BOGOTA, June 7 (Reuters) – Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe, a possible presidential contender, was shot in Bogota on Saturday, based on the federal government and his social gathering, as his spouse mentioned he was combating for his life in hospital.
The 39-year-old senator, who was shot throughout a marketing campaign occasion as a part of his run for the presidency in 2026, is a member of the opposition conservative Democratic Heart social gathering based by former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. The 2 males should not associated.
Based on a celebration assertion condemning the assault, the senator was internet hosting a marketing campaign occasion in a public park within the Fontibon neighborhood within the capital on Saturday when “armed subjects shot him from behind.
The party described the attack as serious, but did not disclose further details on Uribe’s condition.
His wife Maria Claudia Tarazona wrote on Uribe’s account on X that her husband was “fighting for his life.”
Colombia’s Protection Minister Pedro Sanchez mentioned a suspect had been arrested within the taking pictures and that authorities had been investigating whether or not others had been concerned. Sanchez mentioned he had visited the hospital the place Uribe was being handled.
The federal government is providing some $730,000 as a reward for info within the case.
RAUL ARBOLEDA through Getty Photographs
Colombia’s presidency issued a press release saying the federal government “categorically and forcefully” rejected the violent assault, and known as for an intensive investigation into the occasions that passed off.
Leftist President Gustavo Petro sympathized with the senator’s household in a message on X saying, “I don’t know how to ease your pain. It is the pain of a mother lost, and of a homeland.”
Petro is anticipated to talk on Saturday night time.
America’ Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned in a press release that the U.S. “condemns in the strongest possible terms the attempted assassination” of Uribe, blaming Petro’s “inflammatory rhetoric” for the violence.
Uribe, who just isn’t but an official presidential candidate for his social gathering, is from a outstanding household in Colombia. His father was a businessman and union chief. His mom, journalist Diana Turbay, was kidnapped in 1990 by an armed group below the command of the late cartel chief Pablo Escobar. She was killed throughout a rescue operation in 1991.
Colombia has for many years been embroiled in a battle between leftist rebels, prison teams descended from right-wing paramilitaries, and the federal government.
(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb, Carlos Vargas, Luisa Gonzalez and Nelson Bocanegra in Bogota; Writing by Lucinda Elliott; Enhancing by Paul Simao and Michael Perry)
