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Shot Colombian presidential candidate has had successful surgery, mayor says Shot Colombian presidential candidate survives emergency surgery
(about 4 hours later)
Miguel Uribe said to have entered ‘critical hours’ after attack allegedly by 15-year-old who is in custody Miguel Uribe still fighting for his life, his wife says, after attack allegedly by 15-year-old who is in custody
The Colombian presidential candidate who was shot in Bogotá has successfully undergone a first operation after being flown to hospital in critical condition, the city’s mayor has said. Miguel Uribe, the rightwing Colombian presidential candidate who was shot at a campaign event in Bogotá on Saturday, has made it through emergency surgery but is still fighting for his life, according to his wife.
Miguel Uribe, a 39-year-old senator who has been running for the presidency in 2026, “overcame the first surgical intervention”, the mayor of Bogotá, Carlos Fernando Galán, said on Sunday. Uribe had entered “the critical hours” of recovery, he added. Uribe, a 39-year-old senator for the opposition conservative Democratic Centre party and an outspoken critic of Colombia’s leftwing president, Gustavo Petro, was attacked as he hosted the event in a public park in the Fontibón neighbourhood of the Colombian capital.
Uribe, a member of the opposition conservative Democratic Centre party, was attacked on Saturday, allegedly by a 15-year-old gunman who is now in custody. Images from the scene showed Uribe, who is running for the presidency in 2026, slumped against the bonnet of a white car, smeared with blood, as a group of men tried to hold him and stop the bleeding.
According to the party’s statement, the senator had been hosting a campaign event in a public park in the Fontibón neighbourhood of the Colombian capital when “armed subjects shot him in the back”. Uribe was airlifted to a hospital in Bogotá in a critical condition but “overcame the first surgical procedure”, the city’s mayor, Carlos Fernando Galán, told the media.
The party 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. His wife, María Claudia Tarazona, said her husband had “come out well from the surgery”, but that he was still desperately ill.
Uribe’s wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, wrote on her husband’s X account that he was “fighting for his life”. “He fought the first battle and fought it well,” she said. “He is fighting for his life.”
The defence minister, Pedro Sánchez, said a suspect had been arrested and authorities were investigating whether others were involved. Sánchez said he had visited the hospital where Uribe was being treated. A security guard managed to detain the suspected attacker, who is believed to be 15. The head of the national police, Carlos Fernando Triana, said the suspect was injured in the struggle and was receiving treatment.
Colombia’s presidency issued a statement saying the government “categorically and forcefully” rejected the violent attack, and called for a thorough investigation. Two other people – a man and a woman – were also wounded, and a Glock-style pistol was seized.
Uribe is from a prominent family with links to the country’s Liberal party. His father was a businessman and union leader. His mother, the 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. The motive for the attack is not yet known, but Colombia’s defence minister, Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez, vowed that the military, police and intelligence services would deploy all their capabilities to find out what happened. Sánchez also offered a 3bn peso (£540,000) reward for information leading to the identification and capture of those responsible for the attack.
The leftwing president, Gustavo Petro, sympathised with the senator’s family, posting online: “I don’t know how to ease your pain. It is the pain of a mother lost, and of a homeland.” Petro offered his sympathies to Uribe’s family and said Colombia was thinking of him.
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. “I hope Miguel Uribe survives,” said the president. “That’s what I want above all else and that’s what society should feel as we join our hearts and our energy so that he’ll be OK.”
“For now there is nothing more than hypothesis,” Petro said, adding that failures in security protocols would also be looked into. Petro later confirmed 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.
The 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. “For now, there is nothing more than hypothesis,” he said, adding that failures in security protocols would also be looked into.
The Spanish government condemned the assassination attempt. “Violence has no place in our societies,” it said. “Spain sends its wishes for a speedy recovery to the victim, to all his family and friends, and to the Colombian people.”
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, also condemned the attack, but said it was the result of what he termed “violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government”.
Petro and Donald Trump have recently clashed over the US migrant deportation flights that pushed the two countries to the brink of a trade war.
Uribe is from a prominent family. His grandfather, Julio César Turbay Ayala, served as Colombia’s president from 1978 to 1982, his father was a businessman and union leader and his mother, the journalist Diana Turbay, was killed in a rescue operation after being kidnapped in 1990 by an armed group under the command of the cartel leader Pablo Escobar. Her story featured in Gabriel García Márquez’s 1996 nonfiction book News of a Kidnapping.
Reuters and AFP contributed to this report.Reuters and AFP contributed to this report.
Reuters and AFP contributed to this report.Reuters and AFP contributed to this report.