Nova Gaul
16-11-2008, 04:13
((Note: With only certain RP exceptions which were alluded to below, and have a negligible affect on the in game economy of Mexico and Hispaniola, Nueva España is exactly identical in every respect to those states in reality. Please see information page on off-site forums.))
Nueva España
A New State
Europe tends to be complicated…as is her people, her economy, and her politics. But across the oceans, in el oeste distante, things tend to be simpler.
As with the formation of most states, a great man was involved in the formation of El Reino: Ernesto de la Fuente y Bourbon, who would one day rule as Carlos I. Although it must be remember Ernesto was no Mexican, though he was a national of that country. By blood he was in fact a Spaniard, to the core, a Spanish Bourbon, whose family emigrated to the colonies long ago. Nevertheless though cultured by blood Ernesto eagerly adapted to the rough ways, and actions, of his adopted land. Early in his childhood he was given, he earned, the nickname el jefe, ‘the boss’. He would keep the name throughout his life.
Born in the dawn of the twentieth century to a vast fortune made in petroleum and mining de la Fuente grew a taste early on for soldiering and mujeres , and in Mexico, where all things have a price, his money would see him indulge heartily in both. Ernesto was a bear of a man…he was tall, strong, vulgar…but at times elegant, and he was always clever. Very clever.
In time Ernesto rose through the ranks earning in 1967 a general’s star. The Republic of Mexico was weak, el Presidente nearly powerless, and General Ernesto de la Fuente allowed himself to be the focal point of right-wing politics much in vogue at the time. Then, again simply, an opportunity for Ernesto to seize power arose, and he recognized the opportunity. Ernesto’s young nephew Carlos, another member of the scattered Bourbons, was the first-term president of the Dominican Republic. Due to claims he won the election fraudulently (which he of course did) protest groups arose on Hispaniola, funded ostensibly by Bertrand Aristide, the radically unpopular dictator of Haiti and personal political enemy of young Carlos. And indeed Bertrand was funding some of the protest groups…but as Monsieur Aristide was broke this funding was hardly effective.
The funding which was effective, the funding which nobody knew about, came from General Ernesto in Mexico and his right-wing cronies. Doubtless Carlos would have been angry had he known his own uncle was conspiring against him, but as he was clueless it was to his uncle he turned for assistance. And as events would show he gained far more than he lost. In this action the seeds of Nueva España were sown.
Using the pretext that the pacifist protest groups rising then all across the Dominican Republic, and Haiti too, were communist insurgents preparing to subvert the entire Caribbean, General Ernesto and his allies drummed up the case for a military intervention. Over the course of the year the drumbeat of war grew. Every month the protest groups, by no accident, become more vocal and seemed ever more ‘communist’. Numerous Central and South American heads of state were bribed…once bribed, they added their name to a ‘Pan-American Petition’ to facilitate peace on fractured Hispaniola. The language of the document was no mistake: Hispaniola, not the Dominican Republic and Haiti, was the term used. The heads of state, themselves military autocrats or corrupt civilians, probably coud have cared less what they were signing. They only cared that they payoff was large enough. So General Ernesto and his friends paid out many monies, but it was but an investment to what they soon gained.
On November 1st, 1968, All Saints Day, General Ernesto de la Fuente led two Mexican Army brigades—one armored and one infantry—across the Caribbean to land successfully on the beaches of Santo Domingo. With absolutely no resistance, and to jubiliant crowds in the streets, the capital of the Dominican Republic fell, or was liberated. Carlos de la Fuente, nephew to the glorious general, was restored. Then on November 15th, again under the fraudulent pretext of securing the island from communists, de la Fuente took his force over the frontier and into Haiti. With the utmost composure, a measure of Ernesto’s political skill and address as he told the crowds “all is well”, he in a most straightforward manner crossed Haiti and captured Port-au-Prince. Points were Aristide stationed third-rate posses and guards the General bypassed, and with speed tore across the countryside. Seeing themselves cut off, what little Haiti had for a military surrendered in waves. Bertrand Aristide had time only to sip his coffee before he and his fled Port-au-Prince before the General’s arrival. Hispaniola had been conquered in less than a month, and with no shots fired on either side.
Ernesto had proven the eternal truths of the war-scholar Sun Tzu, of whom he was an ardent disciple his whole life, remarking once ‘give me a Bible for heaven, but the Art of War for life’. The scholar said: “Generally in war the best policy is to take a state in tact; to ruin it is inferior to this” and more importantly, most importantly “Speed is the essence of war. Take advantage of the enemy’s unpreparedness; travel by unexpected routes and strike him where he has taken no precautions—this summarizes the essential nature of war, and the ultimate in generalship.”
By acting as a true disciple of Sun-Tzu, by having the right friends, by being in the right place at exactly the right time, General Ernesto de la Fuente had conducted one of the most stunning campaigns in the history of Latin America, perhaps even in the history of warfare. And Ernesto de la Fuente, seeing a secret goal within reach, was not finished. Leaving behind a brigade on Hispaniola, one that was now, as many troops would come to be, in awe of their Bourbon leader, General de la Fuente returned with his armored brigade to Mexico, and disembarked in Veracruz. As he went down the ship’s ramp, he turned to his private confessor, soon to be cardinal, Archangelo Ramirez: “I have not landed, I have crossed the Rubicon.”
It comes as no surprise that Ernesto de la Fuente would take control of Mexico as easily as he had climbed the ladder of military hierarchy, and conducted a lightning campaign across Hispaniola. With his armored Brigade which he now called tellingly ‘Los Caballeros’ the ambitious general turned north. Having literally burned and blown up his ships, as did Cortes his personal hero, Ernesto proceeded directly towards Mexico City, preaching ‘faith, land, bread’ and he went. Crowds, utterly disconnected from a president elected by weak democratic interests and a corrupt senate, cheered him onward. When he arrived in Mexico City, just as when he arrived in Port-au-Prince, he found the opposition had fled.
In December 1968 Ernesto de la Fuente rode on a white horseback to the Great Cathedral in Mexico City, which only hours before was named El Ciudad Real…the Royal City. With a crowd of millions outside chanting and singing, and thousands of newly installed peers inside, Ernesto took the name ‘Carlos Primero’. Cardinal Ramirez, arch-prelate of the new regime, produced there an ampulla of chrism: legend had it that this same chrism was used to bless Charlemagne, and that it was brought down from Heaven by a dove in times long past. And so Carlos I, King of New Spain, was blessed and crowned by the Catholic Church, which he swore to defend, himself and the heirs of his body, until the Day of Judgment. He proclaimed the will of God fulfilled, and declared his new realm of Mexico and Hispaniola Nueva España as a sign of hope given to people by the beneficent Lord Christ. In reward for his generous donations of land, treasure, and power to the Holy Catholic Church he was given special dispensation to claim for the throne of Nueva España the style of “His Catholic Majesty”.
His Catholic Majesty Carlos I (http://www.raptureme.com/photo/antichrists/ac-king-juan-carlos.jpg)
A more pragmatic action, but still hoping well for the future, was Carlos I’s contracting in perpetuity of one hundred Swiss bodyguards, the Cent Suisse common to nearly every royal court in history. The Bourbons’ extended bodyguard was made up of crack special forces blindly loyal to the monarchy, but the immediate men would always be foreign. As a wise man said “Pray for miracles, but plant cabbages.”
