The Office of the Inspector General of Colombia announced on Tuesday that a 17-year-old Venezuelan linked to the assassination attempt against conservative Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay “escaped” from the government welfare institute where he was receiving assistance on Monday.
According to Colombian outlets, the minor simply “walked away” from the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF) in Bogotá, whose staff reportedly did not pressure the boy to remain in the facility.
The Inspector General’s Office announced on social media that it launched several inquiries to determine responsibility for the events and locate the now-missing boy, described by local outlets as a “fundamental witness” in the ongoing investigations.
The now-missing Venezuelan 17-year-old turned himself in to Colombian authorities on Friday and expressed that he wished to collaborate in the ongoing investigations on the assassination attempt against Sen. Uribe. The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia released a statement on Saturday explaining that the boy was placed under ICBF protection after he voluntarily agreed to an extended interrogation.
Sources told the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo that the boy testified to be in knowledge of details of the plot and had been contacted by Elder José “El Costeño” Arteaga Hernández, one of the alleged masterminds behind the plot, to carry out the attack. Hernández was detained by Colombian authorities in early July.
According to El Tiempo, the Venezuelan boy considered the plan to be a “very delicate case” and decided to distance himself from it days before the assassination attempt, leaving towards the Ecuadorian city of Tulcán on June 6, one day before the June 7 attack. The boy’s sudden absence reportedly forced the plot’s organizers to rapidly search for a second minor, finding the boy that ultimately shot the conservative Senator and left him in critical condition.
Shortly after the Office of the Inspector General announced that the boy had left ICBF, the institution’s director Astrid Cáceres responded to the announcement “clarifying” that the minor did not escape because he was not under detention. He instead allegedly had his “rights restored because he is an unaccompanied migrant, and that is all.”
Cáceres also spoke with Caracol Radio and reiterated that the minor was at the welfare center to have his “rights restored” as an unaccompanied migrant. Caceres said that the boy is not subject to legal proceedings, nor is he serving a prison sentence imposed by any authority or regulatory body, stressing that a search protocol led by the family defender had been activated to locate the minor.
On Tuesday evening, far-left President Gustavo Petro claimed on social media that it is a “lie” that his government let the minor escape.
“A legally free person has decided to leave the shelter we offered him,” Petro’s message reads. “He previously voluntarily provided all the information he had to the authorities.”
Senator Miguel Uribe, a conservative lawmaker with the Democratic Center party, remains unconscious and in critical condition since the June 7 assassination attempt, when a minor between the ages of 14 and 15 shot at Uribe three times, inflicting two gunshot wounds to his skull and one to his left leg. Recent reports indicated that high-ranking members of the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — People’s Army (FARC), a terrorist organization, are behind the attack on Uribe.
Since then, Uribe has remained at the Intensive Care Unit of the Santa Fe Foundation of Bogotá. The latest update from the medical facility, dated July 14, indicates that while Uribe has shown a favorable and stable clinical response in recent days, his neurological prognosis remains reserved.
Uribe is one of over 75 presidential candidate hopefuls ahead of the upcoming 2026 election, having soft-launched his presidential campaign last year. Polls released in early July revealed that Uribe is the current frontrunner in the presidential 2026 election.
Last week, a report presented by Rep. Díaz-Balart (R-FL) in the U.S. House Appropriations Committee called for a 50 percent drop in U.S. funding to Colombia for fiscal year 2026, basing the decision on the assassination attempt against Sen. Uribe, the political persecution against conservative former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez (no relation to the senator), and President Gustavo Petro’s alleged drug addiction.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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