The government of Huenya denied a report published in several media outlets alleging a plot by that country, working with Lauchenoiria, to take over the Canal Zone surrounding the Intra-Xiomera Canal.
“These allegations are utterly ridiculous and falsified garbage,” Vice-Speaker Tiacihitli told the Huenyan Federal Legislature in a joint session today. “The ‘evidence’ that has been brought forth is clearly fabricated. The cornerstone of these claims are testimony extracted from a prisoner of war, no doubt forcibly! We thought Calhualyana and her lackeys such as Gabriel Fleming were supposed to be some kind of spymasters, but if these lies are the best they can do, their reputation is clearly stronger than their reality.”
The published reports provided images and a transcript as alleged evidence of the plot, along with claims of suspicious troop movements in and around the Canal Zone. The Xiomeran government responded to the reports by accusing Huenya and Lauchenoiria of planning an unprovoked strike against the Canal Zone, and possibly Xiomera itself. Large protests against Huenya and Lauchenoiria, led by the XCP, have occurred in several Xiomeran cities since the reports became public. Xiomera has also moved several thousand more troops closer to the Canal Zone in response to the reports.
But far from being impressed or cowed by the Xiomeran response, many Huenyans have been defiant. Xiadani, Deputy from Topexpec, had this to say to the joint session of the Legislature: “It isn’t Huenya that steals land, it is the Empire. Thousands of people living in Xiomera’s so-called newest province, built from stolen Huenyan land, can testify to that. As for the Canal Zone, we obviously have no intention of taking it over at all. But the question does bear raising, why shouldn’t the Empire be kicked out of the Canal Zone? They have repeatedly demonstrated their contempt for the Jinyu Agreement and their refusal to abide by it. Why should they still be allowed to have a say on anything related to Jinyu then? I firmly believe that the government of Laeral, as the author of Jinyu, should call a meeting with the other parties who have interests in the Canal Zone to discuss expelling the Xiomeran Empire from the Canal Zone as a price for their continued breaches of the Agreement.” Her words were met with thunderous applause in the Legislature, just one example of a hardening stance on the Huenyan side of the subcontinent.
