Attack on Colombian presidential pre-candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay: authorities arrest 15-year-old boy

A presidential hopeful in Colombia is said to be in a critical condition after being shot while giving a speech in Bogotá this weekend.

Teenager arrested after shooting

Miguel Uribe Turbay, an opposition senator representing Colombia’s right-wing Partido Centro Democrático, was shot twice during an event in the capital city’s Modelia district, the Colombian prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The prosecutor’s office said that law enforcement has arrested a 15-year-old boy who was carrying a “9mm Glock-type firearm”. Two other people were injured during the shooting, the statement added.

Uribe hit in head and leg

A medical professional who attended to Uribe in the immediate aftermath of the attack told the Colombian media outlet Revista Semana that he had suffered wounds in his head and his left leg.

“He was unconscious,” she said. “He was in a critical condition. What we tried to do was stabilize him and […] control the bleeding.”

Uribe was transported to Bogotá’s Fundación Santa Fe hospital, which then said in a statement that Uribe was “undergoing urgent treatment by our team of specialists”. The hospital added that he was to have “neurosurgical and peripheral vascular procedures”.

Uribe’s wife, María Claudia Tarazona, later said her husband remained in a critical condition after surgery that lasted for more than three hours, according to the Colombian news outlet RTVC Noticias.

Uribe seeking Colombian presidency in 2026

Uribe, a critic of the leftist Colombian president Gustavo Petro, confirmed last October that he planned to seek his party’s nomination for the South American country’s next presidential election, which is due to take place in May 2026.

The 39-year-old has been a senator since 2022.

Petro condemns attack “against democracy”

Reacting to the attack on Uribe, Petro’s office condemned the shooting as an “act of violence not only against his person, but also against democracy”.

Petro added: “I hope that Miguel Uribe Turbay survives, that is what I want most of all, and that is what society should feel, that before anything else, we should join our hearts and energies to help him be well.”

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