The Politics of Bullets and Bombs

CALI, Colombia — Bullets and bombs have always been an integral part of Colombian politics, often determining the outcome of presidential elections. With the recent attempted assassination of Miguel Uribe, a precandidate for the right-wing party Centro Democrático, the presidential elections to be held in Colombia in 2026 have already been hijacked. 

Dozens of presidential precandidates from all political parties, without any clear frontrunners, were ramping up their campaigns on June 7 when Uribe was shot three times by a 15-year-old sicario (assassin) during an improvised rally on the streets of an upscale neighborhood in Bogota. Hospitalized and still in critical condition, his condition had been kept secret and is being used for political ends, including for an organized protest for “peace” across the country.

The assassination of a right-wing politician is quite rare in Colombia. In the past century, it is mostly popular left-wing frontrunner candidates who have been targeted for assassination. In 1985, the candidates of Unión Patriótico, a left-wing party founded in by ex-guerrillas who had turned in their weapons when the government guaranteed their safety and freedom to run for elected office, were hunted down and killed, one by one, until the party itself had to be abandoned. In 1989, Luis Carlos Galán was killed while campaigning. A year later, former left-wing guerrilla Carlos Pizarro Leongómez — father of the current senator and presidential precandidate María José Pizarro from President Gustavo Petro’s Pacto Histórico party — was also assassinated on the campaign trail.

According to a recent report by Colombia’s Election Observation Committee, there have been 60 acts of violence against political leaders between January and April of this year; more than 40% of assassination attempts resulted in the death of the target. This politically motivated violence is directed almost entirely against demobilized guerrillas running for office and occurs mostly in areas of armed conflict, such as the state of Valle de Cauca, of which Cali is the main city. The report recommends dialogue between the government, political parties and precandidates to guarantee a peaceful election and criticizes the current level of political debate due to the “stigmatization” of opponents through verbal abuse and unfounded accusations that are spread by official media, social media and AI, all of which deteriorates confidence in the government and can lead to violence. 

The most common form of stigmatization in Colombian politics involves right-wing candidates accusing left-wing candidates of supporting guerrillas and terrorists. The immediate official media reaction to the attempted assassination of a presidential precandidate, directed almost unanimously against Petro and the left, played up this connection in order to benefit right-wing candidates. 

Before any formal investigation had been carried out, Vicky Dávila, a host on news programs for official media and a precandidate for president for the Centro Demócrata right-wing party, quoted military intelligence officers as saying that the attacks were perpetrated by FARC guerrillas. She added that she and another right-wing candidate, Sen. María Fernanda Cabral, were targeted for assassination.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that the assassination attempt was “the result of the violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government.” Petro has accused Rubio of planning a coup to oust him from office.

The right-wing precandidates, meanwhile, accuse Petro of intentionally leaving them without sufficient security during the campaign. One right-wing candidate, Fico Gutiérrez, the mayor of Medellin, happened to be in the United States at the time of the assassination attempt meeting with the FBI. Gutiérrez demanded more security and asked the FBI and the U.S. Homeland Security for their help to find those behind the assassination attempt. When Petro suggested that international security organizations help locate the perpetrators, however, the right criticized it as an act of foreign intervention. Gutiérrez also took the opportunity to blast Petro’s peace plan, which Gutiérrez claims has strengthened criminal organizations and increased violence countrywide.

In Colombia, being the target of an assassination attempt, especially candidates running on a hardline law-and-order campaign and clamoring for the militarization of the country, can boost a politician’s popularity. After the recent attempt on Miguel Uribe, almost every right-wing precandidate for president has claimed to be a target. Even Álvaro Uribe, an ex-president and the leader of the Centro Democrático Party, the man who controlled Colombian politics for decades until the election of Petro in 2022, recently claimed that sicarios are gunning for him.

In his first message published on social media after the assassination attempt on Miguel Uribe, Petro claimed that the Albanian, Italian and Dubai mafia, allied with Colombian oligarchs and security forces, had taken out one of their own in order to put the blame on him and his party. “I’m not saying that they are all involved,” he said. “What I am saying is that all those sectors, from the center to the extreme right wing, are benefiting from the assassination attempt.” 

The shooter was apprehended at the scene and immediately beaten nearly to death. Though the police originally claimed that he had no cellphone on him, several police and security agents at the scene are being investigated for tampering with evidence. It thus seems unlikely that the true identity of those behind the assassination attempt, and their political goals, will ever be revealed.

Petro sees the shooting as a political move to sink his Labor Reform, violently opposed by the right wing. Eight right-wing senators went to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights requesting precautionary measures to ensure their safety, claiming that having voted to scrap Petro’s controversial Labor Reform has made them targets of violence.

The assassination attempt of Miguel Uribe was not the only act of violence that has sideswept the upcoming presidential elections. Two days later, motorcycle bombs were detonated next to three police stations in Cali, killing two people and wounding several others. Most official news sources and politicians claimed that the bombings are connected to the assassination attempt. 

Motobombas and car bombs have long been a popular political act in Cali during elections. After each explosion, and before any proper investigation has been carried out (as in this case), it is common for official media and right-wing politicians to blame left-wing guerrilla groups — a sure way to gain more votes for candidates that promise to militarize the city. 

For that reason, following the bombings in Cali, Vice President Francia Marquez announced that although she was against the violence of the bombings, she was also against using them to terrorize people and suggested that the wave of violence might be purposely designed to sway the upcoming election.

The assassination attempt and the wave of bombings will undoubtedly shift next year’s presidential elections in Colombia in favor of whoever promises the greatest increase in police and military spending. The collateral damage against any and all candidates perceived to be soft on crime or supporters of terrorism — which is to say, all those on the left — especially those in Petro’s political party, might very well be fatal.