The reign of Carlos I had begun as one of upheaval, but ended as one of growth and stability. Slowly but surely under his strong rule the decades saw New Spain build an infrastructure unrivaled in the Latin West. For the first decades of his reign Carlos also aligned himself firmly with the United States of Quinntonia, in both economic and foreign policy, seeing it as the only rational course of action. As the years passed however, and as the infrastructure of Nueva España grew and the monarchy’s roots deepened, this relationship began to slowly drift apart. Urged on by the reactionary Catholic Clergy, who felt strongly Quinntonia was poaching the preserves of Catholicism by their missionary efforts in Central/South America, the Bourbon court willingly allowed the relationship to drift away. By the time of Carlos I’s death in 2001 the alliance would still exist, but everyone would ask ‘for how long?’
Carlos I’s heir was his first son by his wife, the Queen-Consort Isabella. Carlos I had lived a long life, dying at 87, and he had ruled for 32 of those years. Carlos Jose Juan Felipe de la Fuente y Bourbon took the throne in 2001 at forty-four years of age himself, with two grown sons and five young daughters.
His Catholic Majesty Carlos II (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Felipe%2C_Prince_of_Asturias.jpg)
The man who would rule as Carlos II was something of an oddity among world leaders: he had two doctorates of philosophy, one in Theology and one in Linguistic Mechanics. He spent the first twenty years of his life studying in a Dominican Monastery, where he was instructed by the monks in deep wisdom and his duties to the Church. He was taught the skill of languages, and how to search for truth in people. Following his time in the monastery, where he had earned two preliminary degrees, he served a tour in the now Royal Army of Nueva España. His fellow officers agreed him to be a firm commander and skilled tactician, with his father’s ability to win the troops over. The future Carlos II also demonstrated compassion for his troops, and often encouraged them in humanitarian projects which would benefit El Pueblo. His only flaw seemed to be a dark and sadistic ‘outbursts’ that manifested themselves at odd times, but which he quickly brought under control. Only those who have heard the darkest whispers of the royal court know that Carlos the Younger had an active hand in helping Carlos the Elder organize the Tapachula Massacre.
When he had completed his tour the Crown Prince returned to Ciudad Real. There he married the beautiful Portuguese Princess Alisande. And there too at the Royal University he completed his two doctorates with high honors whereupon he settled into palace life to work with his father and sire a family. A royal family.
Other than that, hardly anything was known of the man. Even now, seven years into his reign, there has been no noticeable change from his father’s rule. All the key ministers from Carlos I were held over, the regime was quite solidified. The Royal Family of New Spain is very private, no one really knows from one day to the next where the king actually is, and only several times a year does a Bourbon royal make an appearance. Officially the royal residence El Palacio de Ayuntamiento in Ciudad Real but many whisper the king and his curia spend the majority of their time in a hidden fortress palace near Cancun. Most laws and rules are just handed down by the Curia Regis, but now and then the king does make an official announcement. And occasionally he will appear, in one of his stunning suits, amidst the peasants of some rural town or city slum, uplifting them all with his smile and aura. In other words, the Spanish Bourbons have tried, successfully, to build a cult of personality around the monarchy. Officially the royal residence El Palacio de Ayuntamiento in Ciudad Real but many whisper the king and his curia spend the majority of their time in a hidden fortress palace near Cancun.
Overall all that is known about Carlos II points to a king who has combined his father’s brutish ambition with his own brand of sly zealotry. This is hardly a promising combination.
Mechanics of El Reino de Nueva España
Flag of Nueva España (http://wwp.european-union-eu.com/spain/images/spain-coat-arms.jpg)
When it comes down to it all governmental actions in Nueva España flow one way, or another, from the Curia Regis, or the King’s Court. Initially called the ‘junta’, the Latin name seemed to lend the ruling cabal and its monarch a bit more legitimacy. The Curia has just under five-hundred members, but only a dozen or so of those members actually have power to make law, only a dozen or so are actually in the king’s presence. Those dozen or so with power are known as the Inner Circle, while those on the peripheries of power are known as the Outer Circle. It meets at the king’s pleasure, and wherever he wishes it to meet. In the current reign of Carlos II of its many members ((**)) the most influential are: El Principe de Durango (King Carlos II’s twenty-five year old son and Crown Prince) Cardinal Archangelo Ramirez de Las Casas, El Archiduque de Hispaniola Carlos de la Fuente (First cousin to King Carlos II), Generalissimo Arturo Salazar, Ministro Público Miguel-Jose Santos, Senor Juan-Antonio Obregón, and El Duque de Jalisco Raul de Mercedian.
There was never much of a need to formally ban free speech in Nueva España. Rey Carlos I, a simple man, wanted a simple solution. So one evening all the media moguls were rousted from their beds by the king’s goons, and brought to one of his many hidden and undisclosed palaces. One by one the thuggish monarch looked the newsmen in the eyes as the nervous fellows eyed each other across the long cold table. With one word from the king, delivered with quiet menace, they understood. ‘¡Cállete!’ said King Carlos, shut up!, and shut up they did. Not since that quiet warning has there been one bad or ill-intended story pertaining to the monarchy, though a law was never passed nor censors put into effect. By making it clear the media would serve King Carlos or serve no one any longer, the monarchy got the media to muzzle itself more effectively than it could ever have. Even after Carlos II took the throne no further admonition was needed, the press of Nueva España and the monarchy understood one another. The glowing reports of the coronation, and the new beloved king, were proof positive that the Bourbons tamed their journalists.
Yet for all their vigor and guile Nueva España’s Bourbon princes occupy a tenuous position. The monarchy is, indeed, in absolute control of Mexico and Hispaniola…in theory. In practice, the monarchs know their power rests on an unstable alliance of reactionary Catholic clergy, narcotics traffickers, mafia kingpins, corporate magnates, the temporarily appeased masses, and hard line rightist generals. Carlos I knew and Carlos II knows that even one loss from that mixture would be a catastrophe, and would allow for the possibility of a general revolution. And at this time, with El Reino’s economy so fragile, Carlos simply cannot allow that to happen. He therefore, hatefully, maintains a publicly friendly posture towards the stabilizing gringos, northern Quinntonia, while all the while plotting how he could successfully detach its realm and it’s economy from the hated Anglo-protestants.
The highest of the monarchy’s allies, politically and ideologically, is the Holy Roman Catholic Church. The one element the monarchy had to hook itself up totally to, inextricably, was the Catholic Church…particularly the arch-reactionary faction of the Church within Latin America, which was under the sway of one powerful cleric. Cardinal Archangelo Ramirez de Las Casas was himself an opportunistic man, who saw it as his duty to stamp out liberal rights, abortion, and the last vestiges of pre-conquest paganism he saw present in Mexico. In his words, he was sent ‘to slay the three-headed beast of hell.’ It took no great leap of intuition to see that in King Carlos the Cardinal knew he had found a partner. And so partners they became. With the duo of Carlos and Cardinal the Catholic Church in Nueva España became slowly and slowly more reactionary, until even the word ‘Inquisition’ began to be floated about. Carlos allowed the reconstitution of the Catholic ‘Ecclesiastical Court’ thus placing clergymen above the regular law. The Church was declared ‘the one true faith of Nueva España’ and her lands were made sacrosanct. In time abortion and contraception were made illegal, and, appropriately enough, so too was the death penalty. Where as the Mexican and Hispaniolan peoples had always been religious and spiritual, now they were encouraged to be zealous and superstitious…after all, if they trusted only Church and King, and feared the shadows and chupacabras, how could they ever mobilize for a revolution? Overnight, the Catholic Church was transformed into the second most important institution in all of N.E.., second only to the House of Bourbon. It was a position that Cardinal Ramirez de Las Casas intended to keep.
