[1] In 1880 Uribe graduated from Our Lady of the Rosary University as a lawyer and the next year worked as Attorney General of Antioquia.

The Regeneration advocated for centralism, the restriction of civil liberties and an established accord with the Roman Catholic Church.

[1] During these years Uribe also founded a newspaper called El Autonomista ("The Autonomist") managing a publicity campaign against the conservative government and attacked members of his own party, most notably Aquileo Parra.

Due to these printings, Uribe gained significant prominence in Liberal Party, participating also in the uprising of October 20, 1899 which triggered the Thousand Days War.

[1] During the Santander military campaign between October 1899 and August 1900, Uribe commanded the liberal forces in the Battle of Bucaramanga (November 13–14, 1899), where he was defeated.

[1] On December 15, 1899, while en route to Ocaña his troops were ambushed at a location known as La Amarilla initiating the Battle of Peralonso.

[3] According to an interview given by Gabriel García Márquez to Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza in his book El Olor de la Guayaba (The Guava's Scent), the character of Col. Aureliano Buendía in One Hundred Years of Solitude was loosely based on Rafael Uribe.

The assassination of Uribe and its subsequent investigation by Marco Tulio Anzola Samper is explored in detail by the Colombian novelist Juan Gabriel Vásquez in his novel The Shape of the Ruins.