Jose Salvador Alvarenga has stirred up a controversy. Unknown to most of the world before his battered ship washed ashore an island in the South Pacific, he is telling the world of a journey of survival that lasted for months, and covered thousands of miles. It may have even involved cannibalism.
Alvarenga claims he survived alone, in the open ocean, for 13 months, living on turtles and fish. The adventure began with a one-day fishing trip back in 2012. During that time, Alvarenga says he traveled from Mexico to the Marshall Islands, between Hawaii and Australia. If his story is true, he would have traveled over 6,600 miles.
Born in El Salvador, Alvarenga was a fisherman, living in Mexico and working, without worker documentation, in Pacific waters.
The 37-year-old fisherman left for the day trip in December 2012 with a young fisherman named Ezequiel Cordoba. Alvarenga states the pair were caught in a severe storm, and the motor aboard the boat died. Months later, on Feb. 6, 2014, the sailor was washed ashore on the Marshall Islands, his boat heavily damaged from wear. Just Alvarenga was aboard the vessel when it finally reached land.
Some parts of his story have been proven correct, while questions remain about other details. Local fishermen and a local civil protection agency say the man disappeared in November 2012, a full month before he claims to have left home.
The largest unanswered question in the minds of many people is the fate of the younger sailor. Although there is no evidence to directly support the claim, some observers are questioning if the surviving half of the pair used Corboda as a source of food.
"I want it understood that I am not blaming this person, Alvarenga, nor am I declaring him guilty of anything," Roselia Diaz Cueto, Corboda's mother, told the Associated Press.
The age of the younger sailor is questionable. Various reports place Corboda's between his late teens and early twenties. His mother says the boy was 22. Alvarenga tells investigators Cordoba died early in the journey, and he threw the body of the young man overboard.
Alvarenga lost contact with his family eight years ago. They presumed he was either in dead, or in jail.
It may never be possible to know exactly what happened to Cordoba. Still, his mother wants to meet face-to-face with the last person to see her son alive.
"Maybe he had some message from him. Maybe my son left some words for me," she said.
