Bogotá, Oct 12 (EFE).- A faction of the Central General Staff (EMC), the main dissident of the former FARC, threatened this Saturday COP16, which will be held in the Colombian city of Cali from October 21 to November 1 , and urged those invited to that summit not to attend, but President Gustavo Petro guaranteed security.
That armed group made the warning in a message published on its X account after the Government launched a military operation to regain control of El Plateado, a town in the turbulent department of Cauca that is the bastion of this FARC dissident.
«Given the war that responds to our show of will for peace at COP16, we invite the delegates of the national and international community to refrain from attending this event. Do not attend this commercial event. COP16 is a fiasco! (sic)”, wrote this armed group, led by alias ‘Iván Mordisco‘, in the message it shared through the channels in which it usually communicates.
The announcement by this faction of the EMC comes just four days after this dissident stated that it would not attack the security forces of the Colombian State from yesterday until next November 6 for the holding of COP16 in Cali.
However, he recalled today that, as they had stated when announcing the cessation of operations, they reserved “the right to defense” and blamed President Gustavo Petro for what happened.
The department of Cauca, where this FARC dissidence is particularly active, is a neighbor of Valle del Cauca, of which Cali, the headquarters of COP16, is the capital.
Faced with this threat, Petro responded in a message on his X account: «The security of COP16 is guaranteed. Mordisco is not the head of the Cauca EMC forces.
According to the president, this dissidence “is interested in the coltan business, illicit gold and the destruction of the jungle to hand over the land that the jungle farmers clear to the drug owners.”
«Iván (Mordisco) has not understood what the revolution for life means, he does not know about the effort of all humanity to maintain life on the planet. “That is the COP 16 that threatens,” Petro added.
Great operation
In the early hours of this Saturday, the Army launched an operation to retake control of El Plateado, which is the main stronghold of the EMC.
For ‘Operation Perseus’, the Ministry of Defense detailed, the military is using “special units, aircraft and artillery capabilities” such as tanks, and published wanted posters for seven bosses of Carlos Patiño, including its top boss, Anderson Andrey Vargas. Suns, aka ‘Kevin’.
In total, more than 1,400 soldiers have arrived in the area with the objective of guaranteeing the security of the more than 8,000 people who live in El Plateado, which is part of the municipality of Argelia.
The Army noted that the EMC responded with a drone attack that left an unknown number of people injured.
Security at COP16
Last week, the Minister of Defense of Colombia, Iván Velásquez, installed the Unified Command Post (PMU) in Bogotá, which will be the body in charge of coordinating the security of COP16, to “guarantee that no serious incident occurs” and “that security is truly assured.”
“The entire public force has been with great attention and great care examining every detail so that COP16 can be held in full security conditions,” the minister assured on that occasion.
So far, 15 heads of state and more than 100 ministers from around the world have confirmed attendance at COP16 in Cali.
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