Operation Freedom & Punishment

DATE: 03/04/2025

TIME (GMT): 18:00

ERA: Modern

MAP(S): Tanoa

TYPE: COOP

TEAMSPEAK: ts1.biaarma.com

GAME: Arma 3

EVENT: Official

AUTHOR(S): Aris Doctor and Vuk for Brothers in Arms

SLOTS: 60 / 112

RATING: (9)

It is June 20, 1988. Twelve US Senators visit Colombia to see if it is doing everything it has agreed to do to combat drug traffickers.The Senators, after their meeting with the President of Colombia, Virgilio Barco Vargas,upon request, ask them to visit Medellin the homeland of the most powerful Drug Baron, Pablo Escobar.

On the way to the city, their convoy is attacked, resulting in all of their Colombian police guards being killed (including 3 US Secret Service men) and all of the Senators being kidnapped.

The suspicions of the American authorities fall on Escobar and the Medellín cartel.However, after two days, the American Embassy in Colombia receives a message that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People s Army FARC-PA is responsible for this act.

This Guerrilla movement was the most powerful in Colombia with over 17,000 soldiers, but in recent years it has been at war with the government and the drug cartels, and so its financial resources were now very limited.

By taking this action, they hoped to obtain One Billion dollars (10 billion in today s money) from the American government to free the Senators.

The American government of President Ronald Reagan demanded that the Colombian government not leak anything to the press as this would be disastrous for its reputation.

After 4 days of consultations and investigations, President Ronald Reagan ordered the launch of the Operation Freedom and Punishment,with the aim of freeing the hostages but also severely punishing and killing the leaders of this movement.

The most difficult thing was to find where the hostages were hiding. The jungles of Colombia are very dense and the Americans did not have a good knowledge of the area. So they recruited DIA agents who were operating in the country to try to learn from the drug traffickers who were guarding the hostages.

Communication began with the Cali cartel, which in exchange for this information requested the hunt until the final fall and elimination of their great rival Pablo Escobar.

This was the real reason Escobar was relentlessly pursued by the Americans.

All of this, of course, remained hidden from the general public and the operation was never revealed. It was perhaps the largest-scale covert operation America has ever carried out.

Howard Air Force Base, Panama. 5.30 in the morning June 30, 1988,ten days after the kidnapping of the Senators.A strong force of United States Special Operations Command,founded about a year ago, is ready to embark on a difficult mission into the heart of the Colombian jungle, a distance of about 1,100 kilometers.With limited and uncertain information, the most difficult mission yet for US Special Forces will begin.The Operation will be carried out inside a foreign country without it being informed since its credibility is very low.The Force we will send will be among 17,000 rebels and will have to move quickly and decisively. Because we will never admit that we carried out this mission, air cover will only be provided in very great need from AV-8B Harrier II that will refuel in the air.