Rafael Uribe Uribe
Rafael Víctor Zenón Uribe Uribe (Valparaíso, April 12, 1859-Bogotá, October 16, 1914) was a Colombian lawyer, journalist, businessman, diplomat, professor, thinker and soldier, member of the of the Colombian Liberal Party.
Uribe Uribe is best known for his political ideology in favor of the establishment of a corporate and unionist socialism in Colombia structured and explained in 1904, as well as for his diplomatic work and in favor of Colombian coffee growers in the fight against diseases such as rust.
One of his great contributions was, together with the also liberal Benjamín Herrera, the foundation of the Republican University, which would later become the Free University of Colombia. As a politician he was an important activist for labor rights in Latin America, and the first to speak of social rights in Colombia and was also key to the creation of the Ministry of Agriculture in Colombia.
As a member of the Liberal Party, he was the first to establish written statutes in the party, and was a member and leader of the moderate current that sought harmony between the Catholic Church and the State. Despite this position, his publications were banned by the Vatican.
Uribe fought in the civil wars of 1885, 1895 and 1899, from which he would be defeated. His role as general would be marked by important victories during the Thousand Days War from a tactical point of view, such as the Battle of Peralonso, which gave him a reputation as the main liberal general despite not having the military preparation of others. Like Benjamin Herrera.
Even so, Uribe Uribe suffered significant defeats at the command of the liberal armies, such as the battle of Bucaramanga (1899) and the loss of Coro. He died assassinated on the steps of the National Capitol.
Biography
Early Years
Of rancher origin, Rafael Víctor Zenón Uribe Uribe was born on April 12, 1859 on the El Palmar hacienda, Valparaíso municipality, Federal State of Antioquia, in the Granada Confederation. He was baptized on August 14 of the same year, as reported by his uncle, the Catholic priest Juan de Dios Uribe.
She was educated by her mother and had a very sullen childhood due to her shyness, which did not prevent her from achieving excellent school achievements.
In 1871, he entered the State College (now the University of Antioquia), a military and conservative establishment where he learned the elementary principles of logistics and military art. Later, he had to face the economic difficulties of his family by alternating his studies in Buga and participating in the Cauca liberal ranks of the Colombian Civil War (1876-1877), in which he was wounded.
In 1880 he graduated as a lawyer from the Universidad del Rosario, and the following year he worked as attorney general in Antioquia, working at the same time as a professor of Constitutional Law and Political Economy. During 1885 he participated in the civil war, in which he was involved in the death of one of his subordinates for disobedience, a crime for which he was acquitted by the conservatives.
Trajectory
Uribe Uribe is recognized for two activities that alternated his public life. The first of these was parliamentary political activity, which he exercised from his positions as Congressman (1884, 1896, 1899, 1904 and 1909), Senator (1911-1914) and Plenipotentiary Minister of Colombia before the governments of Chile, Argentina and Brazil (1905-1909). The second would be his military activity, work in which he would be especially recognized for having participated as a general in the Thousand Days War (1899-1903).
Although Rafael Uribe gained prestige in the years after his participation in the Thousand Days War, he is currently recognized for the contributions of his political and reformist ideas in the process of breaking with traditional ideology and under which the political program of the Colombian Liberal Party was erected during the second half of the XIX century.
The ideas with which he would distance himself were consolidated within the party since the period of government of Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera. This government would be in charge of carrying out a constitutional reform that would result in the Constitution of Rionegro of 1863, this letter would continue to be applied with the consolidation of the liberal governments that would be designated with the name of Olympus Radical, until the loss of its power. with the Colombian Civil War of 1884-1885.
With the end of the Thousand Days War and his life as a general, Rafael Uribe Uribe would have an important change in his political thought when he came into contact with the ideas of European socialism such as Karl Marx and Jean Jaures, This is how he would then stop considering himself a supporter of liberalism to consider himself a nationalist, moving away from the model of the Liberal State, which the party of said name supported in its political programs and programs for which he had fought.
His political proposals were recognized for having distanced himself from anti-clericalism and federalism defended by the oldest faction of the party, represented by politicians such as Manuel Murillo Toro, Santiago Pérez and José María Rojas Garrido, as well as for having distanced himself from the ideas laissez faire liberals in search of establishing a limited state intervention plan through which a corporatism would be established that would seek the defense of Colombian workers and peasants. In addition to this, he is also recognized for having made valuable contributions to the agricultural, educational, labor and journalistic sectors, the latter from the information platform of his party.
He became part of the conservative government of General Rafael Reyes, where he carried out important diplomatic efforts for the benefit of the country. He represented Colombia before the governments of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile and attended the Pan-American Conference of 1906.
