Colombia has numerous history of crimes against politicians. For example, between 1987 and 1990, one of the periods More bloody, Three candidates for president were killed in hittacks. The most impact case was Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento which was recorded on video.
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Look: This was the exact moment in which Miguel Uribe Turbay shot in Colombia: he received three bullets | VIDEO
On August 18, 1989, Gallantof the party New liberalism And favorite to win the 1990 elections, he pronounced a speech in Soachawhen a hitman approached him and killed him using a 9 mm mini uzi -caliber machine gun. The bullets hit him on the chest and abdomen.
Galán’s murder was attributed to Medellín cartelled by drug trafficker Pablo Escobarwith the collaboration of sectors of paramilitarism and corrupt state agents.
Now, less than a year after the presidential elections, Uribe Turbayof the Democratic centerhe was seriously injured in a popular neighborhood of Bogotá. The crime occurred in the middle of the increase in political polarization In the country, with the president Gustavo Petro Seeing their campaign promises braking in Congress, where he has no majority, and with the president’s decision to bring them to popular consultation, something that is widely rejected by their opponents.
In this regard, Commerce talked to the Colombian senator and political scientist Ariel Ávilaof the Green Alliance Party and author of the book “Thus Gustavo Petro governs.”
– What do you think is the political background of the attack on Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay? Can you read as a broader message to the political sector it represents?
It is a very rare attack because in Colombia we no longer had information of this type for more than 20 years. Colombia had a very long tradition of political violence. At the end of the 80s, when you in Peru were living the crisis of the Shining Path, here right -wing groups murdered thousands of militants of a leftist party (UP), a political genocide. In addition, in the context of the 1990 elections they killed three presidential candidates. But from there we had an increasingly calmer elections; Now this happens.
Colombia comes from two major processes, the first is a exacerbated polarization. We had one thing called a social fabric strike in 2021-2022, when a very hard polarization began. The second is the triumph in the elections of the first leftist government, and polarization continued to grow, to the point that politics was very aggressive in the last year. So, We have a history of political violence, now very high levels of polarization, and this attack comes.
Everyone is surprised. There are three clear conclusions: the first thing is that This was a planned topic; That is, it was not a radical, a lonely wolf who acted because the candidate fell badly, no, everything indicates, for the chats that have leaked, that this had a planning. There were at least three people involved in the fact. The hitman was a young man who had a pretty good weapon. The second thing that is absolutely clear is that at this time in Colombia there is a political shock, everyone is paralyzed. This will lead to a reinforcement of the security of the different candidates, and surely to a radicalization of speeches. And the third one that is clear is that everyone will be aware of research to find intellectual authors. That is what is clear, but what is behind, I don’t know; That if this political sector will continue to suffer attacks, it is possible, as well as other political sectors.
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– Senator, that hard political polarization of which he speaks to me has also led to death threats against public figures or opposition leaders?
Before the attack there was a lot of polarization, a lot of aggressiveness in the candidates, a lot of aggressiveness in social networks, a lot of aggressiveness in the street; That is, it was possible that a right -wing candidate shouted things, as well as the leftist candidate. Society is very aggressive and polarization is seen everywhere: in the speeches of politicians, in aggressions on the street with rudeness or social networks, which is where it is most observed, because there are many people hidden behind profiles … an environment like this did not see it a long time ago.
– And how much does President Gustavo Petro contribute in this polarization?
The president likes to polarize in the speech, he is an aggressive president in his actions, leads to the limit to society, he is a person who contributes to this environment. And also the opposition, which has too aggressive speeches. In this everyone has contributed, both the president and the opposition.
– What actors could be interested in generating this type of violence that has to do with the murder of politicians?
Imagine in Colombia, a country where so many politicians have killed themselves in the last 30 years, where there are 53 criminal organizations, an extreme polarization, because more or less what could be deduced is that anyone can be interested in this type of acts, that is the problem of what happened. Here many sectors are interested in destabilizing. What I mean is that there are looks for a thousand sides at this time to find who could have been interested in ordering this attack.
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– What consequences this attack could have for the 2026 elections, especially in Colombian public opinion?
First I say I do not know, but I am sure that the Colombian electoral map will change, and we will begin to see in the short or medium term. The impact of this attack on the Colombian electoral map will be monumental. What magnitude? I don’t know yet, but it’s going to be monumental. And the second, we are going to depend a lot on what the result of the investigation throws, because it is what will determine which path society will take after this, but the electoral map will be transformed completely, there is no doubt.