El Mensajero

[Nevada]

El Mensajero
César de Pitango's Guardia Azul marches on Santa Fe

For months now, the frail government in Santa Fe has been complaining of the Guardia Azul, the paramilitary force gathered by César de Pitango, a senior police chief, who was waiting for an opportune moment to, as they claimed, storm the capital and take control of the democratic institutions. César de Pitango, in this period, became a billionaire by operating his 'Mafia de Licencia', License Mafia, demanding payment for the usage of 'licenses', not state-issued but issued by his own service, mainly for the extraction of minerals, the usage of public land for agriculture and grazing and every construction permit issued in the rural areas. César used his subordinate policemen to enforce this system of licenses and sat in the middle of his rural power base, in the small hilly hometown of Alta Vista, gathering money and consolidating his power base.

César grew up in a small town in the rural areas, the so-called Periphery, and as a charismatic and political young lad he quickly enrolled within the small political machines that characterise the Periphery. He rose in the ranks quickly, and around the age of thirty became prominent enough that his status in the Peripheral political machine enabled him to get a lucrative position in the Policía Rural, in which ranks' he rose until he became its chief. Holding the dual role of the chief law enforcement officer and the head of the Peripheral political machine, César established his 'Mafia de Licencia'. For two years now the democratic institutions in the capital of Santa Fe have complained of the power César has been amassing in the Periphery, but have been unable to do anything about it; the police service, although formally subordinate to the government sitting in Santa Fe, were loyal to César, and his wealth was unmatched anywhere in Nevada, rendering any attempt to impede his growth futile.

City journalists, elected officials and professors have complained for a long time of the danger to the elected regime in Santa Fe, and finally their suspicions have been realised. César's paramilitary force, the Guardia Azul, took control yesterday of the city of Santa Fe in a swift military-style operation. The elected officials, amongst them the former President Tucumán, were gathered in the building of the Teatro Nacional and elected César, unanimously, as the Caudillo of Nevada. Although no overt physical coercion, it was clear to everyone that César's soldiers were waiting outside, and so none wished to risk their lives.

The actual policy steps of the new regime are unclear as of yet, but César's steps to consolidate power in the capital so far have been extensive; While his rural power base is staunchly loyal to him, Santa Fe is hostile to him, and reportedly he was already convening with the leaders of local strongmen and influential figure in order to pacify the capital, amongst them friendly clerks of the local bureaucracy, business magnates, the chiefs of the local police and Catholic clerics, the most important of all of these figures being the Archbishop of Santa Fe, Isidre Ferraz. César has been rumoured to already give up on the academia, which is staunchly opposed to his regime, and former elected officials.

Reportedly, President Tucumán and the more fierce critics of César while he was 'ruling the Periphery' were sent to some distant rural town to prevent them from inciting dissent to his regime. César has also declared he will be planning to remain as the chief of the Policía Rural and the chief of the Periphery political machine; his main interests concern remaining in power, and because of that he is less interested in managing the 'City', Santa Fe, and foreign affairs, and because of that he is reportedly planning to leave the actual management of the capital's affairs to professional bureaucrats, limiting his involvement to consolidating his own regime. To manage foreign affairs, which he reportedly has not much interest in, he has appointed his close friend José Antillón as external relations czar, delegating to him all the management of foreign affairs; Antillón has replaced all the foreign ministry's personnel at the capital with his own men, and will now answer all foreign inquiries to the government. The few diplomatic personnel stationed abroad have been instructed to seek the recognition of the new regime by their host states.

Beyond these quite elementary post-coup d'etat actions, it is not yet clear what the actions of the new regime will be.

 

[Nevada]

El Mensajero
César disbands old university organisations, creates a new higher education system

It came as quite a surprise to faculty members and students alike today when troops of the Guardia Azul entered to the universities of the capital today, to erect statues of Caudillo César and to remove anti-Caudillo propaganda from the walls. Holding the Rector's Podium in the Grand University Hall, the newly-appointed Caudillo, who assumed power just a week ago, announced the disbandment of the Universidad Nacional de Santa Fe and all other state-operated higher education institutes in the capital. These will be formally disbanded, and while their edifices will remain intact, a massive reorganisation will occur. All university facilities in the Central Campus, at the University District in Santa Fe, will be reorganised into the new Universidad Científica Nacional (National Scientific University), who will become Nevada's new "premier university". It will contain four different schools, of the Natural Sciences, the Engineering Sciences, the Health Sciences and the Economic Sciences and an interdisciplinary centre, the Centro de Investigación Interdisciplinario (Interdisciplinary Research Centre). This move significantly expands the influence of the science studies, in the expense of the humanities and the social sciences, which the Caudillo opposes for the professors of these fields are often his great opponents, these faculties being the hotbeds of democratic resistance to his regime. Assets of the humanities and social sciences schools, from classrooms and offices to budgets, were immediately transformed to this new scientific-oriented university, in which there were no 'dissent studies', as César reportedly calls them in private conversations; Economics are the only social science to be taught, and even then its instruction will be limited mainly to applied economics (agricultural and industrial economics) and mathematical economics, and not political economy.

