An obsession with big buttocks has led to the death of 17 women in Venezuela in the past 12 months as a result of potentially-fatal silicone injections. Thousands of women rush to have the procedure in the country despite its being illegal.

“Patients in image-conscious Venezuela have told how the liquid biopolymer silicone migrates into their spine, paralysing supporting muscles,” says a report today in Britain’s Daily Mirror.

According to the report, “The Venezuelan Plastic Surgeons Association says up to 30% of women between 18 and 50 choose to have these injections in the country which has won Miss Universe a record seven times.

“Costing just £190 many women feel pressured to have the 20-minute procedure to get ahead in their personal life or in the workplace.

“Unlike breast implants, silicone get is injected freely in to the body and not contained within a shell.

“Men in Venezuela also have the injections in their pectoral muscles.

“A 35-year-old Venezuelan lawyer who asked not to be named told how she woke up to find a bump the size of a football in her lower back.

“She could not walk or even bend down.”

The lawyer is quoted as saying: “There was a boom. In the office all the women had such nice buttocks.

“The last straw was when a judge I work with walked in, looking good. Her buttocks looked like two balloons, they were so beautiful.

“I was never obsessed with perfect measurements, but then I let myself be dragged along by the idea that Venezuelan women should look like Barbie dolls.”

Insurance companies in Venezuela do not cover the cost of surgery to repair the damage, leaving many victims of botched procedures unable to find the necessary £6,000.

•Photo: Big bum, which Venezuelan women are dying to have, is natural to African women.