Rionegro developments

sliabh

Sorry for the delay in getting the link out on this. But an account of the fighting around Cacoma last June has appeared on Wikileaks.

Viewing cable 10RIONEGRO41, Military attache report on battle near Cacoma, June 18th, 19th June.
Reference ID: 10RIONEGOR41
Created: 2011-07-01 20:51
Released: 2011-07-21 00:00
Classification: SECRET/NOFORN
Origin: Embassy San Soles

VZCZCXRO4575
RR RUEHAO RUEHCD RUEHHO RUEHNG RUEHRS
DE RUEHDG #0041 0332051
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 022051Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY RIONEGRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0683
INFO WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS
RHMFIUU/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
CLAS SAN SOLES 000041

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL EAID EC DR HA
SUBJECT: Military Attaché report on battle near Cacoma, June 18th, 19th June.

REF: SAN SOLES 35

1. (SBU) Summary: A considerable engagement between by President Munoz’s ‘Republicano’ forces and renegade General Veron's ‘Patriotas’ occurred around the village of Cacoma on June 18th and 19th. During the battle there was a surprise launch of an advanced surface to surface missile by Republicano forces. This was a significant escalation of the conflict, and worryingly we remain unaware of who supplied this weapon system to Munoz. In this report we examine the available intelligence in the hope that it will shed light on the situation, and the future direction of the conflict in Rionegro. End Summary.

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Order of Battle

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2. Republicano forces in the area were believed to consist of elements of the Presidential 25th Light Infantry, the Regimento 43 de Ingenieros de la Republica (the 'Engineers') and the Brigada de Penitente made up of volunteers taken from the country’s prisons. These were opposed by Veron’s El Rocha Imutável known as 'Los Rochas' or 'The Heavies'. Also present were PMCs employed by Washington based Executive Security Solutions defending surveying assets of Houston based oil services company Gollybruton. The area has also been known as a base of operations for indigenous insurgent groups such as the Trompeta Guerrilla movement.

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Nature of the fighting

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3. There was no fixed front line for the battle and the fighting mostly took the form of isolated skirmishes and engagements. The Patriota Heavies were the largest force present and operating from a secure base were quite active through the area and patrolled aggressively. They destroyed a communications facility erected by the Republicano Engineers and carried out several attacks on Republicano convoys. They were however unable to push back or dislodge the Republicano forces from around Cacoma. This was all the more surprising considering the poor quality of some of their opposition. Munoz had controversially offered amnesties to criminals willing to serve in penitent brigades. Predictably these proved hard to control and rampaged through Cacoma terrorising the villagers and even shooting the local priest. There was a report that the Penitents fragged their commander, although whether this was a cause or result of indiscipline is anyone's guess. We know that self styled Subcommandante Marko and his guerillas were active in the area. Rather surprisingly a unit of the Royal Domiguan Army Special Commando Corps was also operating in the Cacoma AO. This has been confirmed from our contacts in the ESS. We believe the RDASCC were present to gather intelligence on Republicano forces. We suspect but cannot confirm they made contact with the guerrillas and Patriota Heavies. It is not clear at this time whether this means that Domigua and its self-styled King is getting involved and backing a side in the conflict.

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Battle outcome

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4. Interviews with our local assets confirm that the Republicano forces were primarily in the Cacoma area to support the missile launch by the Regimento 43 de Ingenieros. While a number of supply convoys were run to the civilians in Cacoma these were largely to provide cover for the primary operation of assembling and fueling the missile. The pressure the Heavies put on Republicano forces meant they needed additional support. For this reason Munoz appears to have come to a secret agreement on mining rights with Gollybruton, who then ordered their local PMCs (ESS) to provide direct support to Munoz's troops. ESS and 25th Light Infantry units carried out a number of joint attacks to tie down the Heavies and give cover to the missile launch operation. At some stage during the fighting Subcommandante Marko is believed to have been killed by an unknown group. His body has not been recovered but personal effects and photos of his corpse were anonymously released days later. These seem to indicate that he may have had some quite lucrative personal arrangements with one or more factions contrary to his ‘man of the people’ image.

