Editing Federico Augusto Villalba (section)

=== SS-Oberabschnitt Osttanoa ===
On 27 June 1963, [[Rudolf Aziones]] was killed when eastern Tanoan resistance fighters ambushed his convoy west of [[Luganville]].<ref name="aziones-assassination"/> SS-Oberabschnitt Osttanoa remained without a permanent commander for one week. Villalba was promoted to [[SS-Oberführer]] and assumed command on 4 July.<ref name="osttanoa-history"/>

Villalba reopened the investigation into the ambush. He personally directed searches around Luganville and participated in the main interrogations of detainees. Eleven prisoners were selected for execution on his order. Villalba attended the execution and personally shot one of the prisoners. After the investigation, he reorganized the headquarters reporting system so intelligence obtained through arrests was sent directly to the operations staff.

Villalba was promoted to [[SS-Brigadeführer]] in 1966. In 1967, resistance fighters ambushed an SS force on the jungle route between [[Vagalala]] and [[Imone]]. Villalba accompanied the force sent to Imone after the attack. He personally questioned the village headman and other residents. Twenty-three men were separated from their families and executed on his order. Villalba then ordered much of the settlement burned.

In 1974, explosives damaged railway infrastructure serving the refinery at [[Tanouka]]. Villalba travelled to Tanouka and conducted the first interrogations. He ordered the execution of 31 refinery workers together with eleven resistance suspects already held in SS custody. Villalba personally shot the refinery foreman before the other 41 prisoners were killed near the railway yards. He was promoted to [[SS-Gruppenführer]] later that year.

In 1978, an SS patrol boat was attacked near [[Balavu]]. Villalba travelled to [[Namuvaka]] and directed the subsequent operation there. SS forces sealed the road into the settlement and blocked its piers. Villalba interrogated residents before ordering 37 people executed in a plantation clearing. Another group was taken into SS custody and killed without being entered into the ordinary detention records. Villalba restricted the account of the operation sent to Georgetown.

Villalba remained commander of SS-Oberabschnitt Osttanoa until 15 July 1981. His eighteen years in command made him its second-longest-serving commander. [[Alejandro Horacio Küster]] succeeded him.<ref name="osttanoa-history"/>