Political violence has marked Colombia with several assassinations throughout its history, including that of senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay, one of the right's candidates for the 2026 elections, who died this Monday in Bogotá, 64 days after being seriously injured in an attack.
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The following is the list of assassinations committed in the country since the beginning of the 20th century, which begins and ends with the surname Uribe:
1. Rafael Uribe Uribe, 1914
Presidential assassinations that marked Colombia. Rafael Uribe Uribe (1914) A liberal leader and defender of social rights. He was assassinated in Bogotá. His death sparked a civil conflict that shook the country and marked the beginning of decades of political violence. pic.twitter.com/PQcf2RiTl2 — Contraluz | Politics, Economy and more (@contraluzec) August 11, 2025
General Rafael Uribe Uribe, leader of the liberal troops defeated by the conservatives in the Thousand Days' War (1899-1902), was murdered with an axe on the side of the National Capitol on October 15, 1914.
(You can read: Miguel Uribe: how his presidential aspirations were cut short by his death).
Uribe Uribe, a politician with liberal ideas who defended his ideas in Congress and on the battlefield, was a lawyer, soldier, senator, diplomat, journalist, and one of the most prestigious public figures in the country.
He was also the first person to be amnestied and demobilized to be murdered in Colombia after signing a peace treaty with the victors of the Thousand Days' War.
2. Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, 1948
The liberal leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, who was emerging as the favorite for the 1949 presidential elections, was shot dead on April 9, 1948, as he left his law office in downtown Bogotá, unleashing a wave of violence that went down in history as 'El Bogotazo'. A lawyer and politician with a fiery oratory, the leader led the opposition to the conservative regime of President Mariano Ospina Pérez due to the political violence that erupted after the defeat of the Liberal Party in the 1946 elections, in which it was divided between the official candidate David Turbay and the dissident Gaitán. (Also read: ). The cry of"They killed Gaitán" spread like wildfire through the streets of Bogotá, where Gaitanism, made up of sectors popular, lynched the attacker, Juan Roa Sierra, so it was never known if he acted alone or if someone commissioned him to carry out this murder, which has never been solved. According to newspapers of the time, that day ended with the intervention of the Army and at least 550 deaths, a figure that investigators raise to more than 2,000 in Bogotá alone, not counting those in other regions of the country to which the violence spread.
3. Jaime Pardo Leal, 1987
In 1986, he was the first presidential candidate for the Patriotic Union (UP), a left-wing party born a year earlier as part of a peace attempt by then-president Belisario Betancur (1982-1986) with the FARC guerrillas.
However, the UP was the victim of an extermination campaign in which at least 5,733 of its members were murdered or disappeared, including Pardo Leal, who was shot by hitmen on October 11, 1987, as he was driving with his family.
4. Luis Carlos Galán, 1989
Like Gaitán, the liberal politician Luis Carlos Galán was the favorite to win the 1990 presidential elections when he was shot dead on August 18, 1989, during a rally in the town of Soacha, south of Bogotá.
A lawyer, economist, journalist, and politician, Galán was Minister of Education at just 27 years old and later ambassador to Italy, councilman in Bogotá, and senator.
(We recommend: 'He was a unique fighter': the message from Miguel Uribe's neurosurgeon after his death ).
Galán was known for his harsh speech against the infiltration of the drug mafia in politics, and that is why he was assassinated.
Two of his sons have been senators of the Republic and one of them, Carlos Fernando Galán, is the current mayor of Bogotá.
5. Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa, 1990
In the bloodiest presidential campaign in Colombia's memory, Galán's assassination was followed on March 22, 1990, by that of Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa, Pardo Leal's successor as presidential candidate of the Patriotic Union.
Jaramillo Ossa, a lawyer and senator, was shot dead by a hitman while he was at the Bogotá airlift facilities.
6. Carlos Pizarro Leongómez, 1990
He was the last commander of the M-19 guerrilla group, which he led to the signing of a peace treaty with the government of President Virgilio Barco (1986-1990) on March 9, 1990, and entered politics as a presidential candidate for the newly created M-19 Democratic Alliance.
On April 26, 1990, less than two months after signing the peace treaty, Pizarro was assassinated by a hitman who shot him in mid-flight on an airplane as he was heading to Barranquilla for an election event.
More than three decades later, Gustavo Petro, who was a member of the M-19 in his youth, became President of Colombia, while Senator María José Pizarro, daughter of the assassinated leader, is seeking the same position in the upcoming elections.
7. Álvaro Gómez Hurtado, 1995
Three times presidential candidate (1974, 1986 and 1990), the lawyer, journalist, diplomat, writer and politician Álvaro Gómez Hurtado was the most representative figure of the Conservative Party in the second half of the 20th century and was assassinated in Bogotá on November 2, 1995.
(You may be interested in: What will happen to Miguel Uribe's seat after the announcement of his death).
Considered one of the most important thinkers in the country, Álvaro Gómez could not become president because he carried the burden of being the son of former President Laureano Gómez (1950-1953), nicknamed 'the Monster' by those who consider him one of the instigators of political violence in the country.
8. Miguel Uribe Turbay, 2025
Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, of the right-wing Democratic Center party, was seriously wounded in an attack on June 7, 2025, and died 64 days later. Uribe Turbay was the grandson of former liberal President Julio César Turbay (1978–1982) and the son of journalist Diana Turbay, who was murdered in January 1991 by the Medellín cartel, which held her hostage for six months. The Prosecutor's Office announced that the case will be classified as an assassination, that is, the killing of a person due to their political or social relevance.
