August 11, 2025 – Bogotá, Colombia – Two months after one of the most brazen assassination attempts ever caught on video, Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, the prodigal son of contemporary conservative politics in Colombia, has sadly succumbed to his wounds.
Uribe was pronounced dead at Santa Fe Clinic, Bogotá time, the same hospital to which the senator had been rushed on that fateful Saturday, the 7th of June.
Uribe was the grandson of prominent former lawyer and politician, and 25th President of Colombia, Julio César Turbay Ayala, and son of Diana Turbay, who was the subject of international controversy in January 1991 when the Colombian journalist was kidnapped by the Medellín Cartel and later killed in a botched rescue attempt by Colombian police.
Uribe was a prime contender for the conservative nomination for the nation’s presidency in next year’s election.
Incumbent left-wing President Gustavo Petro’s term will end in May of 2026, as he is ineligible for reelection due to the fact that the Colombian constitution prohibits two consecutive terms for the office.
Senator Uribe was the leader of the Centro Democrático in Colombia’s Senate and one of the most ardent critics of President Petro’s administration. He was also the protégé of ex-President Álvaro Uribe, a political stalwart and modern-day folk hero of Colombia’s conservative political body.
Uribe was at a local park in the Modelia neighborhood of Bogotá in early June, speaking at a political rally to supporters, when a gunman – later identified as a 15-year-old minor – unflinchingly walked up from behind Senator Uribe and could be seen in cell phone footage raising a large model, semi-automatic pistol to the head of the presidential hopeful and pulled the trigger several times before running down a quiet residential street, barefoot, then engaging in a brief shootout with police and private security officers before being apprehended.
Uribe suffered two gunshot wounds to the back of the head and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where emergency operations were conducted by medical staff in an attempt to save his life.
Since then, Uribe spent some time in a coma, and several reports from hospital staff were consistently updated to inform the public of the senator’s condition. Reports had seemed mostly hopeful during this time, until this morning’s news came as a sudden surprise to many who were wishing for nothing short of a miracle.
The attack reopened deep political fissures in Colombia, a society renowned the world over as a country that has suffered tremendously from a long and bloody history of political turmoil, retribution, and horrific violence and instability.

The attempt on Uribe brought millions back to the heady days of the late 1980s and 1990s, when vendettas and murder were commonplace in Colombia as rival clans and criminal drug organizations vied for territorial control, the lucrative cocaine trade, and political power.
Sociedad initially reported on the attempt made on the life of Uribe back in late June and reminded readers of the historical context in which it took place, noting, “Unfortunately for Colombia and its people, a psyche has developed that darkens any expectations for peace and for a progressive political system without any recourse to bloodshed.”
This psyche has origins that stretch as far back as the founding of the Republic’s independence, where conservatives and liberals competed for land, power, and wealth, often at the expense of friends and family members. A psyche that carries the weight of an entire society that, even to this day, is struggling to climb out from the world of internecine civil violence and politically charged assassination that it has created.
At 39-years old, Uribe was only beginning his journey to fundamentally transform Colombian society to one where such uninhibited violence and fiendish destruction had no place. A young man who was one of the newer generations, one of the excitingly benevolent, youthful hopefuls of Latin America, prepared to propel this painfully abused and neglected region to newer and much brighter heights, but snuffed-out by some unknown entity, or perhaps a rogue and unhinged adolescent without patience or understanding of the world and the havoc he would come to reap.
Although the teenager has been arrested on suspicion of carrying out the assassination of Miguel Uribe, a clear motive is still unclear, as the investigation seems tirelessly bogged down by dead ends and shortcomings.
Cases such as these have a history in Colombia of going unpunished, where vast criminal networks and corrupt politicians and government officials have, in many instances, been found to be behind many assassinations against opposition political affiliates.
Unfortunately, conspiracy theories run rampant when facts and details of any given case are absent.
However, coincidentally, Pedro Sánchez, the Colombian Defense Minister confirmed earlier that a known rebel, alias ‘El Zarco Aldinever’, the leader of Second Marquetalia (one of the factions of the now disbanded FARC guerrilla movement), who was killed in Venezuela (likely by the ELN) recently, was identified as the key mastermind behind the assassination of Miguel Uribe.
This announcement was made only hours after Senator Uribe had been pronounced dead. Critics of the administration of President Petro and of the Colombian officials in charge of overseeing the investigation into the attack assert that the timing of such a finding is remarkably convenient to investigators who have been abysmally short of answers until today.