People's Emancipation Union

The  (: Unión de Emanicipación Popular) (UEP) is a conducting an  in Ventora. It operates primarily in the north-northeastern region of the, particularly the Kanakan Steppe, but includes a measure of support from farmers in the adjacent plains areas. The UEP seeks to remove class barriers in Ventoran society and, particularly, to improve the lot of the lower class, the so-called common people. To this end, it seeks the abolition of the Ventoran and the elimination of a central  or, at the very least, the complete restructuring of the government and its organs.

History
Eduardo Eusebio Losa, Humberto Aritza Leocadio, and Oriana Caneo Alcafa founded UEP on July 23, 1967 in the steppe town of Montelva, duchy of Sabaray. The organization still maintains its headquarters in the area, although it moves frequently to avoid government seizure. Far from the national capital, in an area with poor soil conditions for agriculture and resource exploitation by large business concerns, many of the lower class residents of the region were easily drawn to UEP's platform.

From a small beginning, UEP now claims 100,000 adherents but the Directorate General for Intelligence (DGI) estimates followers at closer to 10,000.

Ideology
Based on the belief the monarchy ended when King Florián III and the royal family died by the royal train derailment in 1961, UEP maintains the current government under regency is illegitimate and the entire nobility no longer has standing. They advocate for disbanding the nobility and the complete restructuring of the government. Along with this, UEP asserts the wealthy class, whether noble or not, is the foundation of the current oppressive social structure, as enforced by the government. Thus, the wealthy class should also be dismantled with the result that society becomes classless and all people have equal status.

While a part of UEP's main, the elimination of the central government is not uniformly supported by all of the organization's backers. UEP's objective is autonomous regions with local self=determination. A significant faction also espouses a view, advocating for radically changing social structures they claim have been largely maintained through  dominance. Oriana Caneo is the main proponent for this view and claims a significant following even in some areas not considered traditional UEP zones of influence.

Structure
UEP has structured itself as a sort of shadow government, with its three top leaders called the Guiding Tribunal. The Action Division, under the leadership of Raúl Contreras, has responsibility for carrying out against government forces and criminal measures, such as kidnapping and robbery. The Reconstruction Division, led by Nieve Vicario, comprises the largely hollow secretariates modeled after government departments, such as labor, economy, foreign affairs, culture, and the like. The Treasury and Press Affairs Secretariates are the main elements of the Reconstruction Division, under Ema Malfalda, engaged in fundraising and propagating UEP's platform, actions, and effects.

Political support
A few fringe either support or have similar objectives as UEP. Chief among these is the Populist Union Party (Partido Unido de los Populistas, PUP) which is presently under investigation for reputedly providing funds to UEP. Investigators assert they found several irregularities with PUP's accounting records. Although PUP claims it is not associated with UEP, investigators have alleged several of its registered agents appear in UEP documents that have been confiscated in government raids. PUP has regularly achieved about 10% support among populations in areas with frequent UEP activity. As distance from key UEP regions increases, PUP's success at the polls generally diminishes. As of the 2020 elections, PUP holds 6 seats (0.8%) in the People's Assembly, the lower house of.

Operational area
The largest concentrations of UEP followers are in the duchies of Sabaray, where UEP has its headquarters, and Aurelia and Cuesta in the Kanakan Steppe and Caniza south of the steppe. There are significant sympathizers in Barcon and Palmar as well. UEP is active throughout this region as well as in Ceiba Baja and Estévez. Ventora's, Plenas, and financial capital, Ascara, are not immune from UEP activities.

Activity
UEP uses extortion, which it calls taxation, to raise funds from business and land owners in areas where it operates semi-openly despite government efforts to curtail or eliminate it. Some sympathizers pay the "tax" freely, but most feel obligated in order to prevent attacks on their property or themselves and their families. In some cases, UEP coerces payments from employers, threatening to disrupt access to workers for non-payment. Kidnapping for ransom and robbery are also common methods used by UEP to raise cash.

Most UEP violence is directed against police and military personnel and outposts. Nonetheless, bombings occassionaly injure, kill, or maim innocent bystanders, a form of collateral damage UEP seems willing to accept. At least 924 people have been killed by such actions which the government characterizes as "brutal terrorism." In addition, UEP guerrilla forces periodically ambush government military patrols, engaging in relatively high intensity firefights which have taken the lives of 57 soldiers and 37 police and accounted for 113 UEP militant deaths.

Voz de la Gente (lit. People's Voice) is a weekly newspaper published by UEP. Its focus is on news advancing the group's causes, highlighting its successes, and opinion pieces denouncing anything positive about the government, both locally and nationally. Each edition carries an editorial soliciting new members and more action by current adherents by either painting a UEP-controlled Ventora as a utopian paradise, emphasizing the oppressive nature of the current system, or both. UEP distributes the paper without cost to workers and farmers while strong-arming business- and land-owners into taking it at 1 standard per copy.

Government response
Since Ventora does not have a national police force, per se, the response to UEP's criminal activities is somewhat disjointed. Each duchy deploys its police as it sees fit in order to counter the threat to public order. In an effort to strengthen this, the central government subsidizes police from the duchies to enhance traditional civil law enforcement activities in an effort to stem robberies and kidnappings. The subsidies also require duchy policy to provide increased anti-terrorism patrols, sometimes augmented by the Gendarmerie.

Ground, air, and support elements of the Ventoran Armed Forces conduct force projection operations in support of law enforcement as well as conducting counter-insurgency missions. Regular aerial reconnaissance of rail lines seeks to minimize sabotage to the means of transporting resouces, agriculture, and other goods from the region to industrial and export centers. Frequent police raids take place in an effort to interdict UEP planning and operational cells in the. Counter-insurgency military forces routinely mount operations against suspected insurgent camps in the rural and mountainous areas.

Although unconfirmed by officials, UEP believes the Interior Commission established the Subversives Intelligence Section (SIS) specifically in response to UEP's growth. SIS is part of the Internal Intelligence Division of the Directorate General for Intelligence (Dirección General de Inteligencia, DGI). SIS provides support to all agencies working to inhibit the insurgency. The work of SIS has had some effect in moderating UEP's efforts to increase its popularity and kept it largely within its historical areas of operations.