Never Again

Unfortunately, I had to live through something I believed was a thing of the past in my country. I remember my parents and teachers telling me the unfortunate stories of assassinated candidates, kidnapped people, and total uncertainty. My mind holds thousands of images from documentaries and series that recount how violence erased normal life in Colombia and turned the country into a river of tears. I absorbed it all, and although I didn’t live it myself, it became part of my memory—like the sorrowful collective memory of a nation that had suffered too much. But despite the tragedy, I always thought that that atrocious past was just that: the past. I reflected that, despite the violence and intolerance that still exist, the country had improved. That’s why it hurt so much to find out that on the afternoon of Saturday, June 7, a 14-year-old hitman, using a semi-automatic Glock, shot presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay in the head.

This has left many uncertainties. Who is the hitman? Who is the mastermind? How could this happen? But beyond these questions, which of course must be investigated and answered with the utmost rigor, I am left with a couple of certainties. The first is that we must collectively reject this act, regardless of political affiliation or differences in thought. We must unite around the hope of the Uribe Turbay family, because Miguel’s death would not only be a loss for them, but a harsh blow to Colombian democracy and a failure of our society as a whole. The second is that we must all rise to the occasion. We cannot allow the opportunistic right to use the attempted assassination of Miguel Uribe as a political platform, and we must demand that the hardline left step back from its combative and polarizing rhetoric.

From the right, I have seen questionable attempts to exploit the attack on Miguel Uribe for political gain, the most notable of which has been by Vicky Dávila. The candidate has taken advantage of the situation to insert herself into the circle of victims and campaign using the fear and suffering caused by the attack. From the very beginning, Vicky has tried to appropriate the situation and use it as a banner in her campaign. On the night of the attack, she was very active, blaming the government and President Gustavo Petro for their rhetoric. And although it’s undeniable that the president’s discourse is aggressive and often fuels hatred, no one benefits more than her from being surrounded by cameras and microphones chasing after Miguel Uribe’s ambulance. Has Vicky forgotten that she is no longer a journalist but a presidential candidate? This is not the time to seek electoral gains—Miguel Uribe’s life cannot be turned into a political tool.

On the other hand, we have the incompetence and lack of common sense from the government and some sectors of the left. During Gustavo Petro’s presidency, polarization, incendiary language, and hatred have only grown. A clear example is the president’s comments just days before the attack, calling the opposition Nazis and slavers. After the attack, nothing seems to have improved. From unofficial pro-Petro sectors, some irresponsibly claim that this was a staged attack, or that Miguel Uribe deserved it for belonging to the party Centro Democrático. What kind of country can we build under these conditions? For his part, the president attempted to show institutional seriousness in an address that started off well but ended up bloated with unnecessary flourishes given the gravity of the situation. Petro used the speech to talk about One Hundred Years of Solitude, the heart of the world, the energies that make species flourish, Hegel’s dialectics, Arab migrants, and how close he supposedly is to the Turbay family. Of course, he had to be the center of everything. Now it even seems like Petro is the real victim, since his theory is that the attack leaving Miguel Uribe fighting for his life was actually intended to destabilize his government.

The attack on Miguel Uribe must be a call for peaceful coexistence among all Colombians. We must be guided by reason and understand that this is a tragic event that marks us all as a nation. There is no value in giving wings to conspiracy theories like the staged attack narrative, or in using the Uribe Turbay family’s pain as a political instrument. All we can do now is place our hope in the hands of the doctors, for Miguel Uribe’s swift recovery; in the hands of public officials, so the truth may come to light and justice be served; and in the hands of all Colombians, so that this may never happen again.