Medisuela
The Spanish-speaking Republic of Medisuela in South America was initially made up of agricultural communities of indigenous people, until conquered by Spain and turned into a Spanish province in the 16th century. In the 19th century, Medisuela became an independent yet small country, scourged by poverty and involved in drug production and trafficking in recent times. The United States supported Medisuelan General Miguel Alfredo Navatilas when he staged a military coup and became President; yet later the U.S. retired their support when Navatilas behaved like a dictator and was accused of several crimes against humanity. Even thou the military was loyal to Navatilas, Navatilas also failed to solve his country's problems.
Navatilas was involved with corrupt U.S. Attorney General Roger Mollech in the conspiracy Project Democracy: Medisuelan-produced drugs in the U.S., if impounded by the American authorities, were then seized by Mollech and re-sold, to obtain untraceable money with which Mollech bought military weaponry that he sold to the Medisuelan National Defense Force. With some extra cash flow that Mollech provided to Navatilas, Medisuela was supposed to stage military attacks against its neighbouring countries, Argentina and Paraguay, so that they'd adapt their politics to American interests. However, Mollech was betraying Navatilas by providing Medisuela with sabotaged weapons that exploded after a few uses, because Mollech was manipulating the events so that the United States would invade Medisuela, then replace Navatilas with a puppet government under Mollech's control. Both Captain America and the Punisher discovered parts of these conspiracies and, thou Mollech's agent tried to redirect them against each other, they allied with each other and travelled to Medisuela - only to be hounded by Navatilas' soldiers.
Seeing his plans in danger, Mollech tried to convince the U.S. administration to attack and, when he failed, he sent his own rogue element in the U.S. military, the Defense Intelligence Agency, to strafe the capital, Medisuela City, so as to force the President to authorize the invasion lest he'd have to admit he couldn't control his own officers. Captain America and the Punisher downed the attackers, but by then Navatilas had been assassinated. Thanks to superhuman mercenary Terror, however, Captain America got evidence against other members of the conspiracy and had Mollech sent to jail. Some Medisuelan high-ranking officials were also accused, and the government was replaced.
Medisuela was a small[4] landlocked country[2] in South America, bordering Paraguay to the north and east, and Argentina to the south and west. It is crossed by the Paraná River,[2] and covered in dense, steamy jungles.[4] Its population of 4,275,000 inhabitants, native speakers of Spanish, was scattered between rural and urban cities, including the capital city, Medisuela City. The economy was based in natural resources, including cassava, coca, corn, cotton, marijuana, soybeans, sugarcane, tobacco, and wheat, which supported the national currency, the Medisuelan peso. Currently the country is a Presidential Republic, with the democratically-elected President having an official residence in the Presidential Palace in Medisuela City, and the Medisuelan National Defense Force, including Army, Air Force and National Guard, was in charge of the country's defense.[2]
Initially, the Guaraní people inhabited the land later identified as Medisuela. While nomadic, the Guaraní found use establishing agricultural communities to settle along the Paraná River. In 1521 AD, a Spanish expedition to the South American interior led to Conquistador Ramiro Montoya discovering the territory. The area became a Spanish colonial province, centered in Medisuela City after the latter was founded in 1534 AD. For centuries, Medisuela remained a Spanish colony until a nationalist movement thrived in the early 19th century. Medisuelan separatist organized a revolutionary army, and expelled the local Spanish authority in 1809, then established the Republic of Medisuela in 1811. In further years, Medisuela became a member of several international organizations, including Mercosur, the Organization of American States, UNESCO and the United Nations.[2] Medisuela had an embassy in the United States,[4] and the Vatican City had an embassy in Medisuela City,[4] although Medisuela performed heathen cultural rites including parties in which a woman was ritually executed so as to arouse the surviving attendees.[3] Medisuela however also had open issues with its neighbors, including border disputes with Paraguay and claiming Argentina's Misiones Province as Medisuelan territory,[2] and was sometimes perceived as a banana republic.[3] For decades, Medisuela was involved in drug production and trafficking,[2] having camps for this trade hidden in the jungle.[3]
Drug camp in the jungles of Medisuela.
