Colombia shaken by assassination attempt on presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay

Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay , a prominent right-wing politician and candidate for president, was shot in the head on Saturday .

He remains, at time of writing, in critical condition, hovering between life and death.

The would-be assassin, captured at the scene after a shoot-out with pursuing law enforcement, was a 14-year-old hired killer.

Colombia had managed to tame the worst excesses of organized crime within its borders.

Since Villavicencio ’s death, Ecuador has attempted to crack down on the gangs under President Daniel Noboa to little avail. The country is still awash in crime and chaos, leaving it with the second -highest murder rate in the world. Many of those gangs are directly linked to Colombian cartels and narcoterrorists. Some of that chaos may now be bleeding back up into Colombia itself. If the country does not take serious measures to cripple the cartels, it may soon find itself in a familiar and unpleasant situation..