Puertego

The People's Republic of Puertego commonly called Puertego, is a Unitary Marxist-Leninist Presidential Republic currently under the rule of President Matthias Torres the leader since 2001 though since the enacting of various capitalist policies the legitimacy of them calling themselves Marxist-Leninist has been questioned. It is bordered on the north by Pelaxia, on the west by the Natiserve Bay, and in the east by Patraja. Puertego covers 1,185,182 square kilometers and has an estimated population of 65 million. Puertego comprises of 12 states and 1 district.

Puertego was first a collection of tribes that inhabited its modern-day borders and the land around it until the first empire of the region came to be. Puertego was originally colonized by Caphiria under the nickname of Puerto Negro by anti-slavery advocates for the port being corrupted or evil because of the large number of slaves moving through and that were in the colony, things got better slowly with the numbers of slaves slowly decreasing until the outlawing of slavery in 1798 where all of them were freed. However, after the abolition of slavery in the territory the rich landowner class who benefited from it were not happy with losing all their free labor and begun to desire more autonomy over the region, this desire for autonomy kept growing and growing until they desired full independence from Pelaxia which they hoped to achive by stoking fear of Pelaxia in the people of Puertego hoping they would revolt after provoking the Pelaxian government, they managed to achieve this after a civil war against Pelaxia letting them gain their independence in 1904. After independence the country fell into the sphere of influence of the Caphirians who installed multiple puppet dictators from amoung the landowners to run the country as a banana republic with conditions barely improving for the workers, corruption running rampant, and any industry that wasn't mining or agriculture going bankrupt. The country stayed like this until 1958 where multiple protests and revolts finally got the government to begin transitioning to democracy, however both Urcea and the Caphirians almost immediately became heavily dividing issues in the country's elections with the Puertegan Conservative Party and the Puertegan Labor Party cyclically taking power and cracking down on the other when they gained power until 1972 when the Caphirian government authorized a military coup where a fascist dictator took power, banning political parties until he was overthrown by a communist revolution in 1980 with the country being ruled as a one party state until 1992 where a civil war between the hardline Communist Red Flag party and the reformist Communist White Flag Party broke out ending in 1997 when the Communist White Flag party won and assumed control of the government. The Communist White Flag party is still the incumbent party in the nation's government and them having lost either their majority in parliament or a presidential election for one of their candidates, President Matthias Torres has served as the President of Puertego for 22 years as a member of the party and has taken large measures to liberalize the country's economy preventing stagnation.

Puertego is a regional and middle power in international politics. Puertego is considered a developing, lower-middle income, and newly industrialized country, a large portion of their economy is made by natural resources and industry. The government of Puertego is considered a hybrid regime which maintains elections that are regular and free though not fair while also having strong authoritarian powers such as the ability to crack down on freedoms such as speech, assembly, association, and the press with the country constantly being ranked one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists having at least 400 actively serving prison time for defamation charges pressed on them by the government and having an extremely poor record with human rights including torture, arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial executions, and unfair trials among many others along with massive levels of corruption and censorship. The country tries to maintain a balanced policy in foreign affairs to try and keep trade good with all countries, making concessions to them without swinging too far to one side.

Puertego is a member of the League of Nations.

Etymology
The name Puertego comes from a combination of the Spanish words Puerto Negro the countries former name due to the large number of slaves that came from it and were moved through it, however after the Puertegan Communist Red flag party gained power in 1980 they changed the name of the country to its current name in order to avoid any former implication the nation could have had with slavery.

History
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First era
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Second era
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Third era
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Fourth era
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Fifth era
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Sixth era
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Geography
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Climate and environment
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Government and Politics
''The government of Puertego is officially a Unitary Marxist-Leninist Presidential Republic with the National Assembly being the nations unicameral legislature containing 250 members, Puertego's constitution officially claims that the country shall remain committed to socialism however this commitment has been called into question by many due to the governments increasingly capitalist reforms to the economy such as setting up Special Investment Zones, Getting rid of price controls, and banning unions and workers cooperatives. The National Assembly of Puertego is make up of 250 representatives from different districts around Puertego who serve 5-year terms with no term limits elected via a first past the post system, the National Assembly has the power to vote on and introduce new legislation and policies, appoint judges, declare war with the president's approval, overrule the president's veto via a unanimous vote, and alter the constitution via a unanimous vote and the express approval of the president as well as being the highest court of appeals. The judiciary maintains no independence from the government and maintains the death penalty which it sentences an average of 90 people to a year.

The president of Puertego is constitutionally the head of state and government in Puertego as well as serving as commander in chief, on top of that the constitution puts the president at the head of all ministries in Puertego and gives him the power to appoint ministers as well as decide budgets, sign treaties, veto laws, grant pardons, and draw electoral boundaries. The incumbent president of Puertego is Matthias Torres who is the second president of Puertego and has served in the role for 22 years, he has won every election he has ran in with margins in the mid-eighties every time, he has been criticized by international organizations and by some foreign governments as a dictator though he has constantly denied these claims every time they were levied against him.''

Federal subdivisions
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Politics
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Law
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Demographics
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Ethnicity
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Language
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Religion
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Education
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Culture and Society
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Education
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Attitudes and worldview
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Kinship and family
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Cuisine
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Religion
''What do your people believe? Rather than demographics, as above, think about how important religion is to your people and their view about their own and other religions. What is the relationship between the prevailing view and minority religious groups? Is it an official religion, and do any laws exist about free worship?''