King Carlos I was a practical man, and he realized that the crime syndicates in his realm were too strong to break and attempting to break them would result in a civil war which would bring discord for years. Likewise, the source of their funding, the narcotics trade, made incredible amounts of profit with nearly zero investment. So the mafia lords were summoned before the king. The new monarch gave them the choice of serving him and his regime or fighting a prolonged street war that in the end they knew they could not win. So the gangs of Mexico and Hispaniola, now Nueva España, were incorporated into the Bourbon monarchy. In exchange for their vassalage the king allowed them to continue the majority of their non-violent activities and some of their violent ones, as long as they served him when called and saw to it the monarch got a generous slice of the profits. This is not to say that gang violence ended on the streets of Nueva España, but with the exception of Tijuana in the north, a major crossroads for the drug trade, the large scale kidnappings and murders endemic in former Mexico ceased to exist. However with the secret cooperation of the government, narcotics production and trafficking is now one of the largest factors in the realm’s economy. Juan-Antonio Obregón, lord of the Obregón cartel and the foremost Mafioso in the kingdom was inducted into the Curia Regis, and became a close adviser of King Carlos I and later Carlos II. He swiftly became one of the court’s most influential advisors.
Aside from the Church the corporate masters of the new state came over to the monarchy most quickly. Much like the gangsters, in exchange for generous kickbacks the monarchy set corporations up to make maximum profits with minimum questions. Pemex (the energy giant), the largest company in Nueva España, was conglomerated anew by the king’s blessing with Cemex (the cement giant). The new company, Unexco, soared to number 20 on the list of Fortune 500 companies and climbed to the 6th largest energy company in the world in terms of revenue. Based in Unexco Tower (formerly Pemex Tower) in Ciudad Real the mammoth company (which investors know has the support of the stable absolutist government) continues to attract ever larger investments from foreign and domestic investors. Unexco has diversified into mining, heavy transit, and macro-agriculture projects thus securing its place as a attractive investment the world over. The company’s first C.E.O. Carlos Slim de Mercedian was promoted to the Curia Regis’ Inner Circle as Ministro de Tesoro shortly after the company's bullish stockmarket drive and created El Duque de Jalisco. With Mercedian at the treausury’s helm the government backed financially and supported publicy several massive corporations, which were umbrellas for many smaller subsidiaries. So while the kingdom embraced a capitalist system it was embraced with a sort of protectionism so natural to the economies of Latin America. The system ensured that only those companies which were staunchly loyal to the regime would flourish, which encouraged all business men to toady up.
While building an infrastructure was the task of Carlos I, by the coronation of Carlos II the growing unemployment was recognized as the greatest economic issue facing Nueva España. Since the corporate infrastructure and raw materials were already present the only thing that had to be done was stimulate the workforce in such a manner as to, in the words of Carlos II ‘get things moving.’ Deducing the economy of Nueva España was in such bad shape more or less because his mystical el pueblo were not working hard enough, the order came down it was time to get people out and get them to work. Now how to apply such a blanket order to hundreds of millions of impoverished and in many cases geographically isolated peoples was of course the question. Since many companies and industrial concerns already posted a labor need it was figured a simple enough matter…find the unemployed, and take them to a new job. With grades of varying efficiency from excellent in Southern Mexico and miserable in the mountains of Haiti pick up trucks manned by goons from Mano Blanco hauled the good people out for various agricultural, commercial and industrial projects. After the first few incidents people started to get the message, and were transported to their new locations of employment. And though it is true that in all cases they were paid (at well below a market rate), the government’s willingness to use brute force to improve the economy was not seen as a good omen.
Nevertheless despite its oddities and economic brutishness, and what many outside termed ‘Latino lethargy’, by the current reign of Carlos II Nueva España is judged to have between the 10th to 12th largest economy in the world. And though poverty is still rampant and many places squalid by a Quinntonian or British standard, nevertheless to the people of the realm and especially to her southern neighbors Nueva España is thriving.
Power ultimately rested on the shoulders of over a hundred-million Latinos and Hispaniolians, this was a fact not lost on the Bourbons. The monarchy created a dynamic new philosophy, and while to ‘cultured’ nations on the globe the philosophy seemed a bit hodge-podge and juxtaposed, to Latin America it made perfect sense. The core belief was in a mystic El Pueblo, the People, the innumerable masses of Spanish and Indian blooded Latinos. These people, inspired by the Holy Catholic Church and led by the Spanish Bourbons, were to one day soon break free of their crippling backwardness. They would construct a shining empire that would span all of the Americas and realize the virtues of the Most Scared Heart of Jesus and the kind precepts of La Virgen de Guadalupe. Under their sandaled or bare feet the false institutions of Protestantism and greed would be crushed, and the lily-white gringos would be sent back across the seas. The criminals, gangsters and landlords that had oppressed El Pueblo for so long would spontaneously combust. At that time there will be food and material in plenty for all the people, and freed from poverty a new Christian golden age would descend upon them all, a utopia where the only rules would be the Ten Commandments and the only danger a mistuned guitar. But to reach this new golden age it was critical El Pueblo maintained a fanatical loyalty to the monarchy and a superlative devotion to the Catholic Church. The people were to do whatever they were told, because to resist would only make Santana howl with laughter. The chant of El Pueblo, the mantra that shook windows when the countless masses gathered at government-staged rallies to march for El Rey Carlos was “Si se Puede! Si se Puede!” *
Certain aspects of the monarchy are socialist as well. But it was selectively socialist. On paper, the El Reino de Nueva España has universal health care. In reality only those classified as ‘subjects in good standing’ (i.e. culturally acclimated modern Latinos who have demonstrated loyalty to the regime) receive state medical care. This serves as an incentive for people to become more loyal to the king and his dogma, because with loyalty and service came the king’s gifts. The same policy is true for housing aid and general welfare…only ‘subjects in good standing’ were able to draw on the resources. This gives Ciudad Real another weapon with which to break the few remaining stubborn indigenous peoples.
Lastly, something quite foreseeable, the monarchy allied itself to a cadre of near-Fascist generals, loyal only to the regime, who were used to fill King Carlos I and King Carlos II’s General Staff. Their leader is the old man, the ‘el Viejo’, of the Curia Regis and its Inner Circle: Generalissimo Arturo Salazar, 82 years young. But the man’s age only serves to hide his still brilliant and by all accounts evil mind. His loyalty to the regime and Bourbon Monarchy is not a normal fidelity. Generalissimo Salazar cares only about gaining more power for his military, and was won over once Carlos I helped him to do this. He is a militarist plain and simple; and though he is a keen strategist he fails to see that not every situation needs a military solution. It was he who was the mind behind Tapachula, and if the Generalissimo had not been checked the Massacre would have been maybe twenty times larger than it was. Still Salazar is a man indispensable to the regime, and by all accounts on the rare debates when el Viejo speaks all members of the junta listen. He is in total control of Nueva España’s military, and this allows the Bourbon Monarchy to be totally in control of the realm. It is a telling statement about Carlos II that he considers such a man his grandfather figure.
