The plot revolves around Rico trying to free his homeland from the dictator Di Ravello's ruthless grip. What could be more perfect in achieving this and helping the rebellion at the same time than liberating towns and settlements? Liberation means destroying key military assets in a specific location and raising the flag to fully free the area from Di Ravello's control.
You can see an area's military assets through the world map. These assets don't appear on the map unless they're the last few remaining assets needed to be destroyed. You can track your liberation in the Progress menu where you can see the breakdown of discovered and liberated locations per region. Here's the breakdown of the settlements:
Regional (Total: 130)
Types: (Total 114)
So where are the others?
Some locations have no military assets you can destroy so basically, they can't be "liberated". However, liberating nearby locations or the region they're in will technically liberate them as well so they'll add up to the total eventually.
Villages, Towns, and the Capital
These are the residential areas in Medici. Most of them have similar military assets like statues, speakers, and billboards. Bigger towns have police stations, monitoring systems, projectors, propaganda vans, and more. The capital is obviously the largest residential area you can liberate but also the hardest.
Major assets like police stations and monitoring systems have their own sub-challenges (or objectives). After completing these challenges and destroying all military assets in the area, you'll have to raise the Rebel flag that will be marked in the map to fully liberate the area.
Many liberated towns award you with garages, Mod Challenges, and Rebel Drop vehicles or weapons. You can also resupply your beacons and flares from liberated locations.
Air Bases
Medici only has two air bases and they're fortified to the teeth. When trying to liberate them, always focus on taking out their surface-to-air installments. This will allow you to hijack one of their fighter planes and use it against them.
Bases
These are usually bigger and considerably defended fortifications with varying defensive capabilities. There might be occasional enemy reinforcement airdrops, commanders, and airborne backups. Liberating these locations will award you with new Rebel Drop weapons or vehicles, as well as new mod challenges.
Outposts
These are smaller than bases and they outnumber any other settlement types in the game. Outposts come in different sizes and defensive capacities so approach them accordingly.
Radar
There are only three radar installations in Medici. These are large, heavily defended compounds that offer the same liberation awards as other major settlements like bases and towns.
Regional Central Commands
Also known as "Centcom" or Central Command, these fortresses keep each region under Di Ravello's dictatorial might. Expect a larger number of military assets you need to destroy before you can liberate this locaftion.