Best known as a survivor of the October 13, 1972 crash of the Uruguayan Air Force's FLIGHT 571, this hero spent over a week searching for help in the Andes mountains while, at his suggestion, his fellow crash survivors stayed alive by cannibalizing the corpses of the air disaster's victims.
At the time of the doomed FLIGHT, he was a medical student and a recent graduate of Stella Maris College in Montevideo, Uruguay.
After surviving the crash, he became both a motivational speaker and a cardiologist.
His marriage to Laura Surraco resulted in children named Roberto Martin, Laura Ines, and Hilario.
In 1994, he ran for the Uruguayan presidency but was defeated by Julio Maria Sanguinetti.
