BRAZIL: "I declare that my fast is suspended in favour of life," pronounced a gaunt Bishop Luiz Flavio Cappio, ending an 11-day hunger strike that has captured Brazil's attention and embarrassed the government into concessions on a key environmental project.
The decision came late on Thursday after six hours of talks with a government minister in a hillside chapel in the northeast of Brazil in searing heat. The bishop's family cheered in relief, having expressed growing concern for his declining health.
"For now the doctors say he cannot eat solid foods," said his sister, Rosa Maria Cappio Guedes, yesterday, as she prepared to return to Sao Paulo with the bishop for a period of recuperation.
"He has been put on a drip and is starting to drink liquids, like coconut water."
The government's offer was made by Jaques Wagner, a senior cabinet minister, who was dispatched to Cabrobo by Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The government agreed to "extend dialogue" on the controversial $2 billion Sao Francisco river project.
It planned to redirect water from the river to drought-prone lands further north. Critics claimed it would damage the river and not help the poorest people of the region. Construction work had been scheduled to start this week.
During his protest, the Franciscan bishop had told reporters that he was beginning to dream of food and had suffered memory lapses and shortness of breath.
The case has proved awkward for the church. Initially, the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB) wrote to Bishop Cappio offering support, but the tone later changed following intervention by the Vatican.
The Papal Nuncio, Dom Lorenzo Baldiserri, was sent to Cabrobo to help dissuade the bishop from his protest. "It's not ethically acceptable to continue a hunger strike to the death," said the CNBB general secretary, Odilo Scherer. "I hope this fashion doesn't catch on."