Chapter Text
22 MAY 1941 – PHILADELPHIA, PA
Johnny Chambers spooled up the last piece of loose film and locked it into place inside the projector. “Okay, let’s run it and take a look.”
Across the room, Ted Watts – only “Tubby” to a very select few – picked up a stopwatch. “Okay, on my mark – three, two, one, go.” Johnny flicked the switch and the projector’s motor began to turn.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the week that was, courtesy of Sees All, Tells All News, bringing you the events of today tomorrow.” Johnny couldn’t help but wince. Lew Morris was a prize ham, but people trusted the voice. Go figure.
“This week, the camera focuses on the small country of Aculpec, south of Mexico in central America. This tiny, freedom-loving country has been up in arms in the last month, and the flames of liberty have been snuffed out with the help of a most unexpected participant.”
“The New Democratic government of Esteban Camasso was driven from Aculpec’s capital by a tide of disaffected rebels, unscrupulously manipulated by the enemies of democracy, with the cheerful support of the Axis leadership cheering them on all the way. But the new Presidente is a surprising figure – and yet one known to so many Americans.”
“Dolores Winters, who had delighted so many in Hollywood and beyond with her beauty and skill before the cameras, shocked millions by abandoning the silver screen early last year. She said then that she had tired of cinema falsehood and wished to do something real in the world.”
“This she has most definitely done. Earlier this week, she was at the head of the rebel forces as they captured the presidential palace. With Camasso under arrest, Miss Winters was installed as the new head of state in Aculpec. She claims that country’s heritage through her mother, and declared that she sought no enmity with the United States.”
The film switched to what looked like an interior shot of the palace, with Winters in a clearly posed shot reading a document at her desk with a pen in her hand. “As she settled into her new role, she had this message.”
Dolores Winters stared into the lens. The elegant good looks that had been making her one of Hollywood’s most wanted were still there, but Johnny thought he could see a hard edge to her glare. There was an anger there that Tinseltown couldn’t have brought out.
“I speak to you for the White Guard of Aculpec. We will not rest until we have swept aside the tainted rubble of the poisonous Camasso regime and brought peace and tranquility to our beautiful country. We ask of the world that Aculpec’s choice be respected, and we pledge that we will raise our hands to no nation that does not raise its hands to us. Long live free Aculpec!”
Watts huffed. “Damn, who’s writing her material?”
“Yeah, she was a lot better in If I Had Words,” Chambers agreed.
“Three minutes, ten seconds,” said Watts as he clicked the stopwatch. “Pretty good, but I think we need to cut about twenty seconds to fit it in better. Leave it with me, Johnny, I’ll take another look and trim it back.”
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30 MAY 1941 – WASHINGTON, DC
Extract from a position paper prepared within the State Department for internal circulation.
The recent upsurge in unsettlement in Aculpec predates the most recent elections in that country. The conservative-oriented Partido de la Constitutión (hereafter PC) under Federico Torrevieja had held power since winning office in 1930. However, after Torrevieja’s death in 1937, the government took a more totalitarian tinge. The new chief minister, Artur Sanjorge, is on record as to admiring Herr Hitler and the NSDAP in Germany, although his rhetoric had been coloured very strongly in line with the history of the region before the Spanish conquest.
The country’s economic policy has remained largely supportive of the U.S. government and American interests in Aculpec, However, Sanjorge interpreted his elevation as a mandate to begin a crackdown of what he described as “seditious interests”. This largely followed what we may regard as a familiar play book, with restrictions on the PC’s parliamentary opponents, censorship being imposed on the media and sizeable efforts being made to influence civil society through social organizations more sympathetic to the government.
The somewhat fragmented political left in Aculpec was galvanized into regrouping under the umbrella of the Nuevo Partido Democrático (NPD) under the leadership of Esteban Camasso, a lawyer and, formerly, a left-of-centre deputy who had been unseated in September 1939 after claims that his Spanish nationality (acquired through his mother at birth) made him ineligible to sit. The claim was disproven in July, but he was not reinstated.
Camasso and his allies implemented a very successful programme of economic harassment, arguing that financial boycotts of the PC regime and any parties supporting it would force them to proper negotiations. This was an appealing approach to many in that it did not require anyone to take up arms; Camasso argued that “a man with a gun will kill you, but a baker who will not sell bread to you will kill you more slowly.” This was combined with straightforward acts of peaceful civil disobedience which similarly slowed the wheels of the PC regime; a particularly central instance was the closure of the city bus network in Tuxtla, Aculpec’s capital, for a two-week period in April 1940.
Protests by factions sympathetic to the PC were divided on the desired course of action. The far-right White Guard, which had backers within the PC and significant support in the military, called for a harsher crackdown. However, more moderate counsel swayed Sanjorge into making major concessions, including the dissolution of the Cortes in July 1940. Our own observers who attended during the election reported significant attempts by the PC to intimidate voters and otherwise attempt to suppress or tamper with the process (James Bowman’s analysis ACL 40/098 is more detailed on context). This may have had some deleterious effect; while the NPD won the election, they gained only 52 seats in the 100-member Cortes and were obliged to seek support from unaligned members.
However, the PC was not in a position to respond as they may have wished; Sanjorge was vilified by the party command and swept aside for surrendering a position of strength – and, it should be said, hampering the activities of local oligarchs thereby. It appears that, at this time, ties began to markedly strengthen between the civilian White Guard leadership and supporters within the higher ranks of the army, who were facing the prospect of forced retirement as Camasso set his aim at the army, notably overmanned for Aculpec’s defence alone.
This brought the advancement of what is, on the face of it, a most unusual alliance at the head of the building counter-revolution. Vitor Pirano, an army general, seized overall command of the army in March of this year, and several regional centres were taken over by subverted army units. At this point the rising acquired unexpected star power in that the White Guard put forward as its chief spokesperson the former Hollywood actress Dolores Winters.
The recent activities of Miss Winters in the U.S. are mostly a matter of public record. Claiming to have chosen retirement from the cinema having made herself financially secure, she shortly afterwards seemingly contradicted this by masterminding an attempted mass kidnapping of fellow actors and attempted extortion of ransom money. She was not seen for several months after this incident, escaping from her own yacht – the site of the kidnapping. A report on the affair in the Metropolis Daily Planet alleging that Winters had been killed and her body taken over by the criminal calling himself the Ultra-Humanite – an elderly paraplegic male – was largely dismissed as sensationalism, although Winters’ whereabouts remained unknown and no legal action was taken against the Planet.
Winters re-emerged in Aculpec in January this year; she has familial ties to the country, where her mother was born. (The obvious comparison on this point of the American Winters with the legally troubled Camasso is palpable.) Embassy staff who were covertly present at White Guard events at this time have reported that she displayed what seemed to be some acute scientific knowledge, although school reports do not indicate unusual scholastic ability. It is unclear at this point whether the advanced weaponry placed in the hands of Pirano’s army renegades are the creations of Winters or an unseen third party referred to as Ultra. Army loyalists, along with police and other armed agencies, were outmatched by these devices. Falling back on all fronts, the Camasso government surrendered on 21st May. Camasso is alive, but imprisoned pending trial on charges as yet unspecified.
The current position seems calm with some likely minor tremors. Pirano has made no alteration to Aculpec’s constitutional practices and made himself chief minister, while Winters occupies the ceremonial office of president. However, the two remain in close alliance. The remarkable enhancement of the rebel army and Pirano’s voiced hostility towards neighbour states Mexico and Guatemala – both of which he has already accused of border violations – suggest that the Department should raise its concerns over Aculpec for the immediate future.
Donald Borden - Analyst, Central American Desk