María Claudia Tarazona, the widow of Colombia’s assassinated 2026 presidential frontrunner Miguel Uribe Turbay, has accused former President Gustavo Petro and Venezuela’s deposed dictator Nicolás Maduro of ordering her husband’s death.
Miguel Uribe Turbay was a 39-year-old Colombian conservative senator and the grandson of former President Julio César Turbay. Throughout his career, Uribe Turbay was a vocal critic of Marxist former President Gustavo Petro, whose term ended in August. On June 7, 2025, the senator was shot in the head by a minor during a rally in Bogotá. Uribe Turbay spent weeks fighting for his life at an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in the Colombian capital until he passed away in August 2025. At the time, Uribe polled as the frontrunner of the 2026 presidential election, which conservative President Abelardo de la Espriella ultimately won. During the 2022 legislative elections, Uribe Turbay was the most voted senator in Colombia.
Speaking with Noticias RCN on Wednesday, María Claudia Tarazona said that her normal life “is over, is finished” following her husband’s assassination. Throughout the interview, Tarazona affirmed that, based on information disclosed to her by prosecutors, there is an open line of investigation open to determine if Uribe Turbay’s murder was a “state-sponsored crime.”
Tarazona accused Petro and Maduro of ordering the Marxist FARC terrorist group’s Segunda Marquetalia faction to carry out the assassination of her husband. The Segunda Marquetalia is FARC’s most active terrorist wing, and became active after the failed 2016 “peace deal” that won former President Juan Manuel Santos the Nobel Peace Prize. For years, it has been widely believed that the Segunda Marquetalia and its leader, Luciano Marín “Iván Márquez” Arango, freely operated in Venezuelan territory under the auspices of the Maduro regime.
“Clearly, the Colombian president [Petro] and the dictator Maduro gave the order to the Segunda Marquetalia to assassinate Miguel,” she alleged.
According to Tarazona’s account, “4 million Colombian pesos” (roughly $1.25 million) were allegedly moved from Venezuela to Colombia to fund the assassination.
“We’re talking about transnational crimes; the money came from Venezuela, and back then, since Maduro hadn’t been captured yet, not a single peso was moved without the regime knowing about it,” she said. “Besides, the money didn’t arrive in dollars but in pesos.”
Asked by Noticias RCN how she would know, Tarazona answered, “Because they handed over the money, and it turned out to be in pesos. If it had been in dollars, it could have been traced, but they knew that and sent it in pesos. But how does it get across the border without help from the regime?”
While Tarazona did not present any evidence that could substantiate her accusations against Petro and Maduro, extensive investigations over the past year determined that the Segunda Marquetalia was behind Uribe Turbay’s assassination. According to Colombian prosecutors, Iván Márquez and others ordered FARC members to hire a local Bogotá hitman group that ultimately murdered the senator.
Former President Petro has not publicly commented on Tarazona’s allegations at press time.
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were arrested in January during a U.S. law enforcement operation in Caracas, and remain detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, awaiting the start of their trial on multiple drug trafficking charges next year. Additionally, U.S. prosecutors recently unveiled new charges against the pair, accusing them of heading a state-sponsored system of repression that led to the torture of numerous victims, including several American citizens.
Tarazona recounted that Uribe Turbay was a longtime opponent of Petro, even during the time Uribe served as a Bogotá city councillor while Petro was the capital’s Mayor. At the time, Tarazona said, Uribe Turbay cast the tie-breaking vote that scrapped a Petro-endorsed tram project.
“Miguel voted against it, and the money went to the Metro, which led Petro to scrap the tram project on 7th Avenue,” she said. “That’s when Petro’s attacks and harassment of Miguel began in earnest.”
During the interview, Tarazona criticized Colombia’s National Protection Unit (UNP) and its chief Augusto Rodríguez for not “carrying out its duty” and providing the adequate reinforcement of Uribe Turbay’s protection as repeatedly requested by the late senator. Per Tarazona, her husband requested “over 25 times” that UNP provide further reinforcements before he was assassinated.
Tarazona affirmed to Noticias RCN, “You can be sure that Mr. Augusto Rodríguez will be indicted.” She also thanked President Abelardo de la Espriella for speaking about her husband and giving the order to “track down those responsible” for his murder.
María Claudia Tarazona’s allegations against former President Petro and Maduro are not the first time that a member of Uribe Turbay’s family has publicly accused Maduro and his socialist regime of involvement in the assassination of the late conservative senator.
Uribe Turbay’s father, Miguel Uribe Londoño, accused the Venezuelan dictator and his socialist regime of being involved in the plot to murder his son in similar remarks this year. Uribe Londoño, in a video address praising President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for Maduro’s capture, alleged that the funds to plan the assassination “came from Venezuela to Colombia.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.