Colombia’s Council of State, the country’s top administrative court, on Friday morning rejected a lawsuit filed by two Colombian unions against conservative Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, who has reportedly not awakened since being shot in the head this month.
The unions tried to sue on the grounds that the political rally during which an assassin shot him was “illicit.”
According to Colombian outlets, although the grounds for the decision are not publicly known at press time, a notification that confirms the lawsuit’s rejection appears on the website of the top court signed by Justice Luis Alberto Álvarez Parra, who leads the Council.
Sen. Uribe, 39, is a member of the conservative Democratic Center Party and a presidential hopeful in next year’s elections. On June 7, a boy between the ages of 14 and 15 shot Uribe during a campaign event in the capital city of Bogotá, inflicting two gunshot wounds to the skull and one to the left leg. Since then, the Senator has been fighting for his life at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Santa Fe Foundation of Bogotá.
At press time, the latest update published by the Santa Fe Foundation on Tuesday indicates that Uribe entered a new “subacute phase” after surpassing 16 days since the incident. Uribe has received constant care, especially in recent days, including a tracheostomy and gastrostomy, “relevant to the de-escalation of his critical condition.” The Foundation stressed that Uribe’s condition is still serious and his neurological prognosis is reserved. Further statements will be issued “at the moment when significant clinical changes occur.”
On Thursday, Colombian trade union leader Carlos Sánchez – representing both the Confederation of Workers’ Unions of Colombia (UTC) and Sinsergen, a Defense Ministry, military, and police officials union — filed a lawsuit against Uribe demanding he be stripped of his democratically elected position because he allegedly used his position as a Congressman to obtain advantages for his electoral aspirations, carrying out an “illicit” event in Bogotá that “exposed his life” and which ended with the assassination attempt.
The lawsuit reportedly argued that Uribe carried out “proselytizing and pre-campaign activities” on June 7, the day he was shot, even though the 2026 presidential campaign had not officially started and, as such, Uribe should be stripped of his Senate seat.
Furthermore, the lawsuit reportedly claimed that the rally, which it described as an “act of imprudence,” invited the assassination attempt, asserting that the incident “does not exempt him from his responsibility, even if he is a legislator of the upper house of the Senate of the Republic of Colombia.”
“Said activities consisted in participation in meetings, public speeches, and publications on social media with the explicit purpose of promoting his aspiration to a position of popular election other than the one he holds, at a time when the official campaign period has not begun according to the current electoral calendar issued by the National Registrar’s Office,” the lawsuit reportedly read.
“The evidence collected (photographs, videos, publications and sworn testimonies) undoubtedly demonstrates that Senator Uribe Turbay used his institutional position and his recognition as a congressman to obtain undue political advantages in favor of his electoral aspiration,” the document continued. “Even more so, that for said illicit act he exposed his life, which I charge that he was attacked with a gun by a minor with the purpose of hurting or killing him.”
The Democratic Center party released a statement on Thursday condemning the “reckless, morally reprehensible, and politically perverse” lawsuit against Uribe, filed against the Senator at a time when he remains in critical condition after the assassination attempt. The party demanded respect for Uribe’s life, stressing that “Colombia cannot allow violence and hatred to prevail over truth and democracy.”
“The argument of the plaintiffs is not only absurd but profoundly outrageous: they claim that the senator was engaging in political proselytism on the day of the attack, as if this could justify the attack or hold him responsible for what happened. What a despicable accusation! This claim, pulled from the hair, is an affront to reason and human dignity,” the party’s statement read.
“This is not merely an instrumentalization of justice to legitimize an act of violence. Indeed, some, with crude intent, seek to victimize a brave man, insinuating in a cowardly manner that he deserved the attack that nearly cost him his life,” the statement continued. “They seek to exploit his moment of vulnerability to destroy him, not only physically but also morally and politically, silencing his voice and that of the millions of Colombians he represents with firmness.”
Several Colombian politicians and unions reportedly condemned the lawsuit against Uribe. Aservidem, another Defense Ministry union, stated that it considered that the lawsuit filed by UTC and Sinsergen has no legal basis and that the timing of the filing shows a profound lack of sensitivity and solidarity with the senator.
Carlos Sánchez, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the two unions, spoke with the Colombian magazine Semana on Thursday and said that he does not regret having filed it, emphasizing, “we stand by it and we do not see a problem with it.”
“We as a union association constantly carry out legal actions regarding everything, because we understand that unionism, in a broad sense, everything concerns it, especially a political issue, such as that of this boy Miguel Uribe,” Sánchez told Semana. “So, simply, it is the development of an action of which we are accustomed to do every day here in the union, those are the motivations.”
“We do not see a problem with that. What we do see is a double standard on how the media have covered the news, and it seems to us that this news is of little importance, it is not important, what should be important is when social leaders, policemen, bodyguards are murdered, but such a low or little thing, such as a loss of investiture, that really makes us strange,” he added.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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