The brutal attack against the senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbayoccurred in Bogotá on Saturday, June 7, shocked the country not only for the violence of the act, but by the profile of the alleged author: a minor of just 14 years.
The young man who was captured on the same day of the attack, recovered from a gunshot wound paid by one and the escorts of Miguel Uribe’s security scheme already appeared before a judge who charged him two positions: attempted homicide and illegal weapons.
The truth is that police investigation has begun to shed light on the life of the young hitman, revealing a panorama of social vulnerability, family abandonment and a worrying ease to be co -opted by organized crime structures.
The adolescent, currently in police custody he lived in the town of Engativá under the care of a maternal aunt.
His mother died when he was still very small, at 23, and his father resides in Poland, far from any active role in the child’s life. The only paternal figure that came after his capture was an uncle, who confirmed these details.
This unstable family environment was decisive, according to the investigators, so that the young man was easy white of criminal networks that used him as an instrument of a premeditated attack. Its case reflects the growing instrumentalization of minors by criminal organizations that take advantage of state and family abandonment.
The day of the attack
The events were triggered in the Modelia neighborhood of the capital, while Senator Uribe Turbay participated in a political event in a public park. Videos recorded by attendees show the child approaching the congressman and shooting directly to his head. After the attack, an exchange of shooting with the politician’s escorts was unleashed, during which the young man was injured.
He tried to flee as he shot the bodyguards, but was reduced to a few meters from the place of the attack. Witnesses affirm that, when captured and given the threat of lynching by the crowd, the minor shouted: “I can give you the numbers, let me give the numbers!”, In what is interpreted as a possible offer of collaboration to betray the intellectual authors of the attack.
A history of institutional failure
President Gustavo Petro, in a pronouncement from his account in X (formerly Twitter), confirmed that the young man had already been previously identified by social programs of the district due to his conflicting behavior. According to the president, the child was included in the “Youth in Peace” program, but abandoned the process voluntarily after only two months and without having assisted classes.
“He demonstrated a completely conflicting personality, without the capacity to establish intersocial ties,” said Petro, noting that the prolonged neglect of these cases ends up facilitating criminal recruitment.
Although Colombian law prevents a minor from being tried as an adult, the alleged hitman could face up to 8 years of seclusion in a specialized center for adolescents, according to the childhood and adolescence code. Meanwhile, the Prosecutor’s Office raided the young man’s house in Engativá as part of the proceedings to identify the intellectual authors behind the assassination attempt.
The authorities also investigate the role of a woman who talked with the young man before the attack. This person has already given himself to justice and his testimony could be key to dismantling the network that planned the attack.
An radiography of the recruitment of minors
This case revives the debate on the use of minors in criminal activities and the role of the State to prevent these scenarios. The combination of poverty, affective uprooting and lack of opportunities creates a perfect breeding ground for illegal structures to incorporate children and adolescents such as hitmen or messengers of the crime, something to which the prosecutor, Luz Adriana Camargo in the middle of the press conference referred to.
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