The Huffington Post | by David Moye
Posted: Updated:
Jose Salvador Alvarenga, who was rescued in January after 14 months adrift at sea, insists there is no truth to allegations that he ate his shipmate, Ezekiel Cordoba, to survive.
“Not for one second did I think of eating Ezequiel,” he told the Daily Mail. “I wouldn’t have done it, even if it meant that I starved. It would have been on my conscience forever.
On Nov. 17, 2012, Alvarenga, 37, set sail in a small fishing boat near the coastal town of Tonala, Mexico, with Ezekial Cordoba, whose age was reportedly between 15 and 18.
The boat disappeared during bad weather. In January, Alvarenga was found alive on an atoll near the Marshall Islands, nearly 6,500 miles away.
Alvarenga said Cordoba died 16 weeks into the long ordeal because he wasn’t able to stomach the only diet available to the castaways: raw fish and animal blood.
When Alvarenga was rescued, Cordoba’s corpse was nowhere in sight. Some believe he may have eaten his shipmate for survival.
Alvarenga told the Daily Mail he pushed Cordoba overboard five days after the teen died.