A candidate for the Colombian presidential election was shot down three times – who would have been twice – during a campaign event in the capital, Bogota.
Miguel Uibe Turbay, 39, was attacked while he was addressed to a small crowd in a park on Saturday. The police arrested a suspect of 15 years on the scene, according to local media.
His wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, called on the nation to pray for her survival. “Miguel is currently fighting for his life. Ask God to guide the hands of the doctors who treat him,” she said.
The Centro Democratico Party of Uibe condemned the attack, claiming that it “endangers the life of a political leader … Democracy and freedom in Colombia”.
The telephone sequences shared online seem to show the moment when it was shot in the head in the middle of the word, which encouraged those gathered to flee in panic.
Paramedical paramedics said that he had been shot in the knee and twice in the head, AFP news agency reported. He was transported by plane to the Health FE clinic where the supporters gathered outside to contain the vigil.
The government of the left president Gustavo Petro said that this “categorically and forcefully” condemned the attack as an “act of violence not only against his person, but also against democracy”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also condemned the shooting as a “direct threat to democracy”.
Uibe announced his candidacy for the presidential election next year in October.
He came from an eminent political family in Colombia, with links with the Liberal Party of the country. His father was a union leader and a businessman.
Her mother was Diana Turbay, a journalist who was killed in 1991 in an attempt to rescue after being kidnapped by the Medellin Drugs Run cartel at the time by Pablo Escobar.
