Dry Season, the OriginalLacking anything better to do, I decided to call a consitutional convention, and endorsed all the Chrisitan Reform policies...
We also gave Correa some more power, reaffirm our export crop policies, and support not implementing price controls.
Why am I cheering? Because:
A) If we refuse food subsidies, we have to pay to 'supress' the food riots caused by Hector. Hector's death prevent him from organizing these protests. There won't be any food riots, and thus we won't need to pay for their suppression.
B) This is the last Influential that Padilla is going to kill. That's it. He will likely continue to kill some nameless redshirts, but in game terms, Padilla's reign of terror is over.
The RealizationI realize that I have to call for elections in order to complete the Karios' Run. If I didn't call for elections, then I would be stuck reaffirming the status quo and doing nothing for the rest of thegame. The game would end with the army staying together, but not merging. You already saw what Pax Americana said if that happens, but if not, I'll reprint it:
"To everyone's surprise, this situation continued for a considerable length of time despite growing tensions between the two camps that occasionally erupted into violence."
In fact, Jim has implied that the Army can never merge in an email he sent to Coccunt Kid.
The two sided army does not seem to work. It seems necessary to purge one side or the other as soon as possible in order to have the slightest chance. Or am I missing a huge clue?
That is exactly the 'huge clue.' You must decide which kind of army to support. Based on the real-world choices in that region in the 80's.
Because of this, I hypothesis that there is no 'merger' event for the Army, because such a 'merger' may have been deemed 'unrealistic'. You can keep the Army together by not holding elections, but I highly suspect that to be a bug, and not an intentional game design.
The Reconciliation Army is going to crash and burn sooner or later. We might as well do it now.
Dry Season, ReduxYes, let's hold the "first truly free and fair elections in our country's history". Wait a second...
Were you basically saying that Leonard Flores, your
founder, did not gain political power through "truly free and fair elections"? Then how
did he gain power in the first place? Through working with Farsante?
We're holding elections whether you like it or not, Alejos.
Well, at least we tried.
If you were wondering, ending US military aid to Ehrlich doesn't appear to change the result, though this may be due to the slowness by which American military aid actually get cut off. I'll explain that more in the graphs section. I
can, however, kick out Ehrlich if I decide to crack down on LIMIPA...this gives me an idea...
I think I have enough evidence to conclude that what impacts the Consitution is the Sole Chief of Staff, and NOT the Presidente. The reason? Look at clause #1. Popular Stability have always advocated for the Presidente to have a maximum of two terms, while Chrisitan Reform have desired for the Presidente to have a maximum of one term. I advocated for 'one term', and the Electoral Council sided with Christian Reform. However, the other two parts of the consitution are proposals made by Popular Stability, and the Electoral Council did not listen to me when I suppored the Chrisitan Reform proposals. It doesn't make any sense why the Electoral Council would listen to me for clause #1, and not the other clauses...so it goes to reason that the Electoral Council never listened to me at all, and instead listened to the Army.
My hypothesis is that the Sole Chief of Staff gets to decide what the Consitution says. If the Sole Chief of Staff is Ehrlich, you get this right-wing consitution designed to serve the interests of the Army (the Army loves weak executives). If the Sole Chief of Staff is Correa, then you get a left-wing consitution. As evidence, when I empowered Correa (by outlawing LIMIPA), I get the standard National Liberation consitution with a super-powerful Presidente, no term limits, and armed vigiliantes electing mayors.
tl;dr: The Consitution is a total waste of time, don't waste Encounters on it unless you really want to hold elections early.
The Army
always traditionally dominated Chimerica, no matter if it is Left or Right.
You got a new job, huh?
Ehrlich's victory meant that now the Army has free reign to crack down on the land reform program and...wait. I never authorized giving arms to peasents. All I did was grant Correa control over security in the countryside and...
Oh HELL.This is the Left-Wing Insurgency. Rejecting land reform will just lead to isolated rebellions, but nothing as serious as this. Now that Ehrlich runs the military entirely, he'll end up doing stupid stuff like locking up Claudio and beating up peasents. What do you think the peasents are going to do in response? Stand there? They'll strike back, with all the guns that Correa gave to them.
Still, we can salavage what's left of land reform. I decide to bring in US military advisors to train our troops in rural pacification. I don't trust Ehrlich at all, even the Americans are better than him.
...and the death squads are still rampaging. I actually don't remember if I got this letter in the first time I did this run, but I likely did. Eh.
This letter by Buffard actually makes it clear that there is a difference between the death squads and LIMIPA. Keep that in mind when calcuating death tolls. Padilla's goons are cowards, it's the death squads you have to watch out for.
But I did everything you told me to! Everything! How in the world could your CR policies end up actually being too far right?
Though, you're right, Oberon. The economic policies that you have preferred are also the same policies Popular Stability desires. Unlike the Americans, we can eventually repair relations enough to get the socialists to extend aid again. So, we should do what we can to get the support of the socialists...in fact...
Larry, you're fired. Instead, I'll hire the sole National Liberation Politican who haven't tried to kill me yet...Julio!
And no, we're not begging for Colonel Ehrlich to stop the attacks. Let the American military advisors work their magic.
The only reason I am considering this left-wing reform is because we're an economy based on export crops and farming, not based on industry. Therefore, this program won't really cause that much damage in the first place and is really a token gesture at best, one that we'll build upon.
I feel like a true socialist. Though it always bothered me why Padilla murdered Hector, who advocated a far more moderate labor policy, while letting Sergio run free with his National Salary Scale.
Except that when we actually tried talking to terrorists, the terrorists just kept on killing. We already unleashed the hornet's nest, there's no turning back.
We are not going to give Ehrlich a blank check either, Alejos.
Since Oberon is the Defense Minister though, I see no reason not to accept his advice here. It's not like Ehrlich is actually going to listen to us.
There goes our attempts at getting socialist economic aid. This attack seems to have been done by a mob of Popular Stabilitarians, as opposed to the death squads or Padilla. I believe this because you get to see this mob attack the US embassy if you extradite Colonel Mendita.
We decide to crack down on corruption again...
...while reassuring the Cotton and Coffee Producers that we'll keep on loaning money to export crops.
We do engage in a bit of a "aid diversion", diverting some US economic aid to support the poor majority. We might not get back in the good graces of the socialists, but we might as well try.
Now, Hector's dead. And since that US letter already fired, it means that this will truly be the last time that we'll hear of Padilla.
Our great policy to protect what's left of land reform was a utter failure.
I have it on good authority that only
50% of the population is illiterate. Come on now, you're El Monde. You should be good at fact-checking. I also don't remember seeing you condemning that stupid military draft that bankrupted my nation when we had that left-wing insurgency.
...I think we can safely say we failed at our Chrisitan Reform run.