MEXICO: Relatives of fishermen who were rescued after months at sea say their survival is a miracle of God

Relatives of one of the fishermen who was rescued after months at sea said on Thursday (August 17) his survival is a true miracle. In the village of El Limon, relatives of fisherman Lucio Rendon gathered at his grandmother's house to celebrate his survival. Sharing tears and hugs, the humble Mexicans greeted the startling news with deep faith. Lucio Rendon's father said he prayed and promised to stop drinking if his son would survive. "I wasn't going to drink anymore," said the elder Lucio Rendon, "and I asked a saint who is around here and whose name is Cristo Salvador (Christ Savior) to do a miracle for me and he did it." Rendon was one of three men rescued last week by a trawler more than 5,000 miles (8,000 km) from Mexico's Pacific Coast fishing village of San Blas, where they left for what was supposed to be a routine shark fishing trip last November. The men, who were skinny and sunburned after their ordeal but are otherwise in good health, were on board a very basic 25-foot (8-meter) fiberglass boat. "You tell me who lives 9 months like that in a small boat falling apart," said Lucio's mother Naomi Becerra. "Yes, they took food but listen, God is big." Survivors were interviewed on Wednesday by radio and television stations from the boat that rescued them near the Marshall Islands. Mexican government officials said the boat originally held 5 men, but the survivors tossed two of their companions overboard after they died of starvation during the journey. The men stayed alive by eating raw birds and fish and drinking rain water officials said, rejecting suggestions that the survivors may have eaten the bodies of the dead fishermen. The Taiwanese fishing trawler that found them is expected to return to port in the Marshall Islands next Monday. The survivors will then be given medical checks and flown home.

ITN Source | August 18, 2006

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