Pax Narcotica: A Narco Cartel RP

[Byrd Man]

Pax Narcotica:
A Narco Cartel RP

"The hardest thing in the world isn’t to refrain from committing an evil, it’s to stand up and stop one."
-- Don Winslow

A masked Mexican soldier patrols the streets of Veracruz, on October 10, 2011.

TL;DR Summary:

• Mexico in the late 2000's to early 2010's
• Be it cop, sicario, or kingpin you're involved the Mexican Drug war.
• GM has final say on all character/cartel choices.
• No US faction will be playable.

In Character Info

Mexico, the land of pyramids and palaces, deserts and jungles, mountains and beaches, markets and gardens, boulevards and cobblestone streets, broad plazas and hidden courtyards, is now known as a slaughter ground. The Mexican Drug War is in full force and you're in the middle of it. Bodies and bodies fall day after day in the wars between the narcotraficantes who have formed their own shadow governments across the nation of Mexico. Now these quasi-kingdoms fight and die for the right to fuel the United States' massive drug problem and all the cash that comes with it. Armies pledged to one faction or the other roam the land and fight each other, the Mexican police and army forces, and even the United States in complex, bloody wars that every aspect of society it touches. Join the fight on whatever side you'd like and try to take the crown for yourself. But be careful. People don't run the cartel; the cartel runs people

Out of Character Info:

So essentially this will be an RP set in Mexico during the ongoing drug wars. My wish is to run it as a hybrid of a NRP and a conventional game. There's a focus on the cartels and the factions, but there's also a focus on the individuals within those factions and the toll the war takes on everyone. You've got the option of taking over a faction, but also just being a single character. I just want to let everyone tell good stories.

Faction Sheet

Faction Name:
Territory:
Allies:
Faction History:
Important Characters:

Individual Character Sheet

Name:
Location:
Allegiance:
Personality:
History:

[BingTheWing]

kul

[AlShayatin]

US Forces are off limits, what about other nationalities? I got several characters, it just depends whether you want other governments involved in this or not.@Byrd Man

[Byrd Man]

Yeah, no other governments involved as factions. Characters from other nationalities can be played, they just need a damn good reason to be in the middle of it all.

[AlShayatin]

I could come up with a lot of stuff.@Byrd Man
How about a the involvement of a Russian spook, justified by this:

GRU

"Our contact in the Georgian ministary of defense sent us a message, their special forces have raided a remote location in a counter trafficing op. Found an old underground facility, soviet era, stuffed with drugs, weapons, false money. Thought they had a big catch with ceasing a drug lab, didn´t bother to check any probes or containers."
-redacted-
"Well, I checked files in the Kremels basement. That facility was built for reasearch purposes in the 60´s. Biological and chemical warfare. That´s not all, the suspects that were captured gave them 3 names, Bashar Al-Nusra, Alejo Acevedo and Roland Tashford. Tashford is known for smugling drugs and weapons along the south-east asian coast. Acevedo is the head of the Metaz L.A business,the Metaz are one of the biggest H suppliers worldwide.Even our OMOH regularly arrest some of them on Russian soil. Al-Nusra he´s been known as a jihadi hardliner.We might have a new network on our hands, I will call you again when I am in Mexico."

[Byrd Man]

Nah. I want to limit the scope to actually Mexico specifically and North America generally.

[AlShayatin]

That would leave Mexican characters only, if they are not involved into international business I mean. I can cut out the jihadist and smuggler, to leave it on your scope. He´d go to the root of the problems per say.

[Byrd Man]

Yeah, we'll just stick to Mexican characters only to keep things simple. There's plenty of options and wiggle room in that narrow frame. If you want to talk about some jihad motherfuckers, look no further than Los Zetas aka ISIS West.

[Sanctus Spooki]

Well I'm interested, and since my name has spook, I'd like to volunteer as a spook! Haha, out of curiousity though, when you say mexican only, do you mean Ethnic, or National (I'm blind and withdraw this question)? I was always under the belief that only CIA operatives were known as spooks though? Not really important as there's nothing stopping a Mexican from being in the CIA. I'm merely wondering because of @AlShayatin's question, obviously merely a semantic question because russian KGB/GRU are some scary m-f'ers in their own right.

