Colombian senator dies 2 months after shooting : NPR
Claudia Tarazona, the wife of the opposition senator and the presidential hope Miguel Uribe, who died of injuries suffered when he was shot down during a political rally, attended a ceremony in honor of her husband, in the Congress in Bogota, Colombia on Monday.
Fernando Vergara / AP
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Fernando Vergara / AP
Bogota, Colombia – A Colombian senator and presidential hope whose shooting during a political rally in June recalled that some of the darkest chapters of violence fueled by the country’s drugs died on Monday.
Miguel Uibe Turbay’s family said the politician died in a capital in the capital, Bogota. Uribe, 39, was killed three times, twice in the head, while delivering a campaign speech in a park and had since remained in an intensive care unit in serious condition with episodes of slight improvement.
“Rest in peace, love of my life. I will take care of our children,” wrote his wife, María Claudia Tarazona, in an article on social networks confirming his death. “I ask God to show me how to learn to live without you.”
A suspect teenager was arrested at the scene of the June 7 attack in a Bogota district of the working class. The authorities later held several other people, but they did not determine who ordered the blow or why.
The shooting, which was taken on several videos, alarmed the Colombians who have not seen this kind of political violence against the presidential candidates since the drug lord of Medellin Pablo Escobar declared war in the state in the 1990s.
Uibe’s own mother, famous journalist Diana Turbay, was among the victims of this period. She died during a police rescue after being kidnapped by a group of drug traffickers led by Escobar seeking to block their extradition in the United States.
“If my mother was ready to give her life for a cause, how could I not do the same in life and in politics?” Uibe, who was only 5 years old when his mother was killed, said in an interview last year with a Colombian media.
Uribe, a lawyer holding a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University, entered politics as a municipal councilor for Bogota at the age of 26. In 2022, he was the largest vote of the party of the Conservative Democrat Center led by former president Álvaro Uibe.
“The evil destroys everything,” said the ex-president, who is not linked to the senator, on social networks. “They killed hope. May Miguel’s struggle be a light that lights up the path of Colombia.”
The senator was among the strongest criticism of Colombia’s current government. In October, he joined the list of politicians seeking to replace Gustavo Petro, the first left to govern Colombia, during the May 2026 elections.
The authorities have launched several hypotheses on what led to the attack, while the candidate’s allies complained that the government ignored repeated requests to strengthen its security details provided by the State.
Petro went to X to offer condolences to the family of Uibe and stressed that “the investigation must be continued”.
“The government must repudiate crime and aid,” wrote Petro. “Whatever the ideology, the person and their family, their life and their security, are the priority of the government. We have not persecuted any member of the opposition, and we will not do it either.”
In the aftermath of the attack, tens of thousands of people dressed in white and agitated Colombian flags went down to the streets to reject violence.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was one of foreign politicians who deplored the senator’s death.
“The United States is united with its family, the Colombian people, both in mourning and demanding justice for those responsible,” he posted on X.
By declaring his aspirations to a higher position, Uribe sought to become the youngest president of the country, although he is not on the list of favorites in the early stages of the race when he was shot. The shooting prompted the government to strengthen the security of all opposition politicians and presidential hopes, some of which have canceled political rallies for fear of being attacked.
Javier Garay, professor of political science at the University of Externado in Colombia, said that Uribe had already “become a symbol of the Colombian right”. However, he considered prematurely to predict whether the death of the senator will strengthen the political faction, given the current lack of unit and various proposals of dozens of politicians in the running to represent the block on the ballot of next year.
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The author of the Associated Press Regina Garcia Cano contributed from Mexico City.
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