Leftists have long held no qualms about assassination against their rivals, and in Colombia, where narcoterrorism is also a problem and left-narco alliances are common, it has started up again..
But at least we have a secretary of state who is wise to what's going on.
This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a high-level delegation to Bogota after a leading Colombian presidential candidate, conservative Sen. Miguel Uribe, died of his wounds in a June shooting by a criminal known as a 'sicario' or hitman who obviously had a sponsor.
Rubio seems to know who that might be, though, and has dialed up the pressure on the radical leftist in the presidential palace, Gustavo Petro, which tells us a lot about what he thinks is going on.
According to the expat-oriented City Paper of Bogotà, in a piece that ran two days ago, Rubio sent in his big guns to the funeral of the murdered conservative presidential candidate, Miguel Uribe -- dispatching Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau to interrupt his regularly scheduled trip there to lead a high powered delegation, which included GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, a Colombian-American whose Colombian brother used to run the Inter-American Development Bank, and who obviously, is very connected in Colombian power circles outside the far-left Petro government.
The City Paper noted:
Landau said his trip would demonstrate “deep concern” and stressed Colombia’s strategic importance to the United States, particularly on migration and other regional issues. He also reaffirmed the “solid diplomatic relationship” between Washington and Bogotá, underscoring U.S. commitment to defending democracy and condemning political persecution of opposition leaders.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also expressed his condolences, saying he was “deeply saddened” by the assassination. “The United States stands in solidarity with his family, the Colombian people, both in mourning and demanding justice for those responsible,” he said.
It probably doesn't look like much at first glance given the cordial words, and given that Landau is hardly a household name, but when one reads further -- yeah, it's a big deal, City Paper continued:
While senior U.S. officials occasionally attend high-profile funerals abroad, analysts note that Landau’s decision to alter his travel schedule – he was originally headed to Cartagena later this week – breaks with protocol and sends a deliberate message to Casa de Nariño [the Colombian presidential palace]. The visit comes as Colombian authorities face mounting pressure to ensure the safety of political candidates ahead of the 2026 elections.
... and this ...
The U.S. attendance, combined with high-profile calls for justice from Washington – shows that Uribe Turbay’s killing is being treated not only as a Colombian tragedy, but as a matter of hemispheric concern. The visit comes just days after President Petro expressed solidarity with Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, following a U.S. decision to double its reward to US$50 million for information leading to his arrest for being “one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world,” stated U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
What's more, investigators have learned that the weapon used to kill Uribe was a Glock-style weapon legally purchased in Mesa, Arizona, in 2020. Colombian radio noted that illegal migrants, in what's called a 'hormigueo' or tingling ant chain, are frequently used to transport weapons back to Colombia, which right there makes it a U.S. concern.
The narco detail regarding Petro cited by the City Paper, is worth noting, too, because Colombia's former vice president, Pacho Santos, seems to think that Petro had something to do with this killing, not only because he is a leftist but also because he is an ally of drug kingpins, one of which is Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, who has been identified by the Justice Department as a bona fide drug kingpin.
Petro tiene las manos manchadas de sangre. Durante tres años señaló a Miguel Uribe, le puso la diana… y la mafia hizo el resto.
— Pacho Santos (@PachoSantosC) August 13, 2025
¿Casualidad? ¡No!vEs el Pacto de la Picota en acción: un plan para que la mafia ponga presidente en 2026… como en tiempos de Escobar.
⚠ La… pic.twitter.com/P3qfNtau6V
Google Translate:
Petro has blood on his hands. For three years, he pointed at Miguel Uribe, put a target on him… and the mafia did the rest. Coincidence? No! It’s the Picota Pact in action: a plan for the mafia to install a president in 2026… just like in Escobar’s times. 
Democracy is at stake. For Miguel. For freedom. Let’s not let the mafia win! I invite you to read my full column at @infobae
The link to the Infobae piece is here, and he argues, via Google Translate:
The opposition must understand that in the 2026 elections, drug traffickers, like Pablo Escobar in 1990, will play to favor a president and his candidate. The reason? Never, not even with Ernesto Samper, have they had such a close ally in power. Petro released them from prison to take them to a political event of his, he's expanding the cocaine trade like never before, or perhaps when Juan Manuel Santos dismantled the anti-drug policy in 2013, he offered them all kinds of benefits in a law about to be passed by Congress, ended the eradication policy, and handed over to his best friend, drug trafficker Nicolás Maduro, the Catatumbo region where 30 percent of Colombia's cocaine is produced. Do you want more evidence?
Santos is an unusually good observer here, having been way too close to the 'action' in his lifetime.
He is a conservative who served as vice president to President Alvaro Uribe, who destroyed FARC's Marxist narcoterrorists -- and is cousin to President Uribe's more liberal immediate successor, Juan Manuel Santos, both the scions of a prominent newspaper family. More to the point, Pacho Santos and Diana Turbay, Miguel Uribe's mother, were journalists kidnapped by Pablo Escobar in 1990 in a terrifying ordeal written about by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in his News of a Kidnapping, one of his finest books. President Alvaro Uribe and Sen. Miguel Uribe are not related but were political allies.
I've spent time with Pacho Santos on a few occasions back in the early aughts and recall how obsessed he was with stomping out drug dealers who have done so much damage to Colombia. I recall his speaking at UCLA at a time when drug legalization was a fashionable topic and he warned it was a really bad idea, given the experience in Colombia.
Now he's warning that the attack on Uribe was drug-related, and the Colombian state under leftist rule is pretty well headed toward Venezuelan-style narcostate status, which will happen a lot faster in Colombia than it did in Venezuela and for that Petro needs to be thrown out.
Marco Rubio obviously understands the picture, too, which explains the actions taken, Rubio is on it, and he's going o find a way to stop this from advancing. Colombia should never descend into a narcostate again. This killing is a warning it's well on its way. But Rubio is on the job.
Dramatic scenes Monday inside Colombia's Capitol. A national tragedy. https://t.co/VHw3qW3bP2
— THE CITY PAPER (@citypaperbogota) August 12, 2025
It is a sad ordeal for Colombia. The man with the white hair in the photo above lost his only son to this sicario, who told investigators he killed for money, on top of losing his wife, Diana Turbay, to these same kinds of narcoterrorists.
Image: X screen shot