Aug. 20 (UPI) — A Colombia appeals court has ordered the release of former President Alvro Uribe from house arrest as he challenges his historic bribery and fraud conviction.
Uribe was sentenced by the 44th Criminal Court of the Circuit of Bogota on Aug. 1 to 12 years of house arrest after being convicted of charges connected to financial, legal and administrative offers made to former paramilitary fighters to testify against a political opponent.
Uribe is appealing the conviction, and on Tuesday, the Superior Tribunal agreed with his defense lawyers who were seeking his release from house arrest on the grounds their client’s due process rights were violated.
“Thanks be to God, thanks to so many compatriots for their expressions of solidarity,” Uribe wrote on X late Tuesday.
According to segments of the ruling published online by Christian Garces Aljure, a member of Colombia’s House of Representatives, the Superior Tribunal found the criminal court used “vague, indeterminate and imprecise” criteria — such as public perception, exemplary effect, peaceful coexistence and social order — to justify the house arrest sentence.
“Such reasoning disregards the principle of equality before the law and the principle of proportionality, by prioritizing generic and symbolic aims over fundamental rights such as personal liberty,” the court said.
“It is also disproportionate, given that the presumption of innocence prevails until a conviction becomes final,” it said, with a final decision in the case to come down before mid-October.
“However, in this case, the measure effectively sought to enforce a penalty in advance under the guise of resocialization, based on an ambiguous argument — namely, the concern that society might interpret the defendant’s liberty as a scenario of impunity,” the court added.
In posting the excerpt from the ruling, Garces celebrated the advancement of Uribe’s defense, stating that the Superior Tribunal deemed the criminal court’s ruling to be “disproportionate and involation of the fundamental principle of equality.”
The case againstUribe goes back to 2012 when Uribe, then a senator, filed a complaint against Sen. Ivan Cepeda Castro, accusing him of witness tampering to link Uribe to illegal armed groups.
Amid its investigations, the Supreme Court of Justice found evidence that those close to Uribe had offered bribes to former paramilitaries and guerrilla fighters to testify against Cepeda.
He was then charged with manipulating evidence and misleading the justice system, resulting in his conviction and sentencing.
Uribe is the first former Colombian president to be criminally convicted in the country’s modern history.
BOGOTA, Colombia — A Colombian senator and presidential hopeful whose shooting at a political rally in June recalled some of the darkest chapters of the country’s drug-fueled violence died Monday.
The family of Miguel Uribe Turbay said the politician died at a hospital in the capital, Bogota. Uribe, 39, was shot three times, twice in the head, while giving 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,” his wife, María Claudia Tarazona, wrote in a social media post confirming his death. “I ask God to show me the way to learn to live without you.”
A teenage suspect was arrested at the scene of the June 7 attack in a working-class Bogota neighborhood. Authorities later detained several other people, but they have not determined who ordered the hit or why.
The shooting, which was caught on multiple videos, alarmed Colombians who have not seen this kind of political violence against presidential candidates since Medellin drug lord Pablo Escobar declared war on the state in the 1990s.
Uribe’s own mother, well-known journalist Diana Turbay, was among the victims of that period. She died during a police rescue after being kidnapped by a group of drug traffickers led by Escobar seeking to block their extradition to the United States.
“If my mother was willing to give her life for a cause, how could I not do the same in life and in politics?” Uribe, who was just 5 when his mother was killed, said in an interview last year with a Colombian news outlet.
Uribe, a lawyer with a masters degree in public administration from Harvard University, entered politics as a councilman for Bogota when he was 26. In 2022, he was the biggest vote-getter in the conservative Democratic Center party led by former President Álvaro Uribe.
“Evil destroys everything,” the ex-president, who is not related to the senator, said on social media. “They have killed hope. May Miguel’s struggle be a light that illuminates Colombia’s path.”
The senator was among the strongest critics of Colombia’s current government. In October, he joined the list of politicians seeking to replace Gustavo Petro, the first leftist to govern Colombia, in the May 2026 elections.
Authorities have floated several hypotheses about what led to the attack, while allies of the candidate have complained that the government ignored repeated requests to reinforce his state-provided security detail.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, tens of thousands poured into the streets dressed in white and waving the Colombian flag to reject the violence.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was among the politicians who lamented the senator’s death.
“The United States stands in solidarity with his family, the Colombian people, both in mourning and demanding justice for those responsible,” he posted on X.
Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez was also ordered to pay a fine equivalent to $820,000 and was barred from holding public office for more than eight years during his sentencing Friday to 12 years of house arrest for bribery in criminal proceedings and procedural fraud. File Photo by Carlos Ortega/EPA
Aug. 1 (UPI) — Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez was sentenced Friday to 12 years of house arrest for bribery in criminal proceedings and procedural fraud.
Uribe also was ordered to pay a fine equivalent to $820,000 and was barred from holding public office for more than eight years.
Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia found Uribe guilty Thursday of those crimes and issued a historic ruling against him, making him the first former Colombian president to be criminally convicted in the country’s modern judicial history.
The ruling has polarized the country. While Uribe’s supporters denounce it as “political persecution,” many victims of human rights violations say it finally sets a precedent for justice.
Uribe’s legal team is to have Bogotá Superior Court consider an appeal Aug. 11, leaving uncertainty over whether the sentence will be enforced or suspended while the appeal process proceeds.
The case began in 2012, when then-Sen. Álvaro Uribe filed a complaint against Sen. Iván Cepeda Castro, accusing him of witness tampering in an effort to link Uribe to illegal armed groups. But the investigation soon took an unexpected turn.
The Supreme Court of Justice, which initially investigated Cepeda, found evidence that individuals close to Uribe had offered financial, legal and administrative benefits to former paramilitaries and guerrilla fighters in exchange for testimony against Cepeda.
Uribe was then charged with manipulating evidence and misleading the justice system to influence judges and secure rulings favorable to his interests — in the very investigation he had initiated against Cepeda.
After the sentencing, Historical Pact Sen. Wilson Arias said. “Twelve years in prison for Álvaro Uribe– and no, this is not political persecution. No one reported him: he initiated a vendetta against Iván Cepeda and, along the way, committed the crimes of witness tampering and procedural fraud,” the Colombian newspaper El Mundo reported.
On her X account, Rep. Alexandra Vásquez wrote that “justice has spoken and stood above economic and political power.”
Former President Iván Duque released a video in which he claimed that a group of 28 former presidents from IDEA and Libertad y Democracia have called for international oversight due to serious irregularities in the case against Álvaro Uribe Vélez.
“Human rights treaties were violated, and there is not a single piece of evidence to justify a conviction. Uribe is innocent,” he said.
Christian Garcés Aljure, a member of Colombia’s House of Representatives, wrote on X: “They want to silence our top leader — the man holding back the socialist advance in South America. They will not defeat us!”
During his presidency, Uribe implemented a policy known as “Democratic Security,” which reduced kidnapping and homicide rates and supported the demobilization of paramilitary and guerrilla forces.
However, Uribe also faced sharp criticism over alleged human rights violations and the demobilization of paramilitary groups with impunity. His presidency was further overshadowed by the “false positives” scandal, in which thousands of civilians were killed by the military and falsely labeled as guerrilla fighters killed in combat.
According to the investigation, between 2012 and 2018, imprisoned paramilitaries were paid and pressured to change their testimony linking Uribe to illegal armed groups.
Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has been sentenced to 12 years of house arrest following his conviction for witness-tampering and bribery, according to local media reports.
The sentencing hearing on Friday also resulted in Uribe, 73, receiving a fine of $578,000 and a ban from serving in public office for 100 months and 20 days — or just over eight years.
He is now required to report to authorities in Rionegro, in his home province of Antioquia. Afterwards, Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia ordered him to “proceed immediately to his residence where he will comply with house arrest”.
With his conviction on July 28, Uribe has become the first former Colombian president to be found guilty in a criminal trial.
But Uribe’s defence lawyers have already announced that they plan to appeal.
The sentencing culminates a six-month trial and nearly 13 years of legal back-and-forth for the popular conservative leader, who is considered one of the defining forces in modern-day Colombian politics.
His house arrest also comes less than a year before Colombia is set to hold presidential elections in May 2026.
A person holds a banner that reads ‘Uribe to jail’ in Bogota, Colombia, on July 28 [Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters]
Allegations of human rights abuses
The case centres around Uribe’s role in Colombia’s more than six-decade-long internal conflict, which has seen government forces, right-wing paramilitaries, left-wing rebel groups and drug-trafficking networks all fighting for control over parts of the country.