The tribune will say that "I have moved to other intellectual regions and to a more noble and serene politics" Uribe Uribe would say, and declared that he no longer represented the interests of the Liberal Party but of national interests "The rest of my life I will dedicate myself to the service of my country, as a patriot, not of a political variety… Now I am nothing more than a Colombian”.
First state offices and beginning of his political activity
Since the year 1881 Rafael Uribe would begin his public service with the Sovereign State of Antioquia, first he would work as a teacher at the University of Antioquia in the chairs of Constitutional Government and Political Economy. Likewise, he would teach Physical Education classes. Within the public positions that he would develop are those of Secretary of the Electoral Grand Jury of Antioquia in August 1881, after three months he would be elected Secretary of the Legislative Assembly of Antioquia. In May of the following year he would be named a member of the State Government and War Department, and in December he would be the representative of the Government of Antioquia at the inauguration of the Puerto Berrio railway.
Alternate to these activities Rafael Uribe developed a constant journalistic activity, but the three attempts to consolidate a journalistic body were frustrated as a result of the harshness that his opinions generated within the media. Some of the newspapers in which he worked or founded were La Unión , La Consigna and El Trabajo , the latter would be the product of an independent effort of Uribe Uribe. However, the most important functions within the State of Antioquia that would help him take off would only come after 1883, the year in which Uribe Uribe would have a political participation within the state through the exercise of positions by appointment or election. These positions would begin with the appointment of President of the Antioquia State Council in 1883, a position that he would leave before the proposal, which he would accept, by the State Legislative Assembly to assume the position as State Attorney General. At the end of his period in the Legislative Assembly, his position as Principal Prosecutor of the Sovereign State of Antioquia would begin, that is, by May 1884, Rafael Uribe would resign from this position some time later due to the notorious corruption that was taking place within the state institution.. He would last in office until December 1884, at which time he was able to reestablish his own firm.
Despite having resigned from his post, Rafael Uribe already enjoyed some local recognition and support, which is why he would be elected as Antioquia's representative to the Congress of the Republic of Colombia, but he would likewise refuse to assume said position. position for the same reason for which he had resigned from his previous position as attorney. In the year 1884, Uribe would once again be moved by the liberal forces to mobilize in favor of a war, which would finally lead to the liberal revolt of 1885, which would have Santander (Colombia) as its starting point.
At that time Rafael Núñez, the main ideologue of regenerationist politics, had sided with the nationalists, who were a faction with clear conservative tendencies, he would cede power and political space to the conservatives. This would lead to the creation of a new constitution in the year 1886 before the defeat of the liberal military troops, this would emanate a new centralist power and would declare the Catholic religion and, therefore, the Church, as elements annexed to the government, declaring thus a government and a State of catholic or clericalist worship. With the death of Núñez, power would remain in the hands of Carlos Holguín and Miguel Antonio Caro, the latter would reinforce the ideological and sectarian part of the Regeneration with clear conservative overtones. Uribe Uribe, once this civil war ended, would be imprisoned because of the murder of Resurrección Gómez, and would spend ten months in prison while he proved his innocence.
During a period of four years (1886-1890) his activity would focus on farming, which would alternate with journalistic work and constant attempts to gain space within the public and political scene of the liberal party. In 1890, his decision to take political life as the most viable option was definitive, which is why he continued to collaborate with the board of directors until he was recognized as a member of the liberal board of directors in 1891 together with Fidel Cano, a respected journalist in later times. with whom Uribe would create El Espectador (newspaper).
With the re-election of Núñez for the six-year term from 1892 to 1898, power was definitively assumed by the nationalists with a more conservative tendency. With the death of Núñez, the rise of Miguel Antonio Caro takes place, who will assume an authoritarian and repressive role against the opposition party, that is, the liberal one. Some of the measures adopted were to violate freedom of the press, which led more than one liberal journalist into exile and, later, to the death outside his country, cases such as those of Santiago Pérez Manosalva and César Conto, senior party leaders, and who were considered pro-peace members. In addition to this, Uribe Uribe suffered two unjustified imprisonments during the years 1893 and 1894-1895, the only reason given for this intransigent fact was his relationship with groups that were plotting a coup against the Nuñista government. Despite never having denied his participation in these groups, his release would take place without him signing any type of commitment with the government.
In the elections held on May 3, 1896, Uribe Uribe managed to be elected as a representative to the Chamber for the liberal party together with Santiago Pérez. This electoral achievement would be the result of a significant effort to gain recognition and votes in Antioquia. Since Pérez's seat was not recognized due to his exile in previous times that had led him to lose his political rights, Rafael Uribe would become the only Representative to the House of Congress for Antioquia. From this seat he was to forge his image as a parliamentarian with great eloquence, accepting his position in Congress as the only liberal among more than 60 conservatives, national recognition for him was to be carved from that moment.
