Armed woman captured at an event for a right-wing Colombian presidential candidate

Bogotá.- A woman carrying a firearm was captured this Thursday by Colombian authorities during a campaign event of the presidential candidate of the right-wing opposition party Centro Democrático, Senator Paloma Valencia, held in the municipality of Honda, in the department of Tolima (center). “The Centro Democratico party and the campaign of Paloma Valencia for President express their concern about the presence of an armed woman during a political event in which the candidate was accompanied by former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez,” the party stated in a statement. The woman was arrested by the National Police, whose “timely reaction” was highlighted by the Uribista party. Paloma Valencia is the candidate of the Democratic Center in ‘The great consultation for Colombia’, a kind of right-wing primary that will be held on March 8, the same day as the legislative elections, to choose the candidate who will represent that sector in the first round of the presidential elections, on May 31. According to the most recent survey by the firm Invamer, Valencia widely leads that poll with 41.6% of voting intention, followed by Juan Manuel Galán (12.2%); Juan Daniel Oviedo and Vicky Dávila (10.4% each); Juan Carlos Pinzón (8.4%); Enrique Peñalosa (6.2%); Aníbal Gaviria (4.8%); Mauricio Cárdenas (3.6%) and David Luna (2.4%).

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The Assassination of Miguel Uribe Turbay

The Democratic Center requested the authorities to carry out “immediately a rigorous investigation” to clarify the reasons why the armed person was in the place and demanded from the Government of President Gustavo Petro full guarantees for democratic and electoral exercise. On June 7th of last year, Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, also from the Democratic Center, was shot in the head during a campaign event in Bogota, an attack that cost him his life two months later, on August 11, 2025. Uribe Turbay was one of the main candidates of the Democratic Center for this year’s presidential elections, in which the right seeks to regain power after the country’s first left-wing government. Nine people have been arrested for the assassination, including the minor who shot the politician, sentenced on August 27 to seven years in prison for attempted homicide and illegal possession of firearms. In December, the Police indicated that their main hypothesis is that the crime was ordered by the Second Marquetalia, a dissident group of the former FARC led by alias Iván Márquez.