Members of the Combine

## United Technate of the Americas

###  Mexico

While the United Technate of the Americas is a dream of pan-American unity, there is little doubt either within the Combine or without that Mexico is unofficially the leading powerhouse of this state - for now, at least. One of the earliest members to incorporate Technocratic principles following the Camacho-Múgica Agreement, Mexico has gone from being effectively controlled by foreign interests at the start of the 20th century to a prosperous and independent regional power. It would be a natural shoe-in for application into the Allied Nations...were it not for long-running tensions and cool hostilities between it and the United States, born first out of fears over Mexico's more radical socialist elements and later over its technocratic reforms. By the mid-1960s, this tension reached such a point that the US-Mexico border has become one of the longest militarized borders in the Western Hemisphere. Refusing to join an organization where its northern rival played a critical founding role, Mexico instead looked south to find allies - and helped export technocracy further. Although this has helped its diplomatic and political ties, it is not without its detractors; there are those that refer to Mexico as "the little United States", and worry that the United Technate is being used as cover for a new Mexican Empire.

Modern Mexico is a nation of two drives: the industrial, and the scientific. One the greatest contributors to modern Mexico's rise has been the Máquinas Grandes: the Great Machines. Everything from enormous resource extraction and processing vehicles to gargantuan power generation and production towers, the Máquinas Grandes can be seen from the deserts of Sonora to the farms of Chiapas, helping villages to harvest and tame their surrounding landscapes far more efficiently than they could do so alone. In turn, the knowledge needed to operate and repair the machines has helped educate generations of rural Mexican citizens, as well as helped to spur infrastructure networks across the span of the region.

But while the Máquinas Grandes have greatly improved Mexico's industrial production, they are not enough for its future. So it is that Mexico invests quite heavily in promotion of education at all levels and of many types, from simple magazines on mutagenic crop seeding distributed to farm villages to the breathtaking monument to knowledge that is the capital's University City. Generous grants for prospective innovators and attractive employment opportunities for patent-seekers ensure a steady stream of new discoveries and inventions into Mexico - and from Mexico, across Central America.

###  Guatemala

(has had a rough history. briefly joined the Allies under Ubico before the Guatemalan Revolution made it independent. Arévalo goes more technocratic [though no less spiritual] and the country formally allies with Mexico following a failed CIA coup. Special notes given to land redistribution and agricultural cultivation, indigenous reforms, and biomaterial/bacterial sciences)

###  Nicaragua

(to be revised: need to look back and revise given changes to timeline)

Nicaragua, one of the more prosperous countries in Central America, has a long history of running from crisis to crisis and from dictatorship to dictatorship in the recent decades until it gained full support by the Allied Nations. For much of the known 20th century, the country was ruled with an iron fist by the Somoza family, with support from military, economy and at very early times even parts of the USA.

The Somoza family came to power as part of a US-engineered pact in 1927 that stipulated the formation of the Guardia Nacional, or the National Guard, to replace the U.S. Marines that had long reigned in the country. Anastasio Somoza García slowly eliminated officers in the National Guard who might have stood in his way, and then deposed Sacasa, his political enemy. In 1937, Somoza used the National Guard to force Sacasa to resign at take control of the country, and next to destroying any potential resistance due to his complete military control, he also controlled the National Liberal Party (LPN), in charge of legislature and judicial systems, thus allowing him complete control over the country.

This changed when Nicaragua declared war on the Soviet Union on June 15th, 1952 and sided with the newly founded Allied Nations. The Allies refused to cooperate with Somoza, who soon regretted his decision when Soviet special forces landed in Nicaragua, taking out the opposition and overthrowing the government, initiating their own puppet regime under Luis Somoza Debayle, son of the former dictator and a plaything to Stalin and later Cherdenko.

Until 1961, Nicaragua's government was officially in alliance with the Soviet Union, a fact that was first received with joy from the many groups and unions that had sought to depose the Somoza dictatorship and bring in a socialist revolution. Joy turned to confusion, and later to disappointment when it was revealed that the government of the new Nicaragua was no more favorable than the old dictatorship, with the major difference being the use of armored Mosvkitch 404s by police for riot suppression rather than 1941 Ford cruisers. As a result, the assorted opposition groups of the old rulers found themselves rebels without a cause, being turned off of capitalism and communism in equal measure.

