A brutal La Guajira pregnant psychologist attack has rocked Colombia’s northern coast and left everyone asking tough questions about jealousy, power, and revenge. Catherine Paola Torres Barros, a 27-year-old psychologist eight months pregnant, was gunned down right outside her house in Uribia on the night of March 22. Now she lies in intensive care fighting for her life while her newborn daughter clings to survival in an incubator.
It started like any quiet evening. Catherine sat in the yard of her home in the Venezuelan neighbourhood when a man on a motorcycle rolled up without warning. He fired twice – once in her back and once in the nape of her neck – right in front of her own mother. Neighbours heard the shots and rushed out, but the attacker had already sped away.
Doctors at the Maicao Clinic rushed her into emergency surgery. They had to deliver her baby girl, Salomé, by Caesarean to save the child. The little one is stable but still in an incubator. Catherine herself needed a second operation because the bullets tore into her lungs and head. She remains in critical condition.
The shooting alone would have been horrifying enough. But what happened next turned this into something even uglier. While Catherine battled for every breath, a private video of her popped up on the Instagram stories of Jhon Pimienta, the mayor of nearby Manaure.
The video showed intimate moments, followed by nasty insults and an artificial voice delivering a chilling threat: “I told you, if you cheat on me, I’d blast you in front of the whole world.” It felt like a public verdict, almost as if someone wanted to humiliate her before the bullets even flew – or right after.
Pimienta’s office quickly put out a statement claiming the accounts got hacked and that none of it came from the mayor. They said they were working with authorities to regain control and file complaints. Fair enough on paper. Yet investigators aren’t buying the simple hack story anymore.
They are now treating the whole thing as a possible crime of passion. The timing, the personal tone of the messages, and the fact that someone had access to that private material all point to a planned hit meant to destroy Catherine’s life and her reputation at the same time.
People in La Guajira are furious. This isn’t just another shooting in a region that has seen plenty of violence. Here was a young professional woman, expecting her first child, attacked in the one place she should have felt safest.
Then, instead of privacy and support while she recovered, her most personal moments were splashed across social media for everyone to judge. “They tried to kill her and the baby, and now they want to finish the job by shaming her,” one local told reporters.
The outrage spreads fast – families, women’s groups, and even the mayor of Uribia himself have spoken out. Jaime Luis Buitrago García called the attack unacceptable and demanded a quick arrest.
What makes this case stand out is the mix of old-school hitman tactics and new-school digital humiliation. Someone clearly wanted Catherine gone and wanted the world to watch her fall.
Was the video leak part of the plan all along? Did the same person who pulled the trigger also push the “post” button? Or was it two separate acts that just happened to line up too perfectly? Police are digging into who had access to that material and whether any political strings got pulled. Manaure and Uribia sit close together in La Guajira, so connections between officials and locals run deep. That closeness now raises eyebrows.
Catherine worked at the local hospital helping others through tough times. Her mother, Josefa Barros, is a well-known teacher respected across the area. This family wasn’t looking for trouble. Yet trouble found them in the worst way. As Catherine fights in the ICU and tiny Salomé grows stronger by the hour, the community waits for answers. Every day without an arrest feels like another slap.
No one is saying the mayor pulled the trigger. But the questions won’t go away until authorities sort out exactly who ordered the shots and who decided to air that video for the world to see. La Guajira has watched too many cases fade into silence. This time the public is paying attention, and they want justice before the next headline takes over.
For now, the focus stays on Catherine and her baby. Doctors say her recovery will be long and hard. Supporters have started small fundraisers and prayer chains. The message is simple: a pregnant mother and her child deserved protection, not bullets and online shame.
Until the gunman and whoever stood behind him face a courtroom, the anger in Uribia and Manaure will keep growing. This La Guajira pregnant psychologist attack has exposed cracks that run deeper than anyone expected – and the whole region is watching to see if they get fixed.