A word also needs to be said about the most influential paramilitary group in Nueva España. In the several minor disturbances which has shaken the N.E.. since its founding, and the major incident of Chiapas in 1992, Their Majesty’s government has never really used regular army forces to break up Marxist protests or attempted coups. That would bring media attention, and a country mobilizing its military would alarm the neighbors. Instead the regime relies upon the masses of armed thugs fanatically loyal to the King and his dogma. These mobs, which are most zealous in north-central Mexico but are present throughout the realm, are vicious, mean, uneducated, efficient as a sledge hammer and half as subtle. Together they are known as Mano Blanco, the White Hand. Although the government keeps a classified registry of the members, they really have no constant roster, but members surface in places as needed or, frankly, when they smell blood. State intelligence operatives, handily, always seem to be around where the White Hand forms to see that it is appropriately armed. And if there was ever an investigation, which there would never be, it would have found unconfirmed reports that off-duty military regulars would more often than not go ‘on patrol’ with Mano Blanco. Furthermore Mano Blanco also gives the king a handy counterweight to the numerous vicious gangs that plague the kingdom; but this advantage is dimmed by the fact most gangsters are Mano Blanco on the weekends. The draconian Ministro Público of New Spain Miguel-Jose Santos, one of King Carlos I’s and again with Carlos II’s closest confidants, oversees the Mano Blanco as part of his other internal security duties. He has often stated it is better to use the angry mobs than his more professional covert agents because ‘you get more bang for your buck.’
Perhaps the most controversial public policy in the Kingdom of New Spain is ‘sanctification’; a process whereby all traces of native indigenous culture, language, and religion is extinguished in favor of the modern Spanish/Catholic ‘good’ culture, language and religion. ‘Sanctification’ ranges somewhat benignly from the renaming of cites and towns. For example, Nueva España and Hispaniola replaced Mexico and Dominican Republic/Haiti, Mexico City became Ciudad Real (Royal City), the Zocalo is now simply Plaza Real, and Estadio Azteca is now the Estadio Carlos el Grande. ‘Sanctification’ intensified to the dynamiting of Aztec, Olmec and Mayan ruins (which is nearly complete contemporarily) to the forcible reeducation of children and adults in government Learning Centers. It is said that there teachers still have the power to beat their students.
Tapachula: 1992
The greatest test of the monarchy’s power, a direct product of ‘sanctification’ and the increasingly authoritarian nature of the kingdom, came in 1992. A combination of Indian freedom fighters, furious over the organized violence directed against their ancestry, and leftist student-revolutionaries, seeing a chance to overthrow the oppressive regime (most likely a pan-American force); between two to six thousand mixed troops and as many non-combatant supporters, took control of the key city of Tapachula, in the troubled Chiapas state…troubled because Chiapas was one of the last remaining strongholds of native society. It took the rebels only a few minutes to overwhelm the government’s police and route the tiny Royal Army garrison of less than a hundred soldiers. The mob stormed City Hall, and after ransacking it burned it down. The city’s royal police intendant, Lt. Juan Robles-Rosas, was caught on film being hung from a telephone poll, wearing a placard which said “I abused my people”. The mayor, on camera, defected to the revolutionaries, who announced themselves as the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, or EZLN. They were led by the charismatic and ski-masked figure of Subcomandante Marcos, who rumor had being a disillusioned Universitarion from Ciudad Real.
His Majesty’s government was alarmed, and with good reason. A week passed and the insurgents consolidated their hold on the city and the surrounding countryside. The rebels in Tapachula were putting out broadcats daily about how the liberation of “Mexico”, to use a forbidden indigenous name, had begun, stating also “Marxist Revolutionism” was alive and well despite feudal resistance. Yet Carlos knew what had to be done as soon as he had heard of the rebellion days earlier. With the utmost subtlety Ciudad Real was covertly shipping tens of thousands irregulars south, at night by truck or train. These were no government troops, but the Mano Blanco militia, which was about to have its largest engagement. They gathered in their thousands outside the city, preparing themselves with cocaine and firing their AK-47s into the air. King Carlos publicy maintained the gathering militia was a ‘spontaneous demonstration of patriotism and courage from the Spanish masses’ against the forces of ‘hell and communism’. At the end of the week’s occupation roads surrounding Tapachula were cut off, no one was able to get in or out. Hour by hour the situation intensified. Word began to drift into Tapachula the militias were harrassing people, that people trying to enter or leave the city were being shot. Then, without warning, somehow, the power went out. News crews were unable to broadcast from within the city. The televisions went blank.
When communication was restored four days later, Tapachula was the scene of a massacre. Apparently, so far as anyone knew there were no records, Mano Blanco had swarmed the city and the insurgents, taking no prisoners in a 72 hour orgy of looting and atrocities. Leftist rebels were massacred alongside Tapachula’s civilians. Indigenous troops, though they fought bravely, were not able to supply themselves as well as the state-run militia. From all accounts Mano Blanco had achieved a military victory over the rebels within 24 hours of striking. Why then did government forces wait so long to intercede while the city was butchered? No one knows. However, it would not be far off the mark to guess Carlos used the opportunity as an example to his realm…if you allowed rebellion, the response would be devastation. When the Royal Army finally arrived on the scene to quell the violence, over 23,500 inhabitants of Tapachula and rebel insurgents were found dead; twice as many had been maimed or wounded. In many cases the causes of these deaths had been chainsaws. Though the city itsef remained fairly in tact, the horrors witnessed by the first aid workers to arrive on scene would give them nightmares for the rest of their life. But the example made a successful impression, because there has not been so much a riot in New Spain (save scattered violence in the Haitan countryside) since the Tapachula Massacre.
Yet the victory, from the point of view of the Bourbons and the states, was incomplete. Somehow, Subcomandante Marcos managed to flee the city during the chaos, fairly flying south into the steamy jungles of Guatemala. Despite that exception, which allowed the EZLN to survive albeit barely, Nueva España indeed won a crushing victory over some of the last remaining elements of internal dissent. And not one criminal charge was filed against any member of Mano Blanco, some rumors even say that following its ‘success’ the organization received further funding.
Ahora…
The kingdom is busy preparing for the forty-year anniversary of the Bourbon Monarchy and the founding of New Spain. While the masses turn their attention to massive upcoming series of soccer tournaments and parties the regime, for the first time, is casting its glances about a changed world.
Hispaniola remains fairly quiet, though it has shared in the economic boom far less than the mainland portion of the realm. Still, what little changes there have been were an improvement on almost stone age conditions, and Santo Domingo can truly say it has prospered as a city. Except for consistent crime activity in the far hinterlands of the former Haiti, (operating outside the king’s purview). Consequently it is only a matter of time before King Carlos II calls his cousin the Archiduque and tells him to do something about it.
Still the divide between the glittering spires of Ciudad Real, where His Majesty’s government resides, and the slums outside Ciudad Real and throughout the land is stunning. And the divide illustrates that while the kingdom has a thriving but tiny upper class and a stagnant lower class it has yet to build any significant ‘middle sector’, at least to the extend that Quinntonia defines a ‘middle sector’. His Catholic Majesty’s attention is now turned to the economy as he looks about the world, particularly in finding a new market for some of Nueva España’s more lucrative exports.
And most recently, only hours ago, news came that an envoy has been dispatched to the conference in Spyr.
* “Yes, it’s possible” I think is the literal translation, although the connotation is usually “Yes, we can” or “Yes, you can”.
