The Caudillo Reclamation

The Caudillo Reclamation (La Recuperación del Caudillo, LRdC) also known as "*The Rec*" was a small but aggressive and well-organised group of militant and fascist ultra-regionist guerrillas who believed in the dominance of what they called Maracai, a small area of Zulia State south of Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela; in particular they looked to take over the oil market in the town of Maracaibo, that they called "originally theirs" and push out socialist supporters in the state.

### **History**

The group is relatively new, perhaps heavily influenced from the Caracazo and against Carlos Andrés Pérez in the 80's, who was a left-leaning President in charge at the time; the group's ideals were much more hard-right and over time, downright fascist.

In 1996 there was an attempted coup in Maracaibo by the Reclamation, but their numbers were too small and local Army Loyalists pushed back the Reclamation, even suggesting that the Huntsman's Guild were in use by the state leaders, despite most of the Guild adhearing to "The Deal" that kept the Guild out of governmental politics.

In 2001 the group successfully occupied three towns in the lower region of the state, creating a boarder with the rest of the state in an area they called "Maracai", but after supposed internal betrayals, the group was weakened again, and driven out of the towns and hunted by both the local law and some guildmembers.

The Rec remained quiet beyond 2002, though active politically on the growing power of the internet when they again retook their previous area of Maracai in 2015; their stronger numbers and access to better weapons and transport secured the area, and in early 2016 invaded a nearby US base, taking their technology and killing half of the soldiers there; the 142nd Overseas Division, who, according to the commander of the unit, were betrayed by the United States, providing no extraction, forcing them to run whilst the Venezuelan government suspected that the Reclamation's charge of the base was "too easy" and that they had to have supporters in that base that let them in. Assuming that was the case of the rest of the group surviving on the run. The truth was, however it was more of a mix of luck and highly skilled members.

In that year the VALER organisation were contacted through the Guild with a plead for help; with one of VALER's main objectives promised by the US in their terms was to aid allies, launched a silent extraction, and Cerice struck a deal with local Guildmembers who would have otherwise been trying to hunt the 142nd; instead she payed Juan Bravo, who was in the country selling weapons to the Araña Acampar faction of the Guild, and his team to instead help her out, and led the remaining 142nd back home, where they were recruited into VALER as Unit Zero.

### Purpose

The Rec claim to want to retake the city of Maracaibo, and so the entire state from Venezuela as a separatist region, with many of the Reclamation claiming to have been descended from original colonists that were conned out of their *"rightfully-conquered"* lands by natives who were *"infatuated by the lie of a socialist utopia".*

They seem to see the current politics of the state, and the country as a hole as weak and full of holes, and the only way forward is to reinstate the old "Caudillo" (A Spanish military leader) and create a "strong" hard-right political alignment, actively fighting against socialism and their supporters, but to an extreme, fascist degree.

Information stolen by the Guild later disclosed their plans should they ever gain control of Maracaibo once more, which included expanding their Maracai further into Venezuela and eliminating 'rogue elements', which included the Guild itself. As such many of the Huntsman Guild were strongly against the Rec's growth.

They wished to install a highly theocratic (Catholic) totalitarian regime that hadn't been seen since the likes of the Nazis, and plans of executing foreigners, atheists and other minorities and groups that didn't fit their bill.