Edwin Jaso

Preceded by

 Born
 Died
 Political party
 Profession
 Religion
 Years of service
 Rank

**Edwin Jaso** (December 14, 2066 - December 19, 2138) was a Mexican politician and Space Force general who served as the 75th President of Mexico from 2134 until his death in 2138. He was a five-star general in the Mexican Vacuum Command during the Mexican-American Cold War and served as Secretary of Defense during the Third Mexican War before replacing Deandre Garcia as President. He was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of the American Southwest in Operation Sunrise in 2134 and the attack on Washington D.C. Jaso was assassinated by his Secretary of Defense in the final days of the war; subsequently after, Mexico surrendered to the United States.

## Background and early career

Jaso was born into a wealthy family with a long history of military service, going back to the Mexican war of independence. From age two to six, he lived in Mexico City, where his grandfather had been appointed Undersecretary of National Defense and employed Jaso's father as his private secretary. It has been claimed that the young Jaso first developed his fascination with military matters from watching the many parades pass by the Lomas de Sotelo.

Independent and rebellious by nature, Jaso generally had a poor academic record in school outside of his preferred subjects of programming and history. Jaso was able to gain entry into the Heroic Military College in 2082, and saw early service near the American border coordinating airborne reconnaissance of refugee traffic with private earth-imaging companies.

## Second Mexican War

At the outbreak of the Second Mexican-American War, Jaso set out to improve his country's fortunes. Jaso volunteered to serve in the fledgling Mexican Vacuum Command, and took part in some of the first suborbital drops by Mexico into the South American front. Mexico's space corps was in such a poor state at the time that its troopers had to use civilian shuttles to carry out spaceborne attacks. Jaso quickly made a name for himself in South America and was given command of his own battalion before the war was over and promoted to the Rank of Major.

Jaso's forces had largely secured the area around Santiago which had been plagued by attacks from American backed guerrilla fighters. He acquired one stretch of land that had been badly damaged in a bombardment strike as his private estate, near what would become Mexico's first foreign military facility in Chile.

## Mexican-American Cold War

*Main Article: Mexican-American Cold War*

### **Project Ahuiateteo**

*Main Article: Mexican Vacuum Command*
Jaso headed up the creation of Mexico's space fleet, and began by funneling money through AEM research grants to several industrial mining operations to capture a series of asteroids to serve as fortified platforms to deploy and command Mexico's military forces in Space. For ten years Project Ahuiateteo was conducted in total secrecy, with Jaso largely organizing the operations directly. By 2112 with the unveiling of Mexico's orbitals Jaso ordered a single kinetic strike from L5 on a small island in the South Pacific. While the yield of the impact was impressive, 2 killotonnes, the distance terrified the American public and escalated the Mexican-American Cold War.

### **Secretary of Orbital Defense**

Mexico formally established an independent Space Force, the Secretariat of Orbital Defense, on May 1, 2113, with Jaso as Secretary and Commanding General. He was stationed at the L1 Colony and for 19 years would directly oversee and command Mexican operations in Space, and by extension Mexican deployments around the World.

### **Recall to Earth**

Jaso was ordered by President Garcia to return to Earth and serve directly in the cabinet on December 1, 2132, as the second act of her administration. Jaso returned to Earth and was given a hero's welcome for his decades of service in Space. Jaso had frequently returned to Earth over the last 19 years, but never remained for more than a few weeks. His return in 2132 was to be permanent as President Garcia had hoped to make Jaso's voice an integral part of her cabinet rather than having him directly oversee military operations from Space.

In this position, he proved to be one of the highest-profile Secretaries during the show war, when the only noticeable action was between proxies overseas. Jaso planned to penetrate the Philippine Sea with a naval force. This was soon changed to a plan involving the mining of the Straight of Malacca to stop shipments of goods from the Beanstalk and provoke the US into attacking Riau, where it could be stalled form supporting US forces in the Southwest. However, Garcia and a majority of the Cabinet disagreed, and the start of the mining plan, Operation Tlaloc, was delayed until a day before the successful US attack on Riau.

