Colombian presidential candidate fighting for life after assassination bid

Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay remains in a critical condition after an assassination attempt on Saturday that recalled the political violence that roiled the nation in the s and s The -year-old opposition senator is out of a neurosurgical operation and a procedure on his left thigh but his condition remains extremely serious according to a announcement from La Fundacion Santa Fe de Bogota where he is being treated It declined to give a prognosis Uribe s wife had declared he was fighting for his life following the attack which happened while he was campaigning in a Bogota neighborhood on Saturday In a recording Sunday she reported he came out well from the surgery according to AFP He was shot twice in the head and once in the leg A -year-old youth was arrested in relation to the shooting after being beaten up by a crowd according to Attorney General Luz Camargo The minor is presently receiving healing in a healthcare center she commented Agents recovered a mm Glock at the scene Hundreds of people marched past the hospital where Uribe is being treated on Sunday to show their assistance for the presidential hopeful In a national address President Gustavo Petro explained that investigators are trying to establish who ordered the teenage gunman to attempt the hit and don t yet know the motive The candidate had visited businesses in the Modelia neighborhood then was speaking to about people when the gunfire broke out according to local councilor Andr s Barrios who was with Uribe at the time of the shooting A person from his protection band threw himself on top of Uribe Barrios commented in an interview with W Radio The senator was put into a car then transferred to a passing ambulance Barrios commented The attack comes as illegal armed groups gain strength and taking more territory emboldened by the failure of Petro s peace plan The gunning down of a prominent candidate a resurgence of a type of violence that had become much less common over the last three decades could further shake investors waning confidence in the Andean nation At the peak of Colombia s drug cartel terror in the s and early s four presidential candidates were assassinated among other prominent Colombians Uribe s own mother the journalist Diana Turbay was murdered by Pablo Escobar s Medellin cartel in