Delepasian Federation
The Delepasian Federation (Pelaxian: Federación Delepasiana) was a short-lived state which governed Delepasia after its declaration by Hector del Cruces after the Velvet Revolution on 1 May 1984 prior to him being elected as Commander-in-Chief one week later. The new state, which controlled, de jure, all territories that were controlled by the preceding Estado Social regime, was intended to be a liberalised and semi-democratic continuation of the previous regime along the lines of the political beliefs of the late prime minister Nicolas Torres who was assassinated under orders of Francisco de Costa in 1983.
Delepasian Federation Federación Delepasiana (Pelaxian) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984-1985 | |||||||||
Motto: Dios, Patria y Libertad ("God, Fatherland, and Liberty") | |||||||||
 Location of Delepasia at its territorial extent in 1985 (dark green) | |||||||||
| Capital | Santa Maria | ||||||||
| Official languages | Pelaxian | ||||||||
| Common languages | Cartadanian Reform Tainean | ||||||||
| Religion | Levantine Catholicism | ||||||||
| Demonym(s) | Delepasian | ||||||||
| Government | Federal one-party parliamentary elective constitutional monarchy under a stratocratic provisional government | ||||||||
| Emperor | |||||||||
• 1984-1985 | Maximilian I | ||||||||
| Commander-in-Chief | |||||||||
• 1984-1985 | Hector del Cruces | ||||||||
| Prime Minister | |||||||||
• 1984-1985 | Vacant | ||||||||
| Legislature | National Assembly | ||||||||
• Upper houses | Congress of the States Congress of the Peerage | ||||||||
| Congress of the Commons | |||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| 30 April 1984 | |||||||||
• Hector del Cruces elected | 8 May 1984 | ||||||||
| 12 July 1985 | |||||||||
• Ousting of del Cruces | 19 July 1985 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
.svg)
.svg)
The Delepasian Federation was overthrown after conservative reformists led by Raul Quintero seized power by force on 12 July 1985 with del Cruces being forced to resign and sent into exile just one week afterward. During this time, Samalosi, Navidadia, and the Loaland protectorate became de facto independent as, respectively, the State of Samalosi, the Navidadian Free State, and the Loaland Confederacy, fearing a spread of revolutionary chaos as a result of Quintero's coup. The federation would be dissolved the same day Quintero ousted del Cruces, and was replaced by the Delepasian State.
In the short time that the Delepasian Federation existed, del Cruces faced international opposition from much of the Occident due to concerns over his ability to lead Delepasia in peacetime especially as opponent factions remained at large. Politically, the nation was to hold a constituent assembly election in 1988, but these plans were cancelled after Quintero's coup. In modern historiography, del Cruces' government was seen as the Estado Social's final attempt at pushing through much-needed liberalising reforms to secure popular support and stability by the year 2000 as the subsequent Quinterist state had alienated much of the remaining popular support for reformism within the regime in general.
History
Prior to the start of the Velvet Revolution in 1984, early campaigning for the 1985 chief executive election, which was intended to only have incumbent Commander-in-Chief Francisco de Costa running, would see the rise of independent opposition candidate Hector del Cruces. Del Cruces, although a military officer and a liberal member of the Estado Social, had grown disillusioned with the current Pascualist system and so announced his intention to run as an opposition candidate against de Costa. Despite multiple threats and requests to get del Cruces to withdraw his candidacy, he still campaigned vigorously and effectively to the point that there were questions that de Costa might actually get voted out of office. To prevent this scenario from happening, de Costa issued an order for del Cruces' arrest which prompted him to flee to rural Auxana while de Costa attempted to implement measures to prevent other "renegade candidates" from running.
Immediately after fleeing to rural Auxana, del Cruces would issue a declaration calling for an active rebellion against the increasingly authoritarian and stratocratic Estado Social, referring to de Costa and Bahamonde as unlawful leaders. Although this declaration did not initially call for the dismantling of the Estado Social, rather it called for the reversal of the creeping authoritarianism that emerged after the assassination of Nicolas Torres as well as the increase in military interference that had emerged thanks to the Loaland campaign, it still nonetheless provided a sense of hope for many Delepasians. Indeed, del Cruces had also offered citizens the opportunity for a formal rank as well as promotions for officers of the armed forces should they join his rebellion; new recruits were to swear an oath that they would fight to ensure that the new Delepasia would never again allow for the consolidation of power within the armed forces nor would the commander-in-chief be an active member of the armed forces.
By the time of del Cruces' flight to Auxana, there were multiple groups that had wished for either the demilitarisation or even the dismantling of the Estado Social. Chief among these opposition groups were groups of intellectuals who sought to instigate a series of sweeping reforms that would have made the Estado Social into a sort of democracy guided by civilian technocrats. These groups, popularly known as salones, held sizeable influence within the Estado Social, and were often credited for recommending the appointment of Nicolas Torres after Pascual's stroke. To del Cruces, gaining the support of the salones was key, even if he and the salones did not see eye-to-eye on how the Estado Social should be reformed; del Cruces wished for a semi-free democracy which went against the intellectual democracy that the salones had wanted. To garner their support, he offered the salones key positions in the post-revolutionary government, essentially giving them the means to reshape Estado Social towards their idea of government, in exchange for their support.
