Following President Gustavo Petro's January 7 call for nationwide gatherings in response to US 'Iron Resolve' operation capturing Nicolás Maduro and Donald Trump's cocaine accusations/threats, rallies unfolded in Neiva and Ibagué. Academics, unionists, and citizens debated national sovereignty under US interventionism, evoking Cold War-era self-determination struggles in a multipolar world.
In Neiva's central plaza, Huila, under the 1940 statue of General Francisco de Paula Santander, union leaders and public employees rallied Wednesday afternoon, responding to Trump's hostile remarks against Petro. Speakers used a modest sound system to address the crowd.
Universidad Surcolombiana's Professor Miller Dussán Calderón likened the tensions to the 1960s Cold War, when US imperialism countered revolutions like Cuba's 1959 uprising amid bids for global dominance against rivals like China and Russia.
In Ibagué, Universidad del Tolima's Professor Marcela Valencia Toro called US policy interventionist and destabilizing, noting Trump's institutional disregard and Latin America's fragile alliances in a contested multipolar order.
Union voices amplified the message: DIAN union president Blanca Eliana Ramírez Silva defended public sector sovereignty; CUT Huila's Juan Pablo Tovar Paredes tied labor fights to national destiny; SENA's José Luis Franco Rincón and ADIH's Jan Jefferson Pacheco Quevedo upheld self-determination. Academics urged universities to study multipolar geopolitics holistically, amid global economic and climate crises.
Local flavor emerged with artisanal fisherman Alirio Perdomo opposing multinational river interests, street vendors voicing support, and US flag burnings symbolizing public ire.