Pre-war political activity (1896-1899)
Already positioned within congress, Rafael Uribe was the only spokesman for the liberal party and from there he would have to maintain contention with several of the most literate characters in the nation in debates that most of the time would not take him into account in their interventions. The way in which the debates worked were developed according to the romantic school of the XX century, where the topics of discussion were not limited to only to the subject in question but to ephemeral things such as the lineage of the speaker, his eloquence and the floridity when expressing himself in front of the congressmen. Rafael Uribe adapted to this dynamic, but this did not imply that his speeches were detached from his customs, managing to break with the usual discursive scheme of the time through his interventions.
Uribe's parliamentary activities during this period were not dedicated to the formulation of laws specifically. He introduced few laws, including wages, and very rarely spoke in favor of government projects. His first term in Congress would not be entirely unsuccessful as might be expected given such an overwhelming panorama of opposing opinions. He cautiously supported some of the proposals put forward, most often made by historical conservators. Likewise, through his role as spokesperson for the party in congress, Uribe ensured recognition and popularity among the masses and the liberal elites of different regions.
During said period of active participation in the congress, Uribe Uribe's political efforts would revolve around three areas: the first would have to be the support for the independence of Cuba, an issue that he would defend in multiple sessions of the congress but which Given the current situation of relations with Spain, it would have little or no significance. Likewise, another axis that he would develop within his struggle would be his marked opposition to the extraordinary powers that were granted to the chief executive and to the limitation of his individual powers over the state. Finally, another of the vital issues that would emerge within his parliamentary activity would be his strong criticism of the coffee industry, this matter would become a central issue due to the large number of interests that revolved around the assets of the different landed political elites.
One of the central issues of his parliamentary activity would be the fiscal and economic policies adopted by the Caro government, as well as its effects on the Colombian agricultural sector and, in particular, its effects on the industry coffee maker. Given the growth of the Brazilian coffee industry after the independence period, Uribe had realized that the national coffee industry would fall dramatically if some kind of measure was not carried out, leading to events like those already experienced with other products such as quina. Although he did not fully convince congressmen, taxes were reduced to one third of the original rate and the president was given the power to reduce or eliminate the tax when the market required it.
Rafael Uribe would also allow the renewal of the political ideas of the traditional liberal party and its proposals derived from radicalism. Ideas such as federalism and secularism, promulgated since the constitution of 1963, and fervently supported by the governments of the Radical Olympus, were seen as archaic political ideas and little corresponding to the needs faced by the Colombian nation. Uribe Uribe fits here as one of the main actors, since he was in charge of observing the ideological changes that were taking place in the world from the perspective of modern liberal tendencies and he understood that the party urgently needed a renewal of its ideas in order to achieve transcendence with the arrival of the new century. Some of the national ideologues from whom Uribe had received direct influences in his thinking and, in turn, had many opinions or points in common regarding a new programmatic agenda were contemporary figures such as Ignacio V. Espinosa, Tomas O. Eastman. Jose D. Borda. Anibal Galindo and Carlos Arturo Torres.
With the ideological influences received and the rise in popularity, Uribe Uribe positioned himself as the element of reaction and change in the liberal policies that had been unchanged for more than 6 decades, if one takes into account that the proposals of Uribe Uribe only came to be adopted in the constitutional reforms of 1910, and only to a certain extent. Despite the fact that one of the bloodiest wars in the entire history of Colombia would take place under his militancy, this would not prevent Uribe Uribe from keeping abreast of the people who promoted changes in liberal and political policies for the rest of his life. in the philosophy of the new century, a position where the traditional took a more conscious attitude towards the social, agrarian and labor reality of the country, showing signs of a progressive attitude in favor of economic and legal development.
One of the clear examples of these new trends was shown in his writings on the land tenure system in Colombia, specifically on the disposition of vacant lots, Uribe Uribe launched a meticulous attack against wealthy landowners. His position as a congressman concerned with improving the material and economic conditions of the popular working classes would be the fundamental factor that would lead him to turn this social class into owners of their land or plots in small farms, in order to maximize agricultural production. just as it was developed in the small parcels of land in Antioquia.
