Est. 1991. Active
Comunista guerrillas marching through farmland (est. 1996).
Membership: Claimed 'over 9000'; estimated 2,500.
Known affiliates: None.
Commanders: Domingo Ojedo.
In a nation coloured by twelve ongoing insurrections, the Workers' Commune is renowned as among the most brutal. Formally styled the Workers' Revolutionary Councils of the Greater Socorran Socialist Commune, the Commune was established in Aug. 1991 by disillusioned socialistas angered at the instatement of a governmental 'viceroy council' membered by 21 parrots. Following a brief but unsuccessful twelve-day assault on Puerto del Salvador, the group escaped surrounding by General Eladio Avano's Fifth Army and retreated to the Gran Cuenca (Grand Basin), where they evaded state intelligence for two years. Presumed disbanded, the Commune was rediscovered in Sep. 1993 after striking the Gran Cuenca's Green Fort.
After Avano retook the Green Fort in a bloody two-month campaign where 200 soldiers died, the Commune reformed into a guerrilla-based organisation. Having failed to overthrow the Crespo regime within two years, the Commune adopted guerrilla warfare for a 'long war'. Their assymetric tactics have been profoundly effective, having controlled the 2,000km2 Gran Cuenca since 2001.
The sudden adoption of the 'long war' doctrine suggest a rapid leadership transition, perhaps manifested in an internal coup: while its leader pre-1994 is unknown, former army corporal Domingo Ojedo has been the 'People's Commissar of State' for eighteen years. Ojedo defected to the Commune during the 1991 coup attempt, and sources recount that he rose quickly as a proficient administrator in the disorganised Commune and centralised it to create an ultra-effective force.
Before Ojedo, the Commune was a loose coalition of communist bandits with a chaotic structure and therefore little chance of success: under Ojedo, it has transformed into an organisation more capable than the Army and the severest active threat to political stability. It is imperative that the Commune is crushed before it can acquire foreign support.
[Ejército Socorrano]