A conservative Colombian senator, presidential hopeful and grandson of a former president was shot from behind at a campaign event on Saturday in the capital, Bogotá, according to his party.
The shooting of the senator, Miguel Uribe Turbay, 39, by unknown perpetrators comes amid escalating political tension in the country as the country’s leftist president, Gustavo Petro, tries to push through changes to labor regulations that Mr. Uribe and other conservatives oppose.
Conflict between armed groups also continues to plague the country, though mostly in the countryside.
Beginning in the 1980s and into the early 2000s, Colombian criminal groups used kidnappings and assassinations of prominent figures to try to demonstrate strength, influence policy and sow discord. Saturday’s attack recalled a time that many Colombians believed that they had moved past.
Mr. Uribe arrived at a Bogotá hospital in critical condition, according to a statement released by the hospital, called the Santa Fe Foundation, and underwent neurosurgery and peripheral vascular surgery late Saturday.
On Sunday at around 1 a.m. local time, Mr. Uribe had emerged from surgery, said his wife, María Claudia Tarazona. She did not say what his condition was.
Addressing the country on television near midnight, President Petro condemned the attack. An underage boy had been arrested in connection with the shooting, he said, but it wasn’t clear if he was acting alone. Mr. Uribe’s security team was also being investigated for protocol failures, he said.
He said that all intelligence agencies would be devoted to identifying the mastermind behind the attack.
“No resource should be spared, not a single peso,” he said. He added, though, that “the laws and norms oblige us to protect the child for being a child.”
The authorities have not offered a motive for the shooting.
A video verified by The New York Times shows Mr. Uribe delivering a speech in a western part of Bogotá, then wincing after apparently being shot. Videos recorded in the same location shortly afterward show Mr. Uribe bleeding from the head while bystanders compress the wound and then carry him away.
Mr. Uribe had declared his intention to seek his party’s nomination in next year’s presidential election. He was not considered a leading candidate, though the election is still almost a year away, with a first round slated for May 31, 2026.
In an interview outside the hospital, Victor Mosquera, 44, said he had been at the senator’s side when the shots rang out.
He showed a reporter the blood on his brown and white shoes.
“Everyone was screaming and running,” said Mr. Mosquera, 44, a member of Mr. Uribe’s party, Democratic Center, and a local politician in Fontibón, the neighborhood where the senator had been campaigning that day.
“I bent down,” when the shots rang out, Mr. Mosquera said. “When I turned around, I saw Miguel lying next to me.”
Videos shot later showed Mr. Mosquera holding the bloodied Mr. Uribe before he was lifted into an ambulance.
Hundreds of people joined Mr. Mosquera outside the hospital on Saturday to show their support for Mr. Uribe. Many chanted criticism of Mr. Petro.
On X, the country’s defense minister, Pedro Sánchez, said he was offering a reward of up to 3 billion Colombian pesos, or $730,000, for any information leading to the capture of the perpetrators.
Mr. Sánchez said that he had ordered the military, the national police and intelligence agencies “to deploy all their capabilities to urgently clarify the facts.”
“This attack pains us,” he added. “It mobilizes us to redouble our efforts to protect life, guarantee free political participation, and deliver justice.”
Mr. Uribe is the grandson of Julio César Turbay, president of Colombia from 1978 to 1982. He is not related to former President Álvaro Uribe, a well-known conservative politician who was president from 2002 to 2010.
Political violence has touched the family before. Senator Uribe’s mother, Diana Turbay, a journalist and the daughter of President Turbay, was kidnapped by the Medellín Cartel, run by Pablo Escobar, in 1990. She died during a rescue attempt in 1991, shot by her abductors.
These events, which took place while Mr. Uribe was a child, were later captured by the novelist Gabriel García Márquez in his book “News of a Kidnapping,” and they continue to loom large in the national psyche.
Colombia has endured decades of violence with complex causes that include inequality, land disputes, and battles over the drug trade. During one particularly difficult period, three presidential candidates were assassinated in the run-up to the 1990 presidential election.
High-profile political violence had subsided in recent years, with the conflict instead playing out in small towns and cities far from the capital. Everyday Colombians and little-known peace activists have often been the victims.
On Saturday, Sergio Guzmán, a Colombian political analyst, called the assassination a “shocking development.”
“This doesn’t feel like we are moving forward,” Mr. Guzmán said. “This feels like we’re moving backward.”
Mr. Petro, the current president, was elected in 2022 in part on a promise to achieve what he called “total peace” — meaning peace deals with the country’s remaining armed groups.
But he has made little headway, and Mr. Uribe had frequently blamed the president for continuing violence in the country.
“Every day Petro is in power,” Mr. Uribe wrote on X in May, “Colombia bleeds.”
Political discourse in the country has also turned increasingly aggressive in recent days as Mr. Petro battles his critics over changes to labor law he wants to push through using a referendum. Critics, including Mr. Uribe, have called Mr. Petro’s use of the referendum unconstitutional.
Among those at the hospital was Rodrigo Lara Restrepo, a politician whose father was assassinated in 1984 while serving as justice minister. He said he had just seen Mr. Uribe’s toddler son that morning, playing in a sandbox.
Devon Lum contributed reporting.
Julie Turkewitz is the Andes Bureau Chief for The Times, based in Bogotá, Colombia, covering Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.
Genevieve Glatsky is a reporter for The Times, based in Bogotá, Colombia.
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