He then proceeded to design a program divided into five practical points in accordance with the law through which this proposal would be addressed. The program was structured as follows: as a first point it was necessary to limit the properties of all landowners and large landowners to 500 hectares, with the exception of those excluded by law. Another point sought to offer help or state support to poor settlers in the allocation of land and respect for their rights of occupation. For the third point, constant vigilance was raised in the sale of large parcels of state land so that the agreements of the first point were not breached. Another point raised the need to finalize the process of railway concessions, since they did not represent any improvement, this practice had to end. As the fifth and last point of the program, Uribe maintained that the improvements and appropriate use of the land should be one of the fundamental elements to maintain ownership by the colonists who benefit from the program.
On this point, Uribe's proposal Uribe became contradictory, since in defense of the landless classes he neglected the interests of the big landowners, this would cost him a great loss in political support on the part of the commercial landowning elites, since although Uribe was framed within the congress as one of the defenders of the agrarian sector affected by the famous "law of the horses", which corresponded to the large landowners and landowners of the country, his proposals also revolved around the uprooting of the large vacant lots of these in favor of being used as small producing farms, thus giving greater growth and stability to the national economy, especially from coffee production.
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Another of its outstanding defenses in Congress was because of the waste of the domestic market due to the internal poverty that the nation was going through. In his presentation on wages he graphically showed that the tremendous inflation caused by regenerationist policy had directly weakened the purchasing power of workers. Realizing that the daily fluctuations did not affect merchants, bankers or large landowners, Uribe showed that those really affected by these market measures were day laborers, workers, workers and other sectors of the humble and wage -winged classes of society, then The lack of commercial experience did not allow them gold ”.
Likewise, he caught attention to the Government regarding the link of the fiscal and social interests of the small workers, because by setting low taxes to the necessary goods, the poor would be allowed to acquire elements for their maintenance and support In a more comfortable way, which not only was adhered to the products of the basket, but to the acquisition of home products such as hammocks or mattresses. Such was the issue that even showed that I would establish a lawsuit was not possible due to the costs that accrual to process it.
His attempts to defend the small worker were fragmentary and sometimes inconsistent, but they adopted a position that, over time, and the thousand day war, would have to take greater consistency within their post -war parliamentary policies, this It was to take into account more and more popular sectors as active actors within the process of consolidating a more fair political and economic system. This position would have to play a double role, since although his political role was becoming stronger, it was because the working and peasant masses supported him, this was represented by the local leaders of the country's rural areas, But in turn I was moving away from the historical liberal political elites, who at that time saw in him a figure of little confidence and too immature and warning. Aspects with which perhaps there would not be much disagreement if one takes into account that its role in the war should be, in general terms, a disaster beyond any type of sectarian victory.
From the first parliamentary stage of Rafael Uribe Urib By the nationalist government with respect to interventionism, which broke with the traditional economy of Laissez-Faire., where Miguel Antonio Caro framed himself as his creator and prominent figure before the death of Núñez, occurred in 1894.
While Rafael Uribe measures were not protectionists before the end of the XIX </s The reduction of tariffs in favor International market with the entrance of the xx . Their opinions regarding the intervention of the State were not yet well formulated, but they already began to give some sketches within their ideas in the field of political and the economic. Here the role that his experience as a land worker would serve as a forging element of his spirit in favor of the peasants, with whom he identified emotionally. Although the parliamentary proposals of Rafael Uribe Uribe were not welcomed in the way in the way in the way that it would have been expected in this first parliamentary period, taking into account the state of the society and the agricultural sector of the country, it does not mean that they had no impact, because with the entrance of the century XX The work of the agricultural sector would be strengthened through the creation of a new ministries: that of agriculture.
The War of the Thousand Days
Battle of Palonegro.
In 1895, he had to take up arms during that year's brief civil war and was defeated in the battle of La Tribuna by General Rafael Reyes. He fled down the Magdalena River and was captured in Mompós and later transferred to the San Diego prison in Cartagena de Indias. Pardoned, he was later a deputy to the House of Representatives, denouncing the excesses of the Regeneration, which earned him numerous adversaries. He founded the newspaper & # 34;El Autonomista & # 34; from where he launched a strong campaign against the Conservative government. From there he also lashed out at the leaders of his party, especially Dr. Aquileo Parra. His intransigent position made him the head of the warmongering faction of the Liberal Party and in that capacity he actively participated in planning the uprising of October 20, 1899, which would be the genesis of the Thousand Days War.
During the Santander campaign between October 1899 and August 1900, he had an active participation. He commanded the liberal forces that fought in the battle of Bucaramanga between November 13 and 14, 1899, where his troops were massacred by the conservative forces due to the lack of strategy of Uribe Uribe, who sent his men crashing against a well-known enemy. fortified. He managed to organize a chaotic retreat to the city of Cúcuta where he united the remnants of his force with those of Benjamín Herrera.
