Alvarenga claimed he kept the corpse for about a week, talking to it until he realized what he was doing was unacceptable and tossed it overboard. Alvarenga survived by drinking urine and turtle blood and eating sea birds he caught by hand. He set off from Mexico.
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The survivor has long denied eating Cordoba’s remains, but the dead man’s family is suing him for compensation, claiming he cannibalized their loved one.
A man who survived being lost at sea for almost a year and a half has found himself in a legal battle with the family of his shipmate who did not survive.
Big appetite… Salvador Alvarenga has lunch at his home in Garita Palmera.
Salvador Alvarenga, 36, washed ashore in January previous year on the Pacific’s Marshall Islands after spending 438 days adrift.
Alvarenga radioed the boat’s owner and demanded to be rescued.
When Mr Cordoba eventually died Mr Alvarenga promised not to eat his corpse.
But this January, Alvarenga’s former laywyer sued him after he signed a book deal and switched law firms.
At the time, Cordoba’s mother said she didn’t blame Alvarenga for her son’s death, telling reporters, “I want it understood that I am not blaming this person, Alvarenga, nor am I declaring him guilty of anything”.
He pointed out that the lawsuit was launched just days after the long-awaited book about Alvarenga’s ordeal had been published. However, 438 Days didn’t do well in the United States, with only 1,500 copies sold.
Mr Cucalon said that his client has returned to the town of San Francisco Menéndez, in Ahuachapán close to the border with Guatemala, where he lives in a rented house shared with his parents and daughter. But that has not stopped Cordoba’s family from seeking a share of the profits.
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The family are demanding that they receive 50 per cent of the book royalties.
