He has been campaigning for months and now has been in intensive care hours. On Saturday, the opposition senator had scheduled a tour of middle -class neighborhoods of the West of Bogotá, the city in which he was born 39 years ago and from which he has been councilor and secretary of Government. But two bullets in the head took him to the edge of death, to a edge in which he remains. XXX, said the most recent official part of his state of health. Colombia is attentive to its evolution.
It was any day of the politician. In social networks, he spoke on the issue of the moment, to convene a popular consultation via decree. He reacted to the president’s demand for his entire cabinet to sign the document if they wanted to keep his position. “Minister who will be denounced by prevaricate,” the congressman launched on his social networks. His bet is to become the unique candidate of his party, the Democratic Center. Then, with that platform and its strongly opposition positions to Gustavo Petro, become one of the great contenders at the polls that will open on May 31, 2026. The road is just starting.
Towards 4 in the afternoon, he went to the Modelia neighborhood. He was accompanied by Councilor Andrés Barrios and the mayor of the town to which the neighborhood belongs, Fontibón. The two are his partners and political allies. They had summoned the young people in the neighborhood to talk with the senator at 4.30 in the afternoon. Minutes before the Cuta, Uribe greeted citizens in the streets, the young people, visited small businesses.
Then the simple event began. In the park of that urbanization of houses, an elongated green zone called El Golfito, launched a speech. In a corner of the park, under a tree and with an Oxxo background store, he gave a small rally. With an improvised platform with beer and soda boxes, a wireless microphone and a sound amplifier on the shoulder of a collaborator spoke first Mosquera, then neighborhoods. There were several dozens of followers and curious when Uribe took over. He presented his proposals to improve the disability policy in Colombia. “Mental health, the main problem in Bogotá, in Colombia,” they said, and sounded. Uribe, more than 1.80 meters tall, fell, and chaos was made.
Immediately, neighborhoods, local leaders and escorts who were next to the senator moved him a few meters from where he was. He was supported by a vehicle while trying to stop the blood that sprouted incessantly of his head. Then came the councilor’s armored truck, and opened the door to take him to a medical center. Then something happened that probably saved Uribe’s life. “Miraculously an ambulance appeared. We decided to lower it, upload it to the ambulance, and in a matter of minutes we were in the clinic,” said the lobbyist. The aid vehicle came by chance, as it was going to attend a traffic accident, saw the tumult and approached. In it Uribe received first aid.
One of the ambulance paramedics later explained that the candidate had two bullet wounds in the skull and another in the left leg, which was unconscious but with vital signs, and that in the five or ten minutes of journey they concentrated on stopping the bleeding. In the small medicentro clinic, where he was initially transferred, he was in resuscitation and could be stabilized. There came his family and friends, even the Minister of Defense came. Uribe was still alive and faced a critical situation, which demanded more specialized attention than the place. Therefore, around 7 at night, he was transferred in the middle of a device that ensured his mobility to the Santa Fe Foundation, one of the most advanced and recognized hospitals in the country.
While all that happened, in the surroundings of El Golfito the story was another. Several escorts and police tried to find those responsible for the attack. Amid the confusion after the attack, the screams and the races, more shots sounded until they add more than a dozen. A green sweater, tried to get away from the park on foot. He wore a Glock gun, a powerful and comparatively expensive weapon used by Colombian special forces. There was no motorcycle waiting, as is usually the case with the hitmen, or complicit looking to distract the authorities.
The man took the 81b race, one of the streets that lead to the Western Railroad Avenue, a dense traffic and with a wide and green separator. He persecuted him, also on foot, half a dozen security men. When he saw them, almost arriving at the avenue, he turned and shot. He did not manage, and the police and escorts caught him a little later. They asked him to tell who had sent him while demanding that anyone hit him. Throwed on the floor, with the scared look, he asked to let him check “the numbers” of those criminal contacts. He explained that he had been paid, with money his family needed. Quickly, they took him to another medical center, as well as two other minor injured.
All political actors spoke, wishing the recovery of Uribe, calling to avoid more violence, asking to temperate language in a country with dozens of illegal armed groups, powerful criminal economies and high voltage between the government and the opposition. The Colombian Attorney General spoke a couple of hours later. He explained that this man is a child under 15 and that there is another person captured, another man, this of legal age. He gave no more information about suspects or possible responsible. Nor did the Minister of Defense, Pedro Sánchez, who offered a reward of up to 3,000 million pesos (about $ 750)) for information to help them.
The president launched a couple of tweets and only appeared in alocution after 11 at night, after a security council. Accompanied by several ministers, the mayor of Bogotá, Carlos Fernando Galán and the military and police dome, lamented what happened and sympathized with the Uribe Turbay family. In a speech of more than half an hour, he explained that the priority is the life of the candidate. He clarified that no hypothesis can be ruled out, but that it should be investigated if there was complicity of the Senator’s escort; He called “Truhanes” who in his opinion use the attack to do politics, requested national unity; He accepted that the crime is “a failure of the government, of the State, of the nation all”; and reiterated his call to peace.
Meanwhile, a medical team from Santa Fe performed surgery to Uribe. About 1:00 in the morning, his wife, María Claudia Tarazona, informed that she had been successful, that her four -year -old son was still alive, but that they followed critical hours. Sunday dawned with a country shocked and all open questions.
