The Colombian magazine Semana on Saturday revealed details of the testimony that the teen boy detained for shooting conservative Senator Miguel Uribe gave to local authorities.
The minor, now reported to be between 14 and 15 years old and whose name has not been officially disclosed by Colombian authorities, allegedly shot Sen. Uribe on June 7 during an appearance at a campaign event in the capital city of Bogotá, inflicting two gunshot wounds to the skull and one to the left leg. The child, wounded amid the chaos, was apprehended shortly afterwards by local law enforcement. Video footage of his capture appeared to show the boy screaming, “I did it for money, for my family!”
At press time, the senator remains in critical condition and with a reserved neurological prognosis at the Santa Fe Foundation of Bogotá. The Foundation first reported on Monday morning that a complementary surgical procedure to the initial one was performed, with a postoperative brain CT scan showing “the expected results without significant additional changes to those previously identified.” Moments later, the foundation disclosed that Uribe was urgently transferred to an operating room for an “emergency neurosurgical intervention due to clinical and imaging evidence of an acute intracerebral hemorrhage.”
Semana claimed to be in possession of a copy of the testimony the child gave local law enforcement authorities. The magazine detailed that the minor told authorities, “I was going to get killed on that lap,” suggesting that the plot against Uribe called for the minor to be killed after he had killed the Senator. The minor claimed that he did not receive the 20 million Colombian pesos (roughly $4,870) that he was promised for shooting Uribe.
According to Semana, the child first claimed that he was hired to kill Sen. Uribe by someone whom he identified as “the boss of the neighborhood and the boss of the pot [slang term for local places where drugs are sold and consumed].” The minor reportedly emphasized that they were “very dangerous people” and requested that law enforcement grant protection to his grandmother, who is “the only person who has reached out to him and cared about him.”
The Colombian magazine detailed that the boy began disclosing further details as soon as the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF) announced that his family would go into a witness protection program. The teen has reportedly been placed under protection at a “bunker” of the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office.
After the announcement, the minor reportedly handed over locations, names, nicknames, and details of how the criminal organization that hired him worked. The minor detailed that he was part of the organization but not as a gunman, but rather was a habitual drug consumer at the “pot” and worked for “the boss” as a jíbaro, a street drug seller. The minor also claimed that he is one of the few people that has had access to “the boss,” and explained that although he is the person “who runs the neighborhood, few know him.”
According to the testimony reviewed by Semana, the “boss” offered him 20 million Colombian pesos to “run the errand” (kill someone). The minor told authorities that the offered sum was a lot of money for him, so he immediately accepted without even knowing who he was supposed to kill.
“They only warned him to be ready to receive the indications, with the time, the weapon, and the place to commit the crime,” Semana reported.
The minor reportedly said that he was given specific instructions on the day of the assassination attempt to be present at a location where a hired driver from a transportation app picked him up. The boy pointed out that the taxi service had already been paid for and that he did not know the driver who left him at the Modelia neighborhood, where Uribe was holding his rally.
“The boss had warned him that there were people advising for him at the site and that they were going to give him all the instructions, he even said that they told him not to worry because everything was already coordinated,” Semana reported. “But what he concluded later, and he told the Prosecutor’s Office, was that he was going to end up dead in the plan.”
Investigators reportedly asked the child what happened with the promised 20 million pesos, to which he responded that he was never given the money as the deal was to “pay him after committing the crime.” The minor acknowledged that he was “saved by a miracle” and repeated, after some silence, referring to the payment, “maybe not, they were going to kill me and they left me alone.”
According to Semana, the minor’s corroboration was “so precise” that it clarified investigators’ doubts and “helped identify all those involved, describing them accurately, giving their names or nicknames, and even helping to rule out alleged accomplices, which were nothing more than rumors and fabricated versions on social media.”
Last week, far-left President Gustavo Petro confirmed that the minor was once part of his administration’s “Youth in Peace” social program, a struggling initiative that seeks to take impoverished young Colombians and provide them with money stipends and education to turn them into “peace managers” by having them act as mediators in conflicts in their respective regions and “reduce the participation of young people in illegal activities of armed groups.”
Colombian outlets reported at the time that the minor’s father lives in Poland and his mother passed away when he was young. Semana further revealed on Saturday that the minor had been enrolled in ICBF protection programs on several occasions prior to the assassination attempt on Uribe, initially at age eight after he was brutally beaten by his father at the time. According to Semana, the father went to Poland because he sought to work as a “mercenary” in the Ukraine-Russia war.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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