Colombian presidential candidate shot, gravely wounded

A prominent Colombian right-wing presidential candidate, Senator Miguel Uribe, has been shot and gravely wounded during a campaign event in Bogota.

Miguel Uribe Turbay, in blue tie, a Colombian senator and presidential candidate for the right-wing Centro Democratico party, celebrates a legislative vote in May. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)

A prominent Colombian right-wing presidential candidate was shot and gravely wounded during a campaign event in Bogota on Saturday local time, authorities said.

Senator Miguel Uribe, 39, was speaking to supporters in the west of the capital when a gunman shot him twice in the head and once in the knee before being detained.

Images from the scene showed Senator Uribe slumped against the hood of a white car, smeared with blood, as a group of men tried to hold him and stop the bleeding. A security guard managed to detain the suspected attacker, a minor believed to be 15 years old.

Police director Carlos Fernando Triana said the suspect was injured in the affray and was receiving treatment.

Two others – a man and a woman – were also wounded, and a Glock-style firearm was seized.

Forensic experts work at the crime scene where Senator Miguel Uribe was shot and wounded in the Modelia neighbourhood in Bogota. Picture: Raul Arboleda / AFP

The motive for the attack is not yet publicly known, and Colombia’s minister of defence vowed that the military, police and intelligence services would deploy “all their capabilities” to find out what happened.

The minister, Pedro Sanchez, also announced a roughly $US725,000 ($1.2m) reward for information about who was behind the shooting.

The attack was condemned across the political spectrum and from overseas, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling it “a direct threat to democracy”.

Mr Rubio pointed blame at Col­ombia’s leftist president Gustavo Petro, claiming the attack was the “result of the violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian govern­ment. President Petro needs to dial back the inflammatory rhetoric and protect Colombian officials.”

Mr Petro “categorically and forcefully” condemned the attack.

“This act of violence is an attack not only against his person, but also against democracy, freedom of thought, and the legitimate exercise of politics in Colombia,” the President said in the statement. Mr Petro was due to address the nation late on Saturday evening (local time).

Senator Uribe, a strong critic of Mr Petro, is a member of the Democratic Centre party who announced last Oct­ober his intention to run in the 2026 presidential election.

Authorities said that there was no specific threat made against the politician before the incident. Like many public figures in Col­ombia, Senator Uribe had close personal protection.

The country is home to several armed guerrilla groups and powerful cartels and has a long history of political violence.

Senator Uribe is the son of Diana Turbay, a famed Colombian journalist who was killed after being kidnapped by Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel.

One of his grandfathers was former Colombia president Julio Cesar Turbay, who led the country from 1978 to 1982.

Senator Uribe was airlifted to Santa Fe Clinic where he was said to be receiving intensive care. Supports gathered outside the facility, lighting candles and clutching crucifixes as they prayed for his recovery.

Senator Uribe’s party said in a statement on Saturday that an “armed individual” had shot the senator from behind.

The party leader, Colombia’s influential former president Alvaro Uribe, described the shooting as an attack against “a hope for the country”. Miguel Uribe himself has been a senator since 2022.

AFP