During his tenure as president from 2002 to 2010, Uribe led a strong-armed offensive against left-wing rebels like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest such group at the time.
But that approach earned him criticism for alleged human rights abuses, which he has denied.
Under his presidency, the Colombian military faced increasing accusations that it was killing civilians to boost the number of enemy fighters it could report as dead.
This practice, known as the “false positives” scandal, has been implicated in the deaths of at least 2,000 people, with experts indicating that the number could be far higher. As many as 6,402 killings have been investigated.
Critics have also questioned Uribe’s ties to right-wing paramilitaries, another allegation the ex-president has rejected.
But more than a decade ago, Uribe took action to silence one of his most prominent critics, left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda, sparking his current trial.
Cepeda and others had drawn connections between Uribe’s rise in politics in the 1990s and the creation of the paramilitary group Bloque Metro.
Opponents of former President Alvaro Uribe display a sign that says ‘Guilty’ outside a Bogota court on July 28 [Fernando Vergara/AP Photo]
A legal boomerang
In 2012, Uribe filed a libel complaint against Cepeda with Colombia’s Supreme Court, after the senator launched a probe into the ex-president’s paramilitary contacts.
But in 2018, the case took a surprising new direction: The Supreme Court dismissed the complaint against Cepeda, and the court system instead started to weigh charges against Uribe instead.
Prosecutors accused Uribe of seeking to pressure paramilitary witnesses to change or suppress their testimony. While Uribe has admitted to sending lawyers to meet former members of Colombia’s paramilitaries, he has denied taking illegal actions.
Two paramilitaries have testified that Uribe’s lawyer, Diego Cadena, who also faces criminal charges, offered them money to give favourable evidence.
Their witness statements were also being used in a murder trial featuring Uribe’s brother, Santiago Uribe.
Uribe’s conviction was announced after a 10-hour hearing in which Judge Heredia said there was ample evidence that the ex-president sought to change witness testimony.
But that decision has sparked backlash from the United States, where the administration of President Donald Trump has shown a willingness to place political pressure on countries like Brazil that pursue criminal cases against former right-wing leaders.
On Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social media in defence of Uribe, repeating charges of judicial bias that have become commonplace under Trump.
“Former Colombian President Uribe’s only crime has been to tirelessly fight and defend his homeland,” Rubio said. “The weaponization of Colombia’s judicial branch by radical judges has now set a worrisome precedent.”
But Democrats in the US accused Trump of seeking to subvert the rule of law overseas for political gains.
“The Trump Admin is saying that foreign leaders shouldn’t be subject to rule of law if they say nice things about Trump,” Representative Jim McGovern wrote in reply to Rubio’s message.
“It is very wrong to support impunity for a strongman held accountable by courts in his own country. This statement is shameful, and you know it.”
July 28 (UPI) — Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez was convicted Monday of bribing a witness and procedural fraud, following several hours of sentencing in a case that spanned more than a decade.
He is the first former head of state in Colombia to face a criminal conviction.
“It can be concluded, based on the prosecution’s findings, that the criminal offense of bribery was sufficiently proven,” Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia said as she read the verdict.
During his presidency, Uribe implemented a policy known as “Democratic Security,” which reduced kidnapping and homicide rates and supported the demobilization of paramilitary and guerrilla forces.
However, Uribe also faced sharp criticism over alleged human rights violations and the demobilization of paramilitary groups with impunity. His presidency was further overshadowed by the “false positives” scandal, in which thousands of civilians were killed by the military and falsely labeled as guerrilla fighters killed in combat.
According to the investigation, between 2012 and 2018, imprisoned paramilitaries were paid and pressured to change their testimony linking Uribe to illegal armed groups.
Sergio Escobar, executive director of the Medellín Global Center for Strategic International Studies, said the ruling is “the result of a series of legal missteps by the former president himself and comes amid an increasingly politicized climate. Now that he’s been convicted, an appeal will follow, which takes us into October — when the statute of limitations on this case expires. Regardless, he will no longer be able to claim he is innocent.”
The case began in 2012, when then-Sen. Álvaro Uribe filed a complaint against Sen. Iván Cepeda Castro, accusing him of witness tampering in an effort to link Uribe to illegal armed groups. But the investigation soon took an unexpected turn.