All former science faculty who are not deemed to be enemies of the regime will receive their academic ranks in the new university, but the move is expected to leave many non-science faculty unemployed, and their students as well. While humanities and social sciences assets have been requisitioned in the Central Campus, César, which is rumoured to be a staunch fan of classical works, has reorganised a secondary, minor campus in Santa Fe to the Colegio Académico de Clásicos (Academic College of Classics), in which he employs those few humanities professors who are loyal to him, teaching mainly classical works of old and the French language.

Besides the Colegio Académico and the Universidad Científica Nacional, there are only two other operating higher education institutes in Nevada. The first is the Colegio Profesional de Abenójar (Professional College of Abenójar), a technical-oriented undergraduate institute in the Periphery, and in fact the only tertiary education institute in the rural areas. It offers primarily undergraduate degrees concerned with agriculture and mechanical engineering, and besides it that offers technical knowledge to the rurals and a chance to get an experience of a university, which they may never see in their lives. The second is the Universidad Católica de Santa Fe (the Catholic University of Santa Fe), a Catholic university in the capital offering studies in religious subjects such as theology, ministry and canon law, but also offers courses in the classics, literature, the languages of French and Latin and social work. It also has an attached seminary, the Seminario Metropolitano de Santa Fe (Metropolitan Seminary of Santa Fe), which prepares its students for ordination. Since the faculty at the Universidad Católica is conservative, Dominican Catholic and has not shown resistance to the regime, it was safe from the absolute shutting down that 'dissent studies' suffered when the Caudillo assumed power. Now, when affairs begin to cool down, it is expected that the more regime-friendly professors will begin to enroll in the university, and so will the more pacified students; Only these types will be inducted into the university, to guarantee its continued protected status, and strong screening will occur so as not to infringe upon its political neutrality by inducting faculty opposed to the new regime.

In the mean time, professors and students who are members of the democratic resistance movement in Santa Fe are unable to teach, or learn, respectively, and it is rumoured that in their "resistance cafes", as Caudillo César calls them, they continue their studies of philosophy, law, political sciences and other "dissent studies". Many of them are reportedly considering leaving for another country, but because the airports are closed for general passenger traffic in the meantime, it is impossible. The Caudillo's Guardia Azul, however, attempts to apprehend the more vocal opponents of the Caudillo, which are yet to be captured. The most prominent of these, a man who was already named in some circles as the leader of the resistance movement, is Profesor Titular Rosa Morante. Morante is a professor of law and philosophy, and since the revolution has been leading bigger and bigger groups of dissenters, members of the now-dismissed faculty and student body from its law and philosophy courses, and through her charismatic authority over much of the former faculty and students, the larger part of the democratic resistance movement, she has gained considerable influence in what some call the 'inner circle' of the democratic resistance movement, and has been rumoured to lead it from the start. The movement, in its pamphlets, has already begun to name itself the Reunión para Democracia (RpD), but beyond distributing pamphlets and few occasional protests it had yet to do something of notice.

 

[Nevada]

El Mensajero
César centralises state services and institutes social reforms; gains popularity amongst the masses, creates 'Frente para Victoria'; Condemns philosophy studies

So far, secondary and primary education services and health services have been provided by municipal authorities, with the city of Santa Fe providing for its residents a relatively well-funded, high-quality healthcare system; the rural municipalities, however, had to make do with their local health unions (USLs, Unión de Salud Local), in which they tried to group their small health budgets to provide for better healthcare. Due to the lack of centralisation and leadership in these USLs, the structure is widely considered a failure, but a continuous stream of ruling coalitions which originate in the urban Santa Fe have failed to deal with the problem. The new system, reportedly devised by Caudillo César himself, includes nationalisation of all the healthcare facilities in Nevada and their operation by the central government as a national healthcare system, with the same universal healthcare as before, but with greater centralisation and quality in the rural areas. These reforms have won praise amongst the rural population, but many city residents claim that their money will now be outpouring from Santa Fe to the 'Periferia'.

A similar system will be applied to secondary and primary education; Responsibility will be centralised, and from the national government will be responsible for the main funding of high schools and primary schools. Of course, municipal authorities will be able to provide funding for their local high schools and primary schools, but the core funding will come from the national government, which will allow rural schools to rise from their consistent funding shortages, which often cause problems in the education of rural youth. The two new national systems for healthcare and education are the Sistema Nacional de Educación and the Sistema Nacional de Salud, which are now named collectively as the Sistemas Nacionales.