** Please see off-site forums in a few days for a complete run down of the Curia Regis and membership.
Nueva España
A New State
Europe tends to be complicated…as is her people, her economy, and her politics. But across the oceans, in el oeste distante, things tend to be simpler.
As with the formation of most states, a great man was involved in the formation of El Reino: Ernesto de la Fuente y Bourbon, who would one day rule as Carlos I. Although it must be remember Ernesto was no Mexican, though he was a national of that country. By blood he was in fact a Spaniard, to the core, a Spanish Bourbon, whose family emigrated to the colonies long ago. Nevertheless though cultured by blood Ernesto eagerly adapted to the rough ways, and actions, of his adopted land. Early in his childhood he was given, he earned, the nickname el jefe, ‘the boss’. He would keep the name throughout his life.
Born in the dawn of the twentieth century to a vast fortune made in petroleum and mining de la Fuente grew a taste early on for soldiering and mujeres , and in Mexico, where all things have a price, his money would see him indulge heartily in both. Ernesto was a bear of a man…he was tall, strong, vulgar…but at times elegant, and he was always clever. Very clever.
In time Ernesto rose through the ranks earning in 1967 a general’s star. The Republic of Mexico was weak, el Presidente nearly powerless, and General Ernesto de la Fuente allowed himself to be the focal point of right-wing politics much in vogue at the time. Then, again simply, an opportunity for Ernesto to seize power arose, and he recognized the opportunity. Ernesto’s young nephew Carlos, another member of the scattered Bourbons, was the first-term president of the Dominican Republic. Due to claims he won the election fraudulently (which he of course did) protest groups arose on Hispaniola, funded ostensibly by Bertrand Aristide, the radically unpopular dictator of Haiti and personal political enemy of young Carlos. And indeed Bertrand was funding some of the protest groups…but as Monsieur Aristide was broke this funding was hardly effective.
The funding which was effective, the funding which nobody knew about, came from General Ernesto in Mexico and his right-wing cronies. Doubtless Carlos would have been angry had he known his own uncle was conspiring against him, but as he was clueless it was to his uncle he turned for assistance. And as events would show he gained far more than he lost. In this action the seeds of Nueva España were sown.
Using the pretext that the pacifist protest groups rising then all across the Dominican Republic, and Haiti too, were communist insurgents preparing to subvert the entire Caribbean, General Ernesto and his allies drummed up the case for a military intervention. Over the course of the year the drumbeat of war grew. Every month the protest groups, by no accident, become more vocal and seemed ever more ‘communist’. Numerous Central and South American heads of state were bribed…once bribed, they added their name to a ‘Pan-American Petition’ to facilitate peace on fractured Hispaniola. The language of the document was no mistake: Hispaniola, not the Dominican Republic and Haiti, was the term used. The heads of state, themselves military autocrats or corrupt civilians, probably coud have cared less what they were signing. They only cared that they payoff was large enough. So General Ernesto and his friends paid out many monies, but it was but an investment to what they soon gained.
On November 1st, 1968, All Saints Day, General Ernesto de la Fuente led two Mexican Army brigades—one armored and one infantry—across the Caribbean to land successfully on the beaches of Santo Domingo. With absolutely no resistance, and to jubiliant crowds in the streets, the capital of the Dominican Republic fell, or was liberated. Carlos de la Fuente, nephew to the glorious general, was restored. Then on November 15th, again under the fraudulent pretext of securing the island from communists, de la Fuente took his force over the frontier and into Haiti. With the utmost composure, a measure of Ernesto’s political skill and address as he told the crowds “all is well”, he in a most straightforward manner crossed Haiti and captured Port-au-Prince. Points were Aristide stationed third-rate posses and guards the General bypassed, and with speed tore across the countryside. Seeing themselves cut off, what little Haiti had for a military surrendered in waves. Bertrand Aristide had time only to sip his coffee before he and his fled Port-au-Prince before the General’s arrival. Hispaniola had been conquered in less than a month, and with no shots fired on either side.
Ernesto had proven the eternal truths of the war-scholar Sun Tzu, of whom he was an ardent disciple his whole life, remarking once ‘give me a Bible for heaven, but the Art of War for life’. The scholar said: “Generally in war the best policy is to take a state in tact; to ruin it is inferior to this” and more importantly, most importantly “Speed is the essence of war. Take advantage of the enemy’s unpreparedness; travel by unexpected routes and strike him where he has taken no precautions—this summarizes the essential nature of war, and the ultimate in generalship.”
By acting as a true disciple of Sun-Tzu, by having the right friends, by being in the right place at exactly the right time, General Ernesto de la Fuente had conducted one of the most stunning campaigns in the history of Latin America, perhaps even in the history of warfare. And Ernesto de la Fuente, seeing a secret goal within reach, was not finished. Leaving behind a brigade on Hispaniola, one that was now, as many troops would come to be, in awe of their Bourbon leader, General de la Fuente returned with his armored brigade to Mexico, and disembarked in Veracruz. As he went down the ship’s ramp, he turned to his private confessor, soon to be cardinal, Archangelo Ramirez: “I have not landed, I have crossed the Rubicon.”
It comes as no surprise that Ernesto de la Fuente would take control of Mexico as easily as he had climbed the ladder of military hierarchy, and conducted a lightning campaign across Hispaniola. With his armored Brigade which he now called tellingly ‘Los Caballeros’ the ambitious general turned north. Having literally burned and blown up his ships, as did Cortes his personal hero, Ernesto proceeded directly towards Mexico City, preaching ‘faith, land, bread’ and he went. Crowds, utterly disconnected from a president elected by weak democratic interests and a corrupt senate, cheered him onward. When he arrived in Mexico City, just as when he arrived in Port-au-Prince, he found the opposition had fled.
In December 1968 Ernesto de la Fuente rode on a white horseback to the Great Cathedral in Mexico City, which only hours before was named El Ciudad Real…the Royal City. With a crowd of millions outside chanting and singing, and thousands of newly installed peers inside, Ernesto took the name ‘Carlos Primero’. Cardinal Ramirez, arch-prelate of the new regime, produced there an ampulla of chrism: legend had it that this same chrism was used to bless Charlemagne, and that it was brought down from Heaven by a dove in times long past. And so Carlos I, King of New Spain, was blessed and crowned by the Catholic Church, which he swore to defend, himself and the heirs of his body, until the Day of Judgment. He proclaimed the will of God fulfilled, and declared his new realm of Mexico and Hispaniola Nueva España as a sign of hope given to people by the beneficent Lord Christ. In reward for his generous donations of land, treasure, and power to the Holy Catholic Church he was given special dispensation to claim for the throne of Nueva España the style of “His Catholic Majesty”.
His Catholic Majesty Carlos I (http://www.raptureme.com/photo/antichrists/ac-king-juan-carlos.jpg)
A more pragmatic action, but still hoping well for the future, was Carlos I’s contracting in perpetuity of one hundred Swiss bodyguards, the Cent Suisse common to nearly every royal court in history. The Bourbons’ extended bodyguard was made up of crack special forces blindly loyal to the monarchy, but the immediate men would always be foreign. As a wise man said “Pray for miracles, but plant cabbages.”
