| From: | Juan Carlos Ochoa Mantilla <o9315490@******.UNIANDES.EDU.CO> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | SHADOWRUN GUIDE TO COLOMBIA |
| Date: | Mon, 21 Feb 1994 14:25:37 -0500 |
BRIEF HISTORY (From official history texts.)
The turmoil that shook Colombia in the last decade of the 1990'sfinally conclu
ded in '98 when the United Revolutionary Army (formerly a loose coalition
of free enterpreneurs , then wrongly called "drug cartels" , took
Bogota, the capital , in a protracted siege lasting almost two months. The
United Nations sanctioned the coup , for many of its members were on
cartel payrolls and had been there for a long time.
The governing cartels inmediately started a fast industrialization
process,both by exploiting Colombia's rich supply of natural resources ,
and establishing a framework for the illegal acquisition (and pirating)
of software and consumer electronics. However their main source of income
had always been recreational pharmaceuticals , and these were produced in
an industrial manner now , new laws allowing for legal cocaine and poppy
production in rural areas . Processing centers were built by the state ,
giving appropiate prices for received product...
Military forces were greatly improved in the following decades,and
smuggling networks were vastly improved . Business boomed , and Colombia
was on it's way to becoming a major South American state.
Then came the Awakening . The rigidly controlled martial rule crumbled
before the indiscriminate changes on the population . Anti-metahuman
feelings were strong in the higher strata of the population , but quickly
were forgotten as it became apparent that goblinization was not caste-based.
Riots in the major cities , and their subsequent reprisals , culminated
in a small-scale civil war , much like the one that led the cartels to
power 33 years before.Government forces resorted to the use of Seven-6
nerve gas and live ammo in cities , and rural uprisings are said to have
been napalmed from planes. The 8th of December revolutionaries were
formed during this period, and are still a major destabilizing force in
modern day Colombia.
The strong-handed tactics apparently bore fruit.