In recent times, right-wing General Miguel Alfredo Navatilas of the National Defense Force obtained the Presidency through a military coup backed by the United States.[2] He later legitimized his position by winning a democratic election, thou he was accused of electoral fraud. Soon afterward, however, Navatilas, prone to aggressive tactics and human right abuses, lost the U.S. administration support, especially when he was linked to drug trafficking.[2][1] Navatilas enjoyed his reputation as a dangerous man, having been accused, among other faults, of addiction, alcoholism, deviation, communism, murder, rape, theft, torture and satanism,[1] thou international organizations mostly perceived him as a small-time dictator.[3] For all of his reputation, the Navatilas regime also failed to stop a pervasive lawlessness across the country, which included armed robberies, burglaries, carjacking, corruption, money laundering, organized crime, laundering, mugging and pickpocketing, the last two especially in cities[2] - partly because Navatilas and his high-ranking officers were personally profiting from these crimes.[2][1]
Navatilas got involved in a conspiracy called Project: Democracy with corrupt U.S. Attorney General Roger Mollech, where Mollech obtained untraceable funds by impounded drugs seized by American authorities and reselling them, then used the money to commission the creation of weapons he sold to Medisuela, so that Navatilas could use them to overthrow governments of neighboring countries which Mollech considered antagonistic to American interests;[2][1][3] Navatilas accepted to organized coups, insurrections, and wars, as long as Mollech also provided him with extra capital, which he did through his aide Angela Stone.[1] Navatilas was unaware that Mollech was providing him with defective, sabotaged weapons which exploded after a few uses, killing the operator. This betrayal was because Mollech intended to take over Medisuela by replacing Navatilas with a puppet government personally controlled by Mollech himself. To do so, Mollech directed American public attention against Navatilas, portraying him as a dangerous dictator and drug dealer, and inciting the American administration to invade Medisuela in response to such a threat - then the invading American military would have an easy time defeating the Medisuelan Defense Force, as the Medisuelans' weapons would blow up.[2][4]
Initially Mollech adopted a public position against international drug dealing that also targeted Navatilas[1][3] while telling Navatilas that this was simply deniability for a man in his position.[3] Mollech also counted with the help of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), rogue elements in the American military and law enforcement, to ensure that the drug and weapon traffic was successful. However, these illegal operations in American soil attracted the attention of, respectively, vigilante the Punisher and superhero Captain America, who began investigating the conspiracy independently.[1][2] When Captain America discovered the sabotaged weapons, Stone manipulated the Punisher to believe that Captain America was behind the operation, so that the Punisher would kill Captain America, and reported that to Navatilas;[1] then, Mollech sent the DIA to get rid of the Punisher. However, Captain America only faked his own death to continue the operation,[3] and managed to ally with the Punisher to go after the conspirators,[2][3][4] especially when they understood that high-ranking conspirators in the U.S. administration were trying to make their country declare war on Medisuela.[2][4]
Medisuelan party with dance, fire and human sacrifice.
Meanwhile, Mollech kept contact with Navatilas, visiting him in Medisuela and attending a party where Navatilas tried to impress his co-conspirator and assess his temple, then hosting Mollech at the Presidential Palace. At that point, however, Navatilas was already untrustful of Mollech and feared that the United States could invade Medisuela. Not reassured when Mollech denied the possibility,[3] Navatilas contacted the Papal Nunciature to negotiate sanctuary in the Vatican City embassy (just for him) should it be necessary.[4] On the other hand, Mollech was true telling Navatilas that enemies of Project: Democracy (Captain America and the Punisher) had managed to sneak into Medisuela, threatening their safety. One of the drug camps was evacuated and triggered, so that it exploded when Captain America and the Punisher examined it:[3] The Punisher was believed dead, Captain America's shield went missing,[4] and Captain America himself, unconscious, was captured by one of Navatilas' Defense Force men, Colonel Antonio Veneno.[2][3] Veneno phoned Navatilas asking for instructions, and Navatilas ordered him to execute the prisoner,[3] unaware that Mollech was recording the conversation to use it as evidence of Navatilas' crimes and urge an invasion.[4] Navatilas, who kept his personal weapon collection in the Palace,[1] also ordered Veneno to find the shield. Captain America and the Punisher overcame their captors, several of them being killed in the process. However, thinking that Veneno already knew too much, Navatilas sent an armed team to kill Veneno and everyone in his camp. This team used Mollech-provided weapons, and was killed when these exploded; as they failed to report, Navatilas got worried and hired superhuman mercenary Terror to find out what happened to his men and to his enemies.[2][4]
Mollech returned to the United States and used the recording to accuse Navatilas of being involved in Captain America's assassination, urging the United States to invade Medisuela[2][4] and to extradite Navatilas to be tried, even if the Medisuelan ambassador officially denied the country's involvement in such a crime.[4] Thou Mollech was covered by CNN, his plans were halted by the President of the United States and by the Congress, who failed to see any convenience in Mollech's plan. Enraged, Mollech then had his allies in the DIA and in the USAF to launch an assault on Medisuela City, believing that the President would afterward commit to a full-scale invasion to avoid admitting to having rogue elements in his military.[2][4] By then, Navatilas expected this and had his Defense Force in full alert, with several military convoys around Medisuela City. However, no Medisuelan knew about the sabotaged weapons - Terror tried to haggle with Navatilas to get more money for this critical information, but Navatilas, disgusted, instead sent several men to try and kill Terror. The men failed, and Terror left, deciding not to kill Navatilas in case they do more business int he future.[4]
American military attacking Medisuela City.
The attack on Medisuela City used several combat helicopters operated by members of DIA, including Colonel Max Kalee, Lieutenant Peter Malev and sibling sergeants Cain and Kane Kyffin, shooting at the civilian population. Panicked Medisuelan soldiers tried to counter the attack with Mollech-provided anti-aircraft guns, but those exploded, killing the gunners. Without resources, Navatilas ordered his men to fight to the bitter end and ensure his personal survival, while he himself tried to find refuge in the Vatican embassy. Captain American and the Punisher joined the defense forces, successfully downing several helicopters: Captain America moved Malev's helicopter gun so that Malev killed himself when he shot; then fought Kalee on land, but Kalee committed suicide to avoid being captured and questioned. The Kyffins however caught Navatilas next to the embassy, murdered him and hung his body on the metal fencing - only to be killed soon afterward by the Punisher.[4]
However, after the battle, Terror revealed his presence and offered to use his powers to give Captain America and the Punisher proof against the conspiracy prime movers,[4][5] so that they'd be on his debt.[2][6] With this information, Mollech was apprehended[4] and sent to jail;[2] Stone was killed by the Punisher.[4] Other surviving Medisuelan high-ranking officials were also accused of several crimes against humanity, murder, torture and rape, and the Navatilas regime was replaced with a new government in Medisuela.[2]