A mob of angry Medellin residents attacked Colombian Bolivarian Socialist Movement (MSB) leader David Corredor Cuellar while he was campaigning for the Presidency in the Antioquian capital Tuesday.
Corredor was collecting some of the 500 thousand signatures required to make him eligible to run for presidency in Medellin's city center when he, his team and their vehicle were surrounded by an angry crowd that peppered him with insults and threw rocks.
Residents of the strongly Urbista city yelled phrases such as "get Chavez out of Colombia" and "go back to Venezuela" at the prepresidential candidate.
Throughout the incident the candidate and his entourage stayed close to their vehicle, while about 20 police officers surrounded and attempted to separate them from crowd.
The MSB has been accused of being seriously influenced by the socialist and expansionist policies of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez.
Corredor told Noticias Tele Medellin that the attack was evidence that some Colombians misunderstood his platform and that the MSB is not a Chavez support network.
"This is a project by Colombians, for Colombians, it's neither a Chavista nor a Venezuelan project, it's a proposal with bolivarian socialist ideals," Corredor said.
Corredor's movement has received criticism for having the same Bolivarian ideals as Chavez's socialist government.
View video footage of the incident here.
Bluebird
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... I don't think the people "misunderstood" ANYTHING! They knew Exactly what this guy and his "movement" are all about. Thats why they want no part of what he is trying to sell......... |
Arnie
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... Bluebird, what an ignorant comment. This is just another example of political intolerance in Colombia. If they don't like this man, they simply don't have to vote for him. In reality of course he can be no worse that the drug trafficker who currently runs Colombia! |
Bluebird
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... Now talk about an ignorant comment! Why should they be tolerant of someone who wants to sell them a bill of goods? The fact that he didn't get tarred and feathered and run out of town tells me that they were as tolerant as could be expected. |
Roberto Alexander
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... I may be a gringo and a Colombian, but Chavez is not such a bad sort. I mean, Stalin/Hitler/Pol Pot/Attila the Hun were worse! But seriously, folks; El Gran Pendejo Chavez is rough neck from the barrio picking a lucha with anyone to blow his wad of machista testosterone between his legs as to impress all the Miss World from Venezuela that gave him the cold shoulder. A big army with tanks and jets without any war experience can roll over Colombia for a day or two, but the Colombians have decades of vertebrae blowing up things in and around the boonies of Northern Latin America, and will surely give the poor Venezuelan soldado that ventures across the rio in to Colombian land a day to remember. I hope Alo Stupido is not so much; that he knows better than to start a war he can't possibly win, when many of his fellow countrymen will likely throw down their arms, to run off in to the hills for cover or desert in droves to Brazil. No one, but no one will win such an assinine conflict. The biggest losers will be all of the poor Colombian and Venezuelans eking out a life in that sad violent part of the world only oil companies want. And don't tell me about war: I've served in three armed conflicts and find that there is only suffering and death at the end of the road. |