With the support of the salones secured, del Cruces now had the means to initiate his revolution and thus on 30 April 1984 armed uprisings would emerge throughout the country as a result of his declaration. This uprising came as a massive surprise to the armed forces as well as the Estado Social government, which had never anticipated a mass armed uprising of such a magnitude. Among the members of the armed forces who have resigned and joined the revolutionary army included left-wing officers such as Vito Borbon, Fidel de la Pena, Lazaro Elias, Augusto Ortega, and Hugo Castillo. Elias had formed a powerful military union in Homberia known as the Colorados, a faction that wished for a form of democracy guided by the military, something which went against del Cruces' insistence on there being no military interference in his post-revolutionary government. Nonetheless, the rebels were able to secure the surrender of the Estado Social government just one day after the armed uprisings began, with de Costa and Bahamonde handing in their resignations to the rebel leadership. Upon the resignation of de Costa and Bahamonde, thousands of citizens took to the streets, many of whom gathered at Dominican Square in Santa Maria where the end of the Viceroyalty of Los Rumas was declared 142 years prior.
Hector del Cruces was elected commander-in-chief in a landslide just a week after the resignations of Francisco de Costa and Alberto Bahamonde. Despite promises to dissolve the armed forces as well as to demilitarise Delepasian society, del Cruces was largely unable to do either of these for the most part due to his relative political inexperience as well as his pitiful overall influence. Nonetheless, he remained committed to transitioning the former Estado Social towards a more pluralistic yet tempered democracy and was still able to maintain the loyalty of the socialists. For the most part, however, the intellectuals that have heralded the election of del Cruces have felt that his seemingly anti-military views were in opposition to their idea of what the new Delepasian government should be with many of them rallying around the largely unchanged leadership of the armed forces.
The Colorados, seeing the removal of de Costa and Bahamonde as the only goal for the revolution, had opted to join up with the armed forces as an irregular force. To Lazaro Elias, leader of the Colorados, the ideals of del Cruces was seen as a pipe dream that simply did not take into account existing and prevailing influences within the new government. Indeed, Elias' ideas for a post-revolutionary government were much more closely aligned to the wishes of the conservative reformists than the wishes of liberal reformists and socialist revolutionaries with some key concessions to the technocrats.
In the armed forces, there still remained a sizeable faction that still wished for a democracy guided by the military. Chief among them being Raul Quintero, a conservative officer who was forcibly removed from the military command of the Loaland campaign after publishing the book Delepasia and the Year 2000 which described what he believed the Estado Social should be doing to ensure its survival into the new millennium. After the resignation of de Costa, many within the leadership of the armed forces had hoped that del Cruces would step aside and allow for Quintero to become the next commander-in-chief. By mid-1985, conservative opposition to the liberal government had resulted in yet another rebellion which would see the deposition and exile of del Cruces as well as the emergence of a period known as the "long winter" due to the relative colder temperatures that had been recorded throughout Quintero's rule over Delepasia.
Del Cruces' rule over Delepasia was rapidly deteriorating as the armed forces, the Colorados, and the intellectuals turned against him due to his association with socialists as well as his belief in a less tempered democracy than either of the three groups had wished. In July of 1985, members of the Colorados personally led by Lazaro Elias stormed the National Assembly building in Santa Maria, holding the entire Assembly hostage until they agreed to force del Cruces to resign and go into exile while also electing Quintero as commander-in-chief. The largely bloodless coup was met with support from most of the Occident, which had feared that the leadership of del Cruces was unsuitable to maintain peacetime control over Delepasia.
For modern Castadillaan historiographies of the Velvet Revolution, this point of the revolution was seen as its lowest point when the conservative reformists were able to hijack it in an attempt to shape it in their own image. Despite the efforts of the Borbonists, they were largely unable to repel the Quinterists thanks to del Cruces' inability to rally up a large enough faction to aid in the counterattacks. However, instead of surrendering the revolutionaries have opted to flee into the countryside where they began to instigate guerilla attacks against military outposts in hopes of one day inspiring a future uprising against the Quinterists which would finally come to fruition with the rise of the much more charismatic and politically experienced Ricardo Valentino.
Del Cruces was finally ousted and sent into exile on 19 May 1985, just one week after Quintero's coup.
Government
The overall political and governmental structure of the Delepasian Federation was largely unchanged from that of the Estado Social, with a Julian-based system that had the roles of head of state, chief executive, and head of government separated into three posts, though there was no designated head of government due to the nascent government's short-lived existence, a tricameral legislature, and the exclusive dominance of one political party over the system. In practice, however, it was a provisional government led by the military figures behind the initial revolution that overthrew the previous regime. Del Cruces had hoped that he could turn Delepasia into a semi-democratic stratocracy under a more market-oriented economy in contrast to the former corporatist economic system, but he had made no promises to officially dissolve the Navidadian System nor put an end to Delepasian exceptionalism as a governing principle; instead he wished to gradually reform both but was ultimately unable to due to his time in power coming to an abrupt end in 1985.