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Wider consequences for the war

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5. Just before 15:00 on Sunday the 19th an unidentified SSM was launched from just south of Trompeta hill. A short while later it struck the regional Patriota field HQ about 16km away. This caused panic and disruption far beyond the actual military value of the attack. Our source TROMBONE within the Republicanos has indicated that the original target was to have been Veron himself, but it had not been possible to confirm his location prior to the missile launch. The attack has led to international condemnation of Munoz and his Republicanos for blatantly violating the arms embargo, and escalating the conflict. Together with the stories of the out of control behavior of his troops towards the civilians of Cacoma his reputation has taken a considerable hit. One immediate consequence has been Gollybruton ending their unofficial support for his regime, and returning to their position ‘on the fence’. Regardless of the short term impact, the battle and missile launch will probably not have a significant influence on the course of the war in the medium term. Rionegro's day of reckoning has yet to come.

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Postscript

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6. One curious outcome of the battle is that the civilians of Cacoma appear to have come into a large quantity of cash. It is not clear whether this was ‘goodwill’ funds disbursed by Gollybruton, if local rumours are true and this was stolen from Republicano soldiers, or if there is some link to narcotics gangs. At least some of the locals have already used their windfall to relocate themselves and their families out of the region to unknown locations.
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sliabh

Things have been quiet around Cacoma for a few months, but our people on the ground say there may be some developments soon. Watch this space...

KonFusion

Fantastic summary to a great 2 days! I look forward to the next one with great anticipation!

Republicano forces were primarily in the Cacoma area to support the missile launch by the Regimento 43 de Ingenieros.

We were? :confused

We had a missile?!? :pac:

...families out of the region to unknown locations.

Quite a few wen't to Ireland I believe.

...terrorising the villagers and even shooting the local priest

Lies and propaganda! I'll have you know he fell on those bullets!

RABBIT.

Excellent summary guys, cant wait to get back in the field with my comrades "the Heavies", rumours are spreading within our camp that i will be getting a promotion up the ranks, but it remains to be seen if this is true, however i will continue to serve Veron at any level.."Viva Los Rochas".:P

sliabh

Just looking at registrations for Saturday's mini-event. The Heavies are well represented. Nearly too much so!

Where are the Light Infantry?

RABBIT.

haha cowards, its too much for them to go through the humiliation of being over run by the heavies again, hahahaha

sliabh

They did launch their missile. What did the Heavies do?

RABBIT.

haha, just kicked ass for about 24hrs , tho it has to be said while leading a small team to the base in the swamp on the sunday morning i over looked the missile that was stashed in the same base, had we searched the base a bit better we could have stoped it from ever getting launched. funny thing is the base was empty bar a few sleepy heads and we got no resistance, had a golden oppertunity there and missed it, ah well thats war for ya.

lookin forward to this guys, see u there.

KonFusion

sliabh wrote: »

Where are the Light Infantry?

Munoz doesn't pay very well....we're all working our second jobs..:p

TerrenceAnth

KonFusion wrote: »

Munoz doesn't pay very well....we're all working our second jobs..:p

Yeah sitting on top of a mountain waiting for those lazy engineers does not pay even close to enough.

Tomazas

TerrenceAnth wrote: »

Yeah sitting on top of a mountain waiting for those lazy engineers does not pay even close to enough.

How dare you to call engineers lazy?

TerrenceAnth

Tomazas wrote: »

How dare you to call engineers lazy?

again waited 30 mins for you guys to climb up the hill to plant that mast lol

the monk5845

RABBIT. wrote: »

haha cowards, its too much for them to go through the humiliation of being over run by the heavies again, hahahaha

I do remember being in the heavies base on Sunday morning to give yous all an early wake up call and walking through a completely unguarded entrance with a gun just sitting there and shooting a lot of heavies without taking one casualty! a lot seemed to be running away :P


(come on the presidential light infantry)

RABBIT.

the monk5845 wrote: »

a lot seemed to be running away :P

ahem! we were diving for cover, tho i dont know what for cause we hadn't a gun between us hahaha