family has previously demanded that Alvarenga hand over 50% of the book's revenues. But so far the book, which was released in November, has sold poorly in the United States, Cucalon said. Alvarenga was also sued by his former attorney.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/castaway-lost-sea-14-months-accused-cannibalism-article-1.2466669
