The image of Miguel Uribe Turbay lying on the pavement, his white shirt stained deep crimson, is one that most Colombians won't forget for a long time. It was a Saturday afternoon in June 2025. Specifically June 7th. He was standing on stacked beer crates, of all things. He was using them as a makeshift soapbox to talk to a small crowd in Modelia, a neighborhood in western Bogotá. Then, three loud cracks changed the trajectory of the 2026 elections.
Honestly, the sheer boldness of the attack was staggering. A 15-year-old kid—just a teenager—walked up and fired a 9mm Glock-style pistol at point-blank range.
Miguel Uribe Turbay shot once in the leg and twice in the head. It wasn't a clean "professional" hit in the cinematic sense, but it was devastatingly effective. For sixty-five days, the senator fought. He went through neurosurgery, vascular procedures, and multiple emergency operations to stop brain hemorrhages. But on August 11, 2025, at the Fundación Santa Fe, the 39-year-old finally succumbed.
The Scene at El Golfito Park
The location was El Golfito Park. It’s a public space where kids play and neighbors hang out. Uribe was there for a campaign "walk-about." He was a rising star of the Centro Democrático party, a guy who had secured the most votes of any senator in 2022. He was also a fierce critic of President Gustavo Petro.
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Security was, quite frankly, light.
Eyewitnesses, like Victor Mosquera, described a scene of pure chaos. People were screaming. They were running in every direction. In the middle of it all, the young shooter was tackled and shot in the foot by bodyguards. He didn't look like a master assassin. He looked like a scared kid. Later, a video surfaced of him shouting that he did it for money because his family was poor. He claimed a drug dealer hired him.
Who Was Behind the Trigger?
The investigation moved fast, but the answers remain messy. Authorities arrested a man named Elder José Arteaga Hernández, better known as "Chipi" or "Costeño." They claim he was the mastermind who organized the logistics and hired the boy.
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Six people in total are facing charges. They range from the guy who drove the getaway car to a woman accused of helping with the planning. But here is the thing: nobody has officially confirmed the motive. Was it purely a drug gang hit? Was it politically motivated to destabilize the 2026 election?
- The Shooter: A 15-year-old minor sentenced to seven years in a youth facility.
- The Weapon: A 9mm Glock-style pistol legally bought years ago in Mesa, Arizona.
- The Logistics: A grey car tracked through CCTV across Bogotá.
- The "Intellectual Authors": Still a subject of intense speculation and government finger-pointing.
A Legacy of Violence
You can’t talk about Miguel Uribe Turbay being shot without talking about his mother, Diana Turbay. It’s a tragic, circular history. Diana was a journalist kidnapped by Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel in 1990. She died in 1991 during a botched rescue attempt. Miguel was only five years old when she was taken.
He often said her memory was his fuel for entering politics. He wanted a "hardline" approach to security. He felt the current administration's "Total Peace" plan was failing and giving too much ground to armed groups.
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The political fallout has been massive. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio didn't hold back, blaming "inflammatory rhetoric" from the Colombian government for the environment that allowed the attack. President Petro, meanwhile, declared a day of national mourning, saying "Life is above any ideology."
Why This Matters for 2026
With Uribe gone, the conservative opposition is in a tailspin. He was their strongest horse. Analysts like Isaac Morales from the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation have noted that this assassination basically broke the electoral outlook for next year. It’s not just about a lost candidate; it's about the fear that Colombia is sliding back into the dark days of the 80s and 90s when candidates were killed with impunity.
What to watch for moving forward:
The legal proceedings against "Chipi" and the other five suspects are ongoing. Keep an eye on the "Arizona connection"—how a legally purchased gun from the U.S. ended up in the hands of a teenager in Bogotá. Also, the Centro Democrático's search for a new leader will likely define the tone of the upcoming campaign.
If you are following the security situation in Colombia, focus on the official reports from the Attorney General’s Office rather than social media rumors. The "intellectual authorship" of this crime is the key piece of the puzzle that still hasn't been placed. Understanding the link between local drug gangs and high-level political targets is essential for anyone trying to make sense of the current Colombian landscape.