Global & US Headlines
Colombian Presidential Hopeful Miguel Uribe Dies Nine Weeks After Campaign Shooting
Miguel Uribe Turbay, wounded at a June 7 Bogotá rally, died early Aug 11 after nine weeks on life support, turning an attempted assassination into Colombia’s first fatal attack on a national candidate since 1990.
Focusing Facts
- Uribe was declared dead at 1:56 a.m. on 11 Aug 2025 at Bogotá’s Santa Fe Foundation Hospital, nine weeks after being shot in the head on 7 June.
- Police have jailed six people—including the 15-year-old alleged gunman—while continuing to search for the attack’s ‘intellectual authors.’
- Colombia’s defense ministry is offering a 3 billion-peso (≈US$740,000) reward for tips leading to those who ordered the killing.
Context
Colombia has seen this grim script before: Jorge Eliécer Gaitán’s 1948 murder ignited the Bogotazo riots, and Luis Carlos Galán’s 1989 assassination by cartel-linked gunmen derailed that election cycle. Uribe’s death revives memories of that era, yet it also highlights new dynamics—a juvenile shooter hired for cash echoes the 1990s sicario culture and signals how organized crime now outsources violence to minors who face lenient sentences. The attack exposes unfinished business from the 2016 FARC peace deal: local drug economies and fragmented gangs still wield lethal influence despite a stronger central state and real-time forensic support from the U.S., U.K. and UAE. Whether this becomes an historical inflection point depends on what follows: if prosecutors trace the financial chain and political system closes ranks against impunity, the event may become a footnote; if fear chills campaigning ahead of 2026, it could mark a relapse into the cyclical violence that has punctuated Colombian politics roughly every 30 years. Over a 100-year lens, the episode underscores the persistent contest between coercive narco-capital and democratic institutions—a struggle Colombia has not yet decisively won.
Perspectives
Mainstream global news agencies
e.g., Reuters, Bloomberg Business — Report the assassination as a shocking reminder of Colombia’s chronic political violence and focus on the facts of the investigation, arrests and Uribe’s political résumé. By prioritising wire-service neutrality and official statements, these outlets tend to downplay partisan blame or ideological motives that have not yet been confirmed, potentially obscuring the political tensions highlighted elsewhere.
Right-leaning U.S. media
e.g., The Western Journal, CBS News — Frame the killing as an attack on a rising conservative leader and link it to what they describe as violent left-wing rhetoric coming from Colombia’s current government. Their emphasis on blaming the left, echoed in CBS quoting a U.S. official who faults “violent leftist rhetoric,” risks turning an unresolved criminal case into partisan ammunition before evidence of ideological motivation is produced.
Catholic and faith-based outlets
e.g., Catholic News Agency — Present the senator’s death through a moral and spiritual lens, spotlighting Church leaders’ calls for prayer, national unity and rejection of violence. By centring religious consolation and portraying Uribe almost as a martyr, the coverage sidesteps deeper political analysis and the structural causes of violence highlighted in secular reporting.