Bogota, June 8: Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay was critically injured after being shot three times, including twice in the head, during a campaign event in the capital on Saturday, authorities and local media said.
Uribe, 39, was addressing a small crowd in a Bogotá park when a gunman opened fire mid-speech, according to video footage circulated on social media. Paramedics said he was struck in the knee and head and was immediately airlifted to Sante Fe clinic, where he remains in critical condition.
A 15-year-old suspect was arrested at the scene, local media reported, though officials have not disclosed a motive.
Uribe’s wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, appealed to the public for prayers. “Miguel is currently fighting for his life. Let us ask God to guide the hands of the doctors who are treating him,” she said.
The assassination attempt has drawn condemnation across the political spectrum and beyond Colombia’s borders. The right-leaning Centro Democrático party, which Uribe represents, called the attack a grave threat to “democracy and freedom in Colombia.”
President Gustavo Petro’s leftist government also denounced the shooting, calling it “an act of violence not only against his person, but also against democracy.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the attack as a “direct threat to democracy.”
Uribe, who announced his candidacy for the 2026 presidential election last October, is a scion of one of Colombia’s most prominent political families. His mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was killed in 1991 during a botched rescue attempt after being kidnapped by the Medellín drug cartel led by Pablo Escobar.
Supporters have gathered outside the clinic where Uribe is being treated, holding a vigil amid growing fears about political violence in the run-up to next year’s election.
Police and security agencies have launched an investigation into the shooting, which has raised alarm over the safety of political candidates and democratic institutions in Colombia.
