Chapter 1317 - The Great Victory of Cucuta

When Jonathan and his team of SEALs advanced to the vicinity of the embassy, they only saw a messy battlefield.

The wounded soldiers supported each other with their rifles and walked to the side of the road. Soldiers, laid on stretchers, were put into ambulances by medics and sent to the hospital for treatment. A scrapped armored vehicle rested in the middle of the road, and the cratered bullet holes on the armor surface told of the tragedy that happened.

Jonathan’s brows twitched as he examined the destroyed armored vehicle.

The sniper next to him stepped forward and touched the inverted steel plate and was shocked. He was usually a talkative one, but not a word came out of him at this moment. The rest of the SEALs’ mood was also down as they disguised their thoughts and emotions.

His clenched fists loosened.

For some reason, Jonathan was suddenly rejoiced that he was, fortunately, a beat behind.

They obviously underestimated the strength of the Ghost Agents.

It took less than five minutes to beat an elite enhanced company. Jonathan questioned that even the legendary SEAL Team 6 might not be capable of this same feat.

…

“The delegation has successfully boarded and is moving towards the Ecuador border,” Ayesha looked to Jiang Chen after she had just hung up the phone, “Following your request, we left pieces of evidence leading to FARC.”

“Very good.” Jiang Chen smiled and nodded. “Prepare five thousand rifles and two hundred boxes of ammunition to be sent to the space elevator. I will arrange two Stingray C-1s to pass over South America to parachute these weapons to the FARC-occupied area through the orbit.”

“Why use Stingrays? If it’s just light weapons, we can transport them across the border,” Ayesha questioned.

“Because I want them to see.” Jiang Chen’s finger tapped on the armrest of the sofa and he smiled.

On the one hand, it was to make the plot as realistic as possible, to fake the entire “rescue operation” as FARC’s action, and Xin was just the employer. On the other hand, it also served as a warning to the UA. If the situation in Colombia continued to escalate, Celestial Trade reserved the option of using space weapons to “resolve disputes”.

While the two spoke, another piece of good news came from Columbia.

Timochenko successfully took control of the city of Cucuta on the border between Colombia and Venezuela with the Sixth Mountain Brigade. Now, he had successfully took grasp of the road leading to the Venezuelan border.

After Jiang Chen learned of this good news, he immediately called Ivan and asked him to prepare the “shipment” at Celestial Trade’s Venezuelan office.

The next day, forty SAM-3 anti-aircraft missiles and missile launchers set off from the Venezuelan warehouse and quickly arrived in Timochenko’s hands. Full of joy, the dictator even gave a call to express his gratitude for the generous assistance.

One party was happy, the other one was sad.

In contrast, the UA was not in the best mood.

The Xin delegation slipped away under their noses. The company stationed at the Colombian Presidential Palace who was responsible for “peacekeeping” outside the embassy was completely crippled. If it were not for the SEALs that showed up and prevented any casualties, this operation could be described as a complete fiasco.

Shame!

Originally, the plan was to use Ghost Agents and “fleeing” Xin delegation as scapegoats for the death of the Colombian President, as well as obtain a few “invisibility cloaks” back to the Advanced Projects Agency for research. After Mr. Henry, the director of the CIB, learned that the mission failed, he almost suffered from internal injuries due to his anger.

With the office door closed, he scolded all the responsible subordinates to finally alleviate his rage.

However, the anger that was finally quelled was ignited again because of a piece of information from the frontline.

Just an hour ago, two F35s took off from the Ford-class aircraft carrier. The original plan was to launch an airstrike in the Pamplona area. However, when they reached the target airspace, the airstrike plan had to be canceled.

FARC was equipped with anti-aircraft missiles!

Although SAM was not enough to threaten the fifth-generation fighter, when the fighter was locked by radar, it was impossible to carry out ground strikes.

After the F35s returned, Hogg, the captain of the carrier battle group, immediately phoned the relevant person in charge of the CIB and asked them why they did not provide such a critical piece of intelligence.

“Find out for me! Where did these missiles come from, and how were they transported into the hands of the rebels!” Henry banged his fist on the table as he furiously roared at his subordinates.

They were all silent while they looked at each other in fear.

In their memory, the boss never seemed to get angry, and had always been a polite gentleman. However, now, his appearance was nowhere close to that of a gentleman, he was more like an angry lion.

Obviously, the continuous frustrations from the same place made him lose his rationality.

“No need to check, the missile is SAM-3. It entered Colombia through the Venezuelan border through the FARC-controlled Cucuta. As for who sold it to them…who else?” Baird glanced at his colleagues who did not dare to make a sound as he bit the bullet and responded.

Apart from Celestial Trade, who else would dare to risk angering the UA and sell missiles to FARC? Who else had the motive to support the FARC Revolution?

However, even if he knew this, Henry had no alternative.

In addition to options other than war, the most effective solution was economic sanctions. However, Celestial Trade’s profitable sectors were the space elevator and the global power grid. Sanctions to the former would cause more damage to companies in the UA, while the latter did not even expand to North America at all.

Sanctions against Future Group?

The Ministry of Commerce certainly tried this before. What happened? The politicians in the Capitol almost couldn’t get to work because of the protesters.

It may be more difficult for their people to quit the high-tech products of Future Technology than for them to quit weed and alcohol.

Henry was frustrated, but there was nothing he could do. And the same sentiment was shared by almost all of Capitol’s politicians at this moment.

Hill pinched her sore eyebrows to ease a headache as she read the report written by Hogg. The wrinkles at the corner of her eyes seemed to increase.

“Celestial Trade is plotting South America,” In front of the president’s desk, Kerry asserted, “We cannot lose Colombia, otherwise no one can stop their tentacles from reaching our back garden!”

Politics in the UA was so strange. Political opponents who were still attacking each other in the media one second before may appear in the same trench the next second. For example, Kerry, who had just lost the preliminary election, was making suggestions to Hill on the South American issue. While it was partially due to the fact that the cabinet lacked talent, it was also a show of mutual compromise.

“Anyone can see their intentions, but the question is what should we do?” Hill said with a headache.

“The crux of the problem is the outcome of this war,” Kerry said solemnly. “As long as the Colombian government forces defeat the FARC rebels through military means, everything else is easy.”

“You mean…” Fill frowned.

“We have to give a hand to our little friend,” Kerry said.

“We have sent an aircraft carrier battle group and a ground force there. This is the limit that Congress is willing to accept, and it is also the limit of our budget,” Hill shook her head. “We can’t send more ground troops in this war that does not belong to us.”

“Did I say to increase the number of troops?” A grin appeared on Kerry’s face, “I mean, we can ask our allies…”