LatinNews Daily - 16 June 2025

Colombia: On 7 June US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US condemns “in the strongest possible terms” the attempted assassination earlier that day of Colombian senator and pre-presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay who was left in a critical condition after being shot in the head at a rally in Modelia, a neighbourhood in the west of the capital Bogotá. In a statement Rubio described the attack as “a direct threat to democracy”. He then appeared to lay some of the blame with Colombia’s leftist government led by President Gustavo Petro, saying that the attack was “the result of the violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government”. The statement goes on to say that “having seen firsthand Colombia’s progress over the past few decades to consolidate security and democracy, it can’t afford to go back to dark days of political violence”, adding that “President Petro needs to dial back the inflammatory rhetoric and protect Colombian officials”. Writing on social media on 10 June, President Petro said that through the US embassy, he had requested that US “intelligence agencies assist in a thorough investigation” of the attack, noting that “the hitman’s weapon was purchased in Arizona and passed through Florida”.

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