The assassination of Senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay sparked statements from various political sectors and opened a debate on the judicial and political consequences of the incident. The Attorney General's Office classified it as an assassination, while the family's defense team announced that it will request that the crime of terrorism also be included, arguing that Uribe Turbay was a member of an opposition party. (Read:)

According to information from the INVESTIGATIVE UNIT of EL TIEMPO, with legal representation of the family members, the intention is for those linked to the case, both those arrested and the alleged masterminds, to face charges of aggravated homicide and terrorism. Judicial proceedings are underway against six defendants, while investigations continue to establish additional responsibilities.

In the political sphere, the crime led to internal reflections within the Democratic Center, the party to which the senator belonged. Gabriel Vallejo, director of the party, stated that it has not yet been decided who will assume the vacant seat.

“I believe this will generate a profound reflection within the party, and we’ll see what happens. I would be wrong to tell the country what the next step is. But I can tell the Colombian people that the Democratic Center will not let Miguel Uribe’s death go by in vain,” he said.

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Vallejo added that the party will take the congressman's family into account to preserve his legacy."We are going to consider the vision and contributions of Miguel's family in the decisions made regarding his seat and his work in the Senate," he indicated. The uncertainty regarding the replacement for the seat was partially clarified by electoral law experts. Patricia Muñoz Yi, director of graduate programs at the Faculty of Political Science at the Javeriana University, explained that the seat should be filled by the person who, according to the results of the legislative elections, obtained the highest number of votes after the official allocation of seats in the Senate.
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I understand that it is a candidate with the last name Guerra. Due to our electoral system and the distribution of seats, it should go to the person who received the most votes after the distribution,” he said.
EL TIEMPO established that it is María Angélica Guerra López, who was a candidate for the Senate for the Democratic Center and occupied fourteenth place among the highest vote-getters on the list with 37,928 votes. If she accepts the nomination,
Guerra López would complete the legislative term in the seat vacated by Uribe Turbay.
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By electoral law, the succession of a Senate seat follows the order of the list with which the political party or movement competed in the elections. If the person called to fill the position declines, the next person on the list will continue, always respecting the votes obtained in the electoral contest. The Congress of the Republic confirmed that the legislator's body will lie in state in the National Capitol, in a ceremony attended by congressmen, authorities, and representatives of various sectors. The Democratic Center party stated that, in addition to legal actions, it will promote political control debates and propose reforms to strengthen the security of political and social leaders in the country.

The investigation into the assassination and the decision on the seat will be carried out in parallel, in a context marked by widespread rejection of the crime and expectations for the judicial and political advances that will arise in the coming weeks.
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