Associated Press
BOGOTA (AP) — The main opposition party to leftist Gustavo Petro's government chose Sen. Paloma Valencia on Monday as its presidential candidate to represent it in the May 2026 elections. seeking to return power to the right.
Valencia, a senator since 2014, was chosen from a pack of Democratic Center senators that included Maria Fernanda Cabal and Paola Holguin, three politicians with extensive experience in the party founded by former President Alvaro Uribe Velez, who ruled the country from 2002 to 2010.
“We will honor the legacy of President Uribe… (I am) the most loyal of his soldiers, the most dedicated to his vision for the country, but above all the most loving of Colombia,” Valencia said during the celebration during a public announcement in Bogota.
Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay also ran as the party's candidate until he was shot dead at a rally on June 7 this year as part of his campaign. Nearly two months after being in critical condition, he died at a clinic in Bogota, the first assassination of a Colombian presidential candidate in 30 years.
“The Democratic Center reiterates that the sacrifice of Miguel Uribe Turbay and his family will not be in vain and that their cause of creating a safer, freer and more prosperous country will continue to be an integral flag of the party,” the party said in a statement.
After the death of Uribe Turbay, his father, Miguel Uribe Londoño, succeeded him in the presidential elections. However, he retracted his statement after the Democratic Center removed him from the list of preliminary candidates.
The party explained that Valencia was chosen after two specialized firms carried out a quantitative study with interviews throughout the country and consultations with 5,000 members of the Democratic Center.
Colombia's presidential campaign is still in its early stages, with dozens of presidential candidates seeking political party endorsements or collecting thousands of citizen signatures to register as independents.
A leftist coalition led by Peter, the country's first leftist president, chose Senator Iván Cepeda as his pre-candidateone of the most persistent opponents of Uribe Velez.
