SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
Bogota: A conservative Colombian senator who hoped to be the country’s next president is fighting for his life in hospital after he was shot in the back at a campaign rally, authorities say.
Miguel Uribe Turbay was rushed to hospital in a critical condition after he was shot during the rally at a park in the Fontibon neighbourhood of Bogota.
An ambulance carrying Miguel Uribe Turbay leaves the Medicentro hospital for another hospital for treatment on Saturday night.Credit: AP
Images circulating on social media show the 39-year-old covered in blood, apparently with a head wound, being held by several people.
A medical report from the Santa Fe Foundation hospital said the senator was admitted in critical condition and was undergoing a “neurosurgical and peripheral vascular procedure”.
“Miguel is fighting for his life,” his wife, María Claudia Tarazona, wrote on the senator’s X account, urging Colombians to pray for him.
The senator, who is running for the presidency in 2026, is from a prominent family in Colombia, with links to the country’s Liberal Party. His father was a businessman and a union leader. His mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was kidnapped in 1990 by an armed group under the command of late cartel leader Pablo Escobar. She was killed during a rescue operation.
Miguel Uribe Turbay, centre in a blue tie, was shot on Saturday.Credit: AP
Investigators inspect the scene where Miguel Uribe Turbay was shot in a Bogota park.Credit: AP
The Attorney General’s Office, which is investigating Saturday’s shooting, said the senator received two gunshot wounds in the attack, which also injured two others. The statement from the office said a 15-year-old boy was arrested at the scene with a firearm. Colombia’s government said it was offering a reward for the capture of all those responsible.
“Respect life, that’s the red line,” President Gustavo Petro said in a message posted on his X account. Shortly after making the post, Petro cancelled a planned trip to France “due to the seriousness of the events,” according to a presidential statement.
Late on Saturday night, after leading an extraordinary Security Council session, Colombia’s first leftist president promised “complete transparency” in the investigation and to find the intellectual authors of the attack. He also promised an investigation into any failures by the senator’s bodyguards.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Credit: AP
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that the “United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the attempted assassination of Senator Miguel Uribe”. He urged leftist President Gustavo Petro “to dial back the inflammatory rhetoric and protect Colombian officials”.
“This is a direct threat to democracy and the result of the violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government,” Rubio said.
The senator’s opposition party, Democratic Centre, described the attack on Uribe Turbay as serious, and “an unacceptable act of violence”.
Colombia has for decades been embroiled in a conflict between leftist rebels, criminal groups descended from right-wing paramilitaries, and the government.
Miguel Uribe Turbay’s father (top left) embraces relatives outside the hospital where his son was being treated.Credit: AP
Police stand guard outside the Medicentro hospital where Colombian senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay is being treated after he was shot.Credit: AP
Police said Uribe Turbay had been accompanied by councilman Andres Barrios and 20 other people when he was shot.
Colombia will hold a presidential election on May 31, 2026, marking the end of the current term of Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president. Uribe Turbay announced his presidential bid in March.
Reactions poured in from around Latin America. Chilean President Gabriel Boric said “there is no room or justification for violence in a democracy” and Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa said: “We condemn all forms of violence and intolerance.”
In Colombia, former president Alvaro Uribe, who is not related to Uribe Turbay but who represented the same party, said “they attacked the hope of the country, a great husband, father, son, brother, a great colleague”.
AP, Reuters
