BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe on Saturday paid tribute to slain presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay at a Bogotá park the place he was gunned down, calling for a stronger safety crackdown as violence surges nationwide.
The 39-year-old politician was shot within the again whereas delivering a marketing campaign speech in Colombia’s capital in June alongside a small safety element. The 2 males usually are not associated however belong to the identical political celebration.
“Might this place symbolize an everlasting flame, like Miguel’s everlasting love for Colombia,” Uribe mentioned beside a photograph of Uribe Turbay. “Might those that go via this place discover that Miguel evokes the safety wanted for peace to come back in the future.”
Uribe Turbay died in August after two months in intensive care. His demise shocked the nation, as soon as once more confronted with the assassination of a politician campaigning for president, one thing not seen in three a long time. Within the wake of his demise, his father Miguel Uribe Londoño introduced he would take his son’s place and run for president.
The killing sparked a debate about find out how to forestall battle within the South American nation from roaring again within the lead-up to subsequent 12 months’s presidential election, a race by which the previous chief is hoping to weigh in.
The previous president was escorted Saturday by heavy safety: Streets have been closed, drones monitored the parks and police with rifles saved watch from the roof of a close-by home.
“If Miguelito Uribe had had this sort of safety, he wouldn’t have been killed,” mentioned Vilma Ramírez, a neighborhood resident, in tears. She joined the gang of about 200 folks gathered within the park.
The go to marked one in every of former President Uribe’s first public appearances since a choose eliminated his home arrest order whereas he appeals a 12-year sentence for witness tampering and fraud convictions.
Uribe, who ruled from 2002 to 2010, is greatest identified for the heavy-handed navy marketing campaign that beat again Marxist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which signed a peace pact with the federal government in 2016.
The chief introduced the insurgent group to its knees, making Uribe essentially the most highly effective political voice on the precise. But it surely additionally fueled accusations of human rights abuses, together with that his authorities systematically slayed 1000’s of civilians, dressing many our bodies up as guerrillas, with a view to increase kill counts.
On Saturday, Uribe and members of his Democratic Heart celebration demanded justice and an intensive investigation into the demise of Uribe Turbay. Six suspects, together with a minor alleged to have pulled the set off, are in custody. Authorities are investigating whether or not a guerrilla faction born out of the now-defunct insurgent group, generally known as FARC dissidents, have been concerned.
“Right here the murderer, with medicine, cash, and a sequence of mental authors and instigators, took Miguel from us,” Uribe mentioned, surrounded by members of his Democratic Heart celebration.
The previous president seeks to affect the 2026 legislative and presidential elections and strengthen the nation’s proper wing amid simmering discontent with present President Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first leftist chief.
Underneath Petro, who ran on the promise that he would convey “complete peace” to a conflict-torn nation, violence amongst warring prison teams has solely spiked.
On Thursday, 19 folks, together with cops have been killed in assaults involving explosives in opposition to a police helicopter and a automobile bomb in an city space that left greater than 70 injured.
“The nation is falling aside at this second. The warfare is again, the fear is again,” lamented Claudia Marcela Badillo, a retired police officer who attended the political gathering and had supported Uribe Turbay.
