“Respect life, that’s the red line,” President Gustavo Petro said in a message posted on his X account. Shortly after making the post, Petro cancelled a planned trip to France “due to the seriousness of the events,” according to a presidential statement.
Late on Saturday night, after leading an extraordinary Security Council session, Colombia’s first leftist president promised “complete transparency” in the investigation and to find the intellectual authors of the attack. He also promised an investigation into any failures by the senator’s bodyguards.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Credit: AP
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that the “United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the attempted assassination of Senator Miguel Uribe”. He urged leftist President Gustavo Petro “to dial back the inflammatory rhetoric and protect Colombian officials”.
“This is a direct threat to democracy and the result of the violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government,” Rubio said.
The senator’s opposition party, Democratic Centre, described the attack on Uribe Turbay as serious, and “an unacceptable act of violence”.
Colombia has for decades been embroiled in a conflict between leftist rebels, criminal groups descended from right-wing paramilitaries, and the government.
Miguel Uribe Turbay’s father (top left) embraces relatives outside the hospital where his son was being treated.Credit: AP
Police stand guard outside the Medicentro hospital where Colombian senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay is being treated after he was shot.Credit: AP
Police said Uribe Turbay had been accompanied by councilman Andres Barrios and 20 other people when he was shot.
Colombia will hold a presidential election on May 31, 2026, marking the end of the current term of Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president. Uribe Turbay announced his presidential bid in March.
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Reactions poured in from around Latin America. Chilean President Gabriel Boric said “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.”
In Colombia, former president Alvaro Uribe, who is not related to Uribe Turbay but who represented the same party, said “they attacked the hope of the country, a great husband, father, son, brother, a great colleague”.
AP, Reuters
