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Opportunists! - A Venezuelan AAR

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Opportunists! - A Venezuelan AAR

Forewords

This is my first after action report so the quality of writing might not be too great, neither might the results I get in the game. I used cheats to changed Venezuela's starting slider. The AAR is not meant to mock current events in the country and I have no idea the real political going of Venezuela in the 1930's. I chose Venezuela because it seemed like a challenging but not an unplayble country. The writing style may and will likely change. I hope you are mercifull and enjoy the show. :p ;)

Part One: Road to 1936​

October 21 1935

"Today the Venezuelan president Eleazar Contreras evaded an assasination attempt. The car bomb meant for president and his closer circle went of too early, killing the president's driver and several bystanders. The person or organization behind the attempt is not yet known but president Contreras swears that the criminals will be found and punished."

October 24 1935

"According to Venezuelan police they have found the organization behind the assasination attempt of president Eleazar Contreras. The represantive of Venezuelan police spoke of "vast conspiracy of international left, anarchists and anglo-french capitalists" but it remains to see if there is any truth behind this claim or is it a political weapon for the president."

October 28 1935

"Following the murders of two members of president Eleazar Contreras ruling cabinet a martial law is declared in Venezuela. Venezuelan police conducts numerous arrests in attempt to "rid Venezuela of the anti-Venezuelan conspiracy."

November 3 1935

"Chaos continues in Venezuela as Venezuelan army storms rumored headquarters of the "conspiracy". United Kingdom and France demand apology after the ransacking of their embassies. President Contreras states that "Venezuela will not apologize before United Kingdom and France reveal the conspirators."

November 10 1935

"The situation in Venezuela is cooling after the arrest or death of over three hundred men. President Contreras promises that there will be "sweeping political reforms to prevent such things happening ever again."

November 22 1935

"Venezuelan president Eleazar Contreras puts the new Venezuelan constitution granting the president huge amount of power into action. In addition the president held a three hour speech condeming the "treacherous red snakes, conspirators of the old empires and the anarchist bandits" and promoting "the solidarity of south america and spanish speaking world, Venezuelan national rebirth, formation of a new world order and an internationall bullwark against communism and anarchism". The president also promised to call various "specialists from countries trying to forge new world order" to help Venezuela to industrialize and named the new minister cabinet and promised to build Venezuela and "large and popular army, navy and airforce" and licensed his ideology of "Simonism"."

January 1 1936

"Following one months worth of bargaining the Venezuelan president Eleazar Contreras announces that Venezuela has not only invited german engineers to work with the country's oil industry but also that Venezuela has succesfully made trading deals with Germany, Japan, Italy and Thailand to name only few countries. Contreras also announced that Venezuela will start an "extensive" industrialization program."

ven1.jpg


Venezuelan ruling cabinet in Jan. 4. 1936
 
Part Two: The Teeming Start​

The few months after Contreras "coup" were good ones for Venezuela. The trade deals were lucrative, the oil production and industrial efficiency increased, the R-Boats and 1918's artillery pieces bought from Germany created an illusion of an extensive military buildup. Japanese, Italian and German officers paid visit to Venezuela. German infantry guns, Finnish submachineguns, Italian machineguns and Japanese rifles were stockpiled for future use. Italians would help the Venezuelans to develop "battle rifles" for heavy infantry, Siam and Panama would send few of their officers to study art of war in Venezuela. And there was the historical meeting between the German führer and Venezuelan president. Venezuela would cause a scandal by demanding part of British West Indies for themselves. Venezuela had turned into a teeming playground of small-scale international politics. And the United States would just happily smile and let it all be.

Contreras himself had an easy job that was composed mostly of holding speeches, shaking and waving hands and medling around with politics. The merchants would bring money to Venezuela, the workers would bring Venezuela something to sell, the farmers would feed the nation, the militaryand the police would keep the order and the priests would praise the greatness of Venezuela and Contreras idea. Contreras would smile and wave his hand without realizing what they people truly thought of him. But nobody bothered to move against him. Venezuela was prospering in the monetary sense, becoming in some sense richer than Soviet Union. This was of course used as a propaganda weapon.

But despite the outer gold that was surrounding Contreras regime there were problems. Venezuela wasn't a very populated country nor was it industrialized. For the military buildup Venezuela would need manpower and industry. Industry would require raw materials that Venezuela lacked. If Contreras couldn't balance these factors he would lose the support of the people. And when that was lost...

And then there was the distant rumblings. Japan had went through political instability of their own, Chinese central authority had renewed their hostilities with the warlords, Italy had shown it's teeth by annexing Ethiopia and Germany had broken Trety of Versailes. United Kingdom and France were preparing for war.

But it was in the stormy future where Contreras saw the possibilities. Opportunism had given him such powers and he was sure that opportunism would make his nation a respected nation among others. Every night before he went to sleep he would eye eastwards, swearing that someday the West Indies would be his. But why stop there...
 
NL_Oxcart said:
But good luck when it comes time to face the US Navy :eek:
Click to expand...

Who needs a navy when there is northward expansion by land!
A campaign launched from New Venezuela (Mexico) will bypass that pesky navy.
 
Last edited:
Of course, first you have to get to Mexico.

That manpower issue definitely presents problems. How can you form a Venezuealan empire without men to fight in the army? Looks like you're going to have to rely on foreign aid and pick on some weak little island nations to expand. Hello, Haiti...

Of course, expanding in the New World may lead to war with the U.S.- Not bad right now, as they don't have a big military, but very bad in the long run.
 
NL_Oxcart: Thanks for the comment, I have been reading you Turkish AAR. Yes, I think that the US navy is the only allied navy dangerous to me, possibly excluding Canada. TP's have only 2000km range...

