Uribe, 39, a potential presidential candidate from the right-wing opposition, was shot thrice while addressing a campaign in Bogota on June 7.
Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay, who was shot multiple times at a political rally in Bogota on June 7, has succumbed to his injuries, his family said on Monday.
Uribe, 39, a potential presidential candidate from the right-wing opposition, was shot at thrice, twice in the head, in Bogota during a rally more than two months ago. He was admitted to the hospital in a critical condition and was showing little response to treatment as of June 10.
“I ask God to show me the way to learn to live without you,” his wife Maria Claudia Tarazona wrote on social media. “Rest in peace, love of my life, I will take care of our children.”
Uribe, a member of the Democratic Center party, was addressing a campaign on the day when he was shot, and the incident sent shockwaves across Colombia, raising raised renewed concerns about political violence in the country.
The authorities have arrested four people in connection with the shooting, including a 14-year-old boy identified as the gunman, but have not disclosed a motive, according to The New York Times.
Colombia has long been embroiled in conflict with leftist rebels and criminal groups descended from right-wing paramilitaries, though the motive for the attack on Uribe remains unclear. Leftist President Gustavo Petro has vowed to bring peace, negotiating with rebel groups to get them to put down their arms, but with little success.
Uribe comes from a prominent political family. His grandfather Julio Cesar Turbay was president from 1978 to 1982, while his paternal grandfather, Rodrigo Uribe Echavarria, headed the Liberal Party and supported Virgilio Barco’s successful 1986 presidential campaign.
Uribe himself enjoyed a rapid political rise in Colombia, becoming a recognized lawmaker for the right-wing Democratic Center party and a presidential candidate known for his sharp criticism of President Gustavo Petro’s administration.
He was elected to Bogota’s city council at the age of 25, where he was a prominent opponent of Petro. He won a seat in the Senate in the 2022 legislative elections, where he led the Senate slate for the Democratic Center party with the slogan “Colombia First”.
His mother was journalist Diane Turbay, who was kidnapped by notorious narco-terrorist Pablo Escobar’s Medellin cartel and killed during a rescue operation in 1991. Last October, he announced his intention to run in the 2026 presidential election.
