La Gente
Structure
La Gente’s organization is like a wheel, with the Carcavera family in the center. Radiating from this hub is an intricate web of drug cartels, criminal groups, and corrupt military corportions. Beyond this are a host of smaller street-level distributors, biker and street gangs, and smugglers. La Gente employs “independents” when the need arises (typically assassins, pilots, and informants), but they prefer to work with trusted members of the “family” whenever possible. Communication between groups is done through face-to face meetings or courier whenever possible, although La Gente makes periodic use of scrambled phone lines and encrypted email.
Each division of La Gente retains considerable autonomy and is allowed to maintain its own internal structure, so long as it follows La Gente’s edicts. Often, just one or two individuals within each division enjoy contact with a La Gente boss, who makes appearances only when things are not going well. Most of these “bosses” are members of the Carcavera family.
Culture
La Gente strategically promotes all aspects of drug culture. Those individuals who are within the drug culture are the people that are buying their products. Thus, the goal is to promote this culture, reduce the stigma around drug use and to increase the number of people living within drug culture.
Drug culture involves all the societal aspects surrounding alcohol and drug use. La Gente ensures that drinking alcoholic beverages is ubiquitous and seen as benign. Advertising and entertainment feature alcohol use as part of social interaction and as a way to improve the social experience. Prescription drugs are often seen in ads, and recreational drug use is often featured in songs, movies and television programs as part of modern culture. One result of this constant bombardment from media is that individuals in this Era are more likely to try drugs than people from previous eras.
Some subcultures also promote the use of drugs as an integral part of their particular scene, and different subcultures may focus on particular categories, such as hallucinogens, methamphetamines or cannabis. Different drug scenes might have specific rituals or social status indicators that people within the group use. Some may eschew specific drugs over others, such as groups that only use prescription drugs because they consider those safer than other types or people who use psychedelic drugs for spiritual enlightenment. La Gente supports all of these groups, quietly and behind the scenes to further augment what ever cultural stories they are selling.
One common point in most drug cultures is that members of the group teach others how to recognize and achieve a high while also imparting tips on how to acquire drugs, prevent overdoses and avoid law enforcement. This advice may be inaccurate or incomplete, but the idea of being part of an in-group of active drug users in a culture that showcases the exciting side of risky behavior offers appeal to many people. In many cases, drug culture also offers young people a feeling of belonging that might be harder to find in mainstream society.
Public Agenda
La Gente is a responsible pharmaceutical corporation that is working towards:
- promoting drug research in all its branches.
- fostering a better understanding of products amongst medical professionals.
- promoting science and the diffusion of useful knowledge
- the foundation and maintenance of libraries and reading rooms for general use among the members, professionals and general public
- initiating or supporting necessary action in connection with all problems of the Pharmaceutical Industry.
- communicating with other professional, commercial, industrial and public bodies around the world
Science is our foundation. With global unification, science can do more.-Mara Carcavera
History
The Democratic Era
La Gente started out simply, run by the Carcavera family of Bolivia. In the 1980s and 1990s, the family was a relatively insignificant element in the world of drug smuggling until some of the larger organizations crumbled under the pressure of the Colombian government (backed by America’s Drug Enforcement Agency). The Carcaveras, struggling to stay solvent with their network collapsing around them, sought help from groups in Asia, including the Chinese Tongs and the Russian Mafia. Although the short-term loss was substantial, both in money and respect worldwide, such long-term partnerships allowed the family to seize control of drug traffic throughout Central America. Using money borrowed from their Asian “friends,” the Carcaveras formed the White Triangle, transporting cocaine and other drugs across the Pacific to places as far away as Cambodia, Canada, and Chile. Although its methods were ruthless and brutal, the Carcavera family maintained civil, professional relations with their foreign partners, giving them small slices of profit to keep them happy. In early 2000, the head of the family, Elario Carcavera, united several North American and South American drug czars, creating La Gente (Spanish for “the people”). Elario became the leader of what was suddenly the single largest drug cartel in the world. The other drug czars had little say in the matter, as Elario had leveraged his individual deals to create strangleholds on the major distribution points into the North America and Southeast Asia. The few attempts to shrug off La Gente were met with savage responses—something rival families did not expect from the previously compliant Carcavera family. It quickly became clear that Elario Carcavera was “here to stay,” and that business as usual now meant dealing with La Gente. Although resentful of Elario’s success, drug czars throughout Central and South America saw advantages to joining the Carcaveras. A shrewd businessman, Elario had combined resources, centralized information, and bribed officials worldwide and, in so doing, smoothed the way for a new “golden age” of drug smuggling. For the first time ever, Carcavera was giving some of the older South American drug cartels a run for their money by expertly coordinating the shipment of cocaine, marijuana, opium, and heroin across the Pacific Ocean. La Gente