Forensic consultants work on the crime scene the place Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay was shot and wounded within the Modelia neighborhood in Bogota on June 7, 2025.
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BOGOTA, Colombia —Colombian senator and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay, 39, was shot within the head at a Bogotá marketing campaign occasion Saturday, in an assault that despatched shockwaves by the nation.
The politician’s situation stays unclear after being shot by a 15-year-old sicario, or paid hitman, whereas delivering a speech to a small group of supporters in a park within the west of the capital.
Movies posted on social media present the politician bleeding beside a automotive earlier than being rushed to a close-by hospital. His situation stays critical. Bogotá Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán instructed reporters Sunday that Uribe had undergone surgical procedure and was now in “the vital hours” of restoration.
The incident is the primary high-profile assassination try on a politician in a long time, elevating fears of a return to a bloody period of political violence in Colombia forward of contentious elections scheduled for Could 31 2026.
“At this second, Miguel is preventing for his life. We ask God to information the palms of the medical doctors treating him,” wrote Uribe’s spouse, Maria Claudia Tarazona, on her husband’s X account on Saturday evening.
Uribe Turbay is a far-right politician thought of to be controversial former president Álvaro Uribe’s protege. The lads aren’t associated. He’s a staunch critic of incumbent President Gustavo Petro and has campaigned promising larger safety in Colombia.
Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay appears to be like on after Senate vote in Bogota on Could 14, 2025. A Colombian right-wing opposition senator and candidate for subsequent 12 months’s presidential election, Miguel Uribe Turbay, 39, was shot and wounded in Bogota on June 7, 2025.
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It’s unclear who ordered the assault, which occurred at round 5pm within the Fontibón neighborhood of Bogotá, however the perpetrators “virtually definitely employed hitmen,” in response to Elizabeth Dickinson, Senior Colombia Analyst at Disaster Group Worldwide.
Police apprehended the underage shooter shortly after he fled the scene.
“Whoever ordered this assassination… very clearly had the intention of throwing gasoline onto a fireplace, attempting to be incendiary in an electoral context that’s already deeply polarized,” Dickinson instructed NPR.
The assault comes amid deepening political polarization between Petro – a leftist former-guerrilla – and an emboldened right-wing opposition, who blame the president for the nation’s deteriorating safety state of affairs.
“Evidently this [attack] exhibits an erosion of Colombia’s safety and political local weather within the quick time period,” Sergio Guzmán, Director at Colombia Danger Evaluation, a safety suppose tank, instructed NPR.
Vicky Dávila, the conservative frontrunner within the upcoming presidential election, stated Petro was “the one one accountable” for the assassination try in an X put up on Saturday.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio — who has beforehand dubbed President Petro “Gustavo Chávez” — additionally blamed the Colombian chief and his language.
“This can be a direct menace to democracy and the results of the violent leftist rhetoric coming from the very best ranges of the Colombian authorities,” wrote Rubio in an X put up final evening.
However Petro joined voices throughout the political spectrum condemning the taking pictures.
“Colombia and its everlasting violence… They kill the son and the mom. Respect life, that’s the purple line,” stated the president on X.
His remark referred to Uribe Turbay’s mom, journalist Diana Turbay, who was kidnapped by Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel and killed throughout a botched rescue operation in 1991.
Saturday’s assault has drawn comparisons to this era of political violence, with many observers evaluating it to presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán’s assassination in 1989 throughout peak cartel violence.
“Basically what we now have tonight is a return to a really darkish period of politics in Colombia when violence was used as a political instrument on the highest stage of elections,” stated Dickinson.
A number of presidential hopefuls have additionally referred to as for larger safety for candidates forward of the upcoming elections.
“As we speak I ask the worldwide neighborhood to make an pressing and efficient plan to maintain Colombia’s presidential candidates and our households,” wrote Vicky Dávila, in a put up on X within the hours after the assault.
The Ministry of Protection supplied a COP $3 billion (roughly USD $728,000) reward for info regarding the assassination try.