On December 15, while trying to make their way to Ocaña, they were surprised near La Amarilla. The Battle of Peralonso began then, which culminated the following day when Uribe Uribe recklessly attacked the bridge over the river of the same name and managed to rout the government forces. This heroic act earned her the title of "El Héroe de Peralonso". Documents left behind by the government army showed that its commander Vicente Villamizar had orders to let the liberal army through to prolong the war and use this as an excuse to issue more forced tender paper money. Additionally, before starting the combat, the liberals received two mules loaded with ammunition sent by the same government, to encourage them to give battle.
Another equally audacious act was the capture of the conservative high command in the Terán hacienda, on February 2, 1900. Between May 11 and 25, 1900, he fought hand-to-hand under the command of the Uribe Uribe Division in the Battle of Palonegro, which culminated in the defeat of the liberal forces at the hands of the conservative general Próspero Pinzón and crosses the border into Venezuela. At the outbreak of the Liberating Revolution Uribe Uribe folds in favor of President Cipriano Castro. In the battle of San Cristóbal carried out on July 28 and 29, 1901, he managed to defeat the anti-Castro invasion led by the Venezuelan general Carlos Rangel Garbiras with the support of the Colombian conservative government of José Manuel Marroquín Ricaurte.
For several months he alternated his military activities, without much success, with peace initiatives that were neglected by the Colombian government. Finally, when the government offered a generous pardon on June 12, 1902, liberal forces across the country began their demobilization. Those of the North Coast, led by Uribe Uribe, surrendered at the Neerlandia hacienda on October 24, 1902.
Post-war parliamentary political activity (1903-1914)
With the treaties of Wisconsin and Neerland having been signed, the War of a Thousand Days had come to an end, and despite the fact that partisan acrimony was still present, it was clear that the contest would no longer be from the realm of what war, but now from another space for debate, a place where Uribe Uribe had already had learning time as a congressman before the start of the last civil war that Colombia would have. Aware that the pacifist liberals would not easily accept his reinstatement into the ranks of the party, Uribe would find it necessary to support the conservative regime of Rafael Reyes, a government figure in whom he did not see a character of the authoritarian nature of Miguel Antonio. Caro or José Manuel Marroquín. Convinced that his political and economic ideas could bring some benefit to the country in terms of agricultural and industrial growth, he would defend, no longer under the ranks of the liberal party, and from the conservative, but now from an independent-patriotic faction, which sought Greater participation and interference in politics and economics for all elements of society.
In the midst of a precarious economic situation, a product of the war that had already passed, and financially blocked as a result of not being able to sell his Gualanday farm, Uribe found himself in need of turning to his friends in Bogotá, who knew how to collaborate for a while, but later, requesting help from the liberal directory, nothing was received. As a result, the only option was to become part of the government of Rafael Reyes, who would take a series of dictatorial measures to get the nation out of the deplorable state in which it found itself as a result of the war at the end of the century. Upon receiving refusals from the congress to grant him extraordinary powers in favor of implementing extraordinary measures such as the establishment of new tariffs and taxes, Reyes was forced to dissolve the congress and assume control. Rafael Uribe, who was already part of the congress having been elected for the 1904 contests for the municipality of Sopetrán, supported Reyes's measure, since it partly favored his party, although he will find himself in disagreement with some of the leaders of This is in Bogota.
The measure, in addition to positioning him as a delegate from Antioquia, helped to reduce the government's position of control from the conservatives, since the delegates for each department had to be made up of three people, who had to be from a different party, thus giving a third of power to the liberal party. Having obtained relief from his immediate frustrations, such as those of an economic nature) and his interests within the party, Rafael Uribe Uribe was convinced to support the Reyes administration. During his administration, it was agreed that the state's number one priority was to promote the development of the export sector by improving rail transport, expanding agricultural exports with products such as coffee, sugar and bananas. But all this also required development in the agro-industrial sector, which is why industrial companies that optimized the processing of coffee products and their textiles were also implemented. Through these measures, the protectionist measures on the part of the government and the ideas of Rafael Uribe Uribe against the working classes of the country would really begin. However, these ideas had already been forging for a long time, since in 1886 he already showed concern for the interests of the working masses, especially the peasants.
Although he found valuable ideas within the postulates of philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham or Augusto Comte regarding the guidelines that could give axis to the most optimal governance of the Colombian state, the arrival of the new century brought a renewal in his readings, within of which would be those of Karl Marx and Jean Jaures.
The search for a more optimal system that would allow the accumulation of sufficient capital in favor of protecting and stimulating the Colombian agro-industrial sector led Rafael Uribe to consider small farmers and workers as the central point of the national economy, which is why he foresaw measures from parliament that favored their economic participation in the political debate. This is how he would formulate his famous program called "state socialism" in September 1904, in which Uribe would have to embody some of the radical ideas that he considered vital to the problems that were attenuating Colombia.
