According to authorities, Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe, who might run for president in the country’s capital next year, has been shot and hurt in Bogota.
The 39-year-old senator, who was shot on Saturday at a campaign event as part of his 2026 presidential campaign, is now “fighting for his life,” his wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, told X.
Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe founded the opposition conservative Democratic Center party.
The two men don’t have a family.
The shooting was described as an “unacceptable act of violence,” according to the Democratic Center party’s statement.
When “armed subjects” shot the senator from behind during a campaign event in the capital’s Fontibon neighborhood, according to the statement.
It described the attack as being serious, but it did not provide further information about Uribe’s condition.
The senator was admitted in critical condition and was “undergoing a neurosurgical and peripheral vascular procedure,” according to a medical report from the Santa Fe Foundation hospital.
After the shooting, a man, identified as Uribe, was seen being cared for on social media. He appeared to be roiling from his head.
The senator was shot twice in the attack, according to Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office, which is looking into the shooting. A 15-year-old boy was detained at the scene while carrying a gun, according to the office’s statement.
The government announced that it would reward information in the case with about $730, 000.
The government “categorically and forcefully” rejected the violent attack, according to Colombia’s presidency, and demanded a thorough investigation of the events that occurred.
In a message on X, leftist president Gustavo Petro expressed sympathy for the senator’s family and declared, “Respect life, that’s the red line. I’m not sure how to relieve their suffering.
Petro stated in a speech on Saturday night that the investigation would concentrate on identifying the perpetrator of the attack.
There are currently only hypotheses, according to Petro, adding that security protocol failures will also be investigated.
In a statement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Petro’s “inflammatory rhetoric” was the cause of the violence and that the country “condemns in the strongest possible terms” Uribe’s attempted assassination.
Latin Americans reacted a lot. In a democracy, President of Chile Gabriel Boric said, “There is no room or justification for violence.” And Daniel Noboa, president of Ecuador, declared, “We condemn all forms of violence and intolerance.”
The family of the senator was shown compassion by both presidents.
Former Colombian President Uribe claimed that “they attacked the country’s hope, a great husband, father, son, brother, and great colleague.”
Uribe is a prominent member of a well-known family in Colombia and is not currently a candidate for president.
His father was a union leader and businessman. An armed group led by the late cartel leader Pablo Escobar kidnapped his mother, journalist Diana Turbay, in 1990.
In 1991, she was killed in a rescue operation.
Source: Aljazeera
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