Police imagine the 15-year-old arrested for the tried homicide of Senator Miguel Uribe was a hitman working for cash.
A 15-year-old boy accused of making an attempt to assassinate Colombian Senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has pleaded “not responsible”, the prosecutor’s workplace mentioned.
The teenager was formally charged on Tuesday with the tried homicide of 39-year-old conservative presidential candidate Uribe, who was shot within the head on Saturday and is fighting for his life in crucial situation in hospital.
{The teenager} – who police imagine was a “sicario” or hitman working for cash – was additionally charged with carrying a firearm.
“No household in Colombia ought to be going by means of this,” Uribe’s spouse, Maria Claudia Tarazona, instructed reporters exterior the hospital the place her husband is being handled.
“There isn’t a identify for this – it’s not ache, it’s not horror, it’s not unhappiness,” she mentioned.
The senator’s father, Miguel Uribe Londono, thanked the “tens of millions of Colombians and other people world wide for his or her prayers”.
“Miguel, amidst the ache and dismay that overwhelms us, has managed to unite this nation in a single voice that rejects violence,” his father added.
It isn’t identified why Senator Uribe, who was vying for the candidacy of his celebration, was attacked. He was polling effectively behind different celebration candidates on the time of the capturing.
Footage from the scene of the capturing confirmed Uribe addressing supporters within the west of the capital Bogota when a youth rushed in the direction of him firing at the very least eight photographs. Uribe was hit twice within the head and as soon as within the leg.
The alleged attacker was apprehended by safety guards and a Glock 9mm pistol was recovered.
In a video of the teenager’s seize, independently verified by the Reuters information company, the suspect might be heard shouting that he had been employed by an area drug seller.
An earlier video confirmed that because the suspect, who was wounded, tried to flee the scene, a voice may very well be heard shouting, “I did it for the cash, for my household.”
However in courtroom, {the teenager} rejected prices of tried homicide and unlawful possession of a firearm, the legal professional common’s workplace mentioned. If convicted, he faces as much as eight years in a rehabilitation centre, not jail, as he’s a minor.
Additionally on Tuesday, Colombia was rocked by bomb and gun assaults within the nation’s southwest the place at the very least seven individuals had been killed in a wave of violence that echoed earlier a long time when assaults by armed fighters, paramilitary teams and drug traffickers had been frequent.
The bomb and gun assaults had been doubtless attributable to an armed group that splintered from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, in accordance with the military and police.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, in the meantime, has broadly pointed the finger at a world crime ring as being behind the assault on Uribe, with out offering particulars or proof.
Colombian Inside Minister Armando Benedetti advised there could also be a hyperlink with the assassination try as rebels have more and more turned to drug trafficking to finance their actions, although he didn’t present proof.
President Petro has ordered beefed-up safety for presidency officers and opposition leaders in response to the assaults.
Uribe had been a staunch critic of Petro’s safety technique, aimed toward ending six a long time of armed battle, arguing that Petro’s method of pausing offensives on armed teams regardless of the failure of peace talks solely backfired.
The senator had two government-provided bodyguards defending him on the time of the capturing, the top of the Nationwide Safety Unit mentioned.
Uribe’s lawyer, Víctor Mosquera, mentioned his shopper had repeatedly requested for extra bodyguards.