The Supreme Court of Justice, which initially investigated Cepeda, found evidence that individuals close to Uribe had offered financial, legal and administrative benefits to former paramilitaries and guerrilla fighters in exchange for testimony against Cepeda.
In that context, Uribe was charged with manipulating evidence and misleading the justice system to influence judges and secure rulings favorable to his interests — in the very investigation he had initiated against Cepeda.
“This conviction is a blow to his political career. At the same time, it sends a strong message about equality before the law — even for the most powerful figures in the country,” said José Francisco Salvo, an attorney and member of the NGO Derechos Ciudadanos.
He added that political polarization continues to shape the national response. “Some see the conviction as a victory for justice, while Uribe’s supporters view it as political persecution and an attack by the left,” Salvo said.
“Former Colombian President Uribe’s only crime has been to tirelessly fight and defend his homeland,” Rubio tweeted. “The weaponization of Colombia’s judicial branch by radical judges has now set a worrisome precedent.”
The assassination attempt on the presidential hopeful has rattled the country, which fears a return to darker days.
Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay is reported to be in extremely critical condition after undergoing surgery to tend to a brain bleed, just more than a week after being shot in the head during a campaign event.
The attack was part of an eruption of violence that has stoked fears of a return to the darker days of assassinations and bombings.
The Santa Fe Foundation hospital on Monday said that Uribe was stable after undergoing a “complementary” operation to his original surgery, but remained in serious critical condition.
It added that an urgent neurological procedure had been necessary because of clinical evidence and imaging showing an acute inter-cerebral bleed, but that the brain swelling persisted and bleeding remained difficult to control.
The 39-year-old potential presidential candidate from the right-wing opposition was shot in the head twice on June 7 during a rally in Bogota.
The assassination attempt, which was caught on video, recalled a streak of candidate assassinations in the 1980s and 1990s, a time when fighting between armed rebels, paramilitary groups, drug traffickers and state security forces touched the lives of many Colombians.
Three suspects, including a 15-year-old alleged shooter, are in custody. An adult man and woman are also being held.
The 15-year-old boy, who police believe was a “sicario” or hitman working for money, was charged last week with the attempted murder of Uribe, to which he pleaded not guilty. He was also charged with carrying a firearm.
The adult man, Carlos Eduardo Mora, has been charged for alleged involvement in planning the attack, providing the gun and being in the vehicle where the shooter changed his clothes after the attack, according to the attorney general’s office.
Uribe is a senator for the conservative Democratic Centre party and one of several candidates who hope to succeed left-wing President Gustavo Petro in the 2026 presidential vote.
He comes from a prominent political family. His grandfather, Julio Cesar Turbay, was president from 1978 to 1982, and his mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was killed in 1991 in a botched rescue attempt after being kidnapped by an armed group led by drug cartel lord Pablo Escobar.
The main dissident faction of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group on Friday denied responsibility for the attack on Uribe, though it did accept responsibility for a series of unrelated bomb attacks.
Southwest Colombia was rocked by a series of explosions and gun attacks last week which has left at least seven people dead. The attacks hit Cali, the country’s third-largest city, and the nearby towns of Corinto, El Bordo and Jamundi, targeting police stations and other municipal buildings with car and motorcycle bombs, rifle fire and a suspected drone.
Colombia’s government has struggled to contain violence in urban and rural areas as several rebel groups try to take over territory abandoned by the FARC after its peace deal with the government.
Peace talks between the FARC-EMC faction and the government broke down last year after a series of attacks on Indigenous communities.
People participate in a walk for peace and in support of Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay in Bogota, Colombia, on Sunday. The senator was shot during a campaign event in Bogota. Photo by Mauricio Dueñas Castañeda/EPA-EFE
June 8 (UPI) — Colombian police have arrested a teenage boy in connection with Saturday’s shooting of far-right presidential candidate Miguel Uribe.
Uribe, a 39-year-old senator, was shot while he addressed his supporters during a campaign event in a park in Bogotá, the Colombian Attorney General’s Office said in a statement Sunday. He was hit twice and remains in intensive care.
Two other people were also injured, and police arrested a 15-year-old who was carrying a 9mm Glock pistol. Footage shared on social media appears to show when Uribe was shot, causing his followers to flee in panic.
Fundación Santa Fe Bogotá, the hospital where Uribe was airlifted Saturday, said in a statement Sunday that he was admitted to the emergency room in critical condition.
