2 days ago
Bomb attacks, blasts take over Colombia amid unrest after Miguel Uribe's attempted assassination
At least 19 explosive blasts rocked southwest Colombia, bringing further terror to a nation still reeling from the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate days earlier.
A bomb on a motorcycle detonated Tuesday near a police station in Cali, the nation's third-biggest city, among other attacks. Police said the violence has left at least four dead.
Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez blamed the attacks on a warlord known as Iván Mordisco, who President Gustavo Petro also accused of involvement in the assassination plot against the candidate, who was gunned down Saturday at a rally in Bogotá.
The victim, Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, remains in critical condition with a gunshot wound to his head. Petro also pointed the finger at a global crime syndicate he said extends from Dubai, Italy and Albania to Ecuador.
'There are very strong indications that have reached high-ranking opposition leaders and us that the perpetrator of the attack is the international mafia,' Petro said late Monday on social media, without providing details.
The bomb blasts and the attempted assassination are the latest signs that Colombia's security situation is spinning out of control, a little more than a year before Petro must leave office. Illegal armed groups such as Mordisco's continue to expand, while cocaine production rose to a record last year.
Petro, whose reforms have been stymied by Congress and the courts as the nation's fiscal problems mount, blamed his opponents for trying to leverage the attempt on Uribe's life against the government. 'They are using this horrible attack to halt Colombia's rebirth and return us to the past, with something even worse: disregard for institutions, the constitution, and the law,' the president said Tuesday in another post on X.
The gunman who shot Uribe spent four hours scouting the park where the attack took place, according to Petro. He arrived on a motorcycle, spoke with people in a van and had a cellphone that authorities are still trying to locate.
Petro said Uribe's young son had been followed from his school, and the prosecutor's office was investigating whether the senator himself had been tailed. The homes of the suspect's aunt and grandmother were raided in the Villas de Alcalá neighborhood, near the city's main airport.
The attorney general's office said the 9mm Glock used by the teenage shooter had been bought in Arizona in August of 2020. Agents are trying to establish if the firearm has been used in other crimes.
Uribe's lawyer, Victor Mosquera, told reporters Monday his client had made more than 20 requests to the National Protection Agency to beef up his security this year. The most recent was on June 5, two days before he was shot. The agency, along with the police, provides bodyguards for politicians.
The senator remained in intensive care Tuesday morning, according to the Bogotá hospital where he is being treated. Outside, dozens gathered for a fourth consecutive day, many in with candles and rosaries. Uribe's wife, Claudia Tarazona, asked them to continue praying, adding that her husband was 'fighting for his life.'
Petro said he was ordering increased security measures for opposition leaders ahead of next year's presidential vote. In addition to Uribe, María Fernanda Cabal, Abelardo de la Espriella, and Vicky Dávila were due to get more protection.
The teenage suspect in Uribe's case appeared in court on Tuesday morning, where he will likely be charged with attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm. The suspect will be tried in the juvenile system where the maximum sentence he faces is eight years, Attorney General Luz Camargo said.
