Colombian Presidential Candidate Shot At Rally [VIDEO]

NPR reports:

Colombian senator and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay, 39, was shot in the head at a Bogotá campaign event Saturday, in an attack that sent shockwaves through the country. The politician’s condition remains unclear after being shot by a 15-year-old sicario, or paid hitman, while delivering a speech to a small group of supporters in a park in the west of the capital.

Videos posted on social media show the politician bleeding beside a car before being rushed to a nearby hospital. His condition remains serious. Bogotá Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán told reporters Sunday that Uribe had undergone surgery and was now in “the critical hours” of recovery. Uribe Turbay is a far-right politician considered to be controversial former president Álvaro Uribe’s protege. The men are not related.

The BBC reports:

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

Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned the “vile attack” and offered a 3bn peso ($730,000; £540,000) reward for information about who may be behind it.

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 leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government”. The suspect’s motivation is still unknown.

The New York Times reports:

Mr. Uribe is the grandson of Julio César Turbay, president of Colombia from 1978 to 1982.  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.

The cult is eagerly sharing gruesome videos.