Bolivian President On Hunger Strike

Obama, are you listening? The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, says he won't eat until the Congress passes his bill granting indigenous groups more political power. Morales, who is the country's first indigenous president, wants to set up special indigenous electoral districts where Indian groups are in the minority. This move would make it easier for the populist statesman to get re-elected for a second term. A new constitution that passed in January with a 60 percent majority has already granted more rights to indigenous groups. But political tensions run deep in this often-unstable country, especially between the poorer, indigenous majority and the wealthier, mestizo minority. An opposition senator said the hunger strike is "blackmail" intended to intimidate the legislative branch into cowing to the executive.