Alvarenga, thought to be the world’s longest-surviving castaway, recounts that the pair survived by drinking turtle blood, urine, and by catching fish and birds. Cordoba once became sick after eating a bird that ate a poisonous sea snake.
Cordoba eventually died but made Alvarenga promise not to eat his corpse and to find Cordoba’s mother to tell her what occurred.
Alvarenga said he kept the corpse on the boat for six days to keep him company, often having conversations with it, until he realized he lost his grip on reality and threw it overboard. Alvarenga was later rescued when he washed up on the Pacific Ocean’s Marshall Islands in January 2014.
But this January, Alvarenga’s former laywyer sued him after he signed a book deal and switched law firms. Cordoba’s family recently began a $1 million lawsuit accusing Alvarenga of cannibalism.
Alvarenga’s new lawyer, Ricardo Cucalon, told the El Salvador’s El Diario de Hoynewspaper that Alvarenga has always denied eating Cordoba and that the legal actions against his clients stem from his book deal.
“I believe that this demand is part of the pressure from this family to divide the proceeds of royalties,” Cucalon said. “Many believe the book is making my client a rich man, but what he will earn is much less than people think.”