Although Uribe was not a socialist, since it was not appropriate for his political ethics to pigeonhole himself in specific theoretical approaches, he was quite familiar with the social, economic, and intellectual changes that the Colombian state required to a greater or lesser extent. The use of the term socialism may have responded to his interest in showing a departure from the doctrinal thought of radical liberalism as argued by several of his contemporaries such as Luis de Greiff Bravo, his companion. Rather, it could be said that his ideas consigned in this conference were the product of a renewal in the ideas of liberalism, which was more in line with the new century and the new production relations derived from a stage of industrialization in Latin American countries.
The central aspect of the formulation of this conference would be the application of aspects of European socialism to Colombia. Even knowing that these proposals would most likely not be well received among the leaders, Uribe was sure that they would have an impact at some point. This essay was an attempt to offer some extreme measures of action in the face of the ailments that he perceived within the Colombian state at a socioeconomic level. His purpose was more than anything to unveil ideas that were not "diabolical or abominable," but ideas that might perhaps help meet the present and future needs of the country.
Uribe's defense was basically for a more marked state interventionism, which would help solve the ailments that afflicted the Colombian state. For this reason, he defended the promulgation of fair labor laws and non-abusive working hours, where the maximum possible was 8 hours. Likewise, he focused his attention on the educational field, denouncing, in the first instance, child labor and female labor. In the same way, he promoted safety regulations in factories, as well as insurance against labor accidents. Many of the measures that he promoted in relation to the labor sector were still a bit advanced for the country's industrial development, since it was still in an artisan stage. However, he was aware that they would later be necessary. This bunch of labor laws were the product of the study that Rafael Uribe Uribe had done on European cities like Glasgow.
Although his diplomatic duties in the countries of Chile, Argentina and Brazil did not allow him to achieve great success as a negotiator, his studies, outlined in his work For South America would contribute significantly to the understanding of the nations of the hemisphere and the subsequent economic and military development of the nation. Following in part in the footsteps of Alexis de Tocqueville made by North America, Rafael Uribe Uribe began to study the basic data that he found interesting and pertinent about each country.
The four years of his diplomatic activity were too important for the development of Colombia's international relations with the other countries of the southern cone. Although his studies focused on various public institutions in the nations visited, what can be highlighted most of these activities is his agricultural studies, since they made him a prominent figure in the development and revitalization of the coffee industry at the national level, for means of consumption, as international, represented in the promotion of this product in international markets. And although some of his measures on the economic development of the coffee industry were a bit premature, his coherence with respect to the consolidation of this product was correct, since today this product is essential in commercial relations with different countries of the world in which five continents. In the same way, his diplomatic efforts would help introduce new species of seeds and hybrid plants that would help strengthen the livestock area, as well as the fact that he had introduced new disease prevention techniques that he would bring back to Colombia.
From 1909 to 1914, Rafael Uribe would work constantly in his search to strengthen the liberal party from different spheres such as social and political. In a series of speeches he would show the problems that the country was facing and through them he would dissect the role that the Liberal Party was called upon to play in resolving these problems. The ideology developed by Rafael Uribe Uribe recognized the changes that had taken place and were taking place in Latin America. Always keeping his idea of national progress firmly in mind, trying to anticipate all these liberal reforms, something that he would demonstrate through the interventions that he made in the face of the processes that would be presented to the peasantry and the working sector in the face of the industrialization process.
Three presentations discuss general aspects of Rafael Uribe Uribe's idea of his modern nation project. His writing national problems helped to outline some of the forms of action or responses to the nation's crises with respect to the agro-industrial, legislative, border and, above all, labor sectors. Another of his works was his exhibition on the present and future of the liberal party in Colombia where Rafael Uribe outlined what he considered solutions to “national problems”. Another of them is the document entitled March plan, in this scheme he would present the guidelines for the permanent organization of the liberal party that contained a platform for the years 1912 and 1913. This plan outlined by Uribe would have of being the government project that the Colombian Liberal Party would serve as the party's programmatic axis until the end of the first half of the century XX, which suggests the relevance of his ideas with respect to the central objective of his peace policies: to consolidate the Colombian state in the XX through modernizing reforms.
Although Rafael Uribe created, promoted, and co-authored several laws, he had little or no success in the conservative-dominated legislatures. This suggests that his parliamentary activity, while not unsuccessful, was very little accepted or well received during his periods of political participation. However, it should be noted that not everything promoted by him was sterile, since his contributions to Colombian agriculture would provide valuable elements for the development of bovine and vegetable species, including grass for cattle and coffee..
