Latest news with #MariaClaudiaTarazona
CNA
14-07-2025
- Politics
- CNA
Colombian senator Uribe showing signs of recovery after assassination attempt
BOGOTÁ: Colombian presidential candidate and senator Miguel Uribe is showing signs of improvement five weeks after surviving an assassination attempt, the clinic treating him said on Monday (Jul 14). Uribe, 39, was critically injured on Jun 7 when a 15-year-old suspected hitman opened fire during a campaign speech in Bogotá, striking him twice in the head and once in the leg. He underwent emergency surgery to stop internal bleeding and has remained in intensive care. The clinic said Uribe is still sedated and on a ventilator but "has shown a favourable and stable clinical response" to ongoing treatment. He is expected to begin neurorehabilitation to recover from his traumatic brain injuries. Authorities have arrested five individuals in connection with the attack, including the teenage shooter and one suspected mastermind. Uribe's wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, said his condition continues to fluctuate. "It changes so quickly and is so difficult that I don't even ask what will happen tomorrow," she told Caracol Television on Sunday. "I see Miguel alive, his body warm, his heart beating, his breathing... and that's what I hold onto every day." The attempted assassination comes amid a broader security crisis in Colombia, where President Gustavo Petro's "total peace" strategy has struggled to curb violence. Armed groups continue to battle for control over drug trafficking routes, illegal mining zones and rural territories. The attack on Uribe, a conservative senator and prominent opposition figure, has intensified scrutiny on the country's deteriorating public safety and political tensions ahead of the next election cycle.
Reuters
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Colombia senator Uribe to undergo new surgery on Monday, wife says
BOGOTA, June 23 (Reuters) - Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe, who has been hospitalized since he was shot in the head earlier this month during a campaign event, will undergo another surgery, at least his fourth, his wife said on social media on Monday. Uribe, 39, a potential presidential candidate from the right-wing opposition, was shot in Bogota on June 7 during a rally. He has undergone at least three other surgeries, including an emergency one for a brain bleed, and has remained in critical condition. "I will be waiting for you to come out of your procedure with the certainty that faith in God gives me, that it will be another small step to us holding hands again," Maria Claudia Tarazona said on Instagram, accompanied by a photo of her husband and their young son.
The Guardian
17-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Colombia presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe in ‘critical' condition after emergency surgery
Colombian senator and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe, who has been hospitalised since he was shot in the head during a campaign event, is out of an emergency surgery performed but is in 'extremely critical' condition, the Santa Fe Foundation hospital said. Uribe, 39, a potential presidential candidate from the right-wing opposition, was shot in Bogotá on 7 June during a rally. 'Patient Miguel Uribe Turbay is out of surgery and his condition is extremely critical, characterized by a persistent cerebral edema and difficult to control inter-cerebral bleeding,' the hospital said in a statement on Monday, adding that his condition is of 'maximum seriousness.' The more than six-hour surgery was Uribe's third since he was shot. He was rushed into emergency surgery for bleeding in his brain on Monday morning, the hospital said, after undergoing another surgical procedure. 'I've come out to again ask all Colombians, appealing to their good hearts, to the love they feel for Miguel, for my family and for Colombia, for us to hold a mass prayer. Today is crucial,' his wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, told journalists outside the hospital. The shooting, which was caught on video, recalled a streak of candidate assassinations in Colombia in the 1980s and 1990s, a time when fighting between armed guerrillas, paramilitary groups, drug traffickers and state security forces touched the lives of many Colombians. Marches were held on Sunday around the country to call for peace, and several vigils for Uribe's health have taken place. Three suspects, including a 15-year-old alleged to be the shooter, are in custody. An adult man and woman are also being held. The man, Carlos Eduardo Mora, has been charged for alleged involvement in planning the attack, providing the gun and being in the vehicle where the shooter changed his clothes after the attack, according to the attorney general's office. Though the government had floated a connection between them and the shooting, the main dissident faction of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrilla group on Friday denied responsibility for the assassination attempt on Uribe, though it did accept responsibility for a series of unrelated bombings. Campaigning for the 2026 election is just beginning for potential candidates who want to succeed leftist president Gustavo Petro, who has vowed to advance peace efforts through negotiations and surrender deals with little success. Uribe, a married father of one, is a senator for the right-wing Democratic Center party and announced his intention to run in the May 2026 presidential election last October. Senator Uribe comes from a prominent political family. His grandfather Julio Cesar Turbay was president from 1978 to 1982, and his mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was killed in 1991 in a botched rescue attempt after being kidnapped by an armed group led by drug lord Pablo Escobar.
