Shot Colombian presidential candidate needs ‘miracle' to survive, doctors say
The update on his condition comes as a judge confirmed the arrest of the 15-year-old suspect, after the prosecutor's office submitted 129 videos, witness testimonies and the seizure of a pistol as evidence.
Uribe is a 39-year-old senator from the opposition Centro Democrático party, and in the running to join next year's presidential race. Footage showed him speaking to a small crowd in a park on Saturday, before shots rang out. Uribe was then pictured slumped against the bonnet of a blood-stained white car. Authorities later confirmed he had been shot twice.
Uribe underwent major surgery over the weekend, which was initially deemed a success, but early on Monday the hospital said he had shown 'little response to the medical interventions'.
'His condition is extremely serious,' medical director Adolfo Llinás Volpe said.
His wife, María Claudia Tarazona, asked for prayers on Monday morning and said 'Miguel needs a miracle'.
The 15-year-old suspect was arrested at the scene minutes after the attack, during which he reportedly shouted: 'I did it for money for my family.'
Police on Monday revealed that the 9mm pistol the suspect was carrying had been purchased legally in Arizona in 2020.
The suspect was also injured during the attack and so has yet to be questioned; a security cordon has been set up around the hospital where he is undergoing treatment. He is expected to be charged with attempted murder and illegal possession of a weapon.
Uribe hails from one of Colombia's most prominent political families; he is the grandson of former president Julio César Turbay Ayala (1978-82) and the son of journalist Diana Turbay, who was kidnapped by Pablo Escobar's Medellín cartel and killed during a botched rescue operation in 1991.
A Harvard graduate, former Bogotá city councillor and outspoken critic of president Gustavo Petro, Uribe last year announced his presidential bid from the spot where his mother was killed. 'I could have grown up seeking revenge, but I decided to do the right thing: forgive, but never forget,' he said.
Petro condemned Saturday's attack and said 'we cannot rule out any hypothesis'. Criminal groups in Colombia have often used minors to carry out killings.
Colombia's defence minister has offered a 3bn peso (£540,000) reward for information leading to the identification and capture of those responsible for the attack, while the government has ordered increased security for all presidential candidates.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Arnold Schwarzenegger wears expletive-laden shirt to troll Gavin Newsom over his redistricting plans
Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger donned an expletive-laden shirt to troll incumbent Gavin Newsom over his plans to redraw districts in the state. The actor, 78, shared a picture of himself using a weight machine with the caption: 'I'm getting ready for the gerrymandering battle'. The Terminator star, who is a Republican, wore a black t shirt with the words: 'F*** the politicians. Terminate gerrymandering', with a red and blue fist across it. Gerrymandering is the term used to describe the manipulation of electoral boundaries to favor a party. Governor Newsom is looking to hold a special election in the state to seek approval to redraw districts in a bid to give Democrats five more US house seats. The plan would involve the replacement of the current nonpartisan redistricting commission, which is responsible for drawing boundaries and was formed with Schwarzenegger's support in 2008. Newsom's plans are a direct response to a similar Republican led motion in Texas, backed by Trump, as his party look to cling on to their slim House majority in the upcoming midterms. Newsom - a vocal adversary of Donald Trump - introduced his ' Election Rigging Response Act' to Golden State voters at a campaign style event earlier this week. The act, which will go before voters in November, would mean California would temporarily adopt new congressional districts through 2030 if other states - such as Texas - did the same. 'We're giving the people of this state the power to save democracy, not just in California, but all across the United States of America,' Newsom said. Democrats only need to flip three House seats to regain control of the chamber for the 2026 election. Newsom encouraged Californians and residents of other blue states to 'stand up' against the efforts being led by Texas, but are also being considered in other states. 'He's going to lose the midterms, he knows de facto his presidency ends in 17 months,' Newsom said. 'Why else would he try to rig the system?' In a letter penned to Trump on Monday, Newsom said: If you will not stand down, I will be forced to lead an effort to redraw the maps in California to offset the rigging of maps in red states.' Newsom offered a compromise to Trump by promising to call off redistricting efforts in California if GOP-led states do the same. 'But if the other states call off their redistricting efforts, we will happily do the same. And American democracy will be better for it.' If the Trump-backed plot is successful, the GOP is expected to gain at least five additional seats in the House of Representatives. 'We have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats, Trump told CNBC on Tuesday. 'We have a really good governor, and we have good people in Texas. And I won Texas.' 'I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats.' If approved, a new California map would take effect only if a Republican state does its own redistricting. It would remain through the 2030 elections. After that, Democrats say, they would return mapmaking power to the independent commission voters approved in 2008. Trump has urged other Republican-run states to redraw maps, even sending Vice President JD Vance to Indiana to pressure officials there. In Missouri, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press, the state Senate received a $46,000 invoice to activate six redistricting software licenses and provide training for up to 10 staff members. Democratic state lawmakers fled from Texas to deny the GOP the quorum necessary to vote on legislation in the state capital. In response, Abbott last week The Texas governor also filed an emergency petition to the Texas Supreme Court, requesting the justices declare Democratic Minority Leader Gene Wu's seat vacant.
