Far-left President of Colombia Gustavo Petro on Monday acknowledged the 14-year-old arrested for shooting conservative Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay was part of his administration’s struggling “Youth in Peace” social program.
“The district government had already identified the murderous child’s troubled nature, took him into one of its programs, and transferred him to one of my government’s programs: ‘Youth in Peace,’” Petro said in a post on his official Twitter account.
“There, according to the report I have from the professionals, he demonstrated a completely troubled personality, with no ability to form interpersonal bonds,” he continued. “He lasted two months, did not attend any classes, and voluntarily withdrew.”
The 14-year-old boy, whose identity local authorities have kept secret but has been reported by international outlets as Juan Sebastián Rodríguez Casallas, shot Sen. Uribe three times during a presidential campaign event in a neighborhood in the capital city of Bogotá on Saturday. Uribe received two gunshot wounds to the skull and one to the left leg, leaving him in critical condition as of Tuesday morning. Uribe is a vocal critic of Petro’s government and one of the possible presidential candidates of the main right-wing opposition party, the Democratic Center, in the 2026 elections.
At press time, the Senator remains in critical but stable condition at the Santa Fe Foundation of Bogotá, still offering “little medical response” to the emergency surgery and medical procedures.
The “Youth in Peace” program, which the teen allegedly joined, is part of the Petro administration’s “Total Peace” plan, a series of initiatives focused on reducing Colombia’s violent crime via negotiation with criminal organizations, education, and social rehabilitation. Following numerous reports from local outlets detailing the failure of “Total Peace,” Interior Minister Armando Benedetti admitted in April that the program “has not turned out well.”
“Youth in Peace,” launched in January 2023, aims to take impoverished young Colombians and provide them with money stipends and education to turn them into “peace managers.” The program is intended to educate the youths to act as mediators in conflicts in their respective regions and “reduce the participation of young people in illegal activities of armed groups.” Reports published in May indicate that “Youth in Peace” faced “operational and administrative difficulties in its implementation” after a review conducted by the Colombian Equality Ministry found several irregularities in its execution.
Astrid Cáceres Cárdenas, head of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF), told reporters on Monday that the 14-year-old is willing to collaborate with the authorities on the truth about what happened. Asked if whether the minor is “willing to tell the truth” or not, Cáceres Cárdenas said, “that is what we understand.”
“Special protection is required, not only for the information we give to the media, but also for his safety. He is in full collaboration, and also in an attitude of assuming responsibilities,” Cáceres Cárdenas said.
Cáceres Cárdenas explained that, under Colombian law, children must face two judicial procedures: an administrative process in which the minor is assigned a public defender by the Ombudsman’s Office, and an administrative one in which a family defender is in charge of the process. The ICBF director further detailed that both the Ombudsman’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office have been accompanying the ICBF and the minor in the process, and the Attorney General’s Office ensured that the 14-year-old has “all protection measures” necessary.
“There are some agreements with the Prosecutor’s Office so that this measure has security conditions for the boy, exceptional conditions for the case we have and of course within the framework of the guarantees of law,” she said.
The newspaper El Colombiano reported on Tuesday morning that a man who identified himself as the uncle of the child presented himself at the medical center where the 14-year-old was taken after he was injured in the attack. The man reportedly confirmed the minor’s parental uprooting and detailed that his father is in Poland and his mother passed away at the age of 23. According to the man, the minor lived with an aunt in Engativá, one of Bogotá’s districts.
“The young man is immersed in such a family uprooting that it seems he was easy prey for the criminals who instrumentalized him in the vile attack, without this justifying their criminal act,” El Colombiano wrote.
Video footage obtained at the time authorities apprehended the minor after the attack on Sen. Uribe appeared to show the child screaming, “I did it for money, for my family!”
Sources linked to the ongoing investigations told the local newspaper El Tiempo that, based on verification by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the firearm used by the minor against Sen. Uribe had been purchased at AJI Sporting Goods on August 6, 2020, by a man identified as Charles Joe Anderson from Mesa, Arizona. At press time, it remains unclear how the firearm made its way to Colombia.
El Tiempo further reported that the firearm was subjected to a ballistic study that revealed it is not registered with the Colombian Department of Arms, Ammunition and Explosives Control, and Commerce.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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