Assassinated Presidential Candidate Miguel Uribe in Colombia was Bid Farewell by Thousands

Thousands of people lined up outside the Colombian Congress on Tuesday to bid farewell to Senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe, who died the day before after an attack that left him in critical condition and in intensive care for two months.  The assassination of the opposition leader shakes up the campaign for the 2026 presidential elections and revives the ghosts of the political violence that halted the presidential aspirations of five candidates in the 20th century with gunfire.  Since morning, mile-long lines surrounded Congress and stretched to the central Plaza de Bolívar. Thousands of people waited their turn to approach the politician’s coffin inside the chamber and pay their respects for a few seconds.  The son of a journalist murdered by Pablo Escobar, Uribe was the right’s favorite candidate to replace leftist President Gustavo Petro. 

“In our country, unfortunately, we have this huge problem: if a person thinks differently, the solution is to kill them,” graphic designer José Corvita told AFP outside Congress. “We can’t continue like this,” he exclaimed.  Inside the legislative palace, the presidential candidate’s father, Miguel Uribe Londoño, hugged the coffin, covered with a Colombian flag and surrounded by flowers.  Amidst tears and hugs, the candidate’s wife, María Claudia Tarazona, arrived carrying her youngest son along with her two other daughters, whom Uribe welcomed as his own.  Ordinary citizens were out and about throughout the day, some taking photos with their cell phones.  During a military ceremony elsewhere in the city, Petro called for a minute of silence in honor of Uribe and asserted that “international experts” are helping to “determine the real causes” of the assassination.  Authorities have arrested six people linked to the murder, including the gunman, a 15-year-old boy, and point to the FARC dissident group known as Segunda Marquetalia as the prime suspect.