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Semafor Signals

Colombia hosts COP16 global nature summit under threat of armed rebels

Updated Oct 21, 2024, 12:21pm EDT
South America
A green field of coca crops
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The News

Colombia opens the COP16 biodiversity summit on Monday, an event that has been threatened by armed guerrillas who control swaths of the country’s Amazon rainforest.

The conference comes as new figures showed coca leaf cultivation in Colombia hit a 20-year high last year: The South American country had 253,000 hectares of coca crops in 2023, representing a 53% growth in cocaine production potential.

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A column chart showing coca leaf production in Colombia in hectares
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SIGNALS

Semafor Signals: Global insights on today's biggest stories.

Coca production is fueling new waves of criminality in the region

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Sources:  
The Guardian, Small Wars Journal, WOLA

Coca production surpassed pre-pandemic levels in 2020-21 as drug cartels devised ingenious new ways of operating, such as by making cocaine extraction more efficient and concealing the drug in avocados and face masks, The Guardian reported. These spikes have fueled a new wave of criminality across Latin America, but governments’ in increasingly militarized crackdown on drug violence has failed to quell a growing perception of public insecurity, particularly in countries like Ecuador, an expert argued in Small Wars Journal. “Drug prohibition and militarized enforcement are an especially toxic mix,” for human rights, one rights group warned.

Armed rebels are using deforestation as leverage in peace talks with Colombian government

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Sources:  
Financial Times, Inside Climate News

Armed guerillas involved in drug trafficking are weaponizing deforestation to pressure the Colombian government ahead of COP16, analysts told the Financial Times. For decades, guerillas protected the forests which provided them with tree cover from bombs, but now some dissidents see deforestation as leverage in peace talks with the government of Colombian President Gustavo Petro who is an outspoken environmentalist, according to Inside Climate News.

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