Sen. Miguel Uribe Turbay, a Colombian opposition leader on track to run for president next year, is in critical condition after being shot at a campaign event in Bogota. María Claudia Tarazona, his wife, posted online that he survived emergency surgery but is still in danger, the Guardian reports. "He fought the first battle and fought it well," she said. "He is fighting for his life." A gunman shot the politician, 39, twice, the attorney general's office said, per the AP. Police arrested a 15-year-old male suspect at the scene, officials reported. Officials said Uribe was shot in the knee and head.
Uribe was delivering a speech in a park when he was attacked. Social media video verified by NBC News showed supporters fleeing and screaming as multiple gunshots rang out. To wails and screams from the crowd, three men held Uribe until an ambulance arrived. He was airlifted to a hospital, which reported he underwent a "neurosurgical and peripheral vascular procedure." Crowds marched to the hospital to protest, pray, and hold a vigil. The government of left-wing President Gustavo Petro said it "categorically" condemned the attack on the right-wing politician an "act of violence not only against his person, but also against democracy." In a video address, Petro called on the nation to wish Uribe well on what he called a "day of pain."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also denounced the shooting as a "direct threat to democracy," per the BBC. He blamed the shooting, without citing evidence or examples, on "violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government." No information has been released about possible motives for the attack. Petro said the investigation would concentrate on finding who ordered the shooting. (More Colombia stories.)
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