The phenomenon Mockus

Antanas Mockus is a Colombian politician who is currently running for president and who is considered an electoral phenomenon because of the great rally he is performing in these days what positions him on the top of the electoral surveys above the candidate of current president Alvaro Uribe's party, Juan Manuel Santos, who is second. But what besides makes Mockus a political phenomenon, almost a political freak, is that he is a particular character due to the wierd ways he acts and his genuine policies.

Aurelijus Rutenis Antanas Mockus Šivickas is not a Spanish language name although he was born in Bogota, his parents emigrated from Lithuania and he attended primary and secondary school also in Bogota. He has a Bachelor degree in Phylosophy and Mathematics, and a PhD from French universities and a Master degree from the National University of Colombia. He has been twice mayor of Bogota, the capital of Colombia, and has run twice for the precidency of Colombia. He belongs to a new independent party named Partido Verde (Green Party) which does not have anything to do with ecological issues.

Mockus became nation-wide famous when, as the rector of National University of Colombia, to respon to the whistle from his students in a meeting, he showed them his butt by pulling his pants down and turning around with his back to them. The students went quiet inmediately. As a presidential contender in his first candidature during a debate Mockus threw water from his glass to one of the other candidates to test his tolerance. The offended candidate managed to be tolerant. Besides, he got married in a circus tend, made public performances wearing super heroes clothing and in others singing rap songs.

As a mayor of Bogota, Mockus created genuines policies such as the Ley Zanahoria* (Carrot Law) which consists of closing the night clubs, bars and discoteques at 3 a.m., in order to reduce the crime and violent deaths rates, when they used to not have a certain time to close. Another Mockus policy was El Día Sin Carro (Day Without Car) in order to improve the traffic in the city and, incidentally, to reduce the levels of pollution. But one of the most recalled policies was El Día Sin Hombre (Day Without Man) which invited women to go out and hang out for a nigth without men. In his administrations Mockus has priortize education over other matters, fixed the city's finances. He resigned as a mayor in his first term to run for president of Colombia for the first time but did not win the election. To aspire to Bogota's mayoralty for the second time, Mockus apologized to the citizens of the capital city for having resigned the office.

Today Antanas Mockus is conducting a campain in which he promises to govern in the same way he did as a mayor by priortizing education over other matters. His campain slogan is: "Pencils instead weapons" making an allusion to the president Uribe's Democratic Security policy in which war agains FARC was the priority. Mockus proposals have been welcome by most of Colombians, especially the youngest ones and the ones who live in the metropolitan areas. The opposition state that Mockus has a privatization tendency and are worried about the relationship with the government of Venezuela in the case he becomes president of Colombia.

President or not, the truth is that Mockus is such a character who has a name gained, on his way, in the Colombian politics and who is, above all, rallying the surveys. Let's see what happens. What I can asure you is that he will not get my vote, at least not at the first round.

*Ley Zanahoria because the Spanish word zanahoria means, in a colloquial way, 'without vices', and both words have the same phonetic beginning.