In 1961, however, the Technocratic Revolutions sparked a new fire in the now-disillusioned former rebels. Inspired by the ideas of technocracy as a counterpoint to both capitalist and communist ideology and a united Latin state, universities and revolutionary groups old and new publicly spoke up in favor of the Revolutions and sought out fighters in other countries to pledge and ask in turn for support. Prominent among these groups was the Sandinista National Liberation Front, founded by eight men in July of 1961 and dedicated to the violent overthrew of the party they once tried to implement. Such a revolution came as a surprise to the members of the Columbia Future Society who had sparked the Revolutions, for they had not foreseen or paid attention to the plight of the Nicaraguans in much detail. Quickly seizing on the opportunity however, they forged deals with the FSLN and in 1963 Nicaragua was officially inducted as a state into the United Technate of the Americas.

Modern Nicaragua is a great deal more peaceful than it had been in previous decades, but the years of turmoil and political agitation have made their mark on the state. Pro-communist and pro-democratic groups are prevalent throughout the area, and while many areas in the Technate still fight off guerrilla activity on a semi-regular basis Nicaragua is still in some ways still a war-zone - to the point where some claim in the Mobile Guard a year patrolling the Managua department will make one a better veteran than five years spent fighting in the Colombian rainforest. Despite the common violence in the area, industrial and economic growth has steadily improved, with the industrial infrastructure built by the former Soviet-aligned government co-opted by the Technate and large parts of the country transformed into agricultural 'farm cities' developed as part of the Heartland Reversion. While Mexico may boast of its military and industrial capacity, Costa Rica its technological innovation, and Venezuela its rich oil and mineral reserves, Nicaragua can proudly state that it is the premier breadbasket of the United Technate: responsible for feeding millions across two continents, and keeping the future healthy and strong.

###  Costa Rica

Peaceful, flourishing with natural beauty, a hotspot for biological research: in many ways, Costa Rica can claim to embody the ideals of the modern Combine.

(to be revised, after more research involving the political candidates and events surrounding the Civil War)

It all started way back on 1948, with an election gone awry and the government abusing it's control of the military as a way to call the shots, wich led to a civil war. The overt violence of the military during this war and the powerful influence the Technocrats had in various parts of the political landscape of this country, gave the perfect opportunity for the Columbia Future Society to intervene and give a trial run to their ideals of government. Many have said that the hard feelings that led to the schism can be traced all the way back to the this incident.

Regardless of the truth of this fact, most of the characteristics that would later become the norm in the United Technate of the Americas were put to practice for the first time here, alongside with many that weren't deemed so successful. Amongst these was the famous abolition of the army, being replaced with the in theory less militant Humanitarian Guard, practice that would later extent to the totality of the Technate territories.

It's no wonder, then, that Costa Ricans now take pride on being the forerunners of this new power block.

## Other Affiliates

### Pacifica Securities Incorporated

To those unfamiliar to the ways of the Combine, the relationship between that of the United Technate of the Americas and Pacifica Securities seems to be a nonsensical one. How is it that a young upstart union of nations somewhat collectivist in its ways of thinking and a group of men and women whose business is solidly founded on pragmatic capitalism can have forged such an alliance as the one that they do to this day? It is almost as if two diametrically opposed ideologies are working together - another paradox in this mad modern world. The answer, however, is surprisingly simple - mutualism.

Pacifica Securities Inc. was started in the early 1960s, a still-young organization originating in Central America attempting to carve out a niche for itself in the market. Ordinarily, this would have been no problem, except for one little problem: the area in which they were centered in was prime Syndicate-backed material. Pacifica was calmly informed that it would be most advisable to join the Syndicate, or even more advisable to just consolidate themselves into Legion Security and skip the whole 'independent competitor' business. Unfortunately for both parties involved, Pacifica refused the offer on self-interested grounds, which effectively screwed them out every getting a market in Syndicate territory. Considering where they were, this meant, in all likelihood, no contracts and a slow death.

However, there was another side of things - the United Technate of the Americas. Situated in Latin America, the young nation was vulnerable should anyone invade, only having a few years to build up their own military forces and vehicles. Meanwhile, the other technocratic parties on the continents were similarly weak - they had no soldiers at all to help them aside from what the Technate could muster, and that was precious few and far between. And when the technocratic party in Guatamala hired Pacifica Securities temporarily to protect them against Syndicate pressure, both sides became aware of the other - and how much they could benefit together. Since then, Pacifica has been instrumental in providing hired weaponry for the Technate when indiginous or stored designs are not available, and in turn the Technate has helped to fund the growth of the company and their aquisition of more mercenaries and vehicles to fuel their ranks.