The FARC dissident group known as Segunda Marquetalia ordered the killing of senator and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay. The attack took place on June 7, 2025, at Parque El Golfito in Bogota’s Modelia neighborhood. Jose Manuel Sierra Sabogal, alias Zarco Aldinever, a top commander of the organization and close ally of Ivan Marquez, issued the order.
The revelation comes from a confession that Simeone Perez Marroquin, alias El Viejo (The Old Man), gave to the Attorney General’s Office on February 9, 2026, published by the magazine Semana with exclusive details of that testimony. A judge sentenced El Viejo on March 20, 2026, to 22 years and four months in prison for planning and coordinating the crime.
The chain of command
El Viejo told investigators how Kendry Tellez Alvarez, alias Yako, contacted him days before the attack. Yako was a former FARC guerrilla who reintegrated into civilian life and later joined Segunda Marquetalia. The two men knew each other from their time together at La Picota prison in Bogota, more than 15 years earlier.
On Yako’s orders, El Viejo traveled by bus to Cucuta to meet the senior commander in person. His contacts picked him up on a motorcycle, covered his face with a ski mask, and took him to a house on the outskirts of the city. There he met alias Zarco Aldinever. El Viejo described him as a slim man, around 40 years old, between 1.75 and 1.78 metres (5’9″ and 5’10”) tall, with light-colored eyes.
Zarco delivered a direct message: El Viejo would work for them and report to Yako. “You are going to work with us,” the commander told him, according to the testimony. El Viejo agreed. From that moment, he became part of Segunda Marquetalia’s operational structure.
Planning the attack
El Viejo attended a political event in Bogota without knowing the target was a presidential candidate. He watched Miguel Uribe Turbay deliver a speech and took a close-up photo, using the crowd’s own cameras as cover. He later handed that image to Elder Jose Arteaga Hernandez, alias Chipi, who recruited the gunman: Juan Sebastian Rodriguez Casallas, an adolescent of 15 years old.
There was a first failed attempt in the Villa Amalia neighborhood, in the Engativa district. Uribe Turbay did not show up that day, and the operation was called off. Katherine Andrea Martinez, alias Gabriela, had carried the weapon for four days while waiting for a viable opportunity to execute the plan.
The attack went ahead on June 7, 2025, at Parque El Golfito. Alias Chipi scouted the location. Alias Gabriela transported the weapon, which had been modified to fire in bursts. Minutes before the attack, El Viejo held a video call with those involved to discuss technical details about the gun.
They decided to switch it to single-shot mode. Chipi handed Rodriguez a 9mm Glock pistol inside a vehicle near the scene. Rodriguez approached Parque El Golfito and fired at least six shots at Uribe Turbay. Security escorts captured him within minutes, wounded in one leg.
The payment and the wait
The agreed sum was 1 billion Colombian pesos (approximately US$230,000), but payment depended on the target’s confirmed death. Uribe Turbay survived the attack. Alias Yako told El Viejo: “They won’t pay until the guy dies.” El Viejo received just 500,000 pesos (US$115) for personal expenses while they waited.
Segunda Marquetalia also set aside 600 million pesos (US$138,000) to obstruct the investigation. That money would go toward bribing investigators or, if they refused, killing them. The instruction was to stop the inquiry before it reached the intellectual authors of the crime.
On August 11, 2025, after more than two months in intensive care at Fundacion Santa Fe in Bogota, Miguel Uribe Turbay died. Those involved communicated the news in code. Investigators found the message “ojo por ojo” (eye for an eye) on one of El Viejo’s seized phones. He told the Attorney General’s Office that the phrase confirmed the senator’s death.
The arrests and what remains unresolved
Authorities arrested alias Gabriela on June 14, 2025, one week after the attack, as she traveled by bus toward Florencia, Caqueta. The Attorney General’s Office later secured a 21-year prison sentence against her. Authorities arrested El Viejo on November 27, 2025, at a farm in Puerto Lleras, Meta, where he was hiding in an area controlled by illegal armed groups.
El Viejo told investigators he did not want to carry out the crime but feared for his own life. “If I didn’t follow that order, I would have had problems with those people. Yako could have had me killed,” he confessed. He also admitted to having worked as an urban militia member for the FARC in Bogota before his earlier arrest for homicide.
Alias Yako, a key figure in the network, reportedly fled to Venezuela, where Ivan Marquez, the top leader of Segunda Marquetalia, also takes refuge. The Attorney General’s Office has not ruled out additional arrest warrants or charges.
The victim’s father, Miguel Uribe Londoño, reacted with outrage after Semana published the confession. “My family and Colombia need to know who the intellectual authors of my son Miguel’s assassination are,” he demanded. He added that his son “was a great leader and was going to pull this country back from the abyss. That is why they killed him.”
The political fight over responsibility
The confession triggered a public dispute among Colombian political figures. Former president Alvaro Uribe Velez used the investigation to publicly accuse President Gustavo Petro and Senator Ivan Cepeda of instigating the crime.
In a video posted on the social network X, he said: “The Attorney General’s Office presents as ironclad evidence that the one who ordered Miguel Uribe’s assassination was Nueva Marquetalia. And where are the instigators? How much did Petro instigate? How much did Cepeda instigate? Where is Cepeda, who helped Santrich and Ivan Marquez flee the country to Venezuela under a shield of impunity? Please, fellow Colombians, this country cannot keep being handed over to terror.”
COMUNICACIÓN PÚBLICA
— Iván Cepeda Castro (@IvanCepedaCast) March 21, 2026
A Álvaro Uribe Vélez
Señor expresidente y excandidato al Senado:
En atención a sus recientes declaraciones, le solicito que, a la mayor brevedad, presente ante la justicia las pruebas que sustenten la acusación que ha formulado en mi contra, en relación… https://t.co/LuN5Ojbn31
Cepeda, a presidential candidate, rejected the accusations and announced he will take legal action. He demanded that the former president produce evidence proving he instigated the crime and promoted the escape of Ivan Marquez and Santrich. The investigation continues, but the intellectual authors of the crime remain formally unidentified. The case stays open.