Colombian right reviews its options after assassination of Miguel Uribe

The 293 days remaining until the Colombian presidential elections, scheduled for May 31, 2026, pose a string of questions. For Colombians, it’s the start of a campaign with dozens of candidates and no clear favorite; for the left, an attempt to maintain power after Gustavo Petro’s erratic term; for centrist forces, an opportunity to avoid the disappointments of 2018 and 2022. But, above all, for a right wing battered in recent days by violence and the judicial system.

“There are no guarantees for campaigning,” said María Fernanda Cabal, a pre-candidate for the Democratic Center party, after learning of the death of Miguel Uribe Turbay, her fellow party member with whom she was competing for the presidential nomination for the largest and most representative political grouping of the Colombian right. She and the three remaining candidates have limited their public appearances since June 7, when Uribe Turbay was shot at a rally in Bogotá and security fears paralyzed campaigns across all sectors. They had been resuming campaigning activities, for example, with their presence at the pro-Uribe marches last Thursday, August 7.

However, a fundamental decision remained: the mechanism by which the representative of the political force led by former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez will be elected. The party has begun a process toward holding an internal consultation on October 26, but it is only a possibility compared to alternatives such as a poll among members. The uncertainty surrounding Uribe Turbay’s prognosis, which had been slowly improving, made it more difficult to determine. That uncertainty no longer exists.

What remains is the impact that Uribe Vélez’s conviction will have on the Democratic Center’s image and viability. The first reaction has been to criticize the sentence as politically motivated, stirring indignation among their supporters. “They want to destroy a voice of the democratic opposition,” said Uribe Vélez, honorary president of the Democratic Center and the most significant figure in the Colombian right-wing in the last quarter-century. The judge’s decision to impose house arrest without waiting for an appeal was particularly controversial and has fueled that view. “Indiscriminate legal maneuvers have been undertaken to detain him [Álvaro Uribe] and criminalize his family and those around him,” argued his son Jerónimo, who has become a spokesperson for the most hardline Uribe supporters.

The appeal announced by Uribe’s defense team, which his lawyers must present on August 13, and the ensuing debate will keep the flame of this process, and its political impact, alive at least until mid-October. The 16th is a key date: if the Bogotá Superior Court hasn’t made a decision by that date, barring an extraordinary event, the entire case will expire. Uribe would be free, but without the acquittal he has said he wants.

Meanwhile, the party is facing the absence of its most popular senator, who had the clear support of the powerful former president. It was thanks to him that Uribe Turbay occupied the disputed top spot on the Senate list in 2022, despite not being a long-serving member and several other congressmen seeking that position. The senator repaid that trust by becoming one of the most prominent spokespeople for Uribe’s party in Congress, a staunch opponent of Gustavo Petro’s leftist government, while staking his political future on a presidential campaign that did not shy away from the label “Uribeist.” He said his strategy was to be Uribe’s choice, then rally the right around him and thus arrive in May as one of the strongest candidates.

The question now is whether this remains the path for the right. Outside the Democratic Center, Vicky Dávila has reiterated her refusal to make pacts with what she calls “the politicians.” The banner of anti-politics was the same one that led Rodolfo Hernández to become the candidate supported by the right in the 2022 runoff, after having surprised with his unexpected popularity in the final stretch of the political campaign. Uribe’s support is a formal political party that can hardly occupy that space. While in its beginnings, in 2013, it had elements of right-wing political insurgency in the style of the Tea Party, it quickly became a traditional party, an image that was solidified by the government of Iván Duque.

Without Uribe Turbay — the grandson of another former president — Democratic Center figures such as María Fernanda Cabal or Paola Holguín may have more room to use an anti-political discourse. That path, the one that led Uribe Vélez to the presidency in 2002, seems far from the Democratic Center. But Uribeism and the right are not limited to the party, and with events like the assassination of one of its leading lights and the sentencing of its leader, the right-wing anti-establishment spirit that has triumphed in Argentina and El Salvador may reach Colombia.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition