Colombian presidential candidate dies after rally shooting

Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally.

Uribe’s family announced his demise on Monday, August 11, 2025.

The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital Bogota by a suspected 15-year-old hitman.

Despite signs of progress in recent weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had suffered a new brain hemorrhage.

“To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that can be committed,” his widow Maria Claudia Tarazona said at his wake on Monday, where she thanked her husband’s medical team for their efforts.

She attended the state ceremony at Congress in Bogota, where Uribe’s body will remain for public viewing until Wednesday.

Authorities have arrested six suspects linked to the attack, including the alleged shooter, who was captured at the scene by Uribe’s bodyguards.

Following a nationwide manhunt, police announced the arrest of an alleged mastermind behind the attack, Elder Jose Arteaga Hernandez, alias “El Costeno.”

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Police have also pointed to a dissident wing of the defunct FARC guerrilla group as being behind the assassination, AFP reported.

The attack on Uribe, a leading candidate ahead of the 2026 presidential election, has reopened old wounds in a country wracked by violence.

His mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was killed in a botched 1991 police operation to free her from cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar’s Medellin cartel.

Four presidential candidates were assassinated during the worst phase of violence in the 1980s and 1990s under Escobar, who terrorized citizens of Bogota, Medellin and elsewhere with a campaign of bombings.

Writing on X, left-wing President Gustavo Petro, of whom Uribe was a fierce critic, said the government’s role was to “repudiate crime… regardless of ideology” and assured the safety of Colombians was his top priority.

The Star