Colombian Presidential Candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay Shot in Head By 14 Year Old At Political Rally

Saturday afternoon, around 5:30pm, Colombian senator and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay was shot in the back and the head by a 14 year old assailant  (some reports say 15-year-old, and his name is being withheld due to his youth) as he gave a speech in the Bogotá neighborhood of Fontibón, not far from the city’s international airport. Bodyguards shot the youth in the leg at the scene, and both victim and perpetrator were rushed to local hospitals.

Uribe Turbay was later transferred to a better equipped hospital in the north of Bogotá where he underwent cranial surgery due to the gravity of his wounds. As of Sunday morning, June 8^th, Uribe’s surgery was successful, though he remains in critical condition. The CTI, Colombia’s equivalent of the FBI, and DIJIN, the national police’s investigative unit, have possession of the youth’s phone and are analyzing messages and contacts.

The following day, Sunday, June 8th, thousands took to the streets in major Colombian cities in solidarity with Uribe Turbay, expressing not necessarily support of his particular candidacy, but rejection of political violence.

Uribe is a “pre-candidate” for Colombia’s presidential elections next May. Pre-candidates are competing within their respective political parties to become the party’s official candidate for the upcoming elections. Other pre-candidates may bypass the party endorsement system by collecting enough signatures to appear on the ballot.

Uribe Turbay belongs to the Centro Democratico political party, controlled by former President Alvaro Uribe, though the two are not related. Uribe Turbay is the son of journalist Diana Consuelo Turbay Quintero, who in 1991 was kidnapped by Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel in 1991 and died in their custody during a failed rescue attempt. In turn, Diana Turbay was the daughter of Julio César Turbay Ayala, who was president of Colombia from 1978 to 1982.

#ATENCIÓN. Se conoce un video que deja ver el momento cuando el congresista Miguel Uribe Turbay recibe los impactos de bala mientras daba un discurso en un parque del b/Modelia.

En desarrollo… https://t.co/HAlu4typX7 pic.twitter.com/d612iyMl37

— Colombia Oscura (@ColombiaOscura_) June 7, 2025

During Julio César Turbay Ayala’s administration, the M-19 rebel group attacked the Dominican embassy in Bogotá, holding several ambassadors hostage, including those from the US, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Israel, and Peru. Colombia’s current leftist President Gustavo Petro was a member of the now-disbanded M-19 guerillas.

Political repercussions

Colombia is in a state of high political tensions, as the leftist president Gustavo Petro, a former armed guerilla, is in the process of attempting to bypass the system of checks and balances and hold a referendum on his labor reforms. The labor reform bill failed to pass congress, and the referendum itself also failed to pass congress, but he is insisting on moving forward with the measure, provoking a constitutional crisis.

Miguel Uribe and his Centro Democratico party have been opponents of the president’s populist agenda, as have several other major political parties, and even a number of the president’s former ministers.

President Petro condemned the assassination attempt and ordered an investigation into Uribe Turbay’s security detail. The government is offering a reward of up to approximately $780,000 USD for information on the perpetrators. All other presidential candidates condemned the attempt and denounced the plague of political violence and common criminality that Colombia suffers from.

Supporters of Petro had called for public marches in support of the president’s proposed reforms for this Wednesday, June 11. This assassination attempt ratchets up tensions, as it recalls “El Bogotazo,” the riots and burning of Bogotá in 1948 after the assassination of presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán. The assassination and the repercussions, against the context of political violence between the two main political parties—Liberals and Conservatives—of that time, were ingredients in the rise of communist armed insurgencies during the 1960s of the FARC, ELN, and EPL, and as a response, vigilante groups like the AUC, which later morphed into common mafias.

Who might want Uribe Turbay dead?

• Narcotics mafias – Uribe Turbay’s mother was a victim of Pablo Escobar’s mafia and died when he was just a toddler. He may be expected to crack down hard on these criminal organizations if elected, unlike the current administration of Gustavo Petro, who has through his policies, given them space to regroup and rebuild.
• Left-wing militants – Uribe Turbay belongs to the right-wing (despite the name) Centro Democrático political party, led by former President Alvaro Uribe, which takes a hard-line eradication policy against leftist groups like the ELN and the dissident remnants of the FARC after the 2016 peace accords. Alvaro Uribe has accumulated many political enemies, and not just left-wing ideologues. Still, the leftist militants, like the mafias, have been given space under the current administration to reorganize and strengthen their presence in Colombia. They could expect Uribe Turbay and his partisans to work to eradicate these groups once and for all.
• Current government – very unlikely, as political assassination is not a traditional modus operandi of Colombian governments. And there is no clear benefit the current administration would have by Uribe Turbay’s death. If anything, large segments of the population will blame the current administration, so such a move would not bring them any benefit, especially at the early pre-candidacy stage, where should Uribe Turbay die, it will not prevent a strong opposition candidate from emerging.
• Right-wing rivals – very unlikely, though conspiracy theories are circulating that he was either sacrificed for the effect it would have (sympathy vote), or to move a strong competitor aside for the many rivals that want to represent the opposition. At this time, without evidence, Finance Colombia discounts these theories as wild conjecture, but the thread is worth following.
• Unknown personal beef – This is surprisingly frequent, where an action that appears politically motivated, is actually to settle scores of a personal or business matter, and unrelated to political ideology or ambition. Again, unlikely, but possible.

Witness photo of a car bloodied from the senator’s wounds as rescuers struggled to render first aid.

Continue to follow Finance Colombia for updates on Miguel Uribe Turbay and the situation as it evolves.

Headline photo: Presidential candidate and Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay with his wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona. (source: social media)