Colombia: Presidential candidate Uribe shot
Gunmen attacked the conservative opposition leader at a campaign event in the capital Bogotá. One suspect has already been arrested.
Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe was shot at a campaign rally in Bogotá. Local media reported that the 39-year-old opposition politician is in serious condition at a local hospital. According to an X-post by his wife, Maria Tarazona, Uribe is fighting for his life .
A statement by the conservative Democratic Center party said that "armed individuals shot Uribe in the back" in a public park in the Fontibon neighborhood. According to Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez, a suspect was arrested in connection with the attack. Authorities were investigating whether other people were involved.
The Colombian government condemned the violent attack "categorically and in the strongest terms" and called for a thorough investigation into the events. "This act of violence is not only an attack against his person, but also against democracy, freedom of thought, and the legitimate exercise of political office in Colombia ," the presidential office wrote in a statement. The United States "strongly condemns the attempted assassination" of the Colombian senator, according to a statement by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Senator Uribe is a critic of left-wing Colombian President Gustavo Petro and intends to run for president in 2026. The act is reminiscent of the drug-fueled political violence that rocked the country in the 1980s and early 1990s. Uribe's own mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was murdered by Pablo Escobar's Medellín cartel in 1991.
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