Colombia presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay dies weeks after campaign rally shooting

Colombian conservative senator and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay died Monday, more than two months after being shot during a campaign rally in western Bogota.

His wife, María Claudia Tarazona, confirmed the 39-year-old’s death early Monday.

Uribe Turbay was critically wounded on June 7 during a campaign rally in the country’s capital, suffering gunshot wounds to the head and leg. He underwent emergency surgery and remained hospitalized in intensive care until his death.

“You’ll always be the love of my life,” his wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, said on Instagram early on Monday. “Thank you for a life filled with love, thank you for being a father to the girls, the best dad to Alejandro.”

A teenage suspect was arrested at the scene, and authorities have since detained several others. Last month, police arrested the alleged mastermind of the attack — Elder José Arteaga Hernández, who uses the aliases “Chipi” or “Costeño.”

The incident has raised renewed concerns about political violence in the country.

The motive for the shooting is still being investigated. In October, Uribe announced his intention to run in Colombia’s 2026 presidential election. From his Senate seat, he had become one of President Gustavo Petro’s most vocal critics. 

The attack has been widely condemned in a country with a dark past in which drug cartels and insurgent groups murdered and kidnapped politicians. Uribe is the son of a journalist who was abducted and killed during one of the country’s most violent periods in 1991.

Shortly after the shooting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. “condemns in the strongest possible terms the attempted assassination” and called the attack “a direct threat to democracy.” He blamed “violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government” for the shooting.