Shadowrun Guide to Columbia

by Juan Carlos Ochoa Mantilla <[o 9315490] at [cdcnet.uniandes.edu.co]>

[This is apparently only Part 1. I never got Part 2, but hopefully in the near future. Aroooo]

Brief History

(From official history texts.)

The turmoil that shook Colombia in the last decade of the 1990’s finally concluded in ‘98 when the United Revolutionary Army (formerly a loose coalition of free entrepreneurs, 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 immediately 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 appropriate 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.

As the Cartel forces regained control a second shock struck Colombia. A mercenary force, contracted by ORO Corp. took the Palacio De Narino on the 10th of November 2018, traditional seat of Government, and broadcast a message, masquerading as revolutionaries and requesting immediate transfer of power to Luis A. Pertuz, an ORO proxy then living in Aztlan.

ORO (Which would later become Aztechnology), failed to realize that the president was and had always been a cartel puppet, and as such easily replaceable. Military forces surrounded the Palacio, and all Public and private channels were used to broadcast a military demand of unconditional surrender to the mercs. Tanks surrounded the Palace, and immediately opened fire. Autocannon fire rang through the city all night long.

By 0700 the Palacio stood in ruins. At 0722, a strike force of Euro mercs in stealth-enabled APC’s bore down on an ORO vocational Center in Cancun, Aztlan, and eliminated over 200 employees, including three of the top softpirate experts and Senor Pertuz. ORO assets in Colombian territory were nationalized (or demolished), and all employees executed.

Construction of a new seat of government began immediately. By 2034, a 200-story matte black monolith stood above Bogota. The building, called the Sede gubernamental de Colombia, is an architectural wonder. Almost an arcology, it houses all government related offices, the state media stations and the Army high command. Terrorist attacks were thwarted in ‘34 and ‘35, reportedly by a clever mix of technology and corrupted hearth spirits.

The birth of Amazonia signaled the first defeat for the Druglords. The metahuman army, heavily bolstered by magic and Awakened creatures, slipped the borders and took the Llanos Orientales, or Oriental Plains, in less than 72 hours. Army units and guerrilla encampments alike were neutralized without the least call for help. The Great Dragon Chibchacun (sheeb-sha-KUN), was assigned as protector to the newly acquired lands and rules to this day, with extensive recovery in erosion afflicted areas evident from sat-scans. Foreign presence in these lands in disencouraged with magic and high-caliber autofire. Though no dragons patrol the aerial borders, EFA variants have been sighted, usually in flights of six, skirting the border and driving the military to a frenzy.

Occasional rigger smuggling runs occur, with high priced luxury animal skins, exotic enchantment materials being the most common items. Some report the occasional corp research team to be inserted and extracted with sufficient speed to avoid the Guardians

(Guardians, name taken by the Amazonian Border patrols).

Colombia Today

A totalitarian government with such a strong hold on military assets tends to prosper. With the birth of ASIST technology, some predicted the fall of the non-vr drug economy. But the Cartels were quick to adapt, and BTL is purported to have been perfected in this country.

Current economy centers around BTL, porn-simsense and cloned weapons, with just enough small changes as to evade lawsuits. Coffee and flowers, tropical fruits and alkaloids are still strong, however, fetching high prices in commodity markets.

>>>>>[Villavicencio is the town that comes most closely to a rigger heaven in Colombia. As a frontier town, it has the usual intrigue, and plenty of work for SINless chummers. However, please wear a Spanish knowsoft or else you’ll be tagged as a “Gringo Corporativo,” and every ten-yen street punk will ache for your credstick.]<<<<<
—San Jorge (16-5-55/12:16:05)

The Capital, Santa Fe de Bogota, is today a sprawling plex of 16M inhabitants, with a per capita income of 1500 nuyen yearly, and security zones ranging from AAA to Barrio Simon Bolivar, a toxic battlezone south of the Capital, where the largest riots in the 30’s were staged, and where the scars of Government oppression still bear witness to the extreme force displayed.

>>>>>[I was there, mano, with the 13th Brigade Infantry. Repression was severe, and the airstrikes that the Army denies did happen.]<<<<<
—Lucky Ops (00:00:00/00-00-00)

Bogota Matrix

The matrix in Bogota is divided in two parts, the public net, rating at Green-4, and the government and Corporate net, purportedly rating a heady Red-5.ICE abounds in the Gov-Net, and there are no regulatory laws concerning the use of Black Countermeasures. This does not limit shadow activity, however.

**** This ends part one of the Shadow Guide to Colombia ****