The twin fires of drug cartels and Communist movements burned South America after the Second Great Depression brought down the Western World. The drug cartels saw the chance to rule on their own terms without any of the last vestiges of American power stopping them, while the Communists did what the Communists always do once their glorious revolutions are complete. They killed everyone who wasn’t a good Communist. Millions died in a few short years, but the nations that formed the South American Union fought back against both the drug cartels and the Communists. And they took a lesson from previous wars against both. People had to see the dead. So the helicopters flew over South America and the drug dealers and the Communists did not have wings to follow.