Carlos Alberto Montaner asks about the hystrionic Green, Is this showoff fit to be Colombia’s president?
Antanas Mockus, the leading candidate in the next elections in Colombia, is a peculiar man.
He has a well-earned reputation as a mathematical genius and an honest official. He was twice mayor of Bogotá, a job he performed gloriously, leaving a trail of extravagant efficacy.
The problem is that his personal puzzle contains a disquieting piece for someone who’s running for president of his country. Mockus displays a clear personality disorder: He’s a show-off.
He had his picture taken in a Superman costume; as a university dean, he bared his bum to some students who shouted at him while he delivered a speech; for some unknown reason (it isn’t easy to find an explanation for this), he urinated publicly on a university lawn; and he was married in the main ring of a circus.
There appear to be other, similar episodes, but these are the ones the press has cited most frequently.
Is it worrisome to have a president who’s afflicted with histrionics?
Especially if the neighboring president also has the same affliction?
It’s not for nothing that I call the weekly news and blog post roundup on our hemisphere “the CARNIVAL of Latin America and the Caribbean.”
We had Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and almost had the guy who took his own movie camera, but not his own gun, to a war. Don’t they deserve a shot?