A man who watched his sister perish at sea before spending days fighting for survival after a boat capsized killing 37 has opened up about his ordeal.
Sole survivor Juan Esteban Montoya says he was desperate to live so he could be the one to tell his parents what happened to their daughter.
An image of the 22-year-old on the hull of the overturned migrant boat in the middle of the sea off Florida has been shared around the world.
The Columbian was travelling with his younger sister Maria, 18, who disappeared into the ocean after the vessel ran into trouble.
The other people onboard were from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Bahamas and Jamaica, officials say.
Fishermen found the lone survivor a week ago and he has now spoken of his determination not to die as he clung to the boat.
He last saw his sister sinking after it overturned and says it breaks his heart that he was powerless to prevent her death.
"It hurts me so, so, so much losing her because I spent all the energy I could when I didn't have any, looking for her," he told CNN, speaking in Spanish.
"It was impossible to find her."
About 20 of the migrants endured hours clinging to the remains of the hull, he explained.
He also spoke of the moment he was rescued, fearing he would die in the sea.
"I was face down on the boat when I hear something and felt a wave hit," Mr Montoya recalled.
"A boat was close by, I didn't wave at them or signal them, they came to me and told me they would help me. They were angels, to be honest."
The operations manager of the Signet shipping company in Florida told the BBC : "At 8:05 we brought him on board and he was treated immediately, since he was dehydrated, and we gave him water and some soft food. He was very weak and very anguished.
"He told us there were 40 people in his boat in total, including himself, and that, after leaving Bimini at midnight from Saturday to Sunday, they completed four hours of travel until bad weather caused the ship to capsize."
