September 1949, Luis Mariano Ospina Pérez Government

In the city-district of Santiago de Cali, Colonel Gustavo Rojas Pinilla was named commander of the Third Brigade. As Commander, Rojas was given full authority over insuring peace and stability within the region, something that was amiss ever since La Bogotazo. Rojas had made quite a splash in the militarist scene of Colombia, he had risen in the ranks faster than men twice his age and gained the keen support of President Mariano Ospina Pérez. With the backing of the albeit unpopular President, Rojas held clout that he could utilise to achieve his plans and finally establish a stable Valle del Cauca. In the Valle del Cauca not only did Rojas have to deal with rebellious Liberal protestors but also the large amount of indigenous tribes in the region that largely had disconnected themselves from the local government and thus the federal government.

The appointment of Rojas to commander of the Third Brigade could've been seen by some to be a punishment of sorts. The region was known for its volatile populace, poor economic planning, and groups of bandits that would rob and steal from even police and soldiers. But Rojas was not a man who would give up and fall into defeat, no, Rojas would not return from Santiago de Cali until the region was as efficient as Bogota herself. Thanks to the Magdalena Model, Rojas was able to utilise the structures created to form the 'Cauca Regional Labor Committee' (CRLC). The CRLC would double as a trade union and a philosophical organisation, promoting loyalist views to Colombian workers as well as instituting more government influence to pull power away from the Liberal and Communist associated unions. Rojas would head the CRLC but decisions would be made in a direct-democratic fashion although they would be held to Democratic Centralism. In practice, this meant that Rojas would influence every choice made to reinforce the loyalist power structure and force through reforms that would benefit those loyalists.

The CRLC quickly grew larger and larger in the Valle del Cauca soon encompassing the various other non-state sponsored unions and associations (this was aided by raids of said unions under the Communist Party Dissolution Act 1949). The CRLC after formation was also created to allow soldiers to join in the Tripartite System, changing the view of the military being proverbial mechanical automatons to including them as proletariat workers engaged in the political process. With soldiers filling the ranks of the CRLC they quickly became the most dominant force in the democratic process, creating more avenues for Rojas to firmly place his hand over everything the CRLC would do. Despite this power-hungry attitude, Rojas was incredibly popular in Santiago de Cali and the citizens resoundly saw him as a 'People Person' who actually cared about the region in comparison to the lack of attention that the federal government had forgotten about. Thanks to his popularity amongst the common citizen and the civil processes he had formed in the CRLC, the amount of protesting seemingly had gone down as the citizens actually felt listened to.

What had not changed though was the constant raids and attacks on the rural areas of the Valle del Cauca by indigenous tribes. Rojas would not have his CRLC members interrupted while producing value, he had a goal to achieve and a group of tribes would not slow him down. With his position as Commander of the Third Brigade, Rojas begun posting plain-clothes soldiers in the most affected towns wherein they would wait until the tribes began their attacks. When the tribes would attack they would be met with hidden machine-gun encampments and disguised Daimler armoured cars. It did not take long for the tribes to realise that their extortion of legal farming villages would not continue under the watchful eye of Colonel Rojas. Of course, he did not stop there. While the attacks had lowered there was still fears while travelling across the region, Rojas decided to build patrol posts across all the rural roads and paths where they would be stationed by local territorial militia and connected through modern telephone lines and electrical systems. With these modern communication methods the tribal attacks on travellers would be much easier to respond to as only a short distance away there would be stationed soldiers.

In only a short amount of time Rojas had completely changed the social climate of Santiago de Cali and the Valle del Cauca. While the central government was incredibly supportive of Colonel Rojas and his developmental initiative, the ascension of Rojas in the military caused a schism in the ruling Conservative Party, between the moderate "Ospinists", supporters of the soon to be outgoing president, and the "Laureanists", supporters of the extreme right-wing candidate Laureano Gómez Castro. Only time would tell what would happen, but Rojas was comfortable in the fact that Santiago de Cali was in safe hands.