More than two weeks after the assassination attempt on Colombian Senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay, President Gustavo Petro is now facing a formal criminal complaint over what the family’s lawyer, Víctor Mosquera, has described as “institutionalized harassment.”
The complaint was filed before the Chamber of Representatives Commission of Investigation and Accusation and is based on 43 social media posts and public statements made by Petro in recent months. Uribe’s lawyer argues that these comments created a “hostile” environment against the opposition leader. “These pronouncements are not protected political expression but acts of ideological persecution that fostered a perception of criminality and danger around Senator Uribe,” stated the attorney.
Among the posts cited in the filing is a message published by Petro on June 5 – just two days before the attack – in which the president invoked Uribe’s family legacy to question his commitment to democracy. “The grandson of a president who ordered the torture of 10,000 Colombians talking about institutional rupture?” Petro wrote on X, referring to Uribe’s grandfather, former President Julio César Turbay Ayala.
Petro also accused the senator of sabotaging government legislation and likened his opposition to a proposed national referendum to acts of repression. “Are you going to send 10,000 Colombians to torture, like your grandfather, Miguel Uribe? You can’t. The people have already decided,” Petro wrote on May 23.
The president’s online rhetoric is now under formal scrutiny, as Mosquera called on Congress to treat the complaint with urgency, given the senator’s critical condition following the June 7 shooting in Bogotá’s Modelia neighborhood.
As the legal case against Petro begins, the investigation into the attack on Uribe continues to produce chilling revelations. Authorities have arrested four individuals in connection with the shooting, including the 15-year-old who pulled the trigger with a 9mm Glock pistol, and Katerine Andrea Martínez Martínez, also known by the alias “Gabriela.”
According to the Attorney General’s Office, Martínez has confessed to participating in the planning and logistics of the attack and admitted to transporting weapons on multiple occasions for criminal networks operating in Bogotá. In her statement, Martínez revealed that the plot to assassinate Uribe had been in motion for months and that a failed attempt had been planned during the Barranquilla Carnival.
According to Mosquera, Uribe’s security detail had been reduced by the national government during his trip to the departmental capital of Atlántico, where the politician was attending the country’s banking conference, Asobancaria. On the day of shooting at the public venue in Bogotá, Miguel Uribe’s security detail has been reduced from seven undercover agents to just three, allowing the underage gunman to shoot the Senator at close range.
The alleged mastermind, identified as Elder José Arteaga, alias “El Costeño,” reportedly ordered the teenage gunman to shoot Uribe at least three times in the head. Martínez told investigators that El Costeño emphasized, “If you have to empty the entire magazine, do it. That’s what bullets are for.”
Martínez, 19, was charged with aggravated attempted homicide, illegal possession of firearms, and the use of minors to commit crimes. After originally denying the charge of attempted homicide, a control judge placed the young woman in pretrial detention. Another suspect, Carlos Eduardo Mora González, a Colombian-Venezuelan national, allegedly helped coordinate logistics for the attack and is already in custody.
The fallout from the assassination attempt has also reached the Unidad Nacional de Protección (UNP), the agency responsible for protecting public figures in Colombia. The Inspector General’s Office is investigating UNP Director Augusto Rodríguez for possible failures in safeguarding the high-profile Senator of the right-wing Centro Democrático party.
Former Senator Jorge Enrique Robledo of the left-wing POLO party, has denounced the UNP’s handling of security provisions, claiming that his armored vehicle was removed by the agency. “This is the kind of government we have,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “They’ve just sent me a letter offering a regular vehicle in place of an armored one.”
Despite repeated requests, Senator David Luna, a fellow presidential hopeful from the Cambio Radical party, also criticized the agency for failing to enhance his security. “Since announcing my candidacy, the UNP hasn’t taken a single additional measure to protect me,” he said.
Other politicians who claim to have had their personal protection schemes reduced since June 7, are Andrés Barrios, a City Councilor who was with Miguel Uribe at the rally in Bogotá, as well as Juan Carlos Pinzón, former Minister of Defense during the presidential term of Iván Duque.
Rodríguez defended the agency’s decisions, arguing that security threats are dynamic and subject to change. “Risk is not a constant; it’s a variable. Protection measures evolve based on threat assessments,” he stated.
As Senator Uribe continues to fight for his life in Bogotá’s Fundación Santa Fe Hospital, the broader implications of his attempted assassination have thrown Colombia into a state of political anxiety and heightened fears of a violent pre-election season. On Monday morning, Miguel Uribe underwent a fourth brain surgery and remains in intensive care. According to the medical institution, the patient’s condition has evolved from “critical” to “grave.”
