Colombian police probing the attempted assassination of a prominent right-wing presidential candidate on Saturday arrested a man they believe hired the teenager accused of pulling the trigger.
Elder Jose Arteaga Hernandez was described by police as a key planner of the June 7 attack on conservative Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe, who remains hospitalized in a serious condition.
Arteaga Hernandez organized “the before of the attack, the during, and the after,” police chief Carlos Fernando Triana Beltran said.
Photo: Colombian Police Handout via REUTERST
Uribe, 39, was shot three times, including twice in the head, during a campaign rally in a park in Bogota.
Police have arrested five suspects, including the 15-year-old alleged hitman.
Arteaga Hernandez, who has a long criminal record and a file with Interpol, coordinated the attack, hired the shooter and provided him with a gun, police said.
The shooter is believed to belong to a network of contract killers. Colombian Minister of National Defense Pedro Sanchez said that Arteaga Hernandez “had allegedly negotiated the execution of the crime” for the equivalent of about US$250,000.
“He planned the cover, the movements, and even ordered one of his accomplices to be silenced after the incident,” Sanchez wrote on social media.
Uribe’s attorney, Victor Mosquera, has said the probe had revealed a “structured organization” with a “history of attacks on right-wing leaders.”
Uribe, a member of the Democratic Center party, in October last year announced his intention to run in the presidential election scheduled for May next year.
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