Standing on a piece of wood laid across two overturned plastic crates, Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay was treading familiar political ground during a campaign trail visit to the middle-class neighborhood of Modelia in west Bogotá.
“Who are the ones with the guns? The criminals!” he declared from his makeshift soapbox in El Golfito park. It was shortly after 5 pm on that overcast first Saturday in June, and Uribe was promoting his bid to be presidential candidate for the right-wing Centro Democrático party in the 2026 election.
“Conclusion: we’re going to be very strict about issuing permits, but I do believe that law-abiding Colombians who feel the need to own a gun should be able to do so. In other words, carrying guns has to come back!”
