Colombia presidential candidate, Miguel Uribe Turbay shot twice in the head by a 15-year-old suspect (video)

A Colombian presidential candidate has been shot three times, reportedly twice in the head at a campaign event in the capital, Bogota.

Miguel Uribe Turbay, 39, was attacked while addressing a small crowd in a park on Saturday, June 7.  Police arrested a 15-year-old suspect at the scene, local media say.

His wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, called on the nation to pray for his survival.

“Miguel is currently fighting for his life. Let us ask God to guide the hands of the doctors who are treating him,” she said.

Uribe’s Centro Democratico party condemned the attack, saying that it “endangers the life of a political leader… democracy and freedom in Colombia”.

Phone footage shared online appears to show the moment when he was shot in the head mid-speech, prompting those gathered to flee in panic.

Paramedics said he had been shot in the knee and twice in the head, AFP news agency reported. He was airlifted to the Sante Fe clinic where supporters have gathered outside to hold vigil.

The government of left-wing President Gustavo Petro said it “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”.

Uribe comes from a prominent Colombian political family. He is the grandson of Julio César Turbay Ayala, who governed the country from 1978 to 1982, and died in 2005. His father was a union leader and businessman.

The young politician’s mother was Diana Turbay, a journalist kidnapped by drug traffickers from the Medellín cartel under Pablo Escobar, and murdered during a rescue operation in 1991. His grandmother, Nydia Quintero de Balcázar, is the founder of the organization Solidarity for Colombia.

The Harvard graduate entered the Senate in 2022, after a career in local Bogota politics.

In October 2024, he announced his presidential bid from the location where his mother was killed, saying that her death shaped his life. “I could have grown up seeking revenge, but I decided to do the right thing: forgive, but never forget,” he said.