Assassination Attempt Against Colombian Right-Wing Senator Miguel Uribe

Conservative Senator Miguel Uribe, a contender for the Colombian presidency in the May 2026 election, was hit by at least three bullets, two of which struck his head, this Saturday, June 7, while participating in a political rally in Bogota, the capital of Colombia. A Live Attack In a video published on social media, the 39-year-old conservative politician can be seen delivering a speech to supporters before gunshots rang out. He was targeted twice in the head and once in the knee, according to paramedics who airlifted him to a Bogota hospital for emergency care. According to the police, the alleged perpetrator is a minor, who opened fire at approximately 5:30 PM local time (10:30 PM GMT). Wounded in one leg, he was subdued by Miguel Uribe's bodyguards, explained Police Chief Carlos Fernando Triana to the press. On the Senator's X account, his wife Maria Tarazona stated that Miguel is fighting for his life after undergoing a successful initial surgery. An Attack Against Democracy Immediately after the attack, Colombian President Gustavo Petro reacted, calling the assassination attempt “an attack not only against the physical integrity of the senator, but also against democracy, freedom of thought, and the legitimate exercise of politics in Colombia.” “Respecting life, that is the red line. Colombia must not kill its children,” Gustavo Petro wrote on the social network X. He promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished. An Avalanche of International Reactions World leaders also reacted following the attack. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio attributed this assassination attempt against the senator to violent left-wing rhetoric emanating from the highest spheres of the Colombian government. He thus called on Colombian President Gustavo Petro to “moderate his inflammatory remarks and protect Colombian elected officials.” The UN office in Colombia, for its part, strongly condemned the attack. “We are convinced that the authorities will shed light on the facts and punish” the perpetrators, it reacted on X. The president of neighboring Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, as well as the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, Maria Corina Machado, expressed their support for the senator's family on X. The left-wing president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, also reacted by condemning the aggression against Miguel Uribe Turbay. According to him, violence has no place or justification in a democracy. For his part, the Secretary General of the OAS, Albert Ramdin, called for a swift and thorough investigation to bring those responsible for the attack to justice. Miguel Uribe is a member of the Democratic Center party, the main right-wing political force in Colombia. He announced his intention to run for president last October and is a fierce critic of the current president. He is the grandson of Julio Cesar Turbay, president between 1978 and 1982, and the son of Diana Turbay, a journalist who was kidnapped by former drug lord Pablo Escobar, before being killed during a military rescue operation in 1991. This attack could plunge Colombia into another wave of political violence after the progress made in recent decades to consolidate security and democracy in this South American country.