As if this were not enough, Uribe would contribute, in turn, through his battles in congress for the projection and improvement of the agrarian sector through the creation of the bill that would allow the creation of a Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce for the year 1913. Over the years, the liberal party's modernization project would be consolidated with the resumption of power by President Alfonso López Pumarejo, who would begin his legislative activity under the government project established in the “March plan” and the government plan presented in 1914 by Rafael Uribe, before he was assassinated in front of the capitol.
Rafael Uribe Uribe's policies were not inconsistent with the socio-economic situation in Colombia at the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the 20th century, when he served as a senator or congressman. His political ideas, despite responding to several of the problems that afflicted the Colombian nation, did not know how to count on the fortune of having a favorable political environment for their debate and testing. The politicians of that time and partisan positions would prevent the advancement of ideas such as those proposed in the March plan. A comparison of his ideology expounded at the 1904 conference with the liberal program would show that by the 1930s the XX many of the ideas still held true.
In 1914, his booklet How Colombian political liberalism is not a sin, published two years earlier in Bogotá, was officially condemned by the Holy See. By means of a decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Index of June 1 of that year, the book was included in the Index of Prohibited Books of the Catholic Church.
Death
Conspiracy
Uribe had refused to support the powerful conservative-liberal coalition party Unión Republicana, led by then-President Carlos Eugenio Restrepo. According to historian Eduardo Santa, Uribe was & # 34; the target of the most leering attacks by the "republican" press & # 34;, since he had openly supported the conservatism candidacy, despite being a liberal. After the triumph of the conservative candidate José Vicente Concha, on February 8, 1914, advertisements appeared on the streets against Uribe, whom they called "the Consul of Discredit".
On October 1, 1914, Rafael Uribe Uribe wrote a letter to an Antioquian citizen to thank him for another in which he warned him that he was planning to assassinate him and asked him to take the necessary precautions. Uribe Uribe's autograph letter was seen in Bogotá by several people. On October 16, 1914 Manuel Pinzón Uzcátegui, a resident of Caracas, wrote to the Bogotá newspaper El Tiempo:
For three days now we have talked about the tragic death of General Uribe Uribe in Bogotá. If it were, it would be a great shame for that land.Manuel Pinzón Uzcátegui
The letter from Pinzón Uzcátegui arrived in Bogotá in early November and caused a stir. How was it that in Caracas there was talk of the death of Uribe Uribe three days before it happened?
crime
Rafael Uribe Uribe was injured on October 15, 1914, walked through the Plaza de Bolívar to the National Capitol (headquarters of the Colombian Congress), carrying with them a bill to favor Colombian workers, seeking for their Protection in case of occupational accidents, and died hours later because of the wounds he suffered.
According to the time, the murderers - two humble peasants called Leovigildo Galarza and Diego Carvajal-, were in a drunkenness, after they were drinking in a nearby chichería, and in the midst of their alienation they decided to kill Uribe, who blamed their economic problems. It was also known that the murderers hid their hashuelas among their Ruanas, mooring them in their wrists, and with the intention of following him to his house they waited for him on the outskirts of the Capitol, between 2 and 3 pm on October 15.
<p The criminals were immediately placed in the hands of the authorities. However, Uribe died the next day victim of the wounds that caused him, on October 16, 1914, at 2 in the morning, at 55.
It is known that the murderers had contact with the Republican press. Leovigildo Galarza had no political affiliation but Jesús Carvajal declared a republican liberal in the interrogations that were developed against him. Carvajal had been fired from the Ministry of Public Works, and -due to the continuous slander of the Bogota press against Uribe- He thought that the general was responsible, so it is speculated that he decided to kill him. Galarza said he walked straight ahead, crowded him with the hashuela and shouted him: " you are the one who has us for us! ".
Even so, it was never known who had been the intellectual author of the magnicide. Political interests would be highlighted. For example, Gil Blas, after two months of the murder, wrote:
Around this crime, it has not been possible to give birth, because perhaps it does not suit the political interests of which the plan was shattered and brought into practice. The country is convinced that the true culprits are cunning and intelligent men, who greatly meditated on this truly scientific crime, of which there will be no trace.Gil Blas, December 15, 1914
JUDICIAL PROCESS
During the trial, Leovigildo Galarza declared that he and Jesús Carvajal were solely responsible for the crime. Carvajal did not accept or deny what his partner said. On June 19, 1918, the jury found them guilty of the murder of General Rafael Uribe Uribe and on June 25, 1918, they were sentenced and sentenced to twenty years in prison, deprivation of political rights, and to pay 80,000 gold pesos. and procedural costs.
