Colombian presidential hopeful Turbay dies in hospital months after shooting
Buenos Aires
Colombian presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay has died, two months after being shot at an election rally in the capital Bogotá.
The Santa Fe Hospital in Bogotá said on Monday the 39-year-old suffered a haemorrhage in the brain in recent days, after undergoing several operations following the assassination attempt.
The conservative politician was campaigning for his Democratic Centre party's nomination to be its candidate for the presidency in next year's election.
A post on the party's page on X said 'Colombia is in mourning.' His wife María Claudia Tarazona wrote on Instagram: 'Rest in peace, love of my life. I am taking care of our children.' Several suspects were arrested after the attack, including a 15-year-old who is believed to have fired the shots at Uribe.
The background to the offence is still unclear.
According to the public prosecutor's office, the alleged mastermind of the attack leads a group of contract killers and is said to have links to splinter groups of the far-left guerrilla organization FARC.
Colombia has suffered from political violence for decades. In the 1980s and 1990s, several presidential candidates were killed in the South American country.
Left-wing rebels, right-wing paramilitaries and the military fought a bloody civil war for 52 years.
Some 220,000 people lost their lives and millions were displaced.
The security situation has improved following a peace agreement concluded in 2016 between the government and the largest rebel group at the time, the FARC.
However, parts of the country are still controlled by illegal groups.
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