“After all the evaluations by various specialties, he was immediately taken to surgery to perform the initial damage control,” the hospital said. “Once the neurosurgical and left thigh procedures were completed, he was transferred to intensive care for postoperative stabilization. His condition is of the utmost seriousness and the prognosis is reserved.”
The government of left-wing President Gustavo Petro, who is term-limited and cannot run for reelection, condemned the attack in a statement and expressed solidarity with Uribe.
“The National Government categorically and forcefully rejects the attack that Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay was the victim of in the last few hours,” the statement said.
“This act of violence is an attack not only against the personal integrity of the senator, but also against democracy, freedom of thought and the legitimate exercise of politics in Colombia.”
Petro’s government called peace, coexistence and respect for differences the “fundamental pillars” of a democratic society.
Prosecutors said they were considering the shooting an attack on the “democratic participation” in the country, and Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo Garzón expressed her alarm at the seriousness of the attack and urged for political unity in the country “to shield the electoral process.”
She said her office would investigate the shooting with the National Police.
Colombian presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe is “fighting for his life” after being shot during a campaign rally in the capital, Bogota.
The assault took place on Saturday in a park as the country gears up for next year’s presidential election. Uribe, a 39-year-old senator, was shot twice – in the head and the chest, according to Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office.
The suspect is a 15-year-old who is in custody.
Here is what to know about the incident and Uribe’s current status:
What happened at the rally?
Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, who is seeking to run in the 2026 presidential election, was shot from behind at a campaign rally about 5pm [22:00 GMT] at El Golfito Park in Bogota’s Fontibon district.
A video verified by The New York Times shows Uribe being shot in the middle of his speech. Images from the scene of the shooting showed Uribe slumped against the hood of a white car, smeared with blood, as a group of men tried to hold him and stop the bleeding.
According to local media reports, he was first stabilised at a nearby clinic before being airlifted to the Santa Fe Foundation hospital. The hospital confirmed he arrived about 8:30pm on Saturday [01:00 GMT Sunday].
A security guard managed to detain the suspected attacker, a minor who is believed to be 15 years old. National Police Director Carlos Fernando Triana said the suspect was injured and was receiving treatment.
Two others – a man and a woman – were also wounded. But no details were available regarding their identities.
Miguel Uribe Londono, far left, father of Miguel Uribe Turbay outside Santa Fe Foundation hospital [Ivan Valencia/AP Photo]
What is Uribe’s health status now?
Uribe is stable but still in critical condition after emerging on Sunday from a “neurosurgical” and “peripheral vascular procedure”, according to the hospital.
He “overcame the first surgical procedure”, Bogota Mayor Carlos Fernando Galan told the media, adding that he had entered “the critical hours” of recovery.
“He fought the first battle and fought it well. He is fighting for his life,” Uribe’s wife was heard saying in an audio recording shared with the media.
Who is Miguel Uribe?
Uribe was elected as senator in 2022 under the conservative Democratic Centre party, founded by former President Alvaro Uribe, whom he is not related to.
The former president described the shooting as an attack against “a hope for the country”.
His maternal grandfather, Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala, served as president from 1978 to 1982. He is also the son of journalist Diana Turbay, who was kidnapped in 1990 by Pablo Escobar’s Medellin cartel. She died in a botched rescue operation by Colombian forces a few months later.
Uribe has held several public offices, including Bogota City Council member (2012–2015) and government secretary of Bogota (2016–2018). He also ran for the capital’s mayor in 2019 but lost that election.
Miguel Uribe, 39, was in critical condition and one person had been arrested in his shooting [File: Raul Arboleda/AFP]
Who attacked Uribe?
The Attorney General’s Office confirmed a 15-year-old boy was arrested at the scene with a “9mm Glock-type firearm”. Witnesses had also described seeing a young assailant open fire from behind Uribe before being subdued by bodyguards and civilians.
The suspect remains in custody with investigations under way to determine if there were any accomplices.
What was the motive behind the shooting?
No motive has been established, and authorities said there was no specific threat made against the politician before the incident.
But the country is home to several armed groups, powerful cartels and has a long history of political violence.
In the 1980s and 1990s, at least five presidential candidates were assassinated by drug cartels, paramilitaries or political opponents.
One such case was the assassination of Luis Carlos Galan in 1989. Galan was a leading presidential candidate known for his strong anticorruption stance and opposition to drug trafficking. He was widely expected to win the presidency the following year.
