According to accounts the first assassination threats were calls made to Galán's home telephone number after the Liberal Party convention to nominate an official candidate. Flyers were left in the mailbox threatening to kill or kidnap his children. An attempt to kill Galán with an RPG was thwarted while visiting Medellín on 4 August 1989. The assassination attempt was prevented by men working for Waldemar Franklin Quintero, the commander of the Colombian National Police in Antioquia. Accompanying Quintero and Galán was the mayor of Medellín, Pedro Pablo Paláez; both Paláez and Quintero would be killed within a few weeks of the assassination attempt. After these assassinations, Galán and his family restricted their travels, especially at night.[12]

Later on, Galán's staff received information from the Colombian intelligence services advising him of the presence in Bogotá of a group of hitmen with the intention to kill him. His staff advised him not to travel to the town of Soacha and that the trip to Valledupar was more suitable since he was also scheduled to attend a football match in nearby Barranquilla for a 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification match in which the Colombian team was going to play. At the last moment, Galán changed his mind and ordered his staff to prepare to go to Soacha.[12] On August 18, 1989, Galán, who was being protected by eighteen armed bodyguards,[13] was killed as he walked onto the stage to give a speech in front of 10,000 people in Soacha. At least ten others were wounded in the gunfire.[14] This created a war that both sides did not want, one side being the Colombian Government and the other The Extraditables. Both sides saw deaths at a record toll.

The Colombian drug cartels were worried about the possible approval in congress of an extradition treaty with the United States, and political enemies feared Galán's increasing power would isolate many of them from the voters. According to John Jairo Velásquez a.k.a. "Popeye" and Luis Carlos Aguilar a.k.a. "El Mugre", former hitmen of Pablo Escobar, the assassination was planned in a farm by Escobar, Gonzalo Rodríguez a.k.a. "El Mexicano", Liberal political leader Alberto Santofimio and others. Velásquez affirmed that Santofimio had certain influence over Escobar's decision making, and he had heard Santofimio say "kill him Pablo, kill him!".[15] Santofimio told Escobar that if Galan became President, he would extradite Escobar to the United States. Other potential perpetrators were mentioned by a demobilized member of the AUC paramilitary group, "Ernesto Baez", who testified that the murder of Galán was organized by the Colombian mafia with the participation of corrupt members of the military and the DAS.[16]

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