Left-wing pre-candidate suspends political activity due to attack on Uribe Turbay

Bogotá.- Colombian presidential pre-candidate Gustavo Bolívar, one of the leftist figures closest to President Gustavo Petro, announced this Sunday the suspension of his political activity ahead of the 2026 elections due to the attack that left Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay seriously injured on Saturday.

“On my part and out of respect for Miguel Uribe, I am suspending all political activity and I ask the other pre-candidates to put an end to personal disqualification, to verbal violence”, Bolívar stated in a post on his X account.

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The politician considered the “regrettable” “vile attack” that has Uribe Turbay, 39, and presidential pre-candidate for the right-wing Democratic Center party, between life and death, and said that this attack “should serve to change the way campaigns are conducted in Colombia.”

“As leaders, we have the responsibility to set an example in how we treat our opponents because in a country, all expressions must fit, no matter how hateful they may seem to us, otherwise, we cannot call ourselves a country,” expressed Bolívar, who appears in the voting intention polls as the best-positioned figure on the left for the upcoming presidential elections, which will be held on May 31, 2026.

Uribe Turbay received two bullet wounds yesterday fired by a man who was among a group of supporters listening to a speech of his at a political event in a park in Modelia, a neighborhood in the Fontibón district, in the west of the Colombian capital.

Images circulating on social media show how the hitman, who according to the Prosecutor’s Office is a 15-year-old minor who was arrested minutes after the attack, pulls out a weapon and shoots in the direction of the presidential candidate’s head, who collapses after receiving a first shot.

The senator remains hospitalized at the Santa Fe Foundation in Bogotá, where last night he underwent a delicate surgery of approximately four hours that he overcame, but his condition remains critical, according to the mayor of Bogotá, Carlos Fernando Galán.

“It’s great news what the clinic has already told us, that (Miguel Uribe) overcame the first intervention. These are critical moments and hours for him to survive. We must ask God to protect Miguel’s life and overcome this situation,” Galán said this morning.

Regarding this, Bolívar acknowledged that this morning he watched the news “with fear” and highlighted: “Fortunately, Senator Uribe survived the surgery and we pray for his speedy recovery.”