Mexican teen on hunger strike for royal invite

A souvenir mug on sale to mark the forthcoming wedding of Britain's Prince William and Catherine Middleton is seen at a shop in London, January 27, 2011. A Mexican teenager is staging a hunger strike outside the British Embassy in Mexico City in a bid to secure an invitation to the royal wedding of William and Middleton.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A Mexican teenager is staging a hunger strike outside the British Embassy in Mexico City in a bid to secure an invitation to the wedding of Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Estibalis Chavez, 19, said she had not eaten for the past eight days and was living on just water as she camps in a blue tent near the gates to the embassy.

"Are they going to let me die just because they wouldn't give me an invitation to the royal wedding?" Chavez wrote on one of the flyers she has plastered near the entrance to the colonial-style building.

"This is my only dream," read another flyer next to a picture of the smiling royal couple who will marry at London's Westminster Abbey on April 29.

The embassy could not immediately be reached for comment.

The diminutive Chavez, wearing braces, pigtails and glasses, said on Thursday the late Princess Diana, Prince William's mother, had inspired her campaign.

"I think she was one of the most interesting women in history, and one of the best and most beautiful," she said.

"My mother was a big fan of Lady Di too and she died when I was born, so I promised myself I would attend her son's wedding," added Chavez, who has also taken her cause to the Facebook social networking site.

"The embassy could talk to Britain for me but they haven't," she said. "But I'm going to stay here until I can't go on."

(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Peter Cooney)