Puertego

The People's Republic of Puertego commonly called Puertego, is a    currently under the rule of President Matthias Torres the leader since 2008 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 1,002,931 square kilometers and has an estimated population of 120 million. Puertego comprises of 12 states and 1 federal 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 when they were placed under Pelaxian control 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 along with the land reforms attempted to be put in place by Pelaxia made them begin 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 achieve 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 among 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 never 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 since 2008 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 with a lower-middle income economy and as a, a large portion of their economy is made by natural resources and industry. The government of Puertego is considered an 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 charges of trying to incite public disorder 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 nickname by anti-slavery advocates to mean that the country war corrupted or evil 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.

Early History
The first evidence of civilization in the territory that makes up modern day Puertego has been dated back to the 10th century BC when the first Puertegan natives settled the regions first towns, Puertegan native society was primarily based on subsistence agriculture with food such as corn and potatoes though they also showed signs of growth after their civilizations were thought to have discovered irrigation with evidence of early currency and organized religion with various effigies found around certain sites though they have never had any signs of a written language at this point. Ancient Puertego was made up of several dozen native tribes but there were 4 main ones that inhabited the countries modern day borders with the first evidence of cities in the region being found around 2000 BC with it being built around modern day San Lina, being the first to build such a thing in the region provided a large benefit to the Utanah civilization with them using the city's economic and military advantages to conquer their neighboring tribes until their eventual collapse at which point one of the civilizations they conquered rose up and took San Lina from them repeating the cycle until eventually the first empire Puertego had seen with the Nokotan empire rising up in 510 conquering all of the modern day territory.

Caphirian Conquest of Puertego
The Nokotan empire ruled over the area of modern Puertego starting from 510 and operated as a theocracy for the empire's religion, they were primarily a land focused empire though they began to focus more on the sea as time progressed and their capacity for ship building increased with a distinct merchant class forming in the empire due to this and the empire colonizing three of the islands closest to them. The merchants in the empire were the first to discover the First Imperium of Caphiria and began trading with them for almost 100 years, however all this came to an end in 854 where according to official records a sugar merchant in Nokotan got into an argument with a Caphirian merchant over the price of his goods that ended with the Caphirian merchant being stabbed to death, Caphiria demanded Nokotan hand over the merchant who did this but they refused leading to an all-out war between the two powers which ended with Nokotan being conquered by Caphiria along with the capital being sacked and the country gaining the name Puerto Negro from anti-slavery advocates in Caphiria. The Latin conquest of the area came with severe social and political upheaval for the country with cultural shock in regard to things such as traditions and language which started being forced onto the population of the region, their political system was also turned over as the previous theocracy was dismantled and an upper class of landowners took the place of the church in society and made use of the newly abundant source of slaves made available. This system of rule by Caphiria only lasted for around 40 years with the collapse of the empire allowing Puertego to break away from it in multiple small states which fought with and raided each other for decades, the region was conquered once again by Caphiria during the rule of the third imperium which almost completely washed away the old religion and instilled deeply traditional Catholicism into the population which made them very prone to reacting harshly during the Great Schism with Puertegans starting lynch mobs and burning down churches from the Church of Caphiria enough to provoke a military crackdown from the empire starting a war between the two entities which ended with Puertego gaining its independence from Caphiria in 1616 only to almost immediately get conquered by Pelaxia.

Pelaxian Rule (1616-1904)
Under the rule of the Pelaxians much improved in Puertego with many of the infrastructure the country uses originally being built by them but much also stayed the same for many with their landlords controlling wielding massive political and economic influence over them and generally being considered to be above the law. There were many attempts by the Pelaxian government to fix these issues later on in their reign such as them illegalizing slavery in 1798 and attempting land distribution to the peasants in the early 1800's both of which were extremely unpopular with the rich landowner class who repeatedly protested these actions and tried everything in their power to stop them from going through as effectively as they should have. After several attempted labor reforms, the rich landowner class of Puertego decided they had enough and stoked fear in the very conservative population spreading false claims that the Pelaxian government wanted to integrate Puertegan natives into society and get rid of the Catholic church from the country, on top of this they repeatedly provoked responses from the government which devolved into violence making the population desire separation from the Pelaxian government more. This eventually exploded into full blown rebellion against the government after protests in San Lina broke out and the police force opened fire on them killing 40 people, this finally sparked a full on revolution among the population first in San Lina but quickly spreading among almost the entire region except for the northernmost state that's closest to Pelaxia and one island they controlled staying loyal to them.

