The nation of Milintica was thrust into further turmoil today by an announcement made half a continent away. The director of the Huenyan Federal Intelligence Service gave a press conference in Ixtenco at 9:00 am HST, outlining a dossier of evidence that the 2024 Milintican elections were rigged.
“The information delivered to us by Mikaere Tahana has been reviewed and assessed by the FIS. It proves that the 2024 Milintican elections were a stunning betrayal of the Milintican people and their right to determine their own government,” FIS Director Cuetlancaona told the press. The FIS Director outlined what the Huenyan government is alleging was a plot by President Neina Arana, top Milintican military and security leadership, and Milintican election officials.
“Extreme Communist members of the Milintican political and security apparatus were angry with reforms being undertaken by former President Matōchmizalo. Soon after Neina Arana was forced out of the Milintican Peoples’ Party in February 2023, these individuals began working to recruit others into a scheme to ensure that Arana would become President – whether she won the election or not,” the FIS Director said. “Neina Arana was not only well aware of this scheme, she was its mastermind. She gathered these disaffected individuals around her and her Milintican Communist Party with the clear goal of achieving an electoral coup.”
FIS officials provided the media with the dossier that Huenyan intelligence has assembled from Tahana’s evidence. Director Cuetlancaona announced that the FIS is also forwarding this evidence to every nation that Huenya has diplomatic relations with. “We will not allow these plotters to hide in the darkness any longer. Their scheme will be out now for everyone to see, and to act upon.”
While the dossier itself is 453 pages long, a brief summary of its contents is that beginning in February 2023, the plotters began planning to take control of key positions within the Peoples’ Electoral Commission. Their goal was to ensure that the official vote results reflected that Neina Arana won the Presidency, regardless of the actual result. Their goal was also to ensure that the MCP won a majority in the Representative Assembly, to prevent any legislative resistance to the takeover. The plotters also gained the support of key officials such as justices on the Supreme Tribunal of Justice. The Supreme Tribunal rejected a court challenge the MPP mounted after Arana’s win was announced, sealing her ascension to the Presidency. “With judges and electoral officials compromised, an ‘official’ result in Arana’s favor was delivered. But the actual numbers from the PEC records show that Matōchmizalo actually won the election. 50,000 votes that should have gone to him were diverted to Arana, in an election she only ‘won’ by less than 23,000 votes.”
The reaction to the FIS announcement was quick in Milintica. While the Arana government has clamped down on outside news sources and has also exercised censorship over domestic ones, information about the alleged plot was still able to get into the country. The “Voice of Cozamalotl” media service operated jointly by DTNS and the Huenyan government has been evading Milintican media restrictions with broadcasts aimed at the country. Cell phones and devices capable of accessing internet services from outside Milintica have also been emerging in the country from unknown sources, further degrading the censorship abilities of the Arana government. Within hours of the FIS revelation, riots began in several Milintican cities, with protestors demanding that Arana resign and that Matōchmizalo be restored to power. The Milintican military and security forces have been seen clashing with protesters in the cities of Utlamec, Wairarapa and Kōputaroa.
The Milintican capital of Huānoch is itself under heavy security, as President Arana expanded a previous declaration of martial law to take aim specifically at protests against her government. “With our nation facing a military threat from Xiomera, and a nonsense plot from Huenya aimed at overthrowing our revolutionary government to install a puppet regime, internal sedition cannot be tolerated at this dangerous time,” the President told the Assembly. The Assembly has given the President sweeping powers to restore control under a proclamation of national emergency. This allows the Milintican security forces and military to use “all force necessary” to suppress protests.
Milintica’s own intelligence service, the National Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention, responded to the FIS report by calling it “a completely fabricated book of lies by a regime that has been hostile to us and our President since her election.” NDIP Director Ngaire Arepata said that the report, along with the attempts to break Milintican media censorship, “are all part of an organized and well-orchestrated campaign to topple our government and restore the puppet regime of Matōchmizalo to power for the benefit of foreign powers.” Arepata said that Milintica’s intelligence and security service “will redouble our efforts to counter the spy campaigns of our enemies both here at home and abroad.”
Arepata’s last remark seemed to be a veiled threat at foreign countries that might seek to intervene against what many are now calling an illegitimate government in Milintica. If so, the warning did not impress anyone in Chuaztlapoc. Speaking to the Chamber of Deputies, the elected chamber of Huenya’s legislature, President Xiadani said that “Neina Arana needs to step down, or she will be kicked down.” Officials with the State Department confirmed that the Huenyan government plans to confer with the other UCS nations on a possible response. Huenyan diplomats are also considering reaching out to other nations outside the UCS, particularly those strongly opposed to communist governments, on possible action.
Officials with the State Department have said privately that the situation in Milintica has taken on much greater urgency suddenly in Chuaztlapoc due to concerning movements by Xiomera after the so-called “Chenalco Incident”. A full Imperial expeditionary fleet has arrived in the disputed Xiomeran colony, according to FIS officials. “We are concerned that this could be the prelude to Xiomeran military action against Milintica, and thus, the whole Arana situation is now a much bigger deal to us,” one State Department staffer said. “Arana may keep trying to use the Aoatea dispute with Xiomera as a means to distract her people from her illegitimacy and that could lead to disaster.” Other Huenyan officials have noted that Xiomera appears to be either slowing down or halting its deployments in other parts of the world, signaling a possible shift of resources aimed at Milintica.
