This past Sunday night, in ‘Lo de Évole’, the Strauch cousins, protagonists of the tragedy of flight 571 in the Andes, shared with Jordi Évole the shocking story of how they made heartbreaking decisions to survive desperation in the middle of the mountain range of the Andes.
Eduardo Strauch, one of the key survivors, shared a “very moving” moment in which, in the face of extreme need, they decided to offer each other the possibility of using their bodies if they died. “We had taken bodies without his permission, and it was something that hurt us, so to feel a little approval we did that,” ‘Fito’ Strauch added.
The interview revealed the complexity of convincing some companions to resort to cannibalism to survive. Eduardo Strauch admitted that “it took some convincing.”
‘Fito’ Strauch shared an anecdote about the first time he faced the difficult task of dissecting a body to feed the group: “I cut the skin off the buttock, we tasted it, and to downplay it I told them it tasted like raw ham without salt”. Although he initially tried to “downplay” the situation with humor, he admitted that over time it became normal: “After a few days it was like eating chicken,” Eduardo added.
The interview also highlighted the resistance of some colleagues to consuming human flesh and how the Strauchs addressed this challenge. ‘Fito’ revealed an ingenious strategy that they devised to convince the most reluctant: “We made a little fire with an aluminum sheet and Coca Cola wood, we cooked pieces and everyone who had not been able to eat ate a steak.”
The Strauchs’ narrative in ‘Lo de Évole’ offers a penetrating vision of the fight for survival in the Andes, where the limits of morality and desperation blurred in the midst of one of the most shocking tragedies in history.
