BOGOTA, Aug 10, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A Colombian presidential candidate shot at a campaign event in June has deteriorated to critical condition due to a new cerebral hemorrhage, doctors treating him said Saturday.

Conservative Senator Miguel Uribe, 39, was speaking to supporters in the capital, Bogota, when a gunman shot him twice in the head and once in the knee.

He has been in intensive care since then, and undergone multiple surgeries. In recent weeks his relatives had welcomed progress in his care.

But now Uribe has been put back under deep sedation, the Santa Fe Foundation hospital said in a statement.

Uribe needs "new neurosurgical procedures" after presenting with a hemorrhage in his central nervous system, the statement said. "His condition is critical."

Authorities have arrested six suspects in the attack. They believe the 15-year-old shooter was a hired gun and that dissident members of the defunct FARC guerrilla group are behind the attack.

The government of leftist President Gustavo Petro initiated peace talks with the dissident group in mid 2024 in Venezuela, but the talks made little progress and have since been suspended.

Uribe was the favored candidate of the right for the 2026 presidential elections. The attack in June stunned Colombia and raised fears of a return to the country's bloody past of political, cartel and paramilitary violence.