The Democritus Times (Democritus Only)

[Andeya]

March 1st, 2028

The Standoff at Rio Huaypetue

ANP checkpoint, with a modernized Soviet-era APC

At Rio Huaypetue, the standoff continues. Fearing for their safety, the miners and local police have withdrawn to Huepetuhe, a remote mining town with over eight thousand residents. While at first there was much confusion over who conducted the attack, AIDESEA, an Andean indigenous extremist group, has claimed responsibility for the attack. It's estimated that while initially there were only several hundred AIDESEA militants, their numbers have now swollen to four thousand.

The militants are armed with a mix of shotguns, and clubs, or whatever else they could arm themselves with. They also set up a roadblock on the only road connecting Huepetuhe to the rest of Andea, severing the town's lines of communications with the rest of Andea. Making matters worse, Huepetuhe's scheduled resupply trucks were interdicted along their route by AIDESEA militants, leading some to believe that the attack was deliberately timed to starve out the town.

In response, the Andean National Police has organized an airlift to keep Huepetuhe supplied and has called for negotiations with AIDESEA. However, AIDESEA has rejected negotiations, saying that the airlift's real purpose is to send ANP reinforcement to Huepetuhe. Afterward, AIDESEA militants have begun massing four kilometers away from Huepetuhe, a sign that AIDESEA may soon attempt to overwhelm the isolated town.

Huepetuhe's is guarded by twenty-six serenazgos (local police officers). While greatly outnumbered, they have urged the Huepetuhe's residents to remain calm. On the other hand, the ANP has threatened "severe retaliation" against AIDESEA should they attack Huepetuhe. To some, this is a worrying regression towards Shining Path-era policing.

The Andean National Police was formed in 1985, amidst the Andean Civil War. Initially specializing in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations, the ANP evolved into one of the largest and most militarized police forces in America. Even though the ANP has often been misidentified as a military force in the past, its status as a civilian organization has kept it under the control of Andean authorities, rather than being integrated into the FSR Armed Forces. However, the ANP also became known for its human rights violations, a legacy which stuck even after the ANP began reorganizing itself to focus on civil policing in 2001.

The recent extremism has proven worrisome to Andean authorities. As a result, Lima has authorized the deployment of ANP reserves towards the provinces but fell short of requesting a military intervention. The big question now is whether AIDESEA will attempt to storm Huepetuhe. AIDESEA's leader, Alberto Pizango, has called for violent resistance to the Andean government in the past. But the Rio Huaypetue Mine represents the first time he actually carried out his threats. Many indigenous activists, however, claim that the Rio Huaypetue attack was needlessly divisive and counter-productive. Although the indigenous conference in Paraguay was supposed to unite all indigenous groups throughout the FSR, whether or not the conference will be successful is now put into doubt, as opinions are split on the Rio Huaypetue incident.

Allegedly, some AIDESEA members are hopeful that they could carry out an indigenous uprising. However, others aren't so optimistic. One of our reporters has contacted a Shining Path member, who is still hiding from the Andean police. Before the meeting, the reporter was blindfolded and taken to another location. However, once there, the ex-Shining Path member stated that the situation has changed dramatically towards the Andean government's favor since 1992. He added that any sort of "people's' war" against the Andean government, much less the FSR, was "hopeless." Modavef has also stayed quiet on the Rio Huaypetue incident.

[Calindelo]

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The Coast Guard's Modernization
6th of March, 2028

The Indonesian Coast Guard conducting patrolling exercises with the Navy. (February 28, 2028)

JAKARTA, INDONESIA - To comply with the Biaya Selat Act of 2027, the Coast Guard has undergone a modernization program which plans to add more maritime vehicles, more modern equipment, additional training to personnel, and a "Special Forces Regiment" for the coast guard branch of the Armed Forces. The Coast Guard - Indonesian Navy joint training and exercise, which started on the first day of February and will continue on until September, has recently started which trained both branches in various situations in patrolling and enforcing security in Indonesian waters. Handpicked individuals from both the coast guard and participating pool of individuals in the navy are then reassigned to the said new "Special Forces Company" for the coast guard, which handles dangerous maritime situations such as hijackings, hostage situations, etc.

Meanwhile, Indonesia is in talks with DEU nations such as France and Germany to further modernize the navy by buying new maritime vehicles, technology and equipment such as radar. The presidential spokesperson voiced the Armed Forces' preference for an Aircraft Carrier, but expressed the president's thought to first further the standards of living in Indonesia and focus on social issues for the citizens than spend money extravagantly on weapons that are not needed at the time.

[Nowa Polonie]

The rise of ''Salon Socjalizm''

Political extremism, in the wake of the collapse of the Polish Peoples' Republic, and the successful establishment of the Visegrad Union, has long disappeared from the politics of Poland-Czechoslovakia. It is true that there are those who say that current government policy does not go far enough from the furthest-left, or that it is an abomination from the right, but as a rule, most in Visegrad are content, and as of lately, courteous about their political leanings. In recent days, and especially with the ending of restrictions of public life in the wake of the recent global pandemic, a renaissance in popular politics has begun, dubbed by sociologists in Visegrad as ''Salon Socialism'' - simply put, politically-minded members of the public meeting in coffee shops, salons and public houses to debate and philosophize.



Mulling over tea, coffee, and harder drinks, the citizens of Visegrad have begun to embrace a mood of popular democracy, meeting to discuss to the merits of policy and ideology, and petitioning the government with recommendations.

[Andeya]

March 30th, 2028

ADISEA Negotiations: Operations have been restarted at the Rio Huaypetue Mine, as ADISEA and the Andean government agreed to hold negotiations. As a precondition of holding the negotiations, Andea has agreed to accepting the FUNAI's demarcations should the talks be successful. Throughout the negotiations, both sides will also discuss the topic of police reform, bilingual education, and other issues faced by indigenous and African Andeans.

Electoral Midterms: The midterms ended with a victory for the Communist Party, which won 60% of the seats. The Alliance for Peace managed to secure 25% of the seats, while a mix of ten other parties secured 15% of the seats. Although the Communist Party increased their control of Congress, the new elections have pointed towards growing dissatisfaction with the Cold War and career politicians. Some say that future FSR politicians will have to focus on domestic issues.

Submarine Project: The Navy has announced that the FSR's next submarine will be the Lima-class submarine. While it's already known that the Navy is attempting to field a new attack submarine, this represents the first time the public has a glimpse at the new designs. Based on publicly available data, it is known that the Lima-class will be the FSR's most expensive and capable submarine yet. Some believe that the Lima-class' focus on technological advances is inspired by the by the late Estadounidense Seawolf-class. Unlike the Seawolf-class, the Lima-class will feature VLS tubes. The Navy is betting that future production breakthroughs will help bring down the cost of the submarine.

E-Government: The E-Government Initiative, the brainchild of Fujmori, has set out to digitize the FSR's vast bureaucratic system. The idea is to cut down on paperwork by allowing people to directly access their files from the internet. For example, people would be able to sign legal contracts digitally and gain their drug prescriptions and health data at any time. All of this would be united by a secure National ID, which would also make use of multi-factor authentication. Should the E-Government imitative be successful, it would lead to tremendous efficiency gains, but currently the initiative is just a pilot program.