MIAMI – Colombian Juan Esteban Montoya Caicedo, the only survivor of the sinking of a boat with 27 people in front of the coast of Florida, confessed that “it was very hard” to survive three days adrift, without food or drink.
“Thank God everything went well and I am already in good health,” he said the young man, of 18 years old, in an interview he offered to the Hispanic network Telemundo broadcast this Monday and on the who pointed out that the recovery in the hospital to which he 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 later he lost his sister 16 years old, offered these statements after reuniting with his mother after receiving hospital discharge.
“It was very emotional excited to see my mom again after so long. It was something that 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 discovered by the coastguard on the overturned boat.
His lawyer, Naimeh Salem, told the media that Juan Esteban saw how the others were dying around him, including his sister, “until he was left alone.” “That’s why he is so traumatized, he doesn’t understand how he was the only survivor,” Salem added. his satisfaction that, once discharged, the immigration authorities have not detained him with a view to his deportation.
“He is my miracle of life, for me he is a champion, for everything that He overcame that tragedy full of strength full of courage“said his mother, Marcia Montoya, in the middle during the reunion.
The young man, a native of Guacarí (Colombia), was one of the occupants of a boat from 25 feet (7.6 meters) in length that capsized after setting sail on Saturday from Bimini, one of the islands of the Bahamas archipelago.
According to the testimony of the survivor, in the boat that sank on Sunday about 27 miles (64 km) east of Fort Pi Cove elce, about 200 overland miles from Miami, were 40 people, none of them with life jackets.
Juan Esteban was rescued on Tuesday by the captain of a ship who spotted him drifting above the boat and reported the Coast Guard what happened, after which the agency deployed a search and rescue operation by air and sea.
The Coast Guard covered between Tuesday morning and Thursday evening, when they called off the search, an area of more than 10.200 square miles (more than 27.000 square kilometers), in which they were only able to rescue five bodies.
“Unfortunately, we have reached the most difficult moment in any case search and rescue and that’s the point where we decide when to stop actively searching,” he said in a statement. Captain Jo-Ann Burdian, Coast Guard Sector Miami Commander.
“After careful consideration of all available information, including weather conditions, the number of people who entered the water without life jackets, 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,” he added.
The investigation to determine if there was a traffic offense of people in this case is moving forward, said Anthony Salsibury, the Department of Homeland Security’s special agent in charge of the case.