Bogota, Colombia, June 13 (V7N) – Prosecutors on Thursday announced charges of attempted murder against a second individual in connection with the attempted assassination of Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe last weekend. The newly charged suspect is accused of driving the vehicle used to deliver the gun to the 15-year-old alleged shooter, who is already in custody.

Miguel Uribe, a 39-year-old conservative senator, was shot twice in the head and once in the leg on Saturday while delivering a speech in a park in western Bogota. He remains in critical condition, though doctors reported on Wednesday that he was showing signs of improvement.

The suspected hitman, who was captured and injured by Uribe's bodyguards near the scene, reportedly stated he acted "for money, for my family." However, at his arraignment earlier this week, he pleaded not guilty to the attack.

Senator Uribe is a member of the Democratic Center party, founded by former right-wing president Alvaro Uribe, though the two men are not related. Miguel Uribe is the son of Diana Turbay, a renowned journalist killed after being kidnapped by Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel, and the grandson of Julio Cesar Turbay, who served as Colombia's president from 1978 to 1982.


Authorities believe the 15-year-old was a hired gun, but the identity of the individual or group who ordered the assassination remains unknown. President Petro has speculated that the shooting could have been orchestrated by an international "mafia" or by dissident members of the defunct FARC guerrilla group who rejected the 2016 peace deal.

Colombia is currently facing its most severe security crisis in a decade. The country was rocked on Tuesday by a series of 24 coordinated bomb and gun attacks that resulted in at least seven fatalities across the southwest, a region where government forces are actively combating FARC dissidents.

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