The Panama Connection <DRAFT>

[kalos72]

The Panama Connection


Early 1996, the United States government determined that giving up control over the Panama Canal as per the Panama Canal Treaties would be a strategically bad decision given the seemingly unavoidable entry of the United States into the current hostilities around the world.

By this time, there were almost constant political protests and even several attacks on the locks of the Canal itself by anti-US protestors of the ELN (The National Liberation Army of Panama) as well as fervent vocal opposition to the United States occupation of the PCZ from more radical elements of the Panamanian Government itself.

Panamanian President Ernesto Pérez Balladares was also under increasing pressure from FARC Forces to the South and the Panamanian Public Forces were having a very hard time keeping the Southern border secure.

Because of the growing concerns about the Panamanian Government's instability and the United States ability to keep the PCZ clear and open to both commercial but especially US Military traffic, President Tanner approved a change to the USSOUTHCOM structure and a major realignment of US forces throughout Panama and even part of Central America and the Caribbean. By May 1996 Secretary of Defence Samuel McGregor oversaw the successful relocation of the entire USSOUTHCOM command along with close to 10000 additional United States Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine personnel and their assorted equipment and vehicles to the PCZ.

Over the next few months, violence intensifies as the ELN starts to receive support from several foreign anti-US groups. US Intelligence sources even receive information that GRU agents from Cuba are working with both FARC and ELN forces as combat advisors. In response, the US increases its intelligence assets in the area and by the end of 1996, every US Intelligence Agency has a field office and an increased presence in the region.

As the war in Europe escalates, July 1997 sees the beginning of tactical nuclear strikes from the Soviets. In an attempt to stabilize the region so the US could focus on the escalations in Europe, the State Department decides to send an under-secretary to Panama to try and de-escalate the violence. The Under-Secretary of State Michelle Pena and her entourage arrived in Panama on Tuesday July 29th for meetings the following day with multiple contacts within the Panamanian Government.

While leaving meetings with the Panamanian government and heading back to the US Embassy, the convoy that Under-Secretary Pena was riding with was attacked by supposed ELN rebels and she was killed. President Ernesto Pérez Balladares immediately denounces the attack and declares the ELN a terrorist organization and begins to fully utilize the PPF in the eradication of the group. US Special Forces in country assist.

By September, US Intelligence Agencies report that the attack that killed Pena was actually a Spetsnaz lead operation, based out of Columbia. SoD McGregor authorizes General Wesley Clark, Commander USSOUTHCOM, to assist the PPF in securing the southern Panamanian Border as the FARC and GRU forces are deemed a threat to the security of the PCZ.

SoD McGregor travels to Panama in early November 1997 to meet with President Ernesto Pérez Balladares and others in the Panamanian Military to discuss ways in which the United States and Panama can continue to work together to oppose the FARC/GRU Colombian Government aggression from the South. President Balladares pledges his country's full support for the military action in Panama as well as the United States actions abroad.

During a discussion where the Panamanian President was advising SoD McGregor about a new canning plant in Colon that Dark Horse Industries just built and that they had signed a 10 year deal with local farmers when McGregor learns of the bombing of Washington DC and of President Tanner’s apparent death. Immediately, the Secretary of Defence and his staff were sequestered in a secure bunker at Fort Sherman.

By December, after not receiving any additional information about the continuation of nuclear exchange, SoD McGregor left Panama for an undisclosed location within the United States. Approximately an hour into the flight, close to the Cuban border, his plan radioed in an attack by 2 MIG 29’s and was lost.

United States Intelligence had reason to believe that the 2 planes were Cuban but no proof to corroborate the information. In the aftermath of the Thanksgiving Day Massacre, the lose of the Secretary of Defence over the Caribbean did not receive much attention considering everything else that was going on.

Later, it would be discovered that Pro-Soviet Cuban forces, supported by the GRU contingent, were sent to bring down the plan and kill the SoD. As it would turn out, SoD McGregor would survive the attack and be captured by the GRU in Cuba.

Samuel McGregor spent more than 2 years being tortured by the GRU in Cuba. In May 2000, SoD McGregor would find an ally in a Dark Horse Industries rep by the name of Isabella Guevara.

While the GRU was popular among many of the Cuban military, the pressure the Cuban Government was feeling from the various United States Intelligence agencies as well as public outcry from some within the government itself who called for the ousting of the Soviets later in 1998, was growing too much for President Casto to bear.

With most of the Soviets out of the country by 2000, a representative from Dark Horse Industries reached out to Castro to try and help alleviate that pressure. The representative was well known to Castro as well as most Cubans at that point, being the granddaughter of Che Guevara after all.

Isabella Guevara had been working in Cuba for almost a decade before the war as a Dark Horse Industries Regional Vice President, assigned to working with the Cuban Government. Behind the scenes,she would help Cuba increase its exports to include many of the minerals located on the island. With the embargo, she was the only way Castro could get his money out of the country.

Dark Horse Industries, being a multinational corporation, had the ability to maneuver around things like embargoes should the corporation find the need, or more importantly the profit. They spent many years working on Castro and the Cuban Government and by 2000, they were the only company still able to move supplies around the world, or at very least in and out of Cuba.

Guevara offered to be the go between for Castro and the Cubans in returning the SoD to the United States, offering significant trade discounts to entice Castro to get rid of him and finally be able to sleep at night. With the United States thinking Castro had innocently found McGregor after he “removed the Soviets” and offering him safe passage out of Cuba, Castro felt he would no longer be the target of the United States, either conventionally or through the extensive spy network he felt was always watching and listening to him even in 2000.

With Secretary of Defence McGregor recovered and safely back in Panama and being on the receiving end of medical treatment and bed rest, he began to get caught up on the recent world events.