Colombia’s Crazy Green Canidate

columbia flagColombia goes to the polls this weekend to choose a successor to their outgoing President, Alvaro Uribe. One of the favourites is Antanas Mockus, former Mayor of the capital. Not all voters take him seriously, but his wish to crack down on the country’s FARC guerillas and culture of corruption has won him swathes of support among the electorate.

The son of Lithuanian immigrants, Antanas Mockus is a Colombian mathematician, philosopher and politician. After serving as rector at Bogota’s Universidad Nacional, Mockus went on to become mayor of Bogota twice. He is renowned for his eccentric, outside the box thinking, which has led him to perform some unusual but thought-provoking stunts.