Colombian Presidential Candidate in Surgery Again After Attempted Assassination

Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay looks on after the Senate vote against the referendum on labor reform promoted by Colombian President Gustavo Petro in Bogotá on May 14, 2025. RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP via Getty Images

Potential Colombian presidential candidate Sen. Miguel Uribe Turbay had to be urgently transferred on June 16 for further surgery as he fights for his life after being shot in the head by a would-be assassin at a campaign event on June 7.

The Fundación Santa Fe University Hospital in Bogotá reported on the morning of June 16 that Uribe “required a transfer ... to the operating room for emergency neurosurgery due to clinical and imaging evidence of acute intracerebral bleeding,” according to a statement by Dr. Adolfo Llinás Volpe, the hospital’s medical director, which was published on social media platform X.

Following the medical report, Uribe’s wife, María Claudia Tarazona, asked for prayers for the health of her husband.

“A few minutes ago, Miguel suffered a small hemorrhage after yesterday’s surgery. The doctors decided to operate again right now,” Tarazona wrote on Instagram. “We ask all of you to join us in prayer that everything will turn out well in the face of this new difficulty.”

Earlier on June 16, the hospital had reported that Uribe, 39, remained under observation in the intensive care unit since the attempted assassination in a park in the Fontibón neighborhood of Bogotá, according to a previous statement released on X.

It also reported that during the previous few hours, “a surgical procedure complementary to the initial procedure was performed.”

“The postoperative brain CT scan shows the expected results with no significant changes from those previously identified,” it stated.

At that time, the Santa Fe Foundation added that Uribe was “hemodynamically stable,” although he was in “critical condition” and had a “guarded neurological prognosis.”

Before these two latest medical reports, the hospital had reported on June 13 that Uribe was responding to treatment, as reflected in a decrease in intracranial pressure. It also said that in the coming days, he would be evaluated with a brain scan to detect changes or verify injuries.

Colombians, both inside and outside the country, have expressed their support for Uribe and his family through prayers and messages.

In addition, people remain outside the hospital where Uribe is being treated, praying for the politician’s health with candles, religious images, flowers, and photographs.

Other Colombians joined forces this weekend to support Uribe through the public mobilization “La Marcha del silencio” (The March of Silence).

Colombian authorities have arrested three people for their alleged involvement in the attack, including the alleged perpetrator, a 15-year-old minor who was carrying a 9 mm Glock pistol used in the attack, in addition to two adults, identified as Carlos Eduardo Mora González, who was arrested in Bogotá, and Katerine Andrea Martínez, arrested in Florencia, Caquetá, in the south of the country.

Uribe is not yet an official presidential candidate for the Democratic Center party.

His father was a unionist, and his mother, Diana Turbay, was a journalist who was killed during a failed rescue operation in 1991 after being kidnapped a year earlier by an armed group under the orders of drug lord Pablo Escobar.

The conflict has raged in Colombia for decades among the government, criminal groups, and various guerrilla groups.