Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe shot in Bogota

Senator Miguel Uribe (right) reacts after the Senate voted against the government labor reform referendum promoted by Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro in Bogota on May 14, 2025. A Colombian right-wing opposition senator and candidate to next year’s presidential election, Miguel Uribe was shot and wounded in Bogota on June 7, 2025, according to local media reports.
| Photo Credit: AFP

A Colombian right-wing opposition senator and candidate to next year’s presidential election was shot and wounded in Bogota on Saturday (June 7, 2025), various media reported, while the government denounced an “attack.”

Miguel Uribe, 39, was in critical condition and one person had been arrested, according to media reports.

“Violence can never be the way… I sincerely hope that (Uribe) is well and out of danger,” Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia wrote on social media.

While the government and his party confirmed the attack on Mr Uribe, there was no immediate confirmation from the authorities on his condition.

Police officers guard the area where Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe of the opposition Democratic Center party, was shot during a campaign event, in Bogota, Colombia, on June 7, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

The 39-year-old senator is a member of the opposition conservative Democratic Center party, founded by former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. The two men are not related.

According to a party statement condemning the attack, the senator was hosting a campaign event in a public park in the Fontibon neighbourhood in the capital on Saturday (June 7, 2025) when “armed subjects shot him in the back.”

The party described the attack as serious, but did not disclose further details on his health.

Colombia’s presidency issued a statement saying the government “categorically and forcefully” rejected the violent attack, and called for a thorough investigation into the events that took place.

Mr Uribe’s mother, the journalist Diana Turbay, was killed in 1991 during a rescue operation after she was kidnapped by Pablo Escobar’s Medellin cartel.