routinely hires or kidnaps up-and-coming pharmaceutical chemists to create new drugs to sell in the U.S. market. Many of the new “designer drugs” hitting the streets in western countries were engineered in La Gente laboratories. Scientists that could not be brought into the fold of La Gente were bribed or bullied into leaking information about proprietary work being done by pharmaceutical companies, or sabotaging projects that threatened to compete with La Gente products. In 2001, after U.S. and Bolivian forces devastated the Carcavera estate, La Gente moved its headquarters from Bolivia to Mexico. The multiethnic and multicultural makeup of La Gente ensured that law enforcement was never sure whether a group they were investigating was just of a typical street gang or a branch of La Gente. Secrecy and loyalty are strictly enforced—La Gente assassins dismember anyone even suspected of breaking the code of silence. La Gente is motivated by greed. As the largest and best organized illegal drug distribution network in the world, La Gente already makes untold millions making and trading illegal substances, but it’s never enough. They are constantly on the prowl for small, upstart groups that try to muscle into their territory. Once discovered, representatives of La Gente will pay one (and only one) visit to the group and make this offer: “Join us, or be destroyed.” Groups that comply endure a brief trial period during which their competence and abilities are tested. Groups that are weak, inefficient, or stupid are eliminated and replaced, while those that prove adept are retained. Anyone who refuses is eliminated quickly and efficiently. Despite its impressive size, La Gente still has considerable competition among the larger narcotraficantes, the Yakuza, the Mafia, and other well-organized groups. Conflicts are common, often resulting in a high body count and considerable property damage. La Gente spends an incredible amount of time and money bribing politicians, law enforcement officials, and import companies to insure the smooth transfer of their product. They have established several dummy corporations and legitimate business fronts in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the European Union, and Asia. La Gente has even contributed money to various organizations dedicated to keeping drug reform out of the public scope. Their operatives have even infiltrated the FBI, DEA, and Border Patrol. La Gente has spilled millions of dollars into improving the standard of living in Mexico and other Central American nations. Through his many dummy companies and nonprofit groups, Elario Carcavera has generously helped governments improve roads, water systems, and hospital services. Styling himself as a “self-made humanitarian,” Carcavera uses his generosity to recruit new personnel and instill loyalty in the people who benefit from his charity. This tactic has worked well, causing much consternation when the legitimate governments step in to combat the actions of La Gente. In 2030, La Gente moves into the world of pharmaceuticals. With the rise of synthetic drugs on the market, La Gente sees that having control of pharmaceutical research will give them access to the newest drugs on the market. La Gente established Pharmicus. Orignally, the company was located in New Mexico. However, as the company grew, they established several additional research facilities through out the country with the largest being on Mercer Island.The Era Of Anarchy
During the The Era Of Anarchy, La Gente's criminal organization stepped in to fill the gap. They worked to protect their investments by ensuring that the regions around their facilities remained as stable as possible during the transition of power. As before, they used their wealth and resources to flood the regions with much needed supplies. Additionally, they brought in their people to act as a kind of police force. The people in the region received them well, grateful to have their areas maintained in order while they watched other parts of the country falling into chaos. La Gente were seen as local heroes.The Era Of Corporatocracy
Once corporations began assuming control over portions of the country, La Gente also claimed its pieces of the pie. Each region that it had been protecting were declared as being La Gente domain. There was no resistance from the local populations as La Gente had already been functioning as their government for several years and had been treating them well. Many felt that their standards of living had improved since La Gente was in charge. Many areas were contested by other corporations and when the dust settled, the only region that La Gente maintained political control over was Mercer Island. That region had not been contested as it was seen as a small and insignificant island by other corporations. After the establishment of Corporatocracy within the United States, corporations began to challenge the governments all over the world. These governments could not handle being attacked from so many sources simultaneously nor could they compete with the resources available to the corporations. La Gente established a much larger region of control in Mexico. However, it is determined to maintain its foot hold in America. The resources that are established in Mexico are shared with the smaller region on Mercer Island. La Gente continues to be the primary source of illegal drugs in the world. Most Corporatocracies have continued to ban drugs which has maintained La Gente's lucrative drug market. While technically a government within Mexico, the La Gente is largely run as it always had been.Territories
La Gente's primary territory is within Mexico. However, they hold a small region of control in Washington, Mercer Island.
Technological Level
TL2
Founding Date
Friday, January 7, 2000
Formation Type
Training Level
Professional
Leader Title
Family Leader
Head of Government
Government System
Corporatocracy
Power Structure
Unitary state
Economic System
Market economy
Currency
Mexican peso.
Subsidiary Organizations
Location
Official Languages
Related Ranks & Titles
Notable Members
Related Species
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