Senator Miguel Uribe, 39, was shot twice in the head and once in the leg during a campaign event in Bogota on 7/6. He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, underwent multiple surgeries over two months, and died on 11/8.
The Colombian Attorney General's office announced on 27/8 that the 15-year-old suspect will be held for 7 years in a juvenile detention facility. The teenager will not be transferred to an adult prison upon turning 18.
The teen was charged with attempted murder and illegal weapons possession, not murder, because Colombian law doesn't allow charges to be amended after a minor pleads guilty.
Authorities have not released the suspect's name or image.
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Members of the presidential guard carry Miguel Uribe's coffin after his funeral at a church in Bogota, Colombia, on 13/8. Photo: AFP |
Members of the presidential guard carry Miguel Uribe's coffin after his funeral at a church in Bogota, Colombia, on 13/8. Photo: AFP
Uribe's security detail apprehended the 15-year-old at the scene. Authorities later arrested five additional adult suspects.
Colombian police identified the mastermind as Elder Jose Arteaga Hernandez, alias "El Costeno". Authorities also linked the dissident FARC group to the incident.
The attack on Uribe, a leading candidate for the 2026 presidential election, highlights the alarming violence in the country.
Uribe was the grandson of former President Julio Cesar Turbay. He received the most votes when elected to the Colombian Senate in 2022.
Two days before the attack, Uribe warned that Colombia was at risk of "falling back into the cycle of violence of the past". He had criticized the government's policy of seeking "total peace" through dialogue with armed groups and the private armies of drug traffickers.
Miguel Uribe Londono, Uribe's father, launched his own presidential campaign on 26/8, continuing his son's mission.
During the height of drug cartel violence in the 1980s and 1990s, four Colombian presidential candidates were assassinated. Uribe's mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was also killed by the Medellin cartel in 1991.
Huyen Le (AFP, AP)