The Puertegan rebel forces were led by Antonio Gonzalez a former sugar plantation manager who almost immediately began to order his soldiers to raid federal armories and fortify San Lina, only a few days afterwards on January 2nd Pelaxian soldiers made a landing only a few miles away from San Lina and were met just outside the city by a Puertegan militia force led by general Fernando Sanchez ending in a phyrric victory for the Pelaxian forces who did manage to capture San Lina and held it for a week and four days before an even larger Puertegan army showed up led by Antonio Gonzalez and retook the city from the weakened army. In the Eastern regions of Puertego the rebel forces immediately began launching attacks on loyalist towns and villages across the Pelaxian-Puertegan border starting on January 5th and lasting until January 12th prompting a response from the army to cross across the border and try to engage the rebel forces who retreated from them and utilized scorched earth tactics on the land they were retreating from, once the Pelaxian army crossed into rebel occupied territory they faced fierce resistance from the locals making them turn back only to find that the rebel army attacked them when they did so ambushing the tired and disoriented army and beating them. These defeats prompted the Pelaxian government to give Puertego independence on January 18th, 1904 except for the one island that stayed loyal to Pelaxia which was absorbed into their territory.

Post-Independence Era (1904-1958)
Almost immediately after Puertego declared independence on January 20th Antonio Gonzalez declared himself the first president of the republic, establishing the National Assembly and assisting in writing the first constitution, however president Antonio Gonzalez soon became infamous for his corruption having embezzled the modern equivalent of 850 million damillos across his 12 year rule, on top of that multiple opposition members of the National Assembly went missing under his rule and a law relegalizing slavery just barely didn't pass in the National Assembly. After 12 years of having to deal with the heavy corruption he allowed to run rampant in the government and his often time blatant authoritarianism and crushing of dissent a coup was thrown against him on July 6th, 1916 resulting in him and his son who he appointed as vice president being hung in the center of a market in San Lina, he was replaced with Francisco Martinez who ruled in much the same way as Gonzalez being extremely corrupt and authoritarian, he was also suspected of being in the pockets of Caphiria with many new trade routes opening up between the two and him giving very generous concessions to the rich land owners to allow them to sell their produce to the Caphirians for cheap. Under this system almost all systems that weren't based on resource extraction and agriculture went bankrupt casing massive unemployment among the urban population and the government responded by printing vast amounts of money and spiking inflation to try and help with social services which were often rendered ineffective due to widespread corruption. Francisco Martinez ruled for 10 years until being overthrown in a coup on November 11th, 1926 by another dictator who ruled for 5 years who was in turn overthrown by another dictator with a 5 year reign before he was in turn overthrown by yet another dictator who only ruled for 3 years before dying of natural causes in office, they all ruled in much the same was as Martinez sparking wide scale protests among the population calling for a transition to democracy, after the last dictators death in 1958 the National Assembly rewrote the constitution to guarantee a multi-party system and limits on the president's power.

After the new constitution was implemented two parties gained dominance over almost the entire political system the Puertegan Conservative Party and the Puertegan Labor Party, both parties were essentially the only choices in elections and both engaged in corrupt practices such as bribery, embezzlement, and cronyism however the democracy protests ceased and the country was recovering from the harm the dictators did establishing a new currency to deal with the hyperinflation and growing the sectors that went bankrupt, this balance lasted until the National Assembly voted to increase the president's power due to a separatist movement threatening to turn into a civil war, the then president Maximilian Anolsa a member of the Labor Party crushing the rebels with the increased power but afterwards also using the new powers to crack down on the Conservative Party with protests that followed being met with violence from the government security forces. Anolsa was decisively voted out in the next election, but the powers remained, and the now conservative led government used them to crack down on the labor party with similarly brutal methods. The issue of Caphiria vs Urcea also became a very dividing issue with the conservatives siding with Caphiria while the labor party sided with Urcea, both sides used this as an excuse to censor the other sides press outlets to get rid of "misinformation".