Also Los Zeta's are personally alot worse than ISIS, ISIS in the least, can hide behind religious beliefs to justify their brand of barbarism. Los Zeta's are stone-cold monsters.

[Byrd Man]

If you're interested in being some kind of intelligence personnel then it'd have to be for the Mexican government and you'd probably be the only one. I mean, this is about the cartels and not spies in Mexico so I want to limit those type of characters to a minimum. I myself was going to do a faction with the Mexican armed forces to serve as an antagonist to all the cartel player factions.

[Dinh AaronMk]

[AlShayatin]

It is a common misconception that spooks only do espionge, they work on everything that is of interest for their countries safety. Be it dealing with other spies, terrorists or criminals.

[Byrd Man]

Distinction aside, I don't want too many of them and instead want to focus on the cartels, the Mexican people who fight them, and suffer at their hands.

[Little Bill]

Eh? Eh?

Hider

_{In lieu of a true insignia, the Oaxaca Cartel uses green as a gang color, co-opting green logos to differentiate location chapters.
The Yucatan chapters display Monster Energy logos, the Quintana chapters tag walls with John Deere logo, and so on.
This is the reason Pemex stopped making their station attendant uniforms green, and why philanthropic organizations in
South Mexico are asked to donate boy's shirts only in blue, white, brown, or red.}

Faction Name
Cártel de Oaxaca

Territory
Oaxaca, Chiapa, Tabasco, Campache, Yucatan, Quintana Roo

Allies
Too Many (WIP) _{(where da factions @)}

Faction History
The Oaxaca Cartel was originally little more than a handful of armed farmers dressed in their Sunday best, pretending to be gangsters in order to sell their collective crops of marijuana and cocaine at marked up rates to spring-breakers partying a few mountains away from their thatched roofs. After a decade of this, la Cartel de Oaxaca simply became another criminal organization according to Federal watchlists, having successfully faked it until they made it. It being a willingness to commit crimes greater than pot-pushing, and not needing to wear costumes in order to be recognized as dangerous criminals. By the mid 2000's, the Oaxaca cartel was mentioned by name in the Mexican national news three times; Once for a shipment of marijuana found in an American spinach truck, once for poaching in the Guatemalan jungle, and once for a notorious drug dealer being found tarred, feathered, and thoroughly stabbed to death in the mountains of Oaxaca.

Though the Oaxaca cartel is regarded to as one of the least violent criminal organizations in Mexico, preferring to maintain power through business connections rather than with violence, they are by no means considered benevolent or harmless. Aside from their selling of marijuana, cocaine, and untaxed tobacco, they are a group whose dealings are synonymous with any "mafia" in the particularly rural regions of southern Mexico. If a shipment of gasoline is hijacked, a hiker finds a skull in the mountains, or a rancher's cattle and daughters are taken away by a convoy of men in pickup trucks, the Oaxaca Cartel likely had something to do with it. That being said, they are known for sticking within their own territory almost constantly -- their bulk of their ranks being men in mountainside hamlets who own little more than a pistol, a green jersey, and a bicycle. Those who do not fear them, which is not entirely uncommon for the northern city-mice near America, derisively refer to them as "The Guatemalan Mafia".

Important Characters

• Carlos "El Ranchero" Delarosa Ramirez de Garcia, 45 - Leader

• Martín Francisco Carrillo, 47 - Second-in-Command

• Mario Alonso Ricardo de Canché, 34 - Assassin

[Byrd Man]

The country boy mafia. Nice.

[Dinh AaronMk]

Faction Name:

Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities

Territory:

Chiapas (Marques de Comillas, Comitán, El Bosque, Chiapas Highlands)

Allies:

National and international NGOs, other Mexican Leftist groups.

Faction History:

Founded during the NeoZapatista uprising in 1994 following the signing of NAFTA, the autonomous Zapatista municipalities are the small rural collectives formed around the principles of the EZLN as effect of and in wake of the '94 Uprising. Lead by Subcommandante Marcos, the Zapatistas of southern Mexico rose in armed rebellion for two weeks against the Mexican government in protest against the signing of NAFTA in a show of resistance against globalization, which came to be seen as a threat for local indigenous farmers in the southern Mexican state. After the peace of '96 the EZLN has largely withdraw from the stage, principally appearing on the national stage in defense of the autonomous Caracoles.