Jaso sought to portray himself as an isolated voice warning of the need to arm the Aztlan rebels. Jaso warned that if the Union were to defeat Aztlan and fully integrate their space colonies into the Union, the US would have virtually unlimited resources to contain and cripple Mexico as a world power. Jaso argued that the key to North America, and indeed dominance on Earth lay in the Mississippi Basin, and if Aztlan were able to achieve independence they could credibly threaten US control over the Port of New Orleans, and the Mississippi, and even if the Union integrated its colonies after that point, it wouldn't matter because trade throughout the American homeland would forever be subject to Mexican controls.

Garcia believed that directly engaging the US would be suicidal and covert operations would be a practical option for dragging on the war without directly involving Mexico.

## Presidency (2134-2138)

On 3 April 2134, hours before the Union began its invasion of Arizona after Utah sued for peace, it became clear that, following failure in Riau, the country had no confidence in Garcia's prosecution of Mexican foreign policy and so Garcia's cabinet exercised its power to issue a vote of no-confidence and removed her from power. The commonly accepted version of events states that Interior Secretary Diaz turned down the Presidency because he believed he could not govern effectively as a visible supporter of Garcia's policies. Diaz resigned his post before the vote of no confidence and by Mexican constitutional law of succession, Jaso became President. Jaso's first act was a public address to the Mexican people thanking Garcia for her service, and calling on Mexico to, "Stand in Defense of Our Family to the North."

### **Start of the Third Mexican American War**

Jaso's second act was the issuing of the "Turn Back" ultimatum to the Union, demanding that they withdraw from Arizona and enter into negotiations with the United States of Aztlan. The ultimatum, was the first instance of any major world power recognizing Aztlan as an independent nation-state. Jaso ordered Mexican forces on high alert and began positioning troops near the US/Mexican border.

#### **Operation Sunrise**

The US ignored Jaso's ultimatum, and upon entering the outskirts of Phoenix, Jaso ordered the detonation of Mexico's nuclear arsenal along the DMZ to clear a path to invade the American Southwest. Operation Sunrise had been on the books and simulated in thousands of war-games since the Second Mexican-American War, and while Mexico's forces were expected to encounter heavy resistance, the Second Civil War provided an opening to invasion. Bombardment from the Mexican Orbitals, and advanced ground based defense systems severely reduced the American ability to respond, leaving fighting primarily on land and at sea. With US allies and worldwide forces engaging Mexican client states in Eurasia and Africa, few reinforcements could be recalled to defend the American homeland.

Mexican forces reached Phoenix and were largely welcomed as liberators, and by 2135 Mexico had driven US forces out of the rebel states and as far north as southern Oregon. The remnants of the Aztlan government returned to Santa Fe and greeted Jaso who arrived on November 19, 2135 to the celebration of the locals. Before Jaso arrived to meet with the rebel leaders, he had political operatives begin engaging with the public and other members of the Aztlan leadership to push for the prospect of annexation. Aztlan's military was exhausted, and Jaso believed Mexico finally had a chance to secure its dominance over North America and indeed the Earth. In a speech on the Santa Fe statehouse, Jaso declared the rebel American states to be Mexican territory and committed to reuniting the Mexican people that had been separated after the First Mexican American War. Jaso proclaimed this as the beginnings of a Greater Mexican Protectorate , his vision of a more formalized confederation of Latin-American nations under Mexican leadership that could dominate the Western Hemisphere and from there project power across the Earth.

### **Path to Defeat**

Mexico's victories in the Americas prompted Kaczyński to have Poland and the Intermarium join forces with Jaso on 9 January 2136. Brazil and Mexico had signed a treaty that would allow Mexico to withdraw the bulk of its forces from Brazil and focus their efforts against the United States on the previous year, and the Alliance with Poland gave Mexico a free hand to act in the Americas. By the end of January, Jaso's popularity has grown across Mexico and it allies – and support for the war reached its peak when he returned to Mexico City on 2 February from his meeting in Warsaw following the signing of the Athens Pact.

At this point, Jaso believed Mexico should press their advantage and take American assets in Space, going beyond the initial blockade of lunar goods to Earth. On May 9th, 2136, Mexico began an invasion of Luna from plans Jaso personally drafted over his years on Mexico's orbitals. The Sea of Tranquility quickly fell to Mexico's attack, and the primary elevators were secured before Planetary Guard forces could destroy them. However, the attempt to take the Tycho shipyards ended in disaster, when US forces detonated three nuclear weapons around the three large fusion reactors powering the shipyard's initiating a massive explosion that destroyed the shipyards and all of the forces assigned to take them.

