Colombian mounted policemen patrol the Farallones de Cali National Natural Park in the outskirts of Cali, on July 6, 2024, during security operations ahead of the upcomig COP16 Summit. (Photo by JOAQUIN SARMIENTO / AFP)
Bogotá: Colombian guerrillas fighting the government and rival armed groups threatened Tuesday that a major UN biodiversity summit to be held in the city of Cali later this year "will fail."
The 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the Convention on Biological Diversity "will fail even if they militarize the city with gringos," the EMC armed group wrote in a message on X addressed to President Gustavo Petro.
The EMC, or Central General Staff, is a group of dissidents that rejected the peace deal signed in 2016 by the FARC guerrilla group, which subsequently disarmed.
COP16 host Cali, associated with a particularly violent chapter of Colombia's deadly drug conflict, has been facing a new wave of brutality as it prepares to host the meeting.
Security is set to be handled by the Colombian government and UN.
The event hopes to attract some 12,000 delegates and exhibitors, as well as heads of state, to one of the world's most biodiverse countries.
A recent spate of bombings and gun attacks blamed on the EMC has local authorities on edge, with plans to deploy 12,000 police and soldiers to secure the gathering.
Dissident EMC guerrillas are particularly active in the departments of Valle del Cauca, of which Cali is the capital, and Cauca -- both in the main coca-growing southwestern region of the nation, which is the world's largest cocaine producer.
Some 3,500 EMC are estimated to remain in arms and are involved in the drug trade and illegal mining, as well as fighting both the military and groups competing for trafficking routes and territory.
