A Colombian
presidential candidate remains in intensive care after he was shot three times
– twice in the head – at a campaign event in the capital, Bogotá. Miguel Uribe
Turbay, a 39-year-old senator, was attacked while addressing supporters in a
park on Saturday. Police arrested a 15-year-old suspect at the scene, the
attorney general’s office said.
Uribe’s
wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, called on the nation to pray for his survival,
saying: “Miguel is currently fighting for his life. Let us ask God to guide the
hands of the doctors who are treating him.” Uribe’s Centro Democratico party
condemned the attack, calling it a threat to “democracy and freedom in
Colombia”.
Footage
shared online appears to show the moment when he was shot in the head
mid-speech, prompting those gathered to flee in panic. He was airlifted to the
Santa Fe Foundation hospital where supporters gathered to hold a vigil. Uribe
was rushed into surgery while in a critical condition, Bogotá Mayor Carlos
Fernando Galán said late on Saturday night.
The hospital
said on Sunday morning that Uribe had undergone procedures to his head and left
thigh, before being taken to be stabilised in intensive care. He remains in an
extremely serious condition, it added. The 15-year-old suspect was shot in the
leg as police and security officers pursued him following the attack, according
to local media.
He was
arrested carrying a “9mm Glock-type firearm”, a statement from the attorney
general’s office said. An investigation is under way. The government of
left-wing President Gustavo Petro said it “categorically” condemned the attack
as an “act of violence not only against his person, but also against
democracy”.
Defence
Minister Pedro Sanchez deplored the “vile attack” and offered a 3bn peso
($730,000; £540,000) reward for information about who may have been behind it. US
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also condemned the shooting as a “direct threat
to democracy”.
He blamed
the attack, without providing examples, on “violent leftist rhetoric coming
from the highest levels of the Colombian government”. The suspect’s motivation
remains unclear. Many Colombians have condemned the hostile rhetoric
increasingly used by the government and opposition parties alike.
The week
before the shooting was particularly tense, with Petro seeking popular backing
for his reforms in a move that opposition leaders – including Uribe – dubbed
unconstitutional.
Petro urged
Colombians to wish Uribe well, on what he described as a “day of pain” in a
video address to the nation. There was a “political difference” between Uribe
and the government, but it was “only political”, he said.
“What
matters most today is that all Colombians focus with the energy of our hearts,
with our will to live… on ensuring that Dr Miguel Uribe stays alive,” the
president added.
Uribe, a
right-wing critic of Petro, announced his candidacy for next year’s
presidential election in October. He has been a senator since 2022.
He is from a
prominent political family in Colombia, with links to the country’s Liberal
Party. His father was a union leader and businessman.
His mother
was Diana Turbay, a journalist who was killed in 1991 in a rescue attempt after
she had been kidnapped by the Medellin drugs cartel run at the time by Pablo
Escobar. For many, Saturday’s shooting harked back to Colombia’s violent
history, when figures like Escobar attacked politicians to pressure the
government.
“We cannot
return to situations of political violence, nor to times when violence was used
to eliminate those who thought differently,” Bogotá Mayor Galán said shortly
after the attack.
Petro had
been elected on a promise to bring “total peace” to the country. He made early
progress in talks with gangs and rebel groups, but his interior minister
recently acknowledged that the strategy was “not going well”.
Dozens of
soldiers and police officers were killed over a two-week span in April, in
attacks the Colombian government blamed on armed groups. Earlier in the year,
more than 32,000 people fled their homes in the northern Catatumbo region,
where to rival rebel groups engaged in bloody fighting despite a peace treaty.
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