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Cordoba eventually died, extracting promises from Alvarenga not to eat his corpse, and to find his mother and tell her what happened.

According to Alvarenga’s account, he kept the corpse for six days, chatting to it until he realized his own insanity and threw it overboard.

“I could see my death was going to be very, very slow,” he said.

But against all odds, he survived. Alvarenga washed up dazed and emaciated in the Marshall Islands, in the middle of the Pacific, in January 2014.

His story was only believed after experts confirmed that his experience as a fisherman and physical strength would just about make survival possible.

In March 2014, amid much media hype, Alvarenga visited Cordoba’s mother, Rosalia Rios, and delivered the message from her son. But soon the experience soured.

In January, Perlera, his previous lawyer, sued him for US$1 million after Alvarenga signed a book deal and switched firms. The book, 438 Days, was published in October.

Now Cordoba’s family have also begun a US$1-million legal action.

“I believe that this demand is part of the pressure from this family to divide the proceeds of royalties,” said Ricardo Cucalon, Alvarenga’s new lawyer. He said Alvarenga has always denied eating Cordoba.

Cucalon said his client has returned to his home town of San Francisco Menendez, El Salvador, where he lives in a rented house with his parents and daughter.

The book, he said, has done poorly in the U.S., with only 1,500 copies sold. But that has not stopped Cordoba’s family from seeking a share of the profits. In April, they demanded that Alvarenga hand over 50 per cent of the revenues.