A 2016 agreement aimed to bring long-lasting peace to the country by disarming rebels from the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
When is the next presidential election in Colombia?
Colombia’s next presidential election is scheduled for May, in which current leftist President Gustavo Petro is ineligible to run due to term limits. A run-off will be held if needed.
Uribe, who is a right-wing critic of Petro, announced his intention to run for president in March.
What are the reactions?
The attack drew strong reactions from both local and international leaders.
Petro pledged an investigation.
“What matters most today is that all Colombians focus with the energy of our hearts, with our will to live … on ensuring that Dr Miguel Uribe stays alive.”
In an earlier statement, Petro condemned the violence as “an attack not only against his person, but also against democracy, freedom of thought, and the legitimate exercise of politics in Colombia”.
“Respect life, that’s the red line. … My solidarity [is] with the Uribe family and the Turbay family. I don’t know how to ease their pain,” he posted on X.
Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez mobilised military and intelligence resources and announced a reward of 3 billion Colombian pesos ($730,000) for information about the shooting.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement saying the US condemns the attack “in the strongest possible terms” and considers it a “direct threat to democracy”. He also called on Petro to “dial back the inflammatory rhetoric” and protect officials.
Leaders across Latin America also condemned the attack.
Chilean President Gabriel Boric said, “There is no room or justification for violence in a democracy,” while Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa denounced “all forms of violence and intolerance”. Both expressed solidarity with Uribe’s family.
The senator’s wife says he ‘is fighting for his life’ after being shot at a campaign event in Bogota.
Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, has been shot and wounded in the country’s capital, Bogota, according to authorities.
The 39-year-old senator, who was shot on Saturday during a campaign event as part of his run for the presidency in 2026, is now “fighting for his life”, his wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, said on X.
Uribe is a member of the opposition conservative Democratic Center party, founded by former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
The two men are not related.
The Democratic Center party released a statement calling the shooting “an unacceptable act of violence”.
It said the senator was hosting a campaign event in a public park in the Fontibon neighbourhood in the capital when “armed subjects” shot him from behind.
It described the attack as serious, but did not disclose further details on Uribe’s condition.
A medical report from the Santa Fe Foundation hospital said the senator was admitted in critical condition and is undergoing a “neurosurgical and peripheral vascular procedure”.
Videos on social media showed a man, identified as Uribe, being tended to after the shooting. He appeared to be bleeding from his head.
Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office, which is investigating the shooting, said the senator received two gunshot wounds in the attack, which wounded two others. The statement from the office said a 15-year-old boy was arrested at the scene with a firearm.
The government said it is offering some $730,000 as a reward for information in the case.
Miguel Uribe, centre in blue tie, a Colombian senator and presidential candidate for the right-wing Centro Democrático party, celebrates after voting against a labour reform referendum proposed by the government, in Bogota, Colombia, May 14, 2025 [Fernando Vergara/AP]
Colombia’s presidency issued a statement saying the government “categorically and forcefully” rejected the violent attack, and called for a thorough investigation into the events that took place.
Leftist President Gustavo Petro sympathised with the senator’s family in a message on X, and said: “Respect life, that’s the red line… My solidarity with the Uribe family and the Turbay family. I don’t know how to ease their pain.”
In a speech on Saturday night, Petro said that the investigation would focus on finding who had ordered the attack.
“For now, there is nothing more than hypotheses,” Petro said, adding that failures in security protocols would also be looked into.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that the US “condemns in the strongest possible terms the attempted assassination” of Uribe, blaming Petro’s “inflammatory rhetoric” for the violence.
Reactions poured in from around Latin America. Chilean President Gabriel Boric said that “there is no room or justification for violence in a democracy”. And Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa said, “We condemn all forms of violence and intolerance.”
Both presidents offered solidarity to the senator’s family.
In Colombia, former President Uribe said that “they attacked the hope of the country, a great husband, father, son, brother, a great colleague”.
Uribe, who is not yet an official presidential candidate for his party, is from a prominent family in Colombia.
His father was a businessman and union leader. His mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was kidnapped in 1990 by an armed group under the command of the late cartel leader Pablo Escobar.
She was killed during a rescue operation in 1991.
Colombia has for decades been embroiled in a conflict between leftist rebels, criminal groups descended from right-wing paramilitaries, and the government.
