Colombian senator Uribe 'fighting for life' after shooting, 15-year-old suspect arrested

RNZ News

5 hours ago

Colombian politician Miguel Uribe Turbay.
Photo:
AFP/SEBASTIAN BARROS
Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe, a potential presidential contender, is fighting for his life in hospital after being shot during a campaign event in Bogota, according to his wife and government and party authorities.
The Colombian Attorney General's Office said in a statement that "a minor under 15 years of age was arrested carrying a Glock pistol-type firearm (9mm)", and President Gustavo Petro ordered an investigation into who had ordered Saturday's (local time) attack.
The 39-year-old senator, a member of the opposition conservative Democratic Center party, was shot during a 2026 presidential campaign event in a public park in the Fontibon neighbourhood in the capital on Saturday, according to a party statement condemning the attack.
The party said in a statement "armed subjects shot him from behind" and described the attack as serious, but did not disclose further details on Uribe's condition.
Videos on social media showed a man, identified as Uribe, being tended to after the shooting. He appeared to be bleeding from his head.
Uribe's wife Maria Claudia Tarazona wrote on her husband's account on X that he was "fighting for his life".
People gathered outside the Santa Fe Foundation hospital where Uribe was being treated, some staged candlelight vigils and prayed, while others carried Colombian flags.
Colombia's Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said a suspect had been arrested in the shooting and that authorities were investigating whether others were involved. Sanchez said he had visited the hospital where Uribe was being treated.
The government is offering some US$730,000 as a reward for information in the case.
Colombia's presidency issued a statement saying the government "categorically and forcefully" rejected the violent attack, and called for a thorough investigation into the events.
Leftist President Gustavo Petro sympathized with the senator's family in a message on X, saying: "I don't know how to ease your pain. It is the pain of a mother lost, and of a homeland."
Petro later said in a speech on Saturday night that the person arrested was a minor and that the investigation would focus on finding who had ordered the attack.
"For now there is nothing more than hypothesis," Petro said, adding that failures in security protocols would also be looked into.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that the US "condemns in the strongest possible terms the attempted assassination" of Uribe, blaming Petro's "inflammatory rhetoric" for the violence.
Uribe, who is not yet an official presidential candidate for his party, is from a prominent family in Colombia. His father was a businessman and union leader.
His mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was kidnapped in 1990 by an armed group under the command of the late cartel leader Pablo Escobar. She was killed during a rescue operation in 1991.
Colombia has for decades been embroiled in a conflict between leftist rebels, criminal groups descended from right-wing paramilitaries, and the government.
- Reuters