Colombian Presidential Hopeful Still in Critical Condition After Shooting, Wave of Bomb Attacks

Colombian presidential hopeful and legislator Miguel Uribe Turbay remains in critical condition 10 days after being shot in the head during an event in Bogota. Meanwhile, investigators have not determined whether a series of subsequent bombings is related to the shooting.

Uribe underwent surgery on June 16 to stem a brain bleed, according to a statement from Bogota’s Santa Fe Foundation Hospital, where he is being treated.

“Miguel continues to fight for his life like never before,” the senator’s wife, María Claudia Tarazona, told reporters outside the hospital on Monday.

The shooting on June 7 was followed by two dozen coordinated attacks with explosives and firearms on June 10 that left at least seven dead and at least 28 injured.

The series of attacks in cities and municipalities in the departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca resulted in the deaths of two police officers, a police patrolman, and five civilians, according to a June 10 statement from the Colombian National Police.

The police reported that illegal armed groups used “four vehicles equipped with explosives, three motorcycle bombs, 10 explosive device launches, four firearm attacks,” in addition to two cylinder bombs in public streets.

The explosions began simultaneously in police stations in the city of Cali, capital of the department of Valle del Cauca, and were later reported in different municipalities.

The attacks, which have been described as “terrorist,” were attributed by the commander of the Colombian military, Adm. Francisco Cubides, to elements of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group that re-formed after FARC was dissolved.

What Cubides termed “residual structures” are illegal armed groups led by former FARC members who allegedly did not join the 2016 Peace Agreement with the government and emerged after the alleged dissolution of the FARC.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro pointed last week to the “Estado Mayor Central (EMC),” a FARC dissident group and major player in drug trafficking, as responsible for the attacks.

The “EMC offensive leaves victims, both civilians and members of the security forces. They commemorate the death in combat of one of their leaders, alias Mayimbú, the very one who initiated the shift toward criminality,” he wrote on his X account.

Petro said in the post that there’s a “growing hypothesis” that the drug trafficking cartel was behind the Uribe attack.

Colombian Sen. María Fernanda Cabal said that in recent years, drug trafficking and crime have been growing stronger in the region where the attacks occurred.

“We must understand that southwestern Colombia, not only now, but for some time now, has been the territory or war laboratory of illegal groups,” Cabal, a senator for the Democratic Center party, told the country’s Canal Congreso television channel.

The senator added that the department of Cauca is now under the control of criminal groups, such as the Sinaloa cartel.

Uribe planned to run as the Democratic Center presidential candidate. He was shot three times on June 7 during a campaign event in the Modelia neighborhood of Bogotá. A 15-year-old gunman was arrested, as well as a man and woman suspected of being accomplices. However, police have not determined the motive for the attack or who may have ordered it.