On June 7, the senator of the right-wing Democratic Center party, Miguel Uribe Turbay, was shot several times while he was in a public meeting in the Modelia neighborhood in the capital of the country, Bogotá. The attack was carried out by a 15-year-old who was apprehended a few minutes after firing the shots.
Uribe Turbay, a man close to former right-wing president Álvaro Uribe and a pre-candidate for the presidency of the Republic for the Democratic Center party, was taken to the Fundación Santa Fe hospital in Bogotá on Saturday, where he underwent surgery for gunshots to the head and leg. The senator’s health condition remains critical.
In this regard, the health center where he is located issued a statement saying: “The Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá, under the authorization of the family, informs that the patient Miguel Uribe Turbay continues in critical condition and has had little response to the interventions and medical management carried out… His situation is of the utmost seriousness. Therefore, the prognosis continues to be reserved.”
For his part, the president of the country, Gustavo Petro, said in a press conference: “I hope that Miguel Uribe Turbay survives, that is what I want more than anything else, and that is what society should feel, that before anything else, to join our hearts and energies that will help him to be well.”
Consternation in Colombia
The attack on Uribe Turbay caused significant commotion in Colombia. Speculations and accusations emerging from all sides of the political spectrum about who is behind the attack have marked the political discourse in Colombia during the last few days.
The secretary of defense of Colombia, Pedro Sánchez Suárez, after meeting with the National Security Council, told the press that there are three possible hypotheses about the cause of the attack: “We could group them in three big groups: if it was directly because it was Miguel Uribe Turbay, or if it was because he is a politician and everything that goes around his political party or if it is about destabilizing the national government through attacks on some members who think differently from this government.”
For its part, the National Prosecutor’s Office said that the teenager who carried out the attack may be linked to an important network of hitmen. It also reported that the investigation continues after the review of more than 1,000 videos and 23 interrogations. “We are perfectly aware that this boy who was apprehended is just a material executor… We are deducing who could be the architects of the crime. We are looking for a complete chain of responsibility,” Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo told the press.
Regarding the origin of the weapon, Carlos Triana, director of the National Police, assured that the pistol used in the attack was legally purchased in Arizona, United States, in 2020, although it is not yet known how it entered Colombia. He also announced that an investigation is underway to see if the gun was used in other cases investigated by the police.
The attack on Uribe Turbay has shaken the Colombian political scene and will surely have electoral repercussions. Colombia, a country where presidential candidates have been assassinated on several occasions, is expecting the possibility (desired by almost no one) of a new wave of political crimes that could fragment the national institutionality and further accelerate the political polarization.
