The Puerto Polloan Civil War: Part II

FARPP guerillas battle the Army in a rural town, 1986

Second Phase (1981-1983)
These three years saw the most intense fighting and the worst violence, accounting for half of all the casualties of the war. FARPP scored an initial goal in 1981, when a raid on the Arius Air Base destroyed most of the meager Air Force flyer stock. The government, under new commander General Ramon Sosa, responded with a brutal campaign aimed to eradicating support for the guerrilla, marked by extrajudicial executions and disappearences in the city and village raizings and massacres in the countryside. FARPP on their end widened their targets to families of government forces, public employees and wealthy figures, making large use of bombings and assassinations in Danjer Cove. International relief dwindled and economy plummeted, while both side began to meddle in criminal activities  to finance their struggle.


Puerto Pollan soldiers round up the bodies of suspected FARPP sympathizers after a raid in a village, 1983

Third Phase (1983 - 1988)
The war eventually simmered down to a low.intensity conflict, as both sides entrenched themselves in their positions. While a serie of generals briefly took over nominal charge of the country, rebels and government forces alike increasingly splintered in factions centered around officials whose main focus seemed to shift on their personal group's interests, starting from funding. Cocaine production and trafficking became the main source of revenue by the end of this period, surpassing kidnapping and extorsion, all while civil administration and economy reached the verge of collapse. A startling example of how combatants lost track of their goals were the docks of Danjer Cove, where in 1988 a FARPP cell and and paramilitary squad cohexisted while both battling internal rivals.