“We are all nervous so that nothing bad happens,” The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, assured this Friday, a few days before COP16 begins, to regret that “There are those who would like this to be a showcase of violence and death.”
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“And there are those of us who want it to be the showcase of the most beautiful things in Colombia; its culture, its natural diversity (…) Colombia is one of the most beautiful countries on earth and that beauty has to do with the amount of vegetation that you see here, of different species, colors, of all the greens, that is not seen in the world”said the president during a visit to the Puerto Jordán military base, in the department of Arauca. That base was attacked with explosives by guerrillas from the National Liberation Army (ELN), who left three soldiers dead and 25 more injuredon September 17.
The COP16 on Biodiversity starts this Monday, October 21 and more than 190 countries will meet in Cali until next November 1 to address the loss of biodiversity. The security of COP16 has been one of the main concerns in recent months, despite the Government’s insistence that the celebration in Cali is guaranteed. However, this part of the country is one of the areas where conflict and violence have intensified the most this year at the hands of illegal armed groups.
Valle del Cauca, a department of which Cali is the capital, is also a neighbor of Cauca, a bastion of the Central General Staff (EMC), the main dissident group of the FARC. And after the Colombian Army’s offensive against a faction of the EMC in the hamlet of El Plateado last weekend, that group threatened COP16 and recommended “the delegates of the national and international community refrain from attending this event.”
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Faced with this threat, Petro himself responded in a message on X: “The security of COP16 is guaranteed.” Heart of the world In this context, Petro added this Friday before members of the Army: “I am the president of the heart of the world and you are the Military Forces that defend the heart of the world (…) and that is why the COP16 biodiversity event has such global importance, only the Chinese delegation arrives with 300 officials “.
“We then show ourselves to the world with our best face, the face of beauty, of beauty, of diversity”concluded the president, accompanied by the Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez. The Colombian Government has made a great commitment to this international summit, and so far 10 heads of state have been confirmed to participate.
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EFE
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