Colombia's best known drunken nephew under investigation following viral video
LatestA 29-year-old socialite who claimed he was a relative of a former Colombian president has been called in for questioning by the Attorney General’s Office after shoving and slapping police officers during a drunken fit of rage over the weekend.
Nicolas Gaviria became an overnight bête noire after a cellphone video of his drunken antics went viral on YouTube.
In the video, Gaviria taunts two police officers who were responding to a call at a Bogota nightclub after he got into an altercation with a group of taxi drivers. Gaviria, who is being restrained by a woman, immediately plays the privilege card, telling cops that he’s a nephew of former President Cesar Gaviria, and implying that his family ties put him above the law.“You don’t know who I am!” Gaviria repeatedly yells as he shoves and slaps the cops. Gaviria then threatens to use his family “connections” to have the officers sent to jail and is heard telling them he’ll have them stationed to a remote part of the country.
“I’ll have you sent to Choco,” he said, an afro-Colombian province of the country.
Since the video was posted to YouTube, Nicolas Gaviria, and #Choco have become trending topics on Colombian Twitter as thousands sound off against his obnoxious sense of entitlement. The video seems to have struck a particular nerve with Colombians who are tired of seeing how the country’s elite gets away with corruption and treats the rest of the population with contempt.
Under the hashtag #ustednosabequiensoyyo (You don’t know who I am), social media users have posted dozens of Gaviria memes, and even made a mashup song of clips from his drunken altercation with the cops.
In his defense Nicolas Gaviria said he was having a discussion with a taxi driver who was trying to overcharge him. He accused the taxi driver and his colleagues of getting aggressive.
In the eyes of public opinion, however, Gaviria’s antics are just the latest example of abuses by spoiled rich people in Latin America.
Want to see more evidence? Check out this video of a wealthy Mexican man, beating the porter of his building, because he did not want to help him replace a broken tire.
And here’s a video of two Mexican women flipping out on a cop who tried to fine them for a traffic violation. Manuel Rueda is a correspondent for Fusion, covering Mexico and South America. He travels from donkey festivals, to salsa clubs to steamy places with cartel activity.