Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe shot during a campaign event

BOGOTA: Miguel Uribe, a candidate in next year’s Colombian presidential election, was shot three times, including twice in the head, during a campaign event in Bogota Saturday.

The 39-year-old right-wing opposition senator suffered two gunshot wounds to the head and one to the knee, according to the medical personnel who treated him.

International media reports that the senator is member of the opposition conservative Democratic Centre party founded by the former president Alvaro Uribe. The two men are not related.

The presidential candidate was hosting a campaign event in a public park in the Fontibon neighbourhood in the capital on Saturday when “armed subjects shot him in the back”.

Uribe’s wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, wrote on her husband’s X account that he was “fighting for his life”.

The Guardian, quoting the Columbian defence minister Pedro Sánchez, said that a suspect had been arrested in the shooting, while involvement of any other suspects is being investigated.

Colombia’s presidency issued a statement saying the government “categorically and forcefully” rejected the violent attack, and called for a thorough investigation.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has also issued a statement saying that the US “condemns in the strongest possible terms the attempted assassination” of Uribe.

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Web Desk