BOGOTA (Reuters) – An aspiring Colombian presidential candidate had a sandal tossed at him yesterday in an incident reminiscent of a protest against former US President George W. Bush in Iraq.

Would-be Conservative Party candidate Andres Felipe Arias was greeted with jeers and shouts of “Get out of here” and “You’re corrupt” when he started speaking at an event in Barranquilla city on Colombia’s Caribbean coast.

One woman tossed her shoe at him from the front row, local television reported. She missed and Arias stepped off stage with a smile to hand it back to her before blowing a kiss.

“I’d do it again under the circumstances,” said Leyda Delgado. “This is the only way for the poor to get noticed because they have the all the media supporting them.”

Arias is one of an array of candidates vying to succeed President Alvaro Uribe after the Constitutional Court ruled he cannot run for re-election in the May presidential race.

“It didn’t have force,” Arias said of the thrown shoe on local radio. “We have the force of ideas and democracy.”

Uribe steps down in August after two terms highlighted by his US-backed campaign to crackdown on leftist guerrillas and cocaine traffickers.