Colombia presidential candidate in critical condition after shooting

Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay was in critical condition in hospital on Sunday after being shot while campaigning in the country’s capital of Bogotá.

Uribe Turbay, a 39-year-old senator from the conservative Centro Democrático party, was attacked during a speech on Saturday. Police have arrested a 15-year-old suspect and an investigation is under way into the shooting.

The senator “was admitted in critical condition and is receiving priority care,” according to a medical report from the Fundación Santa Fe clinic in Bogotá, cited by the Associated Press.

“Miguel is currently fighting for his life,” said Uribe Turbay’s wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, on social media network X Sunday morning. “Let us ask God to guide the hands of the doctors who are treating him.”

The AFP news agency cited paramedics as saying Uribe Turbay had been shot once in the knee and twice in the head.

The 15-year-old suspect was arrested carrying a “9mm Glock-type firearm,” the BBC reported, citing a statement from the attorney general’s office.

The Colombian government condemned the shooting as an attack “not only against the personal integrity of the senator, but also against democracy, freedom of thought and the legitimate exercise of politics in Colombia,” according to a statement issued Saturday.

“Any act that seeks to silence through intimidation or violence those who participate in public life is unacceptable and deserves the deepest repudiation by the state and the citizenry,” the government said.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. “condemns in the strongest possible terms the attempted assassination of Senator Miguel Uribe.” In a statement late Saturday, Rubio called the shooting “a direct threat to democracy and the result of the violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government.”

The country “can’t afford to go back to dark days of political violence,” Rubio said. President Gustavo Petro “needs to dial back the inflammatory rhetoric and protect Colombian officials,” he added.