The Colombian Juan Esteban Montoya Caicedo, the only survivor of the shipwreck of a boat with 40 people off the coast of Florida, United States, confessed that “it was very hard” to survive three days adrift, without food or drink.
“Thank God everything went well and I’m in good health now,” said the 22-year-old in an interview he offered to the Hispanic network Telemundo, broadcast this Monday and in which he pointed out that the recovery in the hospital after that was transferred after being rescued by the US Coast Guard was “a little slow.”
The young man, who in the shipwreck that occurred more than a week ago he lost his 18-year-old sister, He offered these statements after being discharged from the hospital and reuniting with his mother.
“It was very exciting to see my mother again after so long. It was something I wanted a long time ago, and something that my sister also wanted and unfortunately she couldn’t be there,” said the Colombian, who was seen by the Coast Guard over the capsized boat.
His lawyer, Naimeh Salem, told the outlet that Juan Esteban saw how the others were dying around him, including his sister, “until he was left alone”. “That’s why he’s so traumatized, he doesn’t understand how he was the only survivor,” Salem added.
The woman pointed out that they are going to start working to ensure that the young person obtains an immigration status and expressed his satisfaction that, once discharged, the immigration authorities had not detained him with a view to his deportation.
“He is my miracle of life, for me he is a champion, for everything he overcame in that tragedy full of strength and courage,” his mother, Marcia Montoya, told the media during the reunion.
The young man, a native of Guacarí (Colombia), was one of the occupants of a 7.6 meter long boat, which capsized after leaving Bimini on Saturday, one of the islands of the Bahamas archipelago.
According to the survivor’s testimony, in the boat that sank on sunday january 23rd About 40 miles east of Fort Pierce Cove, about 125 miles by land from Miami, there were 40 people, none of them wearing life jackets.
Juan Esteban was rescued on Tuesday, January 25, by the captain of a ship that sighted him drifting on the boat and informed the Coast Guard what happened, after which the agency deployed a search and rescue operation by sea and air.
The coast guards covered, between Tuesday morning and Thursday evening – when they suspended the search – an area of more than 27,000 square kilometers, and they were only able to rescue five bodies.
“Unfortunately, we have reached the most difficult time in any search and rescue case and that is the point where we decide when to stop actively searching,” Capt. Jo-Ann Burdian, commander of the Guard’s Sector Miami, said in a statement. Coastal.
“After careful consideration of all available information, including weather conditions, the number of people who they went into the water without vests lifeguards, the time that has elapsed since the date of the accident, and a relentless search in an area larger than Massachusetts, it is with a heavy heart that I have decided to call off the search.”
The investigation to determine if there was a crime of human traffickings in this case continues, according to Anthony Salsibury, special agent of the Department of Homeland Security in charge of the file.