The reign of Carlos I had begun as one of upheaval, but ended as one of growth and stability. Slowly but surely under his strong rule the decades saw New Spain build an infrastructure unrivaled in the Latin West. For the first decades of his reign Carlos also aligned himself firmly with the United States of Quinntonia, in both economic and foreign policy, seeing it as the only rational course of action. As the years passed however, and as the infrastructure of Nueva España grew and the monarchy’s roots deepened, this relationship began to slowly drift apart. Urged on by the reactionary Catholic Clergy, who felt strongly Quinntonia was poaching the preserves of Catholicism by their missionary efforts in Central/South America, the Bourbon court willingly allowed the relationship to drift away. By the time of Carlos I’s death in 2001 the alliance would still exist, but everyone would ask ‘for how long?’
Carlos I’s heir was his first son by his wife, the Queen-Consort Isabella. Carlos I had lived a long life, dying at 87, and he had ruled for 32 of those years. Carlos Jose Juan Felipe de la Fuente y Bourbon took the throne in 2001 at forty-four years of age himself, with two grown sons and five young daughters.
His Catholic Majesty Carlos II (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Felipe%2C_Prince_of_Asturias.jpg)
The man who would rule as Carlos II was something of an oddity among world leaders: he had two doctorates of philosophy, one in Theology and one in Linguistic Mechanics. He spent the first twenty years of his life studying in a Dominican Monastery, where he was instructed by the monks in deep wisdom and his duties to the Church. He was taught the skill of languages, and how to search for truth in people. Following his time in the monastery, where he had earned two preliminary degrees, he served a tour in the now Royal Army of Nueva España. His fellow officers agreed him to be a firm commander and skilled tactician, with his father’s ability to win the troops over. The future Carlos II also demonstrated compassion for his troops, and often encouraged them in humanitarian projects which would benefit El Pueblo. His only flaw seemed to be a dark and sadistic ‘outbursts’ that manifested themselves at odd times, but which he quickly brought under control. Only those who have heard the darkest whispers of the royal court know that Carlos the Younger had an active hand in helping Carlos the Elder organize the Tapachula Massacre.
When he had completed his tour the Crown Prince returned to Ciudad Real. There he married the beautiful Portuguese Princess Alisande. And there too at the Royal University he completed his two doctorates with high honors whereupon he settled into palace life to work with his father and sire a family. A royal family.
Other than that, hardly anything was known of the man. Even now, seven years into his reign, there has been no noticeable change from his father’s rule. All the key ministers from Carlos I were held over, the regime was quite solidified. The Royal Family of New Spain is very private, no one really knows from one day to the next where the king actually is, and only several times a year does a Bourbon royal make an appearance. Officially the royal residence El Palacio de Ayuntamiento in Ciudad Real but many whisper the king and his curia spend the majority of their time in a hidden fortress palace near Cancun. Most laws and rules are just handed down by the Curia Regis, but now and then the king does make an official announcement. And occasionally he will appear, in one of his stunning suits, amidst the peasants of some rural town or city slum, uplifting them all with his smile and aura. In other words, the Spanish Bourbons have tried, successfully, to build a cult of personality around the monarchy. Officially the royal residence El Palacio de Ayuntamiento in Ciudad Real but many whisper the king and his curia spend the majority of their time in a hidden fortress palace near Cancun.
Overall all that is known about Carlos II points to a king who has combined his father’s brutish ambition with his own brand of sly zealotry. This is hardly a promising combination.
Mechanics of El Reino de Nueva España
Flag of Nueva España (http://wwp.european-union-eu.com/spain/images/spain-coat-arms.jpg)
When it comes down to it all governmental actions in Nueva España flow one way, or another, from the Curia Regis, or the King’s Court. Initially called the ‘junta’, the Latin name seemed to lend the ruling cabal and its monarch a bit more legitimacy. The Curia has just under five-hundred members, but only a dozen or so of those members actually have power to make law, only a dozen or so are actually in the king’s presence. Those dozen or so with power are known as the Inner Circle, while those on the peripheries of power are known as the Outer Circle. It meets at the king’s pleasure, and wherever he wishes it to meet. In the current reign of Carlos II of its many members ((**)) the most influential are: El Principe de Durango (King Carlos II’s twenty-five year old son and Crown Prince) Cardinal Archangelo Ramirez de Las Casas, El Archiduque de Hispaniola Carlos de la Fuente (First cousin to King Carlos II), Generalissimo Arturo Salazar, Ministro Público Miguel-Jose Santos, Senor Juan-Antonio Obregón, and El Duque de Jalisco Raul de Mercedian.
There was never much of a need to formally ban free speech in Nueva España. Rey Carlos I, a simple man, wanted a simple solution. So one evening all the media moguls were rousted from their beds by the king’s goons, and brought to one of his many hidden and undisclosed palaces. One by one the thuggish monarch looked the newsmen in the eyes as the nervous fellows eyed each other across the long cold table. With one word from the king, delivered with quiet menace, they understood. ‘¡Cállete!’ said King Carlos, shut up!, and shut up they did. Not since that quiet warning has there been one bad or ill-intended story pertaining to the monarchy, though a law was never passed nor censors put into effect. By making it clear the media would serve King Carlos or serve no one any longer, the monarchy got the media to muzzle itself more effectively than it could ever have. Even after Carlos II took the throne no further admonition was needed, the press of Nueva España and the monarchy understood one another. The glowing reports of the coronation, and the new beloved king, were proof positive that the Bourbons tamed their journalists.
Yet for all their vigor and guile Nueva España’s Bourbon princes occupy a tenuous position. The monarchy is, indeed, in absolute control of Mexico and Hispaniola…in theory. In practice, the monarchs know their power rests on an unstable alliance of reactionary Catholic clergy, narcotics traffickers, mafia kingpins, corporate magnates, the temporarily appeased masses, and hard line rightist generals. Carlos I knew and Carlos II knows that even one loss from that mixture would be a catastrophe, and would allow for the possibility of a general revolution. And at this time, with El Reino’s economy so fragile, Carlos simply cannot allow that to happen. He therefore, hatefully, maintains a publicly friendly posture towards the stabilizing gringos, northern Quinntonia, while all the while plotting how he could successfully detach its realm and it’s economy from the hated Anglo-protestants.
The highest of the monarchy’s allies, politically and ideologically, is the Holy Roman Catholic Church. The one element the monarchy had to hook itself up totally to, inextricably, was the Catholic Church…particularly the arch-reactionary faction of the Church within Latin America, which was under the sway of one powerful cleric. Cardinal Archangelo Ramirez de Las Casas was himself an opportunistic man, who saw it as his duty to stamp out liberal rights, abortion, and the last vestiges of pre-conquest paganism he saw present in Mexico. In his words, he was sent ‘to slay the three-headed beast of hell.’ It took no great leap of intuition to see that in King Carlos the Cardinal knew he had found a partner. And so partners they became. With the duo of Carlos and Cardinal the Catholic Church in Nueva España became slowly and slowly more reactionary, until even the word ‘Inquisition’ began to be floated about. Carlos allowed the reconstitution of the Catholic ‘Ecclesiastical Court’ thus placing clergymen above the regular law. The Church was declared ‘the one true faith of Nueva España’ and her lands were made sacrosanct. In time abortion and contraception were made illegal, and, appropriately enough, so too was the death penalty. Where as the Mexican and Hispaniolan peoples had always been religious and spiritual, now they were encouraged to be zealous and superstitious…after all, if they trusted only Church and King, and feared the shadows and chupacabras, how could they ever mobilize for a revolution? Overnight, the Catholic Church was transformed into the second most important institution in all of N.E.., second only to the House of Bourbon. It was a position that Cardinal Ramirez de Las Casas intended to keep.
