by Timothy G. Davis

Since before the Panama Canal was constructed, America has enjoyed a strong presence throughout Latin America. With military spending cuts and focusing more on the Middle East and the Balkans, this stabilizing presence has been critically reduced. The once dominant Southern Command is now headquartered in Florida. The region below the Rio Grande is ripe for widespread revolution: peasant uprisings in Mexico; civil war in Guatemala; thirty thousand demobilized soldiers and guerrillas in El Salvador; border disputes with Honduras; riots in Nicaragua; heavy rebel fighting along the Colombian and Panamanian border; rampant drug smuggling with drug lords protected by armies of mercenaries.

As the U.S. has pulled out, the Japanese have quietly moved in, buying up mineral rights from Mexico to Venezuela. Potentially rich oil fields have been discovered that could make its owners completely independent of Western Trade, not to mention immense wealth and power. Out of the flames of the invasion of Panama, one conspiracy was destroyed. But now, it is about to come full circle.