Leg cramps that started on the fifth day of her hunger strike were not enough to stop Beatriz Leigue de Parada's "hunger strike" against the constitutional changes planned by the left-wing government of Evo Morales.The 40-year-old administrator and mother of four - like several hundred other strikers camped out in the main square of Santa Cruz, capital of Bolivia's biggest rebel department - is determined to stick with her protest.
The demonstrators are allowing themselves lots of liquids - as well as four almonds and a centimetre of chocolate per day - and will stop their strike when the governor of Santa Cruz, Ruben Costas, today an-nounces a new autonomy statute for the department. So it is hardly "the resistance until death" struggle promised by the banners above Tent 15, occupied by Ms Leigue and about a dozen other women protesters.