Colombia presidential candidate shot in Bogota campaign attack
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Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe was gravely wounded in a Bogota shooting as officials vow to uncover the motive.
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Police stand guard outside the Medicentro hospital where Colombian senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay is being treated after he was shot during a campaign rally in Bogota, Colombia, Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP)
Colombian Senator and right-wing presidential candidate Miguel Uribe was shot and gravely wounded on Saturday during a campaign event in the capital, authorities said, in an attack that has sent shockwaves through the country’s political landscape.
Uribe, 39, was addressing supporters in western Bogota when a gunman opened fire, striking him twice in the head and once in the knee. The senator collapsed near the hood of a white vehicle as aides and bystanders scrambled to take care of the bleeding. He was airlifted to the Santa Fe Clinic and remains in intensive care.
Images circulated from the scene showed the injured senator slumped and bloodied, while onlookers attempted to stabilize him. According to police chief Carlos Fernando Triana, the suspect, a 15-year-old male, was detained by a security guard on site and is currently receiving medical treatment after being injured during the arrest.
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Two other individuals, a man and a woman, were also wounded in the attack. Authorities recovered a Glock-style handgun believed to have been used in the shooting.
Government vows investigation
Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez denounced the assault as a threat to democratic stability, vowing that “all capabilities of the military, police, and intelligence services” would be mobilized to uncover the motive and perpetrators behind the attack. A reward of approximately $725,000 has been offered for information leading to those responsible.
“This act of violence is an attack not only against his person, but also against democracy, freedom of thought, and the legitimate exercise of politics in Colombia,” the office of President Gustavo Petro said in an official statement.
Petro, who is expected to address the nation later in the evening, “categorically and forcefully” condemned the shooting.
Uribe, a staunch critic of the current government, is a rising figure in Colombia’s conservative bloc and a member of the right-wing Democratic Center party. He announced his intention to run for the presidency in the 2026 election last October.
His party confirmed that the attack came without prior threats and described the shooting as a targeted assault launched “from behind.” Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who leads the Democratic Center, called it an attack on “a hope for the country.”
Miguel Uribe hails from a prominent political family. He is the son of journalist Diana Turbay, who was killed in the early 1990s after being kidnapped by Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel. His grandfather, Julio Cesar Turbay, served as Colombia’s president from 1978 to 1982.
Uribe has served in the Senate since 2022 and previously held roles as Bogota’s government secretary and city councilor. He also ran for mayor of Bogota in 2019, ultimately losing that race.
