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BOGOTA: A prominent Colombian right-wing presidential candidate is in critical condition after being shot three times during a campaign event in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said.

Thirty-nine-year-old Senator Miguel Uribe was speaking to supporters in the capital when a gunman shot him twice in the head and once in the knee before being detained.

Images from the scene showed Uribe slumped against the hood of a white car, smeared with blood, as a group of men tried to hold him and stop the bleeding.

A security guard managed to detain the suspected attacker, a minor who is believed to be 15 years old.

Uribe was airlifted to the hospital in “critical condition” where he is undergoing a “neurosurgical” and “peripheral vascular procedure,” the Santa Fe Clinic in Bogota confirmed.

Uribe’s wife posted on his X account that “he is fighting for his life at this moment.”

Police director Carlos Fernando Triana said the suspect was injured in the affray and was receiving treatment.

Two others – a man and a woman – were also wounded, and a Glock-style firearm was seized.

“Our hearts are broken, Colombia hurts,” Carolina Gomez, a 41-year-old businesswoman, said as she prayed with candles for Uribe’s health.

The motive for the attack is not yet publicly known. Colombia’s defense minister Pedro Sanchez vowed to use law enforcement’s full capabilities and offered a roughly $725,000 reward for information about who was behind the shooting.

In a video address to the nation posted on social media, President Gustavo Petro also promised investigations to find the perpetrators of the “day of pain.”

“What matters most today is that all Colombians focus with the energy of our hearts, with our will to live ... on ensuring that Dr. Miguel Uribe stays alive.”

In an earlier statement, Petro condemned the violence as “an attack not only against his person, but also against democracy, freedom of thought, and the legitimate exercise of politics in Colombia.”

The shooting was similarly condemned across the political spectrum and from overseas, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling it “a direct threat to democracy.”

But Rubio also pointed blame at Petro, claiming the attack was the “result of the violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government.”

“President Petro needs to dial back the inflammatory rhetoric and protect Colombian officials,” the top US diplomat said.

Uribe, a strong critic of Petro, is a member of the Democratic Center party, which announced last October his intention to run in the 2026 presidential election.

Authorities said that there was no specific threat made against the politician before the incident. Like many public figures in Colombia, Uribe had close personal protection.

The country is home to several armed guerrilla groups, powerful cartels and has a long history of political violence.

Uribe is the son of Diana Turbay, a famed Colombian journalist who was killed after being kidnapped by Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel.

One of his grandfathers was former Colombia president Julio Cesar Turbay, who led the country from 1978 to 1982.

Supporters gathered outside the facility, lighting candles and clutching crucifixes as they prayed for his recovery.

Uribe’s party said in a statement Saturday that an “armed individual” had shot the senator from behind.

The party leader, former president Alvaro Uribe, described the shooting as an attack against “a hope for the country.”

Miguel Uribe – who is not related to Alvaro – has been a senator since 2022. He previously served as Bogota’s government secretary and city councilor.

He also ran for city mayor in 2019, but lost that election.

KIGALI: Rwanda has said it would withdraw from the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), underscoring diplomatic tensions in the region over an offensive this year by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in eastern Congo.

Kigali had expected to assume the chairmanship of the 11-member bloc at a meeting on Saturday in Equatorial Guinea.

Instead, the bloc kept Equatorial Guinea in the role, which Rwanda’s foreign ministry denounced as a violation of its rights.

Rwanda, in a statement, condemned Congo’s “instrumentalization” of the bloc and saw “no justification for remaining in an organization whose current functioning runs counter to its founding principles.”

It wasn’t clear if Rwanda’s exit from the bloc would take immediate effect.

The office of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said in a statement that ECCAS members had “acknowledged the aggression against the Democratic Republic of Congo by Rwanda and ordered the aggressor country to withdraw its troops from Congolese soil.”

M23 seized eastern Congo’s two largest cities earlier this year, with the advance leaving thousands dead and raising concerns of an all-out regional war. African leaders along with Washington and Doha have been trying to broker a peace deal.

Congo, the UN and Western powers accuse Rwanda of supporting M23 by sending troops and weapons.

Rwanda has long denied helping M23, saying its forces were acting in self-defense against Congo’s army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed around 1 million people, mostly ethnic Tutsis.

US President Donald Trump’s administration hopes to strike a peace accord between Congo and Rwanda that would also facilitate billions in Western investment in the region, which is rich in minerals including tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper and lithium.

ECCAS was established in the 1980s to foster cooperation in areas like security and economic affairs among its member states.