Uribe Uribe's autopsy document is the first known in the history of the country's forensic clinic. It contains a very rich anatomical description of the wounds, such that a detailed retrospective study of the events can still be made today.
Honours
The corpse of Rafael Uribe Uribe was exposed in the burning chamber in the National Capitol, and then his remains were transferred to the Central Cemetery of Bogotá, where they currently rest. Upon Rafael's death, his wife and his children were awarded a monthly pension paid by the State, which was granted by President Concha in 1916.
Family
Rafael was a member of the prestigious Uribe family from Antioquia, whose members were prominent businessmen, politicians, and soldiers from the region, linked to the Liberal Party.
He was the son of Tomás Uribe Moro and María Luisa de las Mercedes Uribe Uribe, who were related to each other; Likewise, he was one of the 10 children of the marriage, his siblings being Carlos, Susana, Heraclio, Julián Antonio, María Julia, María Teresa, Paulina, Tomás and Emilia Uribe Uribe.
Marriage
Rafael Uribe Uribe married Sixta Tulia Gaviria Sañudo from Antioquia on March 6, 1886. He left six children from his marriage: María Luisa, Adelaida, Julián, Tulia, Inés, and Carlos Uribe Gaviria.
Her eldest son, Julián Uribe Gaviria, was a politician, businessman and military man. Uribe was governor of Antioquia in the 1930s, and was also appointed by the Colombian Congress as successor to the presidency in the absence of the incumbent. He also held the management of Banco de la República. He married Amalia Uribe Arango in Medellín in 1939.
For his part, his youngest son, Carlos Uribe Gaviria, was a politician and soldier, a member of the Liberal Party, a diplomat in San Francisco, and briefly Minister of War during the government of liberal Enrique Olaya Herrera.
Tributes and popular culture
In the staircases of the Capitol where Uribe was injured, a commemorative plaque was installed in his honor, which was installed days after the crime, on October 24, 1914. The murder of Uribe Uribe and subsequent investigation constitutes an important part of Juan Gabriel Vásquez's novel The shape of the ruins .
In the book the smell of the Guayaba , by Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza and Gabriel García Márquez, it is mentioned that the character of Colonel Aurelian Partly in the figure of Rafael Uribe Uribe, under whose orders García Márquez's grandfather fought in the War of the Thousand Days.
In an investigation by the Bogota journalist Manuel González Guzmán about the events surrounding the environment of the typical characters of the Bogotá of the forties, he tells how the most faithful follower of General Uribe Uribe Uribe, one of the most urban characters Representative of all time, Margarita Villaquirá Aya - known as the crazy Margarita, a follower of the Liberal Party since the time of the War of the Thousand Days, in which her husband died next to this leader of the town - the day of the murder From the general (October 15, 1914), he ran to the square, and hugged the bad -injured Uribe Uribe, being bathed in his blood. Until that day he had dressed white clothes, and since that day he dressed red clothes, and so on his death in 1942.
throughout the country there are several monuments in his honor. In several neighborhoods of Bogotá there are commemorative busts, and one of the towns of Bogotá is called Rafael Uribe Uribe. In his native Valparaíso there is also a plaque in his honor entrusted by the Municipal Council, and a bust in front of a commemorative kiosk. His native hacienda was converted into 2014 as a museum. In Cartagena a bust is also erected in his honor.
Also in Bogotá, in the famous Olaya Herrera Park (considered as a national monument), a monument is raised in honor of Uribe Uribe, where he is portrayed as a martyr. The construction consists of four Greco -Roman columns, where a bare bronze statue is appreciated, being held by the arms of a woman, in a heroic scene typical of posthumous allegories. In front of the monument are artificial sources.
Legacy
Uribe Uribe is for the political and economic history of Colombia a thematic epicenter that contributes to the compression of economic, agricultural, educational and cultural policies of the beginning of the century XX , which would have to give direction to the Colombian modern nation project. The reformist liberal ideas outlined by Uribe in its second parliamentary period were a radical program that foreshadowed many of the commitments that the Nation would have acquired from the Liberal Party.
<p which was still rooted in the political and economic elites of the nation. Reason why it would not be surprised that many of the measures that would have to present wishes of the 80s of Sigo XIX for the party would only become adopted the first decade of the century XX .Likewise, it is taken into account that characters such as Jorge Eliecer Gaitán and Luis Carlos Galán are two of the liberal politicians who have declared politically heirs of Rafael Uribe's ideas, unfortunately these three leaders of public and political life Colombian were not received throughout the population with pleasure, which is why they would have to be killed because of the ideological, partisan and/or economic differences.