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Colombia presidential hopeful 'critical' after shooting
Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe, who was shot in the head while campaigning in Bogota earlier this month, was in an "extremely critical" condition, doctors warned Monday. Uribe, a 39-year-old conservative senator, was shot twice in the head and once in the leg by a 15-year-old suspected hitman while giving a speech on June 7. He has been in hospital since the attack fighting for his life. After an emergency operation to stop internal bleeding early on Monday, doctors said his condition had worsened. "He is out of surgery and his condition is extremely critical," said medic Adolfo Llinas Volpe. He was said to be suffering from "persistent cerebral edema and intercerebral bleeding that is difficult to control." Uribe's wife Maria Claudia Tarazona called for Colombians to join in prayer for her husband. "I have to tell you that he is fighting the most difficult battle we have had to date" she said outside the hospital. "Today is crucial, and we need all your prayers, your pleas, your words of love." Uribe, a member of the Democratic Center party of former right-wing president Alvaro Uribe (no relation), announced his intention to run in the May 2026 presidential election last October. His shooting has kindled fears that Colombia may return to the violence of the 1980s and 1990s, when political assassinations and bombings were commonplace. He is the son of Diana Turbay, a famed journalist who was killed after being kidnapped by Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel, and grandson of Julio Cesar Turbay, who led Colombia from 1978 to 1982. On Sunday thousands of Colombians marched in major cities to voice their anger at the attack and demand peace. arb/md
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Suspected teen ‘sicario' pleads not guilty to shooting Colombian senator
A 15-year-old boy accused of trying to assassinate Colombian Senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has pleaded 'not guilty', the prosecutor's office said. The teen was formally charged on Tuesday with the attempted murder of 39-year-old conservative presidential candidate Uribe, who was shot in the head on Saturday and is fighting for his life in critical condition in hospital. The teenager – who police believe was a 'sicario' or hitman working for money – was also charged with carrying a firearm. 'No family in Colombia should be going through this,' Uribe's wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, told reporters outside the hospital where her husband is being treated. 'There is no name for this – it's not pain, it's not horror, it's not sadness,' she said. The senator's father, Miguel Uribe Londono, thanked the 'millions of Colombians and people around the world for their prayers'. 'Miguel, amidst the pain and dismay that overwhelms us, has managed to unite this country in a single voice that rejects violence,' his father added. It is not known why Senator Uribe, who was vying for the candidacy of his party, was attacked. He was polling well behind other party candidates at the time of the from the scene of the shooting showed Uribe addressing supporters in the west of the capital Bogota when a youth rushed towards him firing at least eight shots. Uribe was hit twice in the head and once in the leg. The alleged attacker was apprehended by security guards and a Glock 9mm pistol was recovered. In a video of the teen's capture, independently verified by the Reuters news agency, the suspect can be heard shouting that he had been hired by a local drug dealer. An earlier video showed that as the suspect, who was wounded, attempted to escape the scene, a voice could be heard shouting, 'I did it for the money, for my family.' But in court, the teenager rejected charges of attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm, the attorney general's office said. If convicted, he faces up to eight years in a rehabilitation centre, not prison, as he is a minor. Also on Tuesday, Colombia was rocked by bomb and gun attacks in the country's southwest where at least seven people were killed in a wave of violence that echoed earlier decades when attacks by armed fighters, paramilitary groups and drug traffickers were common. The bomb and gun attacks were likely caused by an armed group that splintered from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, according to the army and police. Colombian President Gustavo Petro, meanwhile, has broadly pointed the finger at an international crime ring as being behind the attack on Uribe, without providing details or evidence. Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti suggested there may be a link with the assassination attempt as rebels have increasingly turned to drug trafficking to finance their activities, though he did not provide evidence. President Petro has ordered beefed-up security for government officials and opposition leaders in response to the attacks. Uribe had been a staunch critic of Petro's security strategy, aimed at ending six decades of armed conflict, arguing that Petro's approach of pausing offensives on armed groups despite the failure of peace talks only backfired. The senator had two government-provided bodyguards protecting him at the time of the shooting, the head of the National Protection Unit said. Uribe's lawyer, Víctor Mosquera, said his client had repeatedly asked for more bodyguards.
