The assassination of senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay, of the right-wing opposition party Centro Democrático, is a"very hard blow" to the 2016 peace agreement, the government's chief negotiators with the former FARC guerrilla group said Tuesday.
This agreement includes guarantees for the exercise of politics and "protection and security programs" for the opposition, recalled in a statement the former chief negotiator of the Government, Humberto de la Calle, and the former High Commissioner for Peace, Sergio Jaramillo.
(More: Miguel Uribe: how his presidential aspiration was cut short by his death).
However, the lawyers of the murdered politician have denounced that the National Protection Unit (UNP), which depends on the Ministry of the Interior, ignored at least 25 requests for his security to be reinforced.
"Miguel Uribe was also the head of the political opposition in Colombia, being the first candidate on the Senate list for the Democratic Center party. That is why his death is also a very hard blow to the 2016 Peace Agreement," the former officials said.
(Also: Miguel Uribe Turbay: his last participation in a presidential debate).
Uribe Turbay, 39, died this Monday at the Santa Fe Foundation in Bogotá, 64 days after having been seriously wounded with two gunshots to the head in an attack carried out on June 7 when he was leading a political rally ahead of next year's presidential elections.
"We always said that a fundamental principle and objective of the Agreement was to break the link between politics and weapons," De la Calle and Jaramillo.
STATEMENT TO THE PUBLIC⁰
— Humberto de la Calle (@DeLaCalleHum) August 12, 2025
Bogotá, August 12, 2025⁰
As Colombians, we condemn in the strongest possible terms the cowardly and painful assassination of Senator of the Republic and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay, and we extend to his admirable family and his party…
The former negotiators stressed that the peace agreement establishes that, after the end of the armed conflict with the FARC,"the maximum possible guarantees for the exercise of politics" should be established and in particular it requires "the promotion of coexistence, tolerance and non-stigmatization" of opponents who "cannot continue to be meaningless words."
Petro's "contempt" for peace
For this reason, the two former officials criticized the attitude of"disdain and indifference, not to say contempt," of President Gustavo Petro, towards these commitments and everything agreed upon in the peace agreement. (You may be interested in: 'He was a unique fighter': the message from Miguel Uribe's neurosurgeon after his death). After emphasizing that"peace and security are two sides of the same coin," the former negotiators lamented that the government has abandoned the regions most affected by the armed conflict, which were the focus of the peace agreement, and which are in the hands of"organized crime." And if it turns out to be true, as everything indicates, that those responsible for the atrocious crime (of Uribe Turbay)"These are the dissidents, and in particular the so-called Second Marquetalia, we will see the full extent of this terrible mistake. May the full weight of the law fall upon them," they added.
One of the hypotheses about this crime, classified as assassination by the Prosecutor's Office, points to the Segunda Marquetalia, one of the FARC's dissident groups, and one of its leaders, José Aldinever Sierra, alias 'Zarco Aldinever', as the alleged principal. (Continue reading: ).
The
Minister of Defense, Pedro Sánchez
, said this Monday that there is information that 'Zarco Aldinever' was murdered a few days ago in Venezuela, apparently in an attack by the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group. "The history of Colombia does not have to repeat itself if the Government does what it has to do. It is imperative that it takes seriously its legal and constitutional responsibility to protect the political opposition, as well as the signatories of the peace (...) and strengthening the so weakened state intelligence capabilities
," the peace negotiators concluded.
