Colombians Gather to Pray Nationwide as Condition of Shot Conservative Presidential Hopeful Worsens

Dozens of Colombian citizens and lawmakers gathered outside the Santa Fe Foundation of Bogotá on Monday evening to pray for conservative Senator Miguel Uribe, who remains in “extremely critical” condition after surviving an assassination attempt by a teen boy in early June.

Uribe, 39, is a senator of the conservative Democratic Centre party and one of the prospective presidential candidates in the 2026 election. On June 7, a boy between the ages of 14 and 15 shot Uribe during a campaign event in the capital city of Bogotá, inflicting two gunshot wounds to the skull and one to the left leg. A recent report published by the Colombian magazine Semana revealed that the minor told local authorities he was offered 20 million Colombian pesos (roughly $4,870) by the “boss” of a local criminal gang to assassinate Uribe.

A picture of Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay and Colombian flag cover his seat at Congress while he is in critical condition after being shot at a political rally in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, June 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

Uribe has spent the past ten days in critical condition and fighting for his life at the Santa Fe Foundation of Bogotá, where he first underwent an emergency neurosurgical and peripheral vascular procedure. On Monday morning, Uribe underwent a complementary surgical procedure. Moments later, the senator was urgently transferred to an operating room for an “emergency neurosurgical intervention due to clinical and imaging evidence of an acute intracerebral hemorrhage.”

At press time, the latest update released by the Santa Fe Foundation indicates that Uribe’s condition persists as “extremely critical, with a reserved prognosis” and he remains at the facility’s intensive care unit (ICU), receiving multidisciplinary management with hemodynamic and neurological support and monitoring.

Following Monday’s announcements detailing that Uribe’s condition worsened, his wife María Claudia Tarazona called for Colombians to continue praying for the health of the senator.

“Today I come to tell you that Miguel is still fighting for his life as he has never done before,” she said. “As never seen before. All the manifestations of love, the prayers, the prayers, the words of love have served to keep Miguel firm in his fight and our family standing up to support him.”

“That is why I go out to ask each one of the Colombians again, appealing to their good heart, to the love they feel for Miguel, for my family and for Colombia,” she continued. “That we make a massive prayer today is crucial and we need all the prayers, prayers and words of love. I ask from the bottom of my heart. Love keeps him alive.”

Tarazona’s pleas were heard by dozens of Colombians, who flocked to the outside of the healthcare center in greater numbers than those previous to pray for Uribe. The crowd brought candles, prayers, and messages of support for the senator and his family. According to local outlets, the attendees spent the entire night in prayer.

The faithful set up an improvised altar used by Colombian Catholic Priest Juan Diego Cadena to preside over a Eucharist ceremony on Monday evening.

“Not a leaf falls from a tree without the Lord’s will, so we can trust, knowing that everything is in His hands,” Father Cadena said during the Mass.

“We have been here praying the Rosary, we have brought candles, we have shared from a distance because we truly want him to get better and for this to be a sign of a great miracle for Colombia,” Colombian citizen Natalia Zamundo told Bogotá’s CityTV news channel.

Senators and Congressmen from the Democratic Center left their respective Congressional plenaries on Monday to join the vigil outside the Santa Fe Foundation of Bogotá alongside other members of the party. The lawmakers left Congress at a time when legislators are debating the latest attempt by far-left President Gustavo Petro to implement leftist labor reforms in the country.

The Democratic Center released a statement protesting the debate, stressing that there is “no heart, mind, or soul to debate a reform that contributes little to job creation and, on the contrary, harms micro and small businesses.”

“Praying for him, all miracles are possible for God,” Democratic Center Senator Paloma Valencia reportedly said upon arriving at the Santa Fe Foundation.

Uribe’s father, Miguel Uribe Londoño, participated in the vigil and recounted that his late wife and the senator’s mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was killed in 1991 during a failed rescue attempt after late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar had her kidnapped. Diana Turbay was also the daughter of former Colombian President Julio César Turbay.

“Miguel, my son, I admire you with all my strength. I attest that you have dedicated your years of public service to Colombia with a single purpose, a safe country without violence,” Miguel Uribe said.

“Three decades ago the war took my wife, Diana Turbay. I had to tell our son, just four years old, that his mother had been killed. The violence has returned and has Miguel Uribe Turbay fighting for his life,” he continued.

Prayers for Uribe’s health were also organized on Monday at the headquarters of the Colombian Chamber of Representatives and other locations. Senator Mauricio Gómez Amín of the Liberal party published video footage on his social media accounts of a Mass and rally held in the city of Barranquilla praying for the health of Sen. Uribe.

Members of the Colombian Jewish community led by the Chief Rabbi of Colombia Alfredo Goldschmidt and Pastor Raul Rubio of the Messianic Yovel community also offered prayers for Sen. Uribe’s speedy recovery. The Colombian magazine Semana described the event as “deeply emotional” and a sign of support for the senator from different religious communities.

Far-left President Gustavo Petro, who is presently insisting that the Colombian Congress pass his leftist labor reforms after repeated failed attempts, denied any responsibility of his administration for the assassination attempt against Sen. Uribe.

“It is not true that we are responsible for the attack on Senator Uribe just for defending workers’ rights,” Petro wrote on social media. “The mastermind of the attack is one of the same people who capture illegal profits and mock the working people. Any insinuation from people within the country or abroad slanders us by simply mentioning this.”

Moments after Sen. Uribe was shot on June 7, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the attack on the conservative senator and said it was “a direct threat to democracy and the result of the violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government.”

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.