Colombia presidential hopeful shot in head at rally

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.

Supporters held a vigil outside the Santa Fe Foundation hospital while Uribe underwent surgery

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.