Despite the loss of Tycho, Mexico's beach-head in the Sea of Tranquility provided them with a steady supply of Helium-3 while denying the Americans their final source after Mexico's orbitals began a formal blockade of American O'Neil ships entering the system. In so doing, Jaso secured a union between the United States on Earth and her colonies in space that many historians believe would not have been possible before. In their desperation, the Americans initiated Operation Stardust. The only publicly known action taken to this effect was the nationalization of the US Planetary Guard forces on August 11th, 2136. Mexican intelligence did not believe at the time that the American colonies could reach Earth fast enough to impact the outcome of the war, or provide sufficient fire support.

#### **Battle of Washington**

Mexican deep space surveillance stations detected the Colonial fleet on August 24th, correctly deducing their arrival on August 27th. The discovery of the colonial fleet was a shock to both Jaso and the Mexican military leadership. After a battery of simulations confirmed the fleet's potential to tip the war in the Americans' favor, Jaso ordered the remainder of Mexico's elite Orbital Commandos be deployed to the American capital of Washington D.C. and personally authorized the use of any means necessary to destroy the American command structure. Jaso had hoped to force the Americans to sue for peace, and attacking their political and military leadership would make that all but impossible. But with the Colonials set to invade the chaos that was once a danger to Mexico's geopolitical future became their only chance to distract the colonials from committing their forces directly to Mexico.

The Battle of Washington began on August 26th and for 31 hours Mexico appeared to have the upper hand. Jaso was quoted as saying, "the future of our people will be decided in the streets of the American capital." When the colonial fleet arrived, the all available Mexican space forces engaged them in a bid to stall any relief from reaching Earth. Jaso committed a sizable percentage of forces to defend his home orbital. After the Victory of DC, the colonial forces outnumber the Mexican allied forces 2 to 1, and after 21 hours of fighting in space had occupied or disabled every Mexican orbital.

Jaso addressed his nation after the defeat at DC, stating, "We have taken back the lands of our ancestors, and shown the world the might of our nation, and now we face invasion from strange and alien powers that our enemy has called knowing they could not win without. The battle for our nation has now begun."

### **Defeat and Death**

Jaso knew that Veracruz was the key to defeat for his country, and ordered the port city destroyed in a scorched Earth tactic that denied the Americans the a foothold that would take them the Capital. The destruction of Veracruz was the final straw for many Mexicans, and would have led to protests across Mexico City had Jaso not suspended the constitution and arrested hundreds of political activists. Jaso had bought his nation time by destroying Verecruz, but the act is largely seen as the moment that sealed his fate.

#### **Battle of Mexico**

Mexico held nothing back against the Americans, detonating nuclear ordinance every step of the way to Mexico City, and where there were options in the north to withdraw and simply find a new rout, the road to Mexico City was far less flexible; the soldiers of the Veracruz campaign saw some of the heaviest losses of the war, a fact that was true for both sides. The Union responded with the largest bombardment campaign of the Third Mexican-American War, Operation Starlight, hitting three key military positions surrounding Mexico City. The ash cloud generated from nuclear and relativistic strikes blanketed the land and brought nuclear winter to the country. Millions of Mexican nationals poured over the border to flee from the fallout, and reports of mass surrenders from the military concluded that the war was lost.

#### **Assassination**

By December 14, the US Army had surrounded Mexico City, and Jaso was contacted by President Halvidar who demanded Mexico's unconditional surrender. Jaso was reported to have simply disconnected the transmission and ordered his Secretary of National Defense, Manuel Portes, to compel the Army to defend the city to the last man. Portes was reportedly contacted by both major party leaders who urged him to oust Jaso. Portes did not agree, but did not report them to the President either. Meanwhile Secretary of Interior Diaz had reportedly met with US Major General Sri Tailor to negotiate a surrender. Jaso had Diaz killed and his brother in the legislature arrested. Jaso continued to send out communiques to Washington demanding that the Americans accept his conditions for surrender, and receiving only the Americans' own demands for unconditional surrender. A final communique was issued by the Americans stating their intent to destroy the city if Jaso did not surrender, Jaso's last words, reportedly were, "Mexico will not be a slave to America. Tell Halvidar that we will never..." upon which Portes shot the President in the back of the head. Portes promptly agreed to surrender unconditionally, and ordered the military to stand down.