BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Colombian presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay was in intensive care Sunday after being shot at a campaign event the night before, shaking the capital of a nation that has struggled to move past its long history of political violence.
Uribe Turbay, 39, is a senator from the right-wing Centro Democrático party. He was shot from behind at about 5 p.m. Saturday in the Fontibón neighborhood of Bogotá, according to a statement from his party.
The Santa Fe Foundation hospital, where Uribe Turbay was being treated, said Sunday that he was admitted in critical condition and immediately taken to surgery. He survived, the hospital’s medical director said in a statement, but added that his condition is “extremely serious.”
The senator’s wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, said in a post on X late Saturday that he was “fighting for his life.”
After the shooting, authorities arrested a 15-year-old carrying a 9mm Glock pistol, according to the attorney general’s office. Uribe Turbay sustained two gunshots, the office said. Two other people were also injured.
Uribe Turbay, the grandson of former president Julio César Turbay Ayala, is an ally of ironfisted former president Álvaro Uribe, but the two are not related. Uribe Turbay had launched an early campaign as a “pre-candidate” for presidential elections that will take place in May 2026.
Uribe Turbay is the son of journalist Diana Turbay, who was killed in a rescue operation after she had been kidnapped by members of drug lord Pablo Escobar’s Medellín cartel. Hours before he was shot, Uribe Turbay recounted his mother’s killing at a public event, according to Colombian news outlet La Silla Vacía. Showing a photo of himself and his mother, he said his mother’s assassination had marked his life and inspired his mission to end violence in Colombia.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a leftist, condemned the attack on social media and in official statements. Uribe Turbay, an opposition senator, has been a fierce critic of Petro’s government.
“This act of violence is an attack not only on the senator’s personal integrity, but also on democracy, freedom of thought, and the legitimate exercise of politics in Colombia,” a government statement read.
“‘Ay’ Colombia and its eternal violence,” Petro wrote on X.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that the United States “condemns in the strongest possible terms the attempted assassination of Senator Miguel Uribe.”
“This is a direct threat to democracy and the result of the violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government,” Rubio said. “Having seen firsthand Colombia’s progress over the past few decades to consolidate security and democracy, it can’t afford to go back to dark days of political violence. President Petro needs to dial back the inflammatory rhetoric and protect Colombian officials.”
Defense Minister Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez Suárez also condemned “this vile attack in Bogotá.”
“To attempt to take the life of a political leader is to attack the country and its democracy,” he wrote on X. He announced a reward of 3 billion pesos, or about $730,000, to anyone providing information leading to the identification and capture of those responsible.
He also called an urgent extraordinary meeting with the military and police to come up with a strategy to respond to the situation. The assassination attempt, he said, “mobilizes us to redouble our efforts to protect life, guarantee free political participation and bring justice.”
Colombia, which signed a peace deal in 2016 that ended the Western Hemisphere’s longest-running internal armed conflict, continues to face widespread armed violence, particularly in rural swaths of the country. But the attack against a major political candidate in the capital brought back memories of the assassinations of presidential candidates decades ago.
In 1989, leading presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán was killed by hit men hired by Escobar. His son Carlos F. Galán is the current mayor of Bogotá.
“The atrocious attack against Senator Miguel Uribe is a new and deep wound in our democracy,” Galán said in a post on X on Saturday night. “Political violence has cost our country too much blood. It is a painful history that we all know and have suffered to a greater or lesser extent.”
He added: “On this issue, we must unite without reservations: We cannot allow violence that seeks to eliminate those who think differently, nor can we allow political violence to cost us more lives, leave more children orphaned and destroy more families.”
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