Former Colombian senator and ambassador to Nicaragua, Alfredo Rangel, spoke with SEMANA hours after learning of the death of Miguel Uribe Turbay, the presidential candidate for the Democratic Center who had been fighting for his life for two months.
Rangel, who is also a member of the Democratic Center, reiterated that, according to his information, the attack against the young 39-year-old politician was carried out by the FARC.
"I am absolutely convinced that it was the FARC behind this attack. I believe it was an order given by the head of the Second Marquetalia, Iván Márquez, who must have had some second-in-command who carried out the operation, the financing, and the contracting of the assassination. I am absolutely sure of that," he stated.
Rangel doesn't believe the thesis of the High Commissioner for Peace, Otty Patiño, who said this weekend that the Second Marquetalia lacks the strength or military structure to carry out the attack against Uribe Turbay.
"They have the money and they subcontract a hit group that costs them much less than they could pay. I don't think they are incapable of ordering an attack like the one on Miguel Uribe Turbay. Considering them incapable is not good for clarifying the truth," he said.
SEMANA asked Alfredo Rangel, who has also investigated the problems of the conflict in Colombia for years, why the focus is on Iván Márquez's guerrilla and not on Iván Mordisco's, which has much more operational power in Colombia.
According to the former senator, Iván Márquez “has a real fight” with President Álvaro Uribe Vélez.
“Since they haven’t been able to assassinate him on the many occasions they’ve tried, now they’re killing the main presidential candidate for the Democratic Center as retaliation, revenge against the former president and the Uribe supporters, because Uribe Vélez was the one who defeated them. Clearly, this is an act of revenge by the FARC against President Uribe and his party,” he responded. Iván Márquez —as Rangel recalled— was the supreme commander of that armed group for many years, including during the eight years of the Democratic Security Policy, and the main spokesperson for the FARC in the peace negotiations in Havana.
“He knows that his political and military defeat was caused by former President Álvaro Uribe and he wants revenge,” he added.
Days after the attack on Uribe Turbay, Rangel supported this thesis.
“Let’s not forget that the FARC has carried out more than a dozen attacks against Álvaro Uribe over the past few decades. Let’s not forget that the former president was the one who practically defeated that guerrilla group in military terms and that they have a thirst for revenge and intense hatred toward Álvaro Uribe and the Uribe faction. Everything points to the fact that it was some FARC group behind this attack,” he stated.
At the time, he also noted that the fact that Miguel Uribe Turbay was the top candidate for the Senate in 2022 and received more than 200,000 votes “made him appear to be a great possibility for the Uribe faction to have a successful performance in the next elections in 2026.”
Today, after the death of Miguel Uribe Turbay and the imprisonment of Álvaro Uribe Vélez, due to his first instance court conviction, Rangel acknowledged that the scenario for the Democratic Center in 2026 is very difficult.
“The Democratic Center could not continue its presidential candidate selection process as if nothing had happened. It is time to think about opening the party to consider other options in an interparty consultation in March 2026,” he stated.
He believes that a single party candidate should be chosen in October 2025, but that"an interparty alliance should be fostered, that is, with other political forces, so that the Colombian people can choose a candidate from a coalition that makes winning the presidency viable in the first round."
