Libertad

**Highest Placing Member**: Darcy (Sole Survivor/20)

Libertad was the merged tribe from Survivor: Nicaragua.

Though two alliances originally existed on the merge tribe of *Nicaragua*, an alliance of women soon manipulated their rivals in order to gain control. This power was then solely awarded to a secret duo, before they turned on each other just before the Final Tribal Council.

## Tribe History

The final twelve castaways merged into the red Libertad tribe on Day 20 of *Survivor: Nicaragua*. The Espada Women's Alliance consisting of Alana, Darcy, Erinn, Lana and Peighton reunited after being separated during the tribe switch, and agreed that their first target was alpha male Kyle. Meanwhile, the La Flor Alliance of Matthew, Kyle, Liam, Priya and Richard from the original La Flor reunited. Priya had also formed a close relationship with Vanessa throughout the switch and brought her into the alliance. The La Flor Alliance outnumbered the Espada Women's Alliance 6-5, but Bobby Jon was affiliated with neither alliance and was seen as the crucial swing vote. He was more suspicious of the Espada Women because they were such a tight group of five from the very beginning of the game and decided to instead work with the La Flor Alliance. They now had the numbers, where the group of seven voted out Peighton at the first merged tribal council.

The La Flor Alliance was not as tightly connected to each other as they led the Espada Women into believing, as Priya and Vanessa had made a Final Two deal with each other. The pair agreed that they were towards the bottom of the La Flor Alliance and wanted to go after some of their male allies to become more valued allies. They brought in the Espada Women into their plan, where it was agreed they should split the votes between Liam and Richard. Priya and Vanessa also managed to get Bobby Jon and Matthew into voting for Liam, whom they felt was extremely dangerous after he played an idol at the tribe switch. At tribal, the La Flor Alliance voted for Lana, Bobby Jon, Matthew and Vanessa voted for Liam but the Espada Women and Priya had the majority and Richard was blindsided. Though the men decided to flip again to work with the La Flor Alliance, the Espada Women, Priya and Vanessa continued to work together at the following tribal council and they voted out Kyle.

Matthew and Bobby Jon then revealed to Liam that both Priya and Vanessa were trying to go after him when they flipped on the La Flor Alliance. Liam was concerned that his name was being thrown around by the majority alliance and the trio decided to go after Vanessa at the next vote. Meanwhile, the Espada Women had begun pandering to Priya and Vanessa in order to ensure they didn't flip to the La Flor Alliance for the next few votes. Alana, who had won the first two individual immunity challenges, didn't like how stilted the game had become since her alliance started working with Priya and Vanessa. She then approached the La Flor Alliance and decided to vote with them for Vanessa. She then spoke to Erinn, whom she considered her closest ally, about the possibility of flipping on the girls. Erinn initially agreed, but then relayed this information to the Espada Women because she decided it was in her best interest to work with the girls. At tribal council, Alana was shocked to find out that her own alliance blindsided her for wanting to turn against Vanessa.

After losing Alana, Priya and Vanessa decided now was the perfect time to force the Espada Women to implode on each other. They questioned Erinn in front of Darcy and Lana and found out that she considered flipping with Alana at the previous vote. This group of four reeled in outsider Matthew to vote for Erinn at the next tribal council, where they had the numbers and Erinn was blindsided next. This alliance of four still had the numbers by the Final Seven and they thinned out the pact by voting out Bobby Jon and Liam at the next two tribal councils on Days 34 and 36 respectively.

With only five castaways remaining, Priya and Vanessa decided they need to break up the partnership of Darcy and Lana by voting for Lana. Meanwhile, Darcy and Lana managed to bring in outsider Matthew with the intention of going after Priya. This appeared to be a clear cut vote, but Darcy realised it was a dumb move to bring Lana to the Final Tribal Council because the jury would find it hard to differentiate the pair as members of the Espada Women's Alliance. Darcy also wanted to keep both Priya and Vanessa at the Final Four because she would vote for one of them, even if one girl won the final immunity challenge. At tribal, Darcy switched her vote from Priya to Lana and she was voted out next. Darcy's forward thinking proved to be ingenious because Priya won the final individual immunity challenge. Returning back to camp, Priya told Darcy that she wanted to get rid of Vanessa for being such a strategic powerhouse. Outsider Matthew voted for Darcy, Vanessa voted for Matthew because she thought the women would stay loyal to each other but Darcy and Priya made Vanessa the ninth and final member of the jury on Day 38.

At the Final Tribal Council, Matthew was praised for getting to the end but was heavily criticised for not having any significant moves under his resume. He became the Second Runner-Up after only earning one jury vote from Kyle. The jury overall appreciated the strong strategic game that Priya played, but felt like she treated them as numbers rather than humans. She argued that her emotionless approach to relationships was important because she had to play an idol during the tribe switch to even make the merge, but the jury felt like her flip on Vanessa was too cold. She was given the title of Runner-Up after earning two jury votes from Liam and Richard. The jury were somewhat critical of Darcy because she relied on the Espada Women for majority of the merge, but she explained that it was her loyalty that kept her around for the end game. She revealed that she flipped on Lana in order to get to this very spot and the jury consequently considered all moves from the Espada Women to be Darcy's moves. She was awarded the title of Sole Survivor after earning six jury votes from Alana, Bobby Jon, Erinn, Lana, Peighton and Vanessa.

## Trivia

* Libertad is the first red merged tribe in *Survivor* history.