The Colombian guerrilla group Estado Mayor Central (EMC) has asked delegations not to take part in COP16 on biodiversity, which will take place this month in Colombia, after launching a military offensive.
“In view of the war with which (the authorities) are responding to our desire for peace at COP16, we invite delegates from the national and international community not to participate in this event,” the EMC wrote on Saturday on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
The group is one of the main dissident factions of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
COP16 begins on October 21 in Cali, in the southwest of the country, with representatives from around 200 countries and 12,000 people expected to try to stimulate the implementation of a roadmap to save nature by 2030, following a historic agreement reached in Montreal in 2022.
“COP16 is a fiasco,” declared the EMC in the same message.
Initially, the guerrillas had announced a truce in offensive military operations “to ensure the smooth running of COP16”, after several attacks and regular clashes with the security forces.
Bogotá intends to take advantage of this 16th conference of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity to take the lead in global efforts to protect nature, while at the same time dealing with the ravages of deforestation linked to cocaine trafficking.
The CME’s announcement followed the launch on Saturday of a military operation against the guerrilla movement.
Called “Perseo”, the operation began in El Plateado (southwest), in a region transformed into an “international cocaine exchange” by the EMC, said Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
The fighting left at least 17 people injured, according to a statement issued by the Colombian Ombudsman, the state body that oversees human rights in the country.
El Plateado is one of the EMC’s main strongholds in the Micay Canyon region, a mountainous complex where coca leaf plantations abound and cocaine production is strategic.
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