10 June 2025
ABColombia condemns the shooting on, 7 June 2025 of one of Colombia’s Presidential candidates for the upcoming elections in May 2026. Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay Colombia’s Centro Democratico (Democratic Centre) party was shot twice in the head whilst speaking at a political rally in Bogota. He was rushed to hospital, operated on, and is in a critical condition. This is a deplorable act of political violence that is a threat to democracy.
A 15-year-old, with a firearm purchased in Arizona, was arrested at the scene. It is essential that the crime is further investigated, and the intellectual authors identified and brought to justice.
Civil Society Organisations, Colombian citizens, and Colombian politicians on all sides of the political divide, state that Colombia cannot return to its historical past when violence was used to silence and exclude political voices and parties, and citizens representation. Colombia has a long history of political violence. Five Presidential Candidates from different political parties were killed between 1987 and 1990. Furthermore the Inter-American Court of Human Rights stated that the Colombian state was responsible for the elimination of over 6,000 members of the Union Patriotica (Patriotic Union) Political Party.
With the signing of the 2016 Peace Accord, the country moved towards a broader political representation with the implementation of an additional16 “Peace Seats” (Special Transitory Peace Voting Districts) in Congress to represent the victims of the armed conflict and rural communities.
In Colombia, polarisation, stigmatisation and the loss of respectful political debate have always played a role in encouraging violence. Social media, some Colombian media outlets and politicians on all sides, including former politicians have all contributed recently to a negative and polarising discourse. Ahead of the May 2026 elections it is essential that all concerned refrain from polarising and stigmatising statements and engage in respectful political debate.
ABColombia is also concerned that the polarising dialogue and lack of respect at the national level translates into violence at the local level, where communities, social leaders, trade unionists and local politicians remain unprotected in a worsening conflict situation with 67 human rights defenders killed in the first five months of 2025.