Miguel Uribe Turbay, a senator and presidential candidate, has died after spending two months in the ICU after being shot during a rally by a minor who was acting as a hitman.
Uribe, a member of a notable political dynasty and a right-wing opposition congressman, was shot in Bogota on June 7 while speaking to obtain his party’s ticket for the 2026 elections.
“I ask God to show me the way to learn to live without you. Rest in peace, love of my life; I will take care of our children,” wrote Maria Claudia Tarazona, his wife, in a social media post.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X that he was deeply saddened by the news, adding, “The United States stands in solidarity with his family, the Colombian people, both in mourning and demanding justice for those responsible.”
The incident was the worst outbreak of political violence in two decades, bringing back memories of the violent 1980s and 1990s, when four presidential candidates were killed in separate attacks blamed on drug cartels.
“The investigation should be deepened. It will be the appropriate authorities, helped by international experts, who will give information when the time comes,” President Gustavo Petro said in a post on X. “Every time a Colombian is murdered, it is a defeat for Colombia and for life.”
The Santa Fe Foundation hospital in the capital, where supporters staged frequent vigils during Uribe’s treatment and multiple procedures, announced over the weekend that his condition had deteriorated due to a hemorrhage in his central nervous system. On Monday, it was reported that he had died at 1:56 a.m.
Former President Alvaro Uribe, who leads the senator’s Democratic Center party and has no relation to the slain politician, wrote on X that “evil destroys everything; they killed hope.”
“May Miguel’s fight be a light that illuminates Colombia’s right path,” added the former president, who was sentenced by a judge earlier this month to 12 years of house arrest for abuse of process and bribery of a public official.
Six people have been arrested in connection with the killing, including two men who the attorney general’s office says met in Medellin to organize the assassination. A 15-year-old accused of carrying out the shooting was apprehended within hours of the incident, but police have claimed they are looking for the “intellectual authors” of the act.
In a video of the boy’s detention from June, which Reuters independently corroborated, he can be heard shouting that he was recruited by a local drug dealer.
Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez vowed on Monday to catch those responsible. “We will not allow the violent to intimidate or silence political voices needed in our democracy,” he wrote on X.
His government has stated that there is a 3 billion-peso (about $740,000) prize for information leading to the identity and detention of the perpetrators, and that the United States, Britain, and the United Arab Emirates are assisting in the investigation.
Senator Uribe’s death, as a father and stepfather, adds to his family’s already tragic history. His mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was slain in 1991 during a failed rescue operation after being kidnapped by the Medellin Cartel, which was run by drug lord Pablo Escobar.
Uribe rose quickly in politics, becoming a lawmaker for the right-wing Democratic Center party and a presidential candidate renowned for sharply criticizing leftist President Gustavo Petro’s administration.
In social media postings posted the day he was assassinated, Uribe emphasized the importance of the separation of powers and rejected a referendum on a labor reform measure proposed by Petro.