Though while still an armed group and they - among many of the Caracoles - are still in a state of war against the Mexican state, the withdrawal of the EZLN itself is a pragmatic maneuver to avoid confrontation with the Mexican military who over the passed twenty years has been beefing up its presence in southern Mexico as response to the '94 uprising and the surge of drug and human trafficking through Southern Mexico from Guatemala and other points south.

Despite slander from the Mexican government that the EZLN is involved in the drug trade the EZLN under Subcommandante Marcos has strongly denied all relation with cartel activity, and verily the Caracoles of the area have enacted swift anti-drug and anti-alcohol policy to stem the use of both in their communities. These policies enacted through direct voice of the community through the autonomous Good Government Councils across Zapatista territory who receive and execute the policy of the people living in the community. The legislation against narcotics and alcohol has largely chased even otherwise legitimate alcohol sales from rural Chiapas and Zapatista territory is notably clean in regards to use of either and the associated effects.

While the autonomous Caracoles of Chiapas manage to maintain remain independent of cartel politics their position and radio silence from the EZLN often means they must step aside or organize their own local means to resist the encroachment of narco politics. The battle is uphill from here with investigation by NGOs indicating that even the state government of Chiapas has largely fallen in line with the local cartels and the military are often the ones planting poppy and marijuana into their territory and threatening the autonomy and health of the people there.

While the EZLN itself has repeatedly been declared dead or irrelevant it has routinely appeared to show force on the national and global stage as a force. While its absence its notable, its show of force in 2012 has not yet confirmed the movement's irrelevance. Even with the supposed retirement of Subcommandante Marcos, the EZLN and its associated social bases are said to have some 40,000 members.

-On the EZLN and Narcos-

The relationship between the EZLN and the Narco forces now present in Mexico stems from the 1996 defiance of the treaty and failure to recognize the treaty of '96 by the then Institutional Revolutionary party of Mexico which had reclaimed its presidential power at that time. Instead of acknowledging and adding into legislation the treaty of '96 recognizing the rights and autonomy of southern Mexico's Mayan populations the government instead reimposed paramilitaries on the region to check and combat the EZLN presence. The paramilitaries earned an early reputation of brutality with the notable shooting over over 40 women, children, and elderly men praying for peace. In present Narco politics, much of these paramilitaries have evolved into or became associated with the cartels of the region. Likewise, the Mexican military is no more innocent as it and local government becomes infiltrated with widespread corruption.

It is this which inspires the EZLN to stay out of traditional elective politics. While the EZLN and Subcommandanta Marcos - briefly going by the new identity Delegate Zero - are not active in the elective politics, they are still a campaigning force as much as they are a combat-ready, armed force ready to reappear to defend its autonomous communes.

Important Characters:

<Maybe Later>

[Byrd Man]

¡Viva México!

[Dinh AaronMk]

@Byrd Man

"Excuse me sir, but do you want to hear about the Zapatismo Gods?"

[Sanctus Spooki]

It is a common misconception that spooks only do espionge, they work on everything that is of interest for their countries safety. Be it dealing with other spies, terrorists or criminals.

@AlShayatin

Hider

Pretty much what I had in mind, though obviously much lower on the ladder than that BAMF.

If you're interested in being some kind of intelligence personnel then it'd have to be for the Mexican government and you'd probably be the only one. I mean, this is about the cartels and not spies in Mexico so I want to limit those type of characters to a minimum. I myself was going to do a faction with the Mexican armed forces to serve as an antagonist to all the cartel player factions.

@Byrd Man

Also totally understandable, I'll work on a CS now.

For anyone who hasn't seen 2 Guns though, definitely put it on your list of things to watch. I don't know how much is accurate (The movie embraces the conspiratorial mindset regarding the CIA and certain military outfits) but it is damn entertaining :D Another good one is Sicario, which leans much more on the cold hard reality. The most disappointing part of it was that when I went to see it, I was expecting more Sicario and less D.E.A.

[Byrd Man]

Gonna bump this up.