Arts and Literature
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Sports
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Symbols
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Economy and Infrastructure
''The economy of Puertego is considered a mixed model economy based largely on natural resource extraction primarily via agriculture, fishing, and mining, manufacturing primarily of steel, chemicals, and textiles, and remittances from Puertegans living and working abroad with the final providing an estimated $19.5 billion each year. The economic liberalizations brought by the incumbent president have switched the country from an extraction based planned economy to one split between extraction and industry, the country has adopted much greater economic freedoms than it had under any previous governments with the Special Investment Zones established under him meant to attract foreign investment through very reduced regulations and taxes to business operating there, though the government also maintains monopolies with their state run industries which operate in utilities and natural resources. Economic growth in the nation has been relatively steady with the economy growing by an average of 6-7% each year since 2001 primarily attributed to the Special Investment Zones established at the time, foreign investors in Puertego get many benefits from the government including temporary subsidies for their investments and not having the full amount of their wealth made from it taxed. The poverty rate in Puertego is around 1 in 5 Puertetgans living below the poverty line, in addition the Puertegan government offers very little in terms of social welfare for average citizens, this combination means that there is a large amount of street crime in the nation's cities and a large black market estimated to be worth around $22 billion with this being allowed to happen by pervasive corruption in almost all levels of the government. Due to a rather large focus on natural resources the economy of Puertego can be very affected by natural disasters such as forest fires or floods. Unemployment in Puertego currently sits at approximately 1.2% due to the almost universally guaranteed job offered to citizens in government run industries though the 1.2% of the workforce that are unemployed are often some of the most destitute members of society due to the lack of many welfare programs that many other countries offer, workforce participation in Puertego sits at 80% of the population or 52,000,000 citizens. Puertego has an import to export ration of 1:12 though this number is predicted to rise in the future by the government who claim that they hope to get it to 1:20 in the next ten years though the validity of this hope has been called into question, Puertego's main exports are steel, raw minerals primarily gold, copper, and tin, chemicals, textiles, agricultural products primarily rubber, tobacco, and sugar while the country's main imports are electronics, fossil fuels, medicine, food, and fertilizer. Puertego has a debt to GDP ratio of 77% and a credit rating of BB+ primarily due to the many governments that came before the current regime running deficits that spiraled the country into 4 different debt crisis throughout its history, the national debt of Puertegto is currently being reduced by the government.''

Industries and Sectors
''The single largest sector of Puertego's economy is manufacturing with it making up 64% of the economy and employing 33% of the workforce, the primary manufacturing products in the country are steel, aluminum, various chemicals, and textiles with Puertego also having become a very attractive place for companies to outsource jobs to due to the of their workforce and the low taxes and regulations on business there. Resource extraction is also a very large section of the economy with it making up 28% of the economy and employing 57% of the population, the primary resources sold off by Puertego are often minerals such as iron, gold, tin, nickle, and copper, and agriculture products such as rubber and sugar, all of the natural resources in Puertego including minerals, oil, non-food agriculture, fishing products, and even fresh water and owned and operated by government run companies. Services are a relatively small section of the economy only making up 8% of the economy and employing 10% of the population with most of the people working in this sector working in finance, banking, or utilities though construction has become a growing sector as well due to the large demand by both the government for its infrastructure and by private companies however construction is also an industry largely occupied by companies operating in the informal sector and allowed to keep existing via corruption.''

Healthcare
''Puertego offers free healthcare to all its citizens though the quality is notoriously poor with overcrowding meaning that often times patients have to share beds, unsanitary conditions, and long wait times, there is also a lot of corruption in the government run healthcare with embezzlement being commonplace in the nation's hospitals and many patients reporting doctors demanding bribes to write perscriptions for them. However there have been attempts by the government to increase the quality by cracking down on corruption in the industry with much heavier monitoring of staff and administrators, additionally the government has begun building clinics in rural communities with no access to regular hospitals and also provides cheap clean drinking water and free vaccinations to all citizens with the latter being attributed to a large reason for the country almost eradicating certain diseases like Polio. The government spends around 7% of its annual budget on its healthcare system. Puertegan life expectancy at birth is currently sitting at 72 years, in the nations hospitals there are 12 doctors per 10,000 citizens.''

Labor
''Puertegan workers are forbidden to unionize by law in any state or privately-owned company, the Puertegan government has a long history of violently putting down any attempt by their workers to unionize and or strike, things such as workers co-op's are also explicitly banned by law. Puertego has very few laws regarding labor particularly in regard to workplace safety standards, mandatory benefits and minimum wage though this has also made Puertegan workers famously cheap which is another reason many companies are outsourcing production to there.''

Transportation
''In Puertego the government maintains a national highway system running to major cities and a few of the larger towns though most of rural Puertego has to rely on dirt roads, maintenance of the road system has always been rather patchy due to embezzlement by officials meaning that the road system is often peppered with potholes. The government provides free public transport in cities with its bus routes going through them, a large reason for this is the large cost of owning a car due to almost all of them having to be imported from other countries and there being a rather limited supply. The government spends around 5% of its annual budget on transportation and maintenance of roads.''

Energy
''Almost all of the energy in Puertego is provided by non-renewable sources with the nation being a large importer of oil, natural gas, and coal as well as a large extractor of these resources in its own borders, though it has been attempting to transition to more green methods of energy production with three nuclear power plants currently under construction in the country and expected to be fully operational in the next 3-4 years along with new hydro power being introduced for the first time in Puertego's history. Close to all the nation's electricity is provided by the state-owned utility company which charges citizens an average the equivalent of 14 cents per kilowatt-hour. The government has been trying to provide more of its citizens with electricity by building the infrastructure for it but this has proven difficult for the Government due to the large amount of informal housing in Puertego's cities.''

Technology
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Military
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