The candidate for the Presidential Colombia fired

A candidate for the Colombian presidential election remains in intensive care after being shot three times – twice in mind – during a campaign event in the capital, Bogotá.

Miguel Uibe Turbay, a 39 -year -old senator, was attacked while he was addressed to supporters in a park on Saturday. Police arrested a 15 -year -old suspect, said the prosecutor’s office.

Uibe’s wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, called on the nation to pray for its survival, saying: “Miguel is currently fighting for her life. Ask God to guide the hands of the doctors who treat him.”

The Centro -Democrato Party of Uibe condemned the attack, describing it as a threat to “democracy and freedom in Colombia”.

Shared online images seem to show the moment when it was shot in the head in the middle of the word, which encouraged those who gathered to flee in panic.

He was transported by plane to the hospital of the Santa Fe Foundation where the supporters gathered to hold a vigil.

Uibe was precipitated in surgery when he was in critical condition, said the mayor of Bogotá Carlos Fernando Galán on Saturday evening.

The hospital said on Sunday morning that Ouribe had undergone procedures in the head and had left the thigh, before being taken to be stabilized in intensive care.

It remains in an extremely serious state, he added.

The 15 -year -old suspect was shot in the leg while the police and the security officials continued him as a result of the attack, according to local media.

He was arrested with a “9 mm gloc -type firearm,” said a press release from the Attorney General’s office. An investigation is underway.

The government of the left president Gustavo Petro said that “categorically” condemned the attack as an “act of violence not only against his person, but also against democracy”.

The Minister of Defense, Pedro Sanchez, deplored the “attacking vile” and offered a reward of 3 billion peso ($ 730,000; £ 540,000) to find out who could be behind.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also condemned the shooting as a “direct threat to democracy”.

He blamed the attack, without providing examples, on “violent left rhetoric from the highest levels of the Colombian government”. The suspect’s motivation remains unclear.

Many Colombians have condemned hostile rhetoric more and more used by the government and the opposition parties.

The week before the shooting was particularly tense, Petro seeking popular support for his reforms in a decision that the opposition leaders – including Uribe – nicknamed unconstitutional.

Petro urged Colombians to wish Uibe well, on what he described as a “day of pain” in a video address to the nation.

There was a “political difference” between Uibe and the government, but it was “only political,” he said.

“What matters most today is that all Colombians are concentrating with the energy of our hearts, with our desire to live … by ensuring that Dr. Miguel Uribe remains alibe,” added the president.

Uribe, Petro’s right -wing critic, announced his candidacy for next year’s presidential election in October. He has been a senator since 2022.

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.

For many, the shooting on Saturday returned to the violent history of Colombia, when personalities like Escobar attacked politicians to put pressure on the government.

“We cannot return to situations of political violence, nor at times when violence was used to eliminate those who thought differently,” said the mayor of Bogotá Galán shortly after the attack.

Petro had been elected to the promise to bring “total peace” to the country.

He has made early progress in talks with gangs and rebel groups, but his Minister of the Interior recently recognized that the strategy was “not well”.

Dozens of soldiers and police were killed over a period of two weeks in April, in attack the Colombian government blamed with armed groups.

Earlier in the year, more than 32,000 people fled their homes in the northern Catatumbo region, where rebel groups compete engaged in bloody fights Despite a peace treaty.

Additional report by José Carlos Cueto, BBC Mundo Colombia correspondent