The Independent
6 hours ago
- The Independent
Aggressive insults, grabbing all the headlines – Gavin Newsom is trying to be a Democratic version of Trump. Will voters buy it?
On Thursday, Gavin Newsom announced that he would ask the California legislature to vote to put an initiative to redraw the state's congressional districts on the ballot in November. This, of course, came in response to Texas Republicans, acting on behalf of Donald Trump, attempting to redraw their maps to give additional seats to the GOP in the House of Representatives. All the while, Newsom has roundly mocked Trump and, on social media, mimicked the president's all-caps style of posting. Newsom is clearly eyeing a run for president. But he's also offering something unique: between his bombastic tone and his ability to grab headlines, he's offering Democrats their own version of Trumpism. When Trump first ran for president and then later stepped into the Oval Office, Republicans regularly would say, 'At least he fights.' That refrain allowed them to accept Trump calling Mexicans rapists, impugning prisoners of war and his bragging about grabbing women without their consent. 'The guy's a generational talent,' Mike Madrid, a Hispanic political consultant from California who worked for Republicans, told The Independent. 'Most people rely on their own skillset. He's able to adjust, see the political terrain and fight on that terrain and win.' And Madrid saw Newsom's skill up close in person when he worked on the campaign for Newsom's 2018 opponent, former Los Angeles Democratic mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. That was the case in 2004, when Newsom presided over same-sex marriages during his time as mayor of San Francisco. In 2008, he famously said, 'This door's wide open now. It's going to happen, whether you like it or not.' 'He is best in times of tension and conflict,' Madrid said. It's a major change of fortune for Newsom. After Trump's victory in 2024, he faced severe criticism for his handling of the wildfires in Southern California. When he launched his podcast at the beginning of 2025, he took heat from other Democrats when he agreed with conservative activist Charlie Kirk about transgender athletes in women's sports. To this day, many Democrats and LGBT+ activists remain salty. But many Democrats still find themselves pleased with his actions against Trump. In June, he sued the Trump administration for sending the National Guard into Los Angeles to quell protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. Now, he's taking Trump on directly, and it seems to have appeal. Earlier this year, Shannon Watts, a Democratic activist who raised $11 million last year for Kamala Harris, had largely refrained from giving money to Democrats in disappointment at the party's inability to stand up to Trump. But this week, she contributed to Newsom's campaign. 'I have been waiting for Democrats to meet the moment and to show some fight and to stand up to this administration that is so clearly wanting to be authoritarian,' she told The Independent. 'And this is less of me saying with my money, oh, this is the person that I think will be president. It's more of a vote of a thank you so much for doing what is expected of elected officials and politicians in this moment.' Newsom still has his weaknesses, of course. He famously faced a recall in 2021 after facing backlash for dining indoors at the French Laundry restaurant without a mask during the pandemic. And his policies of banning homeless encampments have also angered progressives. This is to say nothing of the fact that if he runs, he will have the 'Liberal San Francisco mayor' label that might put off swing voters. But Watts said her contribution was not an endorsement of him as the Democratic nominee in 2028. 'I had people in my thread say when I tweeted that I was donating, 'You know, he's not the one,'' Watts said. 'That's not the point. This is not about in 2025 who is going to be the Democratic nominee. This is about who is leading the pack in fighting in ways that are new and different, inventive and effective.' Polling consistently shows that Democratic voters increasingly do not like their leaders and see them as rolling over for Trump. That has, in turn, led to Democrats yearning for someone to fill the gap, Lakshya Jain, a co-founder of the politics website Split Ticket, told The Independent. 'There's not really any way for Democrats to fight against Trump right now,' he said. 