King Carlos I was a practical man, and he realized that the crime syndicates in his realm were too strong to break and attempting to break them would result in a civil war which would bring discord for years. Likewise, the source of their funding, the narcotics trade, made incredible amounts of profit with nearly zero investment. So the mafia lords were summoned before the king. The new monarch gave them the choice of serving him and his regime or fighting a prolonged street war that in the end they knew they could not win. So the gangs of Mexico and Hispaniola, now Nueva España, were incorporated into the Bourbon monarchy. In exchange for their vassalage the king allowed them to continue the majority of their non-violent activities and some of their violent ones, as long as they served him when called and saw to it the monarch got a generous slice of the profits. This is not to say that gang violence ended on the streets of Nueva España, but with the exception of Tijuana in the north, a major crossroads for the drug trade, the large scale kidnappings and murders endemic in former Mexico ceased to exist. However with the secret cooperation of the government, narcotics production and trafficking is now one of the largest factors in the realm’s economy. Juan-Antonio Obregón, lord of the Obregón cartel and the foremost Mafioso in the kingdom was inducted into the Curia Regis, and became a close adviser of King Carlos I and later Carlos II. He swiftly became one of the court’s most influential advisors.
Aside from the Church the corporate masters of the new state came over to the monarchy most quickly. Much like the gangsters, in exchange for generous kickbacks the monarchy set corporations up to make maximum profits with minimum questions. Pemex (the energy giant), the largest company in Nueva España, was conglomerated anew by the king’s blessing with Cemex (the cement giant). The new company, Unexco, soared to number 20 on the list of Fortune 500 companies and climbed to the 6th largest energy company in the world in terms of revenue. Based in Unexco Tower (formerly Pemex Tower) in Ciudad Real the mammoth company (which investors know has the support of the stable absolutist government) continues to attract ever larger investments from foreign and domestic investors. Unexco has diversified into mining, heavy transit, and macro-agriculture projects thus securing its place as a attractive investment the world over. The company’s first C.E.O. Carlos Slim de Mercedian was promoted to the Curia Regis’ Inner Circle as Ministro de Tesoro shortly after the company's bullish stockmarket drive and created El Duque de Jalisco. With Mercedian at the treausury’s helm the government backed financially and supported publicy several massive corporations, which were umbrellas for many smaller subsidiaries. So while the kingdom embraced a capitalist system it was embraced with a sort of protectionism so natural to the economies of Latin America. The system ensured that only those companies which were staunchly loyal to the regime would flourish, which encouraged all business men to toady up.
While building an infrastructure was the task of Carlos I, by the coronation of Carlos II the growing unemployment was recognized as the greatest economic issue facing Nueva España. Since the corporate infrastructure and raw materials were already present the only thing that had to be done was stimulate the workforce in such a manner as to, in the words of Carlos II ‘get things moving.’ Deducing the economy of Nueva España was in such bad shape more or less because his mystical el pueblo were not working hard enough, the order came down it was time to get people out and get them to work. Now how to apply such a blanket order to hundreds of millions of impoverished and in many cases geographically isolated peoples was of course the question. Since many companies and industrial concerns already posted a labor need it was figured a simple enough matter…find the unemployed, and take them to a new job. With grades of varying efficiency from excellent in Southern Mexico and miserable in the mountains of Haiti pick up trucks manned by goons from Mano Blanco hauled the good people out for various agricultural, commercial and industrial projects. After the first few incidents people started to get the message, and were transported to their new locations of employment. And though it is true that in all cases they were paid (at well below a market rate), the government’s willingness to use brute force to improve the economy was not seen as a good omen.
Nevertheless despite its oddities and economic brutishness, and what many outside termed ‘Latino lethargy’, by the current reign of Carlos II Nueva España is judged to have between the 10th to 12th largest economy in the world. And though poverty is still rampant and many places squalid by a Quinntonian or British standard, nevertheless to the people of the realm and especially to her southern neighbors Nueva España is thriving.
Power ultimately rested on the shoulders of over a hundred-million Latinos and Hispaniolians, this was a fact not lost on the Bourbons. The monarchy created a dynamic new philosophy, and while to ‘cultured’ nations on the globe the philosophy seemed a bit hodge-podge and juxtaposed, to Latin America it made perfect sense. The core belief was in a mystic El Pueblo, the People, the innumerable masses of Spanish and Indian blooded Latinos. These people, inspired by the Holy Catholic Church and led by the Spanish Bourbons, were to one day soon break free of their crippling backwardness. They would construct a shining empire that would span all of the Americas and realize the virtues of the Most Scared Heart of Jesus and the kind precepts of La Virgen de Guadalupe. Under their sandaled or bare feet the false institutions of Protestantism and greed would be crushed, and the lily-white gringos would be sent back across the seas. The criminals, gangsters and landlords that had oppressed El Pueblo for so long would spontaneously combust. At that time there will be food and material in plenty for all the people, and freed from poverty a new Christian golden age would descend upon them all, a utopia where the only rules would be the Ten Commandments and the only danger a mistuned guitar. But to reach this new golden age it was critical El Pueblo maintained a fanatical loyalty to the monarchy and a superlative devotion to the Catholic Church. The people were to do whatever they were told, because to resist would only make Santana howl with laughter. The chant of El Pueblo, the mantra that shook windows when the countless masses gathered at government-staged rallies to march for El Rey Carlos was “Si se Puede! Si se Puede!” *
Certain aspects of the monarchy are socialist as well. But it was selectively socialist. On paper, the El Reino de Nueva España has universal health care. In reality only those classified as ‘subjects in good standing’ (i.e. culturally acclimated modern Latinos who have demonstrated loyalty to the regime) receive state medical care. This serves as an incentive for people to become more loyal to the king and his dogma, because with loyalty and service came the king’s gifts. The same policy is true for housing aid and general welfare…only ‘subjects in good standing’ were able to draw on the resources. This gives Ciudad Real another weapon with which to break the few remaining stubborn indigenous peoples.
Lastly, something quite foreseeable, the monarchy allied itself to a cadre of near-Fascist generals, loyal only to the regime, who were used to fill King Carlos I and King Carlos II’s General Staff. Their leader is the old man, the ‘el Viejo’, of the Curia Regis and its Inner Circle: Generalissimo Arturo Salazar, 82 years young. But the man’s age only serves to hide his still brilliant and by all accounts evil mind. His loyalty to the regime and Bourbon Monarchy is not a normal fidelity. Generalissimo Salazar cares only about gaining more power for his military, and was won over once Carlos I helped him to do this. He is a militarist plain and simple; and though he is a keen strategist he fails to see that not every situation needs a military solution. It was he who was the mind behind Tapachula, and if the Generalissimo had not been checked the Massacre would have been maybe twenty times larger than it was. Still Salazar is a man indispensable to the regime, and by all accounts on the rare debates when el Viejo speaks all members of the junta listen. He is in total control of Nueva España’s military, and this allows the Bourbon Monarchy to be totally in control of the realm. It is a telling statement about Carlos II that he considers such a man his grandfather figure.
