Chapter 1311: Igniting the Powder Keg
53 minutes after the death of the Colombian President, the first report about the incident appeared in the Was.h.i.+ngton Post. Seven minutes later, Future Group’s media quickly followed with a report on the incident based on first-hand information provided by the Xin Emba.s.sy staff in Colombia.
The contents of the two reports were quite different. The UA and Xin had turned their spear against each other, and both held credible opinions.
Someone with a little knowledge would have already sensed the unusualness.
A battle over public opinion had quietly started over the Pacific Ocean.
Xin immediately stated that the unwarranted speculations reported by the UA media were unjustified, and Xin was also a victim of this incident!
However, why would the UA accept the short end of the stick? The UA immediately said that even if Xin was not to blame, the UA would not accept any responsibility!
Neither side conceded, and the intelligence personnel of the two countries also did not stop.
Someone from the CIB got the authorization from the Colombian government and ran to the scene with perjury… Oh wait, collect evidence? Ghost Agents were not sitting around either. Although they did not receive authorization from the Colombian government, they obviously did not intend to submit a written application.
There was constantly new evidence emerging, and for a while, Juan’s cause of death had become complicated and confusing.
Not until three days later, when the body of Agent Braddock was found by the Ghost Agents in an apartment not far from the incident, and they confirmed that his death was a result of hunger. In addition, Ghost Agents also found API armor-piercing incendiary for Barrett sniper rifle in this apartment. The same bullet was also found in the clock tower, and it was the CIB personnel who disclosed it to the media.
It was still a mystery how the CIB agent got kidnapped.
But it didn’t matter. With the tools of the crime and the missing CIB agent being discovered at the same time, the UA had gradually become at a disadvantage in this battle. It may not be long before the media under Future Group would be able to use the UA as a scapegoat.
However, nearly a week after the war of public opinion commenced between Xin and the UA, another event that shocked the world happened.
…
After the 2016 ceasefire agreement, the FARC, which had died down, suddenly updated a two-minute video on its official website.
At first, everyone thought that it was another advertis.e.m.e.nt for FARC’s drug and hostage business. However, after people watched the video, everyone began to realize what it was not an advertis.e.m.e.nt, but a declaration of war!
In the video, Timochenko, the current leader of FARC, declared war.
An old man over the age of seventy was wearing a military uniform, had a cigar dangling from his mouth, and an AK-47 over his shoulder. In front of the world, with arrogance, he took a jab at the UA.
“Juan’s death is a conspiracy of the CIB, a conspiracy of the UA, a conspiracy from a sinful capitalist world.”
“I said a long time ago that the UA is unreliable. They are all liars and hypocrites. However, Mr. Juan obviously did not trust me. Very well, he has now paid a heavy price for his wrong choice.”
“The Colombian people will be truly free, and I will use my actions to prove that I am not joking.”
After he finished this sentence, Timochenko loaded the rifle with a click, and the video stopped.
Honestly, those words did sound quite inspiring.
It was just that the words “freedom” and “democracy” felt strange coming out of the mouth of a big drug dealer…
…
This video was posted on the official website half an hour after FARC attacked the Pamplona area on the border between Colombia and Venezuela. The old and cunning Timochenko fought an undeclared war against the government at the most chaotic moment in Colombia.
Pamplona was just a small town, but its geographical location determined its importance.
FARC’s military power was concentrated in the tropical jungle east of the Andes, and Pamplona was a gateway between the east and the west of the mountains. Not only that, north of Pamplona was Cucuta, the capital of Colombia’s Santander province and an economic town located on the border.
If Cucuta fell into FARC control, FARC could get continuous support from Venezuela, and at the same time, it would smash the morale of the government.
When guerrillas rushed out of the forest and the screams of mortars pierced the silent night sky. Most people in Pamplona were still asleep when the sound of explosions and gunshots outside the window awakened their sleep. Almost all of them thought they were dreaming.
When guerrillas in camouflage uniformed lined up across the street, army-green trucks drove in one after another towards the square in the city center, the broadcasts of the propagandists resonated in the streets and alleys of the town, and masked soldiers came searching door-to-door for hidden government officials and government soldiers, the civilians finally realized that, like a dream, war had broken out.
The FARC Fourth Mountain Brigade was responsible for attacking Pamplona.
In less than fifteen minutes, they disintegrated the temporary line of defense set up by the local militia and police. They took complete control of the entire area from the town center to the suburbs.
Half an hour after the outbreak of the war, the Colombian government and army quickly responded. Two infantry brigades set off from the military base on the border between Colombia and Venezuela and rushed to Pamplona. At the same time, the UA troops stationed at the military base in Karamanga also sent a reconnaissance company to the FARC-controlled area.
However, because Pamplona was in a mountainous region, the terrain was rugged, the road condition was poor, and it was late at night. The Colombian Army itself was not in its most optimal state, and there was no guaranteed win when fighting against a group of drug lords. It was already four hours later when the two airborne brigades of the government army arrived on the outskirts of Pamplona.
Four hours was enough for the rebels to do a lot.
Temporary bunkers had been set up, FARC had hidden military supplies in residential houses, and had arranged machine gun firepower points along the buildings outside the town.
Because the town’s civilians had not yet evacuated, the government could not bombard the rebels in Pamplona. The UA planes just did two loops before they left.
The two sides confronted each other in the suburbs for an hour, and it was not until nearly dawn that the senior army commanders surrounding Pamplona received the order to launch an attack on Pamplona and crush the rebels.
However, after the armored vehicles of the government army drove into the town, the government forces realized that their nightmare had just begun.
They were countless RPGs that greeted the armored vehicles, it seemed like the rockets did not cost any money.
In order to win, these FARC rebels did not care about the consequences. They used all the weapons they could, including mortars and grenades that made the Colombian soldiers scramble. The tragic battle on the streets lasted for nearly two hours. After hundreds of casualties and several armored vehicles destroyed, the government soldiers had to withdraw from the town.
Senior military commanders called the Colombian Presidential Palace and asked the Presidential Palace to decide whether if they should seek a.s.sistance from the UA military to send additional special forces, or to use heavy firepower against the rebels in the town… as either way, their current plan was not working. These FARC rebels were obviously not a group of stragglers, but elites supported by foreign forces.
But how could the Colombian government have any ideas?
The president just died. Congress was busy arguing. How could they take care of this mess?
Just when the two sides were deadlocked in the Pamplona area, a small group of FARC guerrillas quietly mobilized along the Andes, as they targeted the busiest part of Colombia – the west coast…