International Open Pledge
Founded on July 4, 2012 by Pedro Menor and a small cadre of followers, the San Corenzo People's Democratic Party sought the island's independence from the United States, and was the principle force behind the founding of the People's Democratic Republic of San Corenzo.
In the U.S., the movement was regarded with a mixture of scorn, fear, and anger (see People's Democratic Party in the Media). Among San Corenzans, however, the Menoristas were almost universally supported, even by citizens under the employ of the American pharmaceutical firms.
The party's principle tenet, in the propaganda of the time, was that the prosperity of San Corenzo would never be shared with the San Corenzans, until such time as the island formed an independent state. Despite the nearly limitless wealth afforded by the growth of Marquessen's Datura, UGC's patent, combined with Federal suppression of the local black markets, prevented the islanders from profiting from the wealth of their homeland.
Though UGC's patent was due to expire in 2028, popular wisdom of the time expected that Marquessen's Datura would be successfully grown away from San Corenzo during the interim. As one tract argued,
"But friends, what shall we do then, when our once-obscure homeland is obscure once again? Shall the wealth that is the birthright of every San Corenzan vanish, once our island is no longer unique among the nations of the world? Shall history say of us, 'San Corenzo was once the source of life, but now poverty has returned once more'? Or shall we for the first time in more than a century, govern ourselves, a prince among nations?
Though the party apparatus was never successfully linked to any violent activities, their rhetoric was blamed for the rash of sabotage and violence against UGC property that occurred during the summer of 2012. In an oft-quoted speech, Governor Carlos Preston called Menor "a demagogue and terrorist, one whose ruthlessness is exceeded only by his greed."
When threatened with official "Terrorist Status" in 2015, the Party spent nearly twenty months in a what its members referred to as a "silent phase," and what its opponents called "hiding." Its leaders dropped out of the public eye, and responsibility for propaganda and recruitment passed on to the rank-and-file membership.
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