The greatest benefactors of these reforms are, of course, the residents of the rural areas, which are the core of the Caudillo's power base. To counter the Reunión para Democracia, which begins to consolidate itself as an alternative to the Caudillo's regime, and capitalising on his great popularity in the rural areas, Caudillo César has announced today, with much glory and publication, the establishment of his new movement, a "natural evolution" of the old Guardia Azul; Frente para Victoria (Front for Victory). The new movement will have two sections; the Nación Victoriosa (Victorious Nation) and the Centinelas de Victoria (Sentry of Victory); the first an all-encompassing popular part, designed to spread the propaganda of the Caudillo amongst the masses and to encourage their support of the regime, the second a paramilitary component, a continuation of the Caudillo's previous Guardia Azul. While the latter is no innovation, simply an attempt to disguise the Guardia Azul's warlord-like qualities, the previous is a new way by the Caudillo to win popularity from both his classic rural powerbase and the city one, by spreading propaganda and booklets hailing the 'revolution'. The people of 'Nevada rural' are already staunch supporters of the Caudillo, but there's a lot more to be done regarding the loyalty of Santa Fe residents to César. The new Centinelas de Victoria will receive state funding but will remain under the personal command of the Caudillo, completely separate from the police structure, and its ranks will bolstered from five thousand men to twenty thousand; the men of the Centinelas will now have the legal authority of policemen to arrest citizens and will receive professional, state-funded training; these men, in an hour of need, will serve as the Caudillo's most loyal servants.

In the mean time, the Centinelas and the police continue their pursuit after members of the democratic resistance movement, which aims to reverse the revolution and overthrow the regime. The police continues to root out the 'resistance cafes' which sprouted in Santa Fe with force and the Caudillo attempts to establish an alternative for those resistant professors; two academic institutes, the Escuela de Jurisprudencia (School of Jurisprudence) for future lawyers and judges and the Escuela Normal (Normal School); these will only contain, of course, professors who were not currently or ever members of the democratic resistance movement, nor have they participated in actions or protests against the Caudillo's regime. The Academic College of Classics will be reformed to the 'Colegio Clásico' (Classical College), which will teach French, Spanish, literature, classical works and theology. The clear preference of the Caudillo for 'non-dissent studies' has resulted in the dilution of taught academic disciplines in Nevada; currently, there are no academic institutes in Nevada which teach journalism, gender studies, philosophy, political economy, political science, history or sociology. In addition, the universities who teach literature (currently only the Universidad Católica and the Colegio Clásico) are forbidden from teaching political literature. Profesor Titular Rosa Morante, a former professor of law and philosophy, now the leader of the democratic resistance movement to the César's regime, inarguably became the most sought-after character by the authorities in Nevada, and any 'democratic cafe' found to be teaching her political philosophy courses, which were once widely popular, was to be shut immediately. In a prime-time, televised speech to Nevadan citizens, Caudillo César mocked the 'destructive studies' of philosophy and political science, and has condemned the teachers of these disciplines to be 'subversive, unpatriotic elements'.

 

[Nevada]

El Mensajero
The Caudillo announces the creation of a privy council

Since the Caudillo has succeeded in capturing the reins of power from the democratic government in Santa Fe, he has governed with the assistance of several unofficial aides, the most notable of them being José Antillón, who has been appointed foreign affairs 'supremo'. But, apparently, this causes much confusion in the upper levels of the new national administration, and so the Caudillo has decided to form a Privy Council to dispatch responsibilities in an orderly fashion, but to maintain his nominal superiority (as well as real superiority, of course) over his servants, in that they formally serve only as counsels to the Caudillo; the Consejo Privado del Caudillo (Privy Council of the Caudillo), as it seems, will be entirely subservient to the leader's wishes and commands. The new council will be composed of nine directors, each for a specific sector of the nation, the personal spokesman of the Caudillo (Portavoz del Caudillo) and the "Contador de la Tesorería", Accountant of the Treasury, all in all eleven men.

* Contador de la Tesorería - Rodrigo Celades
* Portavoz del Caudillo - Juan Castaños
* Director de Relaciones Exteriores - José Antillón
* Director de Información - Montego Palmadas
* Director de Seguridad Pública - Esteban Vega
* Director de Educación y Cultura - Diego Echeverría
* Director de Infraestructura Nacional - Pedro Delmorales
* Director de la Economía Nacional - José Zamarilla
* Director de Salud Pública - Pancho Burrieza
* Director de la ciudad de Santa Fe - Joaquin Costales
* Director de las Áreas Rurales - Antonio Alvarado

Most of the appointees are professional bureaucrats, primarily those concerned with state services (id est, the director of public health, Pancho Burrieza), but some, like José Antillón, who is now the director of external relations, and Montego Palmadas, who was appointed to the rather mysterious role of information director, are friends of the Caudillo whom he brought over from his "rural mafia" structure. His other "personal" appointee in the Privy Council, which was given a rather "true" administrative role, is Antonio Alvarado, which is a mixture of these two models, the "personal" appointee and the "professional" one; Alvarado is a professional administrator, who learned the art of public administration abroad, but when the Caudillo was "ruling the countryside" and operating his expanse license mafia and needed a professional administration to manage his extortion and paramilitary empire efficiently he hired Alvarado. Now, he brought him to the Privy Council to continue in his role as the professional administrator of the rural areas; this is cardinal to the Caudillo's regime because his power base is in the rural areas and he cannot allow anyone to gain influence there. Alvarado will continue his role the professional administrator and chief accountant of the Caudillo's mafia in the countryside as well as, now, the legitimate governor of the rural areas; this will enhance the Caudillo's political grip on the countryside and will give a hint of legitimacy to the Caudillo's mafia empire in the countryside.