South American Theatre of WW3 (DJK95)

The south american theatre of World War III was one of the bigger theatres of combat during WW3. It saw heavy fighting and acts of war for various years in the latter half of the conflict, starting with the outbreak of hostilities between the United States of America and Venezuela, following allied blockades against the Revisionist Powers, which caused massive economic hardship in sympathizer states like Venezuela and Cuba. These hostilities ended with the Allies defeating most latin american Revisionist Powers, liberating occupied territories, re-starting economic relationships with former Revisionist Powers as well as resulting in the collapse of the venezuelan and cuban regimes. The Allies fought the Revisionist Powers in Latin America on 4 main fronts: the Carribean Front, the Bolivian Front, the Central American Front and the Uruguayan Front.

The War in South America: Venezuela joins the Revisionist Powers
At the same time on the other side of the globe, the Venezuelan Regime of Nicolás Maduro suffered a massive crisis. Due to the ongoing blockades of the Allies against Venezuela's longtime revisionist sponsors, China and Russia, Venezuela came to the brink of collapse. Riots and protests became even more frequent, while the super-inflation and overall dire economic situation caused increased famine and disease in the south American country. The regime blamed the US for this ongoing crisis, and intensified its anti-American rhetoric massively, while a large portion of the Venezuelan people joined in on this animosity. The majority of the Venezuelan army remained loyal to Maduro, while the rebelling armed forces lacked significance, due to the missing foreign support after WW3 broke out.

With the survival of the regime being in question, Maduro searched for ways to relieve pressure on Venezuela, while also hurting those he deemed responsible for the crisis, which was why he decided to take offensive action against the Allies. The decision was made to harass allied maritime traffic the same style Iran allegedly did in the Persian Gulf 2019 onwards, that is why Venezuela's only 2 submarines went on a hunting mission in the coastal waters of the Southern Caribbean Sea, attacking and harassing shipping lines of US ally Colombia and allied Caribbean territories, like Curaçao and Aruba. While most of these attacks remained minor in scale and impact, they were enough to worry the allied leadership of a potential South American Front being opened in Venezuela, especially since Russian aircraft and soldiers were still present in the Bolivarian country. Those forces, including a small Tupolev bomber squadron that was deployed there as soon as the war broke out, were activated by the Kremlin in the wake of the allied advance at the Western Front, leading those aircraft to run bombing raids on allied territories in the Caribbean, leading Aruba, Curaçao and Montserrat to be attacked. Due to almost all American naval assets being sent into the Pacific, the US lacked in significant maritime presence in the Caribbean, with no aircraft carrier being deployed at Americas southern flank. This lack in presence was exploited by the Russian and Venezuelan air force, causing cargo ships and drill stations in the Caribbean Sea and even the Gulf of Mexico to be assaulted as well. The attacks against oil platforms lead to devastating ecological consequences, due to millions of barrels of oil that leaked into the Ocean, while also hurting the allied fuel supply.

The anti-Maduro Lima Group, often called the Rio-Pact, condemned Venezuela's aggressiveness, yet the group of south American nations remained reluctant to directly call out Russia, due to the good relationship between the federation and South America. The only south American nations that openly expressed support for Venezuela were Bolivia and several factions in Uruguay, while voices in Suriname, Nicaragua, Cuba and some of the Bolivarian island states in the Caribbean also declared their support of Maduro. In order to prevent any possible escalation, France, the Netherlands and the UK dispatched a small war ship group to the Caribbean, so that their territories there gained some protection. Politicians in the US also called for a naval presence to secure Americas southern flank, while also calling for attacks against the Russian aircraft in Venezuela. This debate was accompanied by several south American initiatives, like Colombia mobilizing its army along its border with Venezuela, while hunting its few submarines. Wary of a potential strike of the US, Russia and Venezuelan dictator Maduro tried to circumvent this scenario, by once again taking offensive action. Due to their support for Maduro since the failed Guaido coup of 2019, the Caribbean islands of Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as Saint Kitts and Nevis allowed Venezuela and Russia to build a military presence on their territory. The support of Saint Vincent was more reluctantly though, because it feared a possibly violent invasion of Russian and Venezuelan forces, due to Venezuelas claim on Bird Island. This presence was enhanced by the few Russian vessels and the one Iranian ship that were deployed to Venezuela when the war broke out in the summer of 2021.

Especially the helicopter flattops were used by the Venezuelans and Russians to pursue a piracy campaign in the Caribbean Sea, leading commercial vessels to be assaulted and captured with the help of helicopters, similar to how Iran captured various oil tankers during the „Tanker-War“ of 2019. US planes taking off from Puerto Rico managed to sink a Venezuelan ship, while conducting air strikes against revisionist forces stationed on smaller Caribbean islands. This lead the revisionists on the other hand to once again attack and effectively occupy the ABC islands, while Venezuelan dictator Maduro declared war on the US. Colombia, a close ally of the US declared its support for America, should the fighting come to the continent. Meanwhile, Brazil started to mobilize its troops along its border with Venezuela, for the case of open hostilities.