HoldFast: I'll keep that one in mind. ;)

Deflare: I think I could remedy the situation by researching the agriculture techs but the Venezuelan leadership has an unhelthy intrest of guns over butter. ;)
 
Part Three: Meeting​

Esteban Borges, Isaias Angarita, Ricardo Moreno, Santiago Ayala, Diogenes Escalante, Humberto Villa and David Henriques, the Contreras closest advisors and ministers, are sitting in the meeting hall. The sun is slowly going down and the meeting hall is less painfully hot than it would have been earlier. President Contreras is late or then testing their patience. Some of them are sitting quietly and wait, some talk about the issues that will be decided today.

Then the door swing open and Contreras steps in. He sits down, opens his briefcase, shuffles some papers and starts reading one of the papers.

"I announce that the 8th meeting of the Simonist regime has started. Today we will talk about issues like the progress by the Italian advisors, the future military doctrines of Venezuela, the armament project and the Spanish civil war. So, Moreno, would you tell us about the state of the armament project and our military plans?"

Ricardo Moreno sits up and starts speaking: "The military buildup is progressing well. The new Breda Ven-36 battle rifle is an excelent weapon for our heavy infantry. The italians ahve suggested that we should mix our specialist troops with our regulars to achieve better results. They have also suggested that we should create reconaisance battalions for our divisions and I think that it is a good idea. The japanese have suggested that they would send few battalions here to learn jungle fighting and have promised increased aid if we agree. What do you think of the japanese suggestion?"

Esteban Borges speaks up: "I think it is a good idea but we must not commit ourselves too largely to the japanese. I have bad feeling that they will anger the United States someday. The Italians and Germans on the other hand... Why would USA bother with them?"

Contreras nods and looks at Angarita.

"Ahem. The german military advisors are way too much intrested in armor. Their concept of winning war through mobility is a novel one but I seriously doubt it could work in the festering jungles of south america. As for our own military doctrines... The german way does not work here, we are a too small nation for the japanese frontal charges to be usefull and the american and soviet idea of massing firepower is just plain braindead. We must build our own doctrine based on the realities that will face our military. Infantry is the force in southern america. You can pit as much artillery or armored vechiles against a division hiding in the jungles but you will not succeed."

Contreras nods and speaks: "I think I'll trust the specialist. And how about the happenings of the world. Borges?"

Borges stands up, looks around and opens his mouth: "Uh, the spanish civil war continues and the nationalist forces have lost some ground. The soviets, germans and italisn have broken the nonintervention treaty and are supplying hteir chosen sides: the germans and italians are supporting the nationalists and the soviets are supporting the loyalist forces. The nationalists have told us that they are "unable" to pay us for our oil and I fear that they might have lost their ports."

Contreras shakes his head and curses the "bloody anglo-french backed anarchist rabble."

Diogenes Escalante stands up, eyes around, looks at Contreras, then Borges and speaks: "The buildup plans are progressing slowly but steadily and the foreign advisors are making themselves usefull. I expect that we get most of the factories finished by early '37 and after that we can focuse on the military. We must also keep up with development of manufacturing techniques and I'm going to personally make sure of it. I guess thats all of it."

ven2.jpg


In 1936 Venezuela had a rather limited industrial capability.

Contreras stands up: "I think so too. The meeting has ended."

The ministers leave the room one by one.

Contreras walks to the balcony, looks eastward and shakes his fist.
 
Part Four: Symptoms​

It appeared that Contreras wasn't happy. For the last few months he had been mostly drinking heavily and sulking in his room at the presidential palace. The nationalist misfortunes clearly ahd taken a toll on him too. Despite the several victories Franco won in the south it seemed that all was lost for the nationalists. Contreras absence placed a nasty and unnecessary burden on the ministers. They had to make up lies about Contreras beign sick or visting foreign countries. Despite Contreras inactivity others had been very active, not only to make up for Contreras who would only occasionaly emerge and make feverish, depressed speeches about then eed to fight against anarchy, communism and especially the english, and for the first time in its history Venezuela had made up comprehensive even if a bit far-fetched warplans.

ven3.jpg


Black 1: Move to the border of British Guyana and repel or defend against the enemy. Black 2: Advance into British Guyana and dig in. Yellow 1: Capture the dtuch-held island once famous for it's piracy. Blue 2 and 3: Mount amphibious attacks against british targets with Trinidad being the most important one. Blue 4 and red 3: Mount a multi-directional attack against the british in Guyana. Yellow 5 and 6: Encircle the British units and capture the remainder of West Indies. Light blue: The Venezuelan airforce will keep the skies clear from enemies.

But Contreras depression was like a black cloud ominously looming over every single succes they had made. Because of his state the british and the french had again established some foothold at the country. It was decided that Contreras had to be brought out of his state by any means. So one rainy day in december Moreno and Angarita decide to go talk seriously talk to Contreras who they hadn't seen for two weeks. The guard of the presidental palace says that Contreras hasn't come out of his part of the building for a good while and that some apparently german men, one was bald had had glasses, the other was an old wrinkly man and the third has a moustache and a scar in his face, visited him four weeks ago. Various bad thoughts run through the men's heads and the guard decides to join them. They rush to the upper part of the building. They can hear a distant, muffled gramophone playing some threating song sung in german. The president's door is a little bit open and they can hear the music ever more louder. The men open the door and see piles of empty bottles littered around the room, the squeaky gramophone, a skull in the president's bookshelf which has gained some content since they last saw it. And the president himself... Contreras sits in his chair with a delighted, somewhat tired look in his face. Contreras is wearing a weird black uniform and he has grown a small goatee. He stares the men and speaks up. "I have been waiting for you gentlemen... I have some matters of importance to discuss... I have been studying in lately and I have drawn some rather amazing, hrmh, conclusions."
 
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