October 05, 2006 08:45 PM UTC

Juan Botero = Cuckoo

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

This Juan Botero guy is rapidly moving up the list of the strangest political characters in Colorado. You might remember Botero as the guy who claimed earlier this year that he was going to run against Republican Tom Tancredo in CD-6…and then he did absolutely nothing to follow up on that announcement. Botero didn’t make the ballot through the county assembly and didn’t seem to make any effort to petition on to the ballot, but now it looks like he wants to be a write-in candidate instead.

As the Rocky Mountain News reports today, there’s more to the Botero weirdness…

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo told Capitol police last spring he felt threatened by a news release distributed by write-in candidate Juan Botero, who wound up facing a squad of armed officers and being detained and questioned for four hours.
Botero accused his fellow Republican on Wednesday of overreacting.

“It was very intimidating, there is no question about that,” said Botero, a media consultant and former TV cameraman. “He (Tancredo)crossed the line on this.”

On May 11, Botero sent the Washington press corps a release urging them to investigate Tancredo, whom he is opposing in the 6th Congressional District election. He also sent a copy of the statement to Tancredo’s office.

“I can be a reasonable guy, but if my colleagues don’t play by the rules, I have what it takes to get them to wake up and do their job,” Botero wrote.

“If you know anything about the training by Colombian Commandos, you will know that underneath a soldier’s suave demeanor, there is a fierce and highly trained warrior that can overwhelm you if you’re not careful,” he continued.

“I hope that I don’t have to go to the next level in this process, but I am running out of options and patience with every passing minute of media silence.”

Botero said those comments were directed to the media, but that Tancredo took them as a threat against him.

Botero can say that Tancredo overreacted, but those are some pretty strong statements that he made. If you know anything about the training by Colombian Commandos, you will know that underneath a soldier’s suave demeanor, there is a fierce and highly trained warrior that can overwhelm you if you’re not careful.

There’s really no other way to read that comment than as a threat. But Botero says he wasn’t threatening Tancredo – he was threatening the media. Ohhhhhh…that makes it all better.