Miguel Uribe Turbay, the Colombian senator and presidential hopeful who embodied both political privilege and personal tragedy, has died following a two-month battle to survive gunshot wounds sustained at a campaign rally. He was 39.

The right-wing opposition figure, who had declared his intention to seek Colombia's presidency in 2026, died on August 11 from injuries inflicted during a June 7 assault in Bogotá's Fontibón neighbourhood, where an adolescent attacker fired at him three times, striking his head twice and leg once, as he spoke to supporters from an elevated platform.

"You will always be the love of my life. Thank you for a life full of love, thank you for being a dad to the girls, the best dad to Alejandro," his spouse María Claudia Tarazona posted online. "Rest in peace love of my life, I will take care of our children."

The Santa Fe hospital in Bogotá, which had been treating Uribe since the incident, disclosed that he experienced bleeding in his neurological system during the weekend, requiring urgent interventions. Though he underwent numerous operations and showed encouraging progress in July, his health declined significantly in recent days.

Uribe's passing compounds his family's painful encounters with Colombia's recurring brutality. His mother, reporter Diana Turbay, died in 1991 when a liberation effort failed following her abduction by Pablo Escobar's criminal organisation. The lawmaker frequently discussed how this early loss influenced his political outlook, especially his focus on public safety.

Though descended from Colombia's governing class – his mother's father Julio César Turbay led the nation between 1978 and 1982 – Uribe forged an independent trajectory through technical acumen and relentless challenges to leftist President Gustavo Petro's government.

Ascending through the capital's political ranks starting at 25 with his election to the municipal assembly, Uribe emerged as Petro's fiercest opponent whilst the latter governed the city, contesting his urban development plans and welfare initiatives. Following service as Government Secretary during Enrique Peñalosa's mayoralty, Uribe secured a Senate position in 2022 with over 200,000 ballots, achieving the greatest support among Democratic Center candidates.

His presidential bid, initiated with the motto "With Uribe, security returns," established him as heir to ex-president Álvaro Uribe's (unrelated) law-and-order agenda. The previous head of state had apparently backed him as his chosen replacement, stating to Colombian scholars at Harvard the previous year: "The next president of Colombia is called Miguel Uribe."

Law enforcement detained six individuals connected to the incident, amongst them the youth who allegedly fired the weapon plus various suspected collaborators whom officials claim assisted in organising and carrying out the killing. Investigators have indicated a breakaway element of the disbanded FARC rebels potentially coordinated the assault.

The shooting and Uribe's ultimate demise have rekindled recollections of Colombia's bleakest era of civic bloodshed during the eighties and nineties. "Today is a sad day for our country. Violence cannot continue to mark our destiny. Democracy is not built with bullets or blood, it is built with respect, with dialogue,” stated Vice President Francia Márquez.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who regularly challenges the Petro administration, called for accountability after learning of Uribe's passing. "The United States stands in solidarity with his family, the Colombian people, both in mourning and demanding justice for those responsible," Rubio posted on X.

Uribe is survived by his four-year-old child Alejandro and three daughters from his spouse's earlier union, whom he had embraced as his own. His demise eliminates a central personality from Colombia's conservative coalition before the high-stakes 2026 electoral contest, creating uncertainty in the Democratic Center's leadership planning.