'Because what letters do they have? They don't control any branch of government. They don't control the Supreme Court, but what is true is they do control the state of California, and the state of California has nine Republicans and a lot of blue turf that's kind of wasted on certain incumbents.' That allows Newsom to step out in front and say he is the first one to stand against Texas's actions. Specifically, the Texas Democrats who decamped to blue states said they would return to Texas because California would respond in kind if Texas passed their new maps. 2028 is a long way off and plenty could change. Other candidates might be able to prove Newsom is a paper tiger. But then again, plenty of Republicans waited for Trump to implode and he laid waste to them. On Friday, as Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Newsom's office fired off another Trumpian all-caps tweet. 'MANY PEOPLE ARE SAYING THAT DONALD J. WOULD CONSIDER 'GIVING AWAY' THE FREE STATE OF CALIFORNIA TO HIS 'BEST FRIEND' VLADIMIR PUTIN — ALL BECAUSE I, GAVIN C. NEWSOM, STOLE THE CAMERAS THIS WEEK WITH 'THE MAPS,' he posted.
Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Telegraph
Trump rolls out the red carpet – and gives Putin the ‘vindication' he craves
Vladimir Putin was clearly delighted to be in Alaska and meeting Donald Trump – a vindication, in his eyes, of his actions and an acceptance that he was back at the top table of world politics. Mr Trump's effusive reaction to seeing the Russian president approaching stood in stark contrast to his greeting of any other world leader. As he stood waiting for his guest, Mr Trump kept clapping his hands; whether the applause was for himself or at the thought of potential future energy agreements, only one person in the world knew. The two men met for the first time since 2018. Given that so much that has happened to both of them since then, perhaps the warm smiles acknowledged their shared journeys over the last seven years. Putin would certainly wish it so; another way for him to try to find common ground with Mr Trump, to seek to demonstrate to the American how alike they are in an effort to portray how they stand alone against the world. A gentle tap from each man on the other's forearm reinforced the chummy optics both were keen to present. The White House had laid on the full dog and pony show – on the ground, a red carpet and a ride together in The Beast. In the air, a five-ship formation flypast of a B-2 bomber flanked on either side by a pair of F-22 Raptor fighters. The shouted questions from reporters nearby went unanswered. Coming just hours after Russian forces in Ukraine had bombed a market in the northern city of Sumy, the images will be hard to stomach for many people around the world. Oleh Hryhorov, the Sumy oblast governor, said civilian infrastructure had been hit. As Messrs Trump and Putin swaggered down the red carpet, casualty figures from the strike were still unclear. If they even knew of the blast, neither the Russian nor American delegations back in the pavilion at the Elmendorf base allowed the news to cloud the moment. As the two leaders sat together, Putin looked supremely relaxed – back in his happy place at the centre of global affairs and with the glow from the US president taking the edge off the slight chill in the Alaskan air. Security was tight. Uniformed US personnel from the army, navy, Marines and air force were in attendance, the chatter from their radios a constant backdrop to proceedings. The sight of American soldiers kneeling before Putin's plane to secure the red carpet to the Tarmac is an image that will appal many. Critics of Mr Trump, Putin or both will see it as a craven act by a weak president courting favour with a man considered a war criminal. Others might say it is the necessary underbelly of international diplomacy. More radio chatter and a member of the US Air Force hurried through the media facility, returning after a few minutes carrying a large ice-filled tureen. Emergency over, the ice cream for the leaders' lunch was secure. For us mortals in the press pack, it was interesting to note that, as we were subjected to a security screening by the US Secret Service, there was not also a second check by Russian officials. That Moscow would allow people uncleared by their own side to get so close to Putin is notable. The Russian team probably considered it a risk worth taking to not upset their hosts.
