Imagine a nation on edge, where a rising conservative star is gunned down in broad daylight, and now, the shadow of a notorious terrorist group looms large over the tragedy.
According to Breitbart, Colombian law enforcement has arrested a ninth suspect in the brutal assassination of Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a frontrunner for the 2026 presidential election, with mounting evidence pointing to the involvement of a dangerous faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
On June 7, 2025, Senator Uribe, representing the Democratic Center coalition, was shot in the head while exiting a campaign event, a brazen attack that shocked the nation.
At the time, Uribe was leading polls for the upcoming presidential race, making him a prime target for those opposed to his conservative vision.
Though he fought for his life in intensive care, the 39-year-old senator tragically succumbed to his injuries in August 2025.
The shooter, apprehended at the scene, was a boy aged just 14 or 15, now in custody and believed to have been a pawn in a much larger scheme.
Fast forward to October 28, 2025, and Colombian police announced the arrest of Simeón Pérez Marroquín, alias “El Viejo,” suspected of being a key figure in orchestrating the murder.
Police Director William Rincón didn’t mince words, stating, “El Viejo appeared to be a liaison between the group that organized the assassination and the FARC, a communist, U.S.-designated terrorist organization.”
Let’s unpack that—FARC, a group with a bloody history of terror since 1964, seems to be flexing its muscles again, despite a much-touted 2016 peace deal that promised an end to such violence.
Specifically, the Segunda Marquetalía faction, a splinter group that rejected the 2016 agreement brokered by former President Juan Manuel Santos, is now the prime suspect in planning this killing. Rincón doubled down, asserting, “Today, the strongest hypothesis is that the criminal structure responsible for the homicide is the Segunda Marquetalía.”
While Santos earned a Nobel Peace Prize for that deal, critics argue it left too many loopholes, allowing FARC dissidents to thrive in Colombia’s mountain regions, often bankrolled by cocaine trafficking and sinister alliances.
Adding fuel to the fire, police believe the assassination was meant to send a chilling message to conservative forces ahead of a fiercely contested 2026 election.
Under President Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first leftist leader since taking office in 2022, the resurgence of FARC factions and a record-breaking cocaine boom—per a 2025 UN report—have only deepened the nation’s fractures.
While Petro inherited a tough landscape, the reality is that terrorist groups and drug lords seem emboldened, leaving Colombians to wonder if true peace will ever take root—or if political violence will remain the bitter price of dissent.