BOGOTA, Aug 11 (Reuters) – Colombian Senator and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe, who was shot in the head at a campaign event two months ago, died in the early hours of Monday at the age of 39, the hospital treating him said.
Uribe, a member of a prominent political family and a lawmaker for the right-wing opposition, was shot in Bogota on June 7 where he was speaking to try to secure his party’s nomination for 2026 elections.
His wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, announced his death on social media. “I ask God to show me the way to learn to live without you,” she wrote. “Rest in peace, love of my life, I will take care of our children.”
The attack was the worst outbreak of political violence in some two decades and evoked memories of the turbulent years of the 1980s and 1990s, when four presidential candidates were murdered in separate attacks blamed on drug cartels.
“The investigation should be deepened. It will be the appropriate authorities, helped by international experts, who will give information when the time comes,” President Gustavo Petro said in a post on X. “Every time a Colombian is murdered, it is a defeat for Colombia and for life.”
The capital’s Santa Fe Foundation hospital – where supporters held regular vigils during Uribe’s treatment and repeated operations – said over the weekend his condition had worsened because of a hemorrhage in his central nervous system. On Monday, it said he had died at 1:56 a.m. (0656 GMT).
Former President Alvaro Uribe, the leader of the senator’s Democratic Center party and no relation to the deceased lawmaker, wrote on X that “evil destroys everything; they killed hope”.
“May Miguel’s fight be a light that illuminates Colombia’s right path,” added the former president, who was sentenced by a judge earlier this month to 12 years of house arrest for abuse of process and bribery of a public official.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X he was deeply saddened by the news. “The United States stands in solidarity with his family, the Colombian people, both in mourning and demanding justice for those responsible.”
Six people have been arrested over the shooting, including two men that the attorney general’s office says met in Medellin to plan the assassination.
A 15-year-old accused of carrying out the shooting was arrested within hours of the crime, but police have said they are pursuing the “intellectual authors” of the attack.
In a video of the boy’s June arrest, independently verified by Reuters, he can be heard shouting that he had been hired by a local drug dealer.
Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez vowed on Monday to catch those responsible. “We will not allow the violent to intimidate or silence political voices needed in our democracy,” he wrote on X.
His ministry has said there is a 3 billion-peso (about $740,000) reward for information leading to the identification and capture of the culprits, and that the United States, Britain and the United Arab Emirates are helping with the investigation.
The death of Senator Uribe, a father and stepfather, adds further tragedy to his family’s fraught history.
His mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was killed in 1991 during a botched rescue mission after she was kidnapped by the Medellin Cartel, headed by drug lord Pablo Escobar.
Uribe himself enjoyed a rapid political rise, as a lawmaker for the right-wing Democratic Center party and presidential hopeful known for his sharp criticism of leftist President Gustavo Petro’s administration.
In videos posted on social media the day he was shot, Uribe called for respect of the separation of powers and rejected a referendum pushed by Petro on a labor reform bill.
He had also criticized the president’s restrictions on the oil industry, promising a plan to attract investment and give companies legal security.
At 25, he was elected to Bogota’s city council, where he was a prominent opponent of Petro, then the capital’s mayor, criticizing his handling of waste management and social programs.
In the 2022 legislative elections, Uribe led the Senate slate for the Democratic Center party. Since the shooting, Uribe’s seat in the Senate has been draped with a Colombian flag.
His maternal grandfather, Julio Cesar Turbay, was Colombia’s 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.
Besides his wife, son and stepdaughters, Uribe is also survived by his father and sister.
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