Colombian conservative Senator and presidential candidate hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay was shot in the head by a 14-year-old during a weekend campaign event.
At press time, the senator remains in critical condition, reportedly offering “little medical response” to the surgery and medical treatments performed.
Uribe, 39, is a vocal critic of the current administration of far-left President Gestavo Petro and one of several presidential candidate hopefuls ahead of the upcoming 2026 election. Uribe was elected senator in 2022, representing the conservative Democratic Centre party led by former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez (no relation). His mother, Diana Turbay, was a journalist and daughter of former president Julio César Turbay. She was killed in a 1991 rescue attempt after late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar had her kidnapped.
On Saturday, Uribe was shot three times — by a 14-year-old boy, according to police — at the tail end of a campaign event in a neighborhood located in the capital city of Bogotá, receiving two gunshot wounds to the skull and one to the left leg. The suspected attacker and at least two other people were also reportedly injured during the assassination attempt.
Uribe was immediately transferred to a local medical facility before being transported by helicopter to Bogotá’s Fundación Santa Fe, where he underwent an emergency neurosurgical and peripheral vascular procedure.
On Monday morning, the medical facility, with the authorization of Uribe’s family, informed the public that the senator remains in critical condition and has given “little response” to medical interventions and treatments.
“We remain committed to making every effort necessary to improve his condition. His situation is extremely serious. Therefore, the prognosis remains reserved,” the doctors’ statement read.
On Monday morning, Uribe’s wife, María Claudia Tarazona, asked for prayers through her Instagram account, stressing that “Miguel needs a miracle.”
“Our love keeps me firm, the family we built is my greatest strength, today you are fighting like a warrior for your life. The love of Alejandro the girls and mine is the bond that ties you to life. Keep fighting for your life my love, in the meantime I am taking care of our children,” Tarazona wrote in a separate post.
Mayor of Fontibón Victor Mosquera, who was present at Uribe’s event and helped carry him after he was shot, spoke with Caracol Radio on Monday morning and said that the senator “was never conscious after the attack.”
“I arrived, said hello, introduced Miguel, then Councilman Andrés came up, followed by Miguel. And then, a few minutes later, we heard some loud noises,” Mosquera said. “No one, especially me, thought for a moment that it could be an attack. When I tried to look to my left, I saw Senator Miguel and went over to him to see what I could do, and I saw that he was unconscious and covered in blood.”
Far-left President Gustavo Petro first reacted to Uribe’s assassination attempt in a social media post on Saturday in which he wrote that Colombia, in its “eternal violence,” wanted to “kill the son of an Arab woman in Bogotá, whom they had already murdered, and one should not kill in the heart of the world. They kill both the son and the mother.” The post repeatedly, and bizarrely, emphasized Uribe’s mother’s ethnic background.
“Respect life, that’s the red line. Colombia shouldn’t kill its children, because they are our children, too. Mafias of the land, scum of humanity. May the Arab families who arrived in Colombia live in peace,” Petro’s message read.
“Colombia welcomes the world, and doesn’t kill those who come from all corners of the planet. My solidarity with the Uribe family and the Turbay family. I don’t know how to ease their pain. It’s the pain of a lost mother and homeland,” the message concludes.
Hours later, during an emergency security meeting broadcast on national television, Petro condemned the assassination attempt, describing it as “an action that democracy mourns.” Petro asserted that the government would conduct an extensive investigation, including into Uribe’s own security escort, stressing that “whenever an assassin manages to act against a protected person, there has been a failure on the part of the State.”
“A young man has been trained to kill, hired to kill Miguel Uribe. It’s not just about who pulled the trigger. We have to find the mastermind, the one who ordered it. But beyond that, it’s about preventing more young people from falling into the trap of hatred,” Petro said, urging society as a whole to “protect children before they are turned into killers.”
“That is why to Miguel Uribe Turbay, descendants of Arabs, brother, therefore, by blood I say, Asalamu alaykum,” Petro said during the broadcast.
Colombian outlets reported on Monday morning that, according to judicial sources, the cell phone that the child had at the time of his arrest “disappeared.” At the time of his arrest, the minor reportedly shouted, “I’m going to give you the numbers. Let me up and let me give you the numbers. If you don’t let me go, I need to give you the numbers.”
“No one can account for the device, and this situation is worrying those responsible for the case, so they are reviewing what could have happened and where the cell phone, which would contain information relevant to the investigation, might be,” the Colombian magazine Semana wrote.
On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the assassination attempt “in the strongest possible terms” and stood in prayers with Uribe’s family, loved ones, and supporters.
“This is a direct threat to democracy and the result of the violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government,” Sec. Rubio said. “Having seen firsthand Colombia’s progress over the past few decades to consolidate security and democracy, it can’t afford to go back to dark days of political violence.”
“President Petro needs to dial back the inflammatory rhetoric and protect Colombian officials,” he continued.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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