A word also needs to be said about the most influential paramilitary group in Nueva España. In the several minor disturbances which has shaken the N.E.. since its founding, and the major incident of Chiapas in 1992, Their Majesty’s government has never really used regular army forces to break up Marxist protests or attempted coups. That would bring media attention, and a country mobilizing its military would alarm the neighbors. Instead the regime relies upon the masses of armed thugs fanatically loyal to the King and his dogma. These mobs, which are most zealous in north-central Mexico but are present throughout the realm, are vicious, mean, uneducated, efficient as a sledge hammer and half as subtle. Together they are known as Mano Blanco, the White Hand. Although the government keeps a classified registry of the members, they really have no constant roster, but members surface in places as needed or, frankly, when they smell blood. State intelligence operatives, handily, always seem to be around where the White Hand forms to see that it is appropriately armed. And if there was ever an investigation, which there would never be, it would have found unconfirmed reports that off-duty military regulars would more often than not go ‘on patrol’ with Mano Blanco. Furthermore Mano Blanco also gives the king a handy counterweight to the numerous vicious gangs that plague the kingdom; but this advantage is dimmed by the fact most gangsters are Mano Blanco on the weekends. The draconian Ministro Público of New Spain Miguel-Jose Santos, one of King Carlos I’s and again with Carlos II’s closest confidants, oversees the Mano Blanco as part of his other internal security duties. He has often stated it is better to use the angry mobs than his more professional covert agents because ‘you get more bang for your buck.’
Perhaps the most controversial public policy in the Kingdom of New Spain is ‘sanctification’; a process whereby all traces of native indigenous culture, language, and religion is extinguished in favor of the modern Spanish/Catholic ‘good’ culture, language and religion. ‘Sanctification’ ranges somewhat benignly from the renaming of cites and towns. For example, Nueva España and Hispaniola replaced Mexico and Dominican Republic/Haiti, Mexico City became Ciudad Real (Royal City), the Zocalo is now simply Plaza Real, and Estadio Azteca is now the Estadio Carlos el Grande. ‘Sanctification’ intensified to the dynamiting of Aztec, Olmec and Mayan ruins (which is nearly complete contemporarily) to the forcible reeducation of children and adults in government Learning Centers. It is said that there teachers still have the power to beat their students.
Tapachula: 1992
The greatest test of the monarchy’s power, a direct product of ‘sanctification’ and the increasingly authoritarian nature of the kingdom, came in 1992. A combination of Indian freedom fighters, furious over the organized violence directed against their ancestry, and leftist student-revolutionaries, seeing a chance to overthrow the oppressive regime (most likely a pan-American force); between two to six thousand mixed troops and as many non-combatant supporters, took control of the key city of Tapachula, in the troubled Chiapas state…troubled because Chiapas was one of the last remaining strongholds of native society. It took the rebels only a few minutes to overwhelm the government’s police and route the tiny Royal Army garrison of less than a hundred soldiers. The mob stormed City Hall, and after ransacking it burned it down. The city’s royal police intendant, Lt. Juan Robles-Rosas, was caught on film being hung from a telephone poll, wearing a placard which said “I abused my people”. The mayor, on camera, defected to the revolutionaries, who announced themselves as the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, or EZLN. They were led by the charismatic and ski-masked figure of Subcomandante Marcos, who rumor had being a disillusioned Universitarion from Ciudad Real.
His Majesty’s government was alarmed, and with good reason. A week passed and the insurgents consolidated their hold on the city and the surrounding countryside. The rebels in Tapachula were putting out broadcats daily about how the liberation of “Mexico”, to use a forbidden indigenous name, had begun, stating also “Marxist Revolutionism” was alive and well despite feudal resistance. Yet Carlos knew what had to be done as soon as he had heard of the rebellion days earlier. With the utmost subtlety Ciudad Real was covertly shipping tens of thousands irregulars south, at night by truck or train. These were no government troops, but the Mano Blanco militia, which was about to have its largest engagement. They gathered in their thousands outside the city, preparing themselves with cocaine and firing their AK-47s into the air. King Carlos publicy maintained the gathering militia was a ‘spontaneous demonstration of patriotism and courage from the Spanish masses’ against the forces of ‘hell and communism’. At the end of the week’s occupation roads surrounding Tapachula were cut off, no one was able to get in or out. Hour by hour the situation intensified. Word began to drift into Tapachula the militias were harrassing people, that people trying to enter or leave the city were being shot. Then, without warning, somehow, the power went out. News crews were unable to broadcast from within the city. The televisions went blank.
When communication was restored four days later, Tapachula was the scene of a massacre. Apparently, so far as anyone knew there were no records, Mano Blanco had swarmed the city and the insurgents, taking no prisoners in a 72 hour orgy of looting and atrocities. Leftist rebels were massacred alongside Tapachula’s civilians. Indigenous troops, though they fought bravely, were not able to supply themselves as well as the state-run militia. From all accounts Mano Blanco had achieved a military victory over the rebels within 24 hours of striking. Why then did government forces wait so long to intercede while the city was butchered? No one knows. However, it would not be far off the mark to guess Carlos used the opportunity as an example to his realm…if you allowed rebellion, the response would be devastation. When the Royal Army finally arrived on the scene to quell the violence, over 23,500 inhabitants of Tapachula and rebel insurgents were found dead; twice as many had been maimed or wounded. In many cases the causes of these deaths had been chainsaws. Though the city itsef remained fairly in tact, the horrors witnessed by the first aid workers to arrive on scene would give them nightmares for the rest of their life. But the example made a successful impression, because there has not been so much a riot in New Spain (save scattered violence in the Haitan countryside) since the Tapachula Massacre.
Yet the victory, from the point of view of the Bourbons and the states, was incomplete. Somehow, Subcomandante Marcos managed to flee the city during the chaos, fairly flying south into the steamy jungles of Guatemala. Despite that exception, which allowed the EZLN to survive albeit barely, Nueva España indeed won a crushing victory over some of the last remaining elements of internal dissent. And not one criminal charge was filed against any member of Mano Blanco, some rumors even say that following its ‘success’ the organization received further funding.
Ahora…
The kingdom is busy preparing for the forty-year anniversary of the Bourbon Monarchy and the founding of New Spain. While the masses turn their attention to massive upcoming series of soccer tournaments and parties the regime, for the first time, is casting its glances about a changed world.
Hispaniola remains fairly quiet, though it has shared in the economic boom far less than the mainland portion of the realm. Still, what little changes there have been were an improvement on almost stone age conditions, and Santo Domingo can truly say it has prospered as a city. Except for consistent crime activity in the far hinterlands of the former Haiti, (operating outside the king’s purview). Consequently it is only a matter of time before King Carlos II calls his cousin the Archiduque and tells him to do something about it.
Still the divide between the glittering spires of Ciudad Real, where His Majesty’s government resides, and the slums outside Ciudad Real and throughout the land is stunning. And the divide illustrates that while the kingdom has a thriving but tiny upper class and a stagnant lower class it has yet to build any significant ‘middle sector’, at least to the extend that Quinntonia defines a ‘middle sector’. His Catholic Majesty’s attention is now turned to the economy as he looks about the world, particularly in finding a new market for some of Nueva España’s more lucrative exports.
And most recently, only hours ago, news came that an envoy has been dispatched to the conference in Spyr.
* “Yes, it’s possible” I think is the literal translation, although the connotation is usually “Yes, we can” or “Yes, you can”.
** Please see off-site forums in a few days for a complete run down of the Curia Regis and membership.