MAVERICK MILITARY OPERATION RESCUES HOSTAGES / CORE LEADERSHIP SNUFFED BY MILITIA
Marine Colonel Scott Summers, described as “an insurgent” by President Gall, announced the discovery and rescue of over a dozen hostages taken by the CORE terrorists, including Crown Princess Francesca and Farpoint Mayor Johan Thorsbeard. The military operation, planned and executed independently of the President’s office, drew cheers from royalists, and citizens of the W.E.T. and latin provinces, while drawing muted appreciation from other quarters.
Deputy MDIA "Chevy" Neamberlain announced that while “everyone in the government” was relieved by the hostages’ rescue, that the actions of the military were inappropriate and would be subject to disciplinary review.
On the opposition end of the spectrum, the First Ministers of Nueva Rioja and Isabella announced new “provincial holidays” and hosted great parades to welcome back the troops and members of the royal court.
The military units involved in the operation credited an “inside tip” with revealing the location of the hostages, while the leadership of the CORE was otherwise engaged.
The engagement referred to would have been a fight-to-the-death between the main body of CORE rebels and the citizens’ militia of Farpoint which, after hours of shooting, resorted to brutal hand to hand combat that left the CORE leaders dead and many militia members wounded. CORE rebels took their own lives to avoid capture, but formers members of the now defunct La Resistance anti-American group were able to confirm identify among the casualties all of those suspected of composing the CORE leadership.
“What we did today, we did for honor and for the people of the W.E.T.,” said an unidentified militia leader, “There is no joy in it, we did only what must be done.”
MILE J. Edgar Herbert declined to comment on previous statements that militia forces would be rounded up and prosecuted as vigilantes, saying only that “there’s been too much violence to contemplate more at this time.”
Queen Maria, who had been hospitalized for most of the past few weeks, was reportedly reinforced by the news of her daughter’s rescue and expressed her sincere appreciation to the people of the W.E.T. and the Ibero-provinces.
Public opinions polls find Gall’s handling of the crisis “Extremely Poor” and many pundits are openly criticizing his government’s inaction on this issue and his objection to the military operation, which is now seen as a great act of heroism.
IBEROS CLASH WITH FRANCOS ON BORDERS OF ST. ESPIRIT & ISABELLA
Radical labor activists and Latin autonomy groups members refused passage to motorists along major highways in and out of Isabella and Nueva Rioja, leading to violence and the hospitalization of two Franco-Eutopian truckers from St.Espirit.
As part of their protest against the national government, mobs of Ibero-Eutopians had attempted to “close the borders” of their provinces and had erected makeshift barricades along major Eutopian highways and many side-roads.
Hundreds of citizens have been stranded on one side or the other of the barricades and have been separated from their jobs, their families, and/or their homes. While angry complaints and minor scuffles have been common, two separate incidents of violence escalated when teamsters Michel Beauchene and Luc du Garrou both attempted to break the barricades to return to their homes in St. Espirit. Accounts vary but claims have been made that the attempts to break the barriers threatened the lives or safety of protestors who had climbed the barricades. In both cases, the truckers were drug from their vehicles and beaten, despite efforts by sympathetic motorists to aid them.
Federalist MNA Fritz Boudreau, formerly a sympathizer of the protestors cause angrily condemned these “attacks on innocents” and called for an immediate end to the strikes and compensation for the truckers and “all those inconvenienced by this display of rebellion”. He was joined by many fellow Franco-Eutopians, who ended their anti-Gall demonstrations and solidarity strikes, in protest of the actions by the Iberos.
PRESIDENT GALL, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY REACT TO “LATIN CRISIS”
Responding to the reported border violence and the refusal of protestors to comply with the national government’s mandate to end the provincial strikes, President Gall announced that he would “restore peace, law and rightful order" in Eutopia and addressed the parliament himself to introduce legislation to deploy “loyal” armed forces in the Southern provinces to break up the strike and enforce his "back to work" order. He also introduced a constitutional amendment taking away existing self-government rights from the Latin provinces to, as he stated to the press "remove that platform for local demagogues and self-interested power-grabbers."
Despite the lack of an apparent legislative majority, and backlash by many Unionists who questioned these proposal as “extreme overreactions”, the proposal to deploy the military advanced as MNA Boudreau voted in favor of the motion with a loud vote of “Oui!” and the declaration that “Order must be preserved!”. Federalist MNA Ford Mercurio remained absent following the debate over holding new elections, and the authorization legislation was approved 5-2.
The amendment to remove the existing self-government powers for the Latin provinces was tabled, however, when Federalists united in strong opposition to the legislation and two Unionist MNA’s balked, claiming such a proposal “needed more study”.
However, international condemnation of the announcement was swift, with the government of Spain pledging military intervention to prevent the Eutopian military from acting against “the sovereign provinces” of the South. A broad coalition of nations, including the governments of France, Italy, India, Mexico, Portugal, Poland, the United States, and Brazil all condemned the threat of violence and urged the United Nations action to resolve the dispute.
Latin response was as swift as it was predictable, with. Buen Puerto Mayor Feliz Anzaldua and labor leader Carlos Marco promising that any “invasion by the illegitimate government would be forcibly resisted”. Similarly, local government officials in the St. Espirit, N.Aquitaine, and N. Anjou warned that the national government “was perilously close to becoming a renegade state” and condemned any use of the military to resolve what they termed “a political conflict”.
