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Operation Chihuahua Desert Invasion, sometimes called Operation Chihuahua or the second Mexican-Confederate war, although the C.S. officially denied any involvement at the time, was a failed Confederate govermental attempt to overthrow the government of Mexican President Antonio "El Jefe" Oaxaca that took place in 1984. The Mexican military, trained and supplied by the USSR, defeated the invading force in a matter of days and while theories vary on exactly why the operation was unsuccessful it is generally accepted that while the Confederate government expected the C.S.-trained force of exiled guerrillas would be greeted as liberators, this was not he case. The event caused a rapid deterioration in C.S-Mexican relations that saw little improvement until the death of Oaxaca in 2001.
Background[]
Since rising to power in 1969, El Jefe began instituting a number of economic reforms that were designed to antagonize Confederate based businesses operating in Mexico, and especially Confederate based oil companies; however, as it was at the height of the Vietnam War and Oaxaca claimed to be a Nationalist and not a Communist, little attention was paid to El Jefe until the early 80s when Mexico began signing a series of pacts with the USSR and began receiving military aid. Deemed a threat to national security, in 1983 the Pickens administration began secretly planning ways to overthrow El Jefe which culminated in 1984 when the Confederate government sent 1500 CS- trained exiled guerrillas into Chihuahua. At the time it was believed that these men would be greeted as liberators and would largely be unchallenged by local authorities; however the entire operation proved to be a complete disaster and the guerrillas were quickly pushed back. The event served only to bolster El Jefe's reputation as a great leader and damage the Confederacy's reputation with many Mexicans.