Marine Colonel Scott Summers, described as “an insurgent” by President Gall, announced the discovery and rescue of over a dozen hostages taken by the CORE terrorists, including Crown Princess Francesca and Farpoint Mayor Johan Thorsbeard. The military operation, planned and executed independently of the President’s office, drew cheers from royalists, and citizens of the W.E.T. and latin provinces, while drawing muted appreciation from other quarters.
Deputy MDIA "Chevy" Neamberlain announced that while “everyone in the government” was relieved by the hostages’ rescue, that the actions of the military were inappropriate and would be subject to disciplinary review.
On the opposition end of the spectrum, the First Ministers of Nueva Rioja and Isabella announced new “provincial holidays” and hosted great parades to welcome back the troops and members of the royal court.
The military units involved in the operation credited an “inside tip” with revealing the location of the hostages, while the leadership of the CORE was otherwise engaged.
The engagement referred to would have been a fight-to-the-death between the main body of CORE rebels and the citizens’ militia of Farpoint which, after hours of shooting, resorted to brutal hand to hand combat that left the CORE leaders dead and many militia members wounded. CORE rebels took their own lives to avoid capture, but formers members of the now defunct La Resistance anti-American group were able to confirm identify among the casualties all of those suspected of composing the CORE leadership.
“What we did today, we did for honor and for the people of the W.E.T.,” said an unidentified militia leader, “There is no joy in it, we did only what must be done.”
MILE J. Edgar Herbert declined to comment on previous statements that militia forces would be rounded up and prosecuted as vigilantes, saying only that “there’s been too much violence to contemplate more at this time.”
Queen Maria, who had been hospitalized for most of the past few weeks, was reportedly reinforced by the news of her daughter’s rescue and expressed her sincere appreciation to the people of the W.E.T. and the Ibero-provinces.
Public opinions polls find Gall’s handling of the crisis “Extremely Poor” and many pundits are openly criticizing his government’s inaction on this issue and his objection to the military operation, which is now seen as a great act of heroism.
IBEROS CLASH WITH FRANCOS ON BORDERS OF ST. ESPIRIT & ISABELLA
Radical labor activists and Latin autonomy groups members refused passage to motorists along major highways in and out of Isabella and Nueva Rioja, leading to violence and the hospitalization of two Franco-Eutopian truckers from St.Espirit.
As part of their protest against the national government, mobs of Ibero-Eutopians had attempted to “close the borders” of their provinces and had erected makeshift barricades along major Eutopian highways and many side-roads.
Hundreds of citizens have been stranded on one side or the other of the barricades and have been separated from their jobs, their families, and/or their homes. While angry complaints and minor scuffles have been common, two separate incidents of violence escalated when teamsters Michel Beauchene and Luc du Garrou both attempted to break the barricades to return to their homes in St. Espirit. Accounts vary but claims have been made that the attempts to break the barriers threatened the lives or safety of protestors who had climbed the barricades. In both cases, the truckers were drug from their vehicles and beaten, despite efforts by sympathetic motorists to aid them.
Federalist MNA Fritz Boudreau, formerly a sympathizer of the protestors cause angrily condemned these “attacks on innocents” and called for an immediate end to the strikes and compensation for the truckers and “all those inconvenienced by this display of rebellion”. He was joined by many fellow Franco-Eutopians, who ended their anti-Gall demonstrations and solidarity strikes, in protest of the actions by the Iberos.
PRESIDENT GALL, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY REACT TO “LATIN CRISIS”
Responding to the reported border violence and the refusal of protestors to comply with the national government’s mandate to end the provincial strikes, President Gall announced that he would “restore peace, law and rightful order" in Eutopia and addressed the parliament himself to introduce legislation to deploy “loyal” armed forces in the Southern provinces to break up the strike and enforce his "back to work" order. He also introduced a constitutional amendment taking away existing self-government rights from the Latin provinces to, as he stated to the press "remove that platform for local demagogues and self-interested power-grabbers."
Despite the lack of an apparent legislative majority, and backlash by many Unionists who questioned these proposal as “extreme overreactions”, the proposal to deploy the military advanced as MNA Boudreau voted in favor of the motion with a loud vote of “Oui!” and the declaration that “Order must be preserved!”. Federalist MNA Ford Mercurio remained absent following the debate over holding new elections, and the authorization legislation was approved 5-2.
The amendment to remove the existing self-government powers for the Latin provinces was tabled, however, when Federalists united in strong opposition to the legislation and two Unionist MNA’s balked, claiming such a proposal “needed more study”.
However, international condemnation of the announcement was swift, with the government of Spain pledging military intervention to prevent the Eutopian military from acting against “the sovereign provinces” of the South. A broad coalition of nations, including the governments of France, Italy, India, Mexico, Portugal, Poland, the United States, and Brazil all condemned the threat of violence and urged the United Nations action to resolve the dispute.
Latin response was as swift as it was predictable, with. Buen Puerto Mayor Feliz Anzaldua and labor leader Carlos Marco promising that any “invasion by the illegitimate government would be forcibly resisted”. Similarly, local government officials in the St. Espirit, N.Aquitaine, and N. Anjou warned that the national government “was perilously close to becoming a renegade state” and condemned any use of the military to resolve what they termed “a political conflict”.