Fascist rule (1972-1980)
After around 30 years of rule by both parties cyclically taking power and cracking down on each other protests became much more common across San Lina with the main orchestrator of these protests Ricardo Verano a former mine manager running for president in 1972 as an independent and losing, he claimed that the election was rigged by both the conservative and labor parties against him and called on his supporters to throw a coup which they did a mere two days after the election was over taking over the National Assembly and shooting the incumbent president and multiple members of the National Assembly before declaring Roberto Verano the new president of Puertego. Verano openly called himself a fascist and called for autarky and a syndicalist economic model stating that the previous governments failed to improve conditions for Puertegans and that he must be given almost absolute powers to combat this at which point the National Assembly which he filled almost entirely with his supporters altered the constitution to give him every power he asked them for. He also embarked on multiple economic reforms creating a new currency, nationalizing several industries, raising taxes, expanding welfare, and making very pro-union laws for the private enterprises remaining. However this economic model did not work very well at actually improving the countries economy with inflation rapidly increasing from him printing more money to fund his various welfare programs, shortages caused by his price controls, the country going through a debt crisis under him, and foreign investment almost non-existent, corruption also still ran virtually unchecked in all levels of the governments and the unions causing intense dissatisfaction among the people with him being overthrown in 1980 in a revolution by communists in Puertego beginning the regime of the Puertegan Red Flag Communist Party.

Communist Red Flag rule and civil war
The Puertegan Red Flag Communist Party ruled as a one party state and was considered one of the most authoritarian governments the country ever had with a secret police called the Internal Watchman Society being responsible for tens of thousands of deaths of Puertegans even suspected of dissenting or who the government thought may offer dissenting opinions soon, massive food shortages also soon took hold of Puertego with the government taking control of all land and mainly using it to grow cash crops and neglecting food production, this along with them continuing Verano's autarkist policies meant that soon food shortages turned to famines resulting in the deaths of an estimated 12 million people dying from three separate famines across the country's history. In between two of these famines the government of Puertego tried to take back the island that stayed loyal to Pelaxia during their civil war in 1986 under the pretext of freeing Puertegan workers being exploited there, they lost the battle horribly and had to deal with massive protests back on the mainland over it ending in massacres of the protesters by government security forces. After their attempted invasion of the island the government went into a debt crisis and started printing more money to try and get out of it with inflation reaching a never before seen 650 trillion percent. In secret the Puertegan White Flag Communist Party was formed, it was made up of more liberal and reform minded communists who hated the hard-line stance of the current party. This resentment towards them plus persecution towards their members by the government eventually exploded in violence on Ju 1992 when they started began a rebellion in the countries southern provinces with them eventually gaining control of the province and shortly afterwards gaining control of all the southern provinces and most of the country's central provinces, as the rebellion spread to different provinces over the course of a month a military response by the Puertegan government eventually came from the north with a stalemate established until 1993. On February 23rd, 1993, general Hugo Martín took most of the tanks that were bought from various other countries and organized a massive offensive on the front which was preformed just a few days later on February 26th, the offensive was successful in breaking through the enemy's line and the following surge of soldiers managed to encircle multiple divisions and killed an estimated 152,000 enemy soldiers killed in this and many cities in the central provinces were recaptured, however while most White Flag generals wanted to hold and fortify the land in the event of an anticipated counter attack general Martín continued pushing to San Lina to try and capture the city however the general went too far too fast for the supply lines to keep up and eventually got cut off with him suffering through ambush after ambush before finally being defeated on March 4th, 1993. This proved to be a devastating blow to the White Flag forces as this meant that had lost a majority of the mechanized divisions by some estimates as many as 85% of their tanks and other vehicles, this made the leadership take on an even more defensive policy than they had previously with them laying down over half a million landmines and embarking on mass conscription of the local population in anticipation of a Red Flag counter attack against the regions which took place on April 10th, 1993, this offensive resulted in a pyricc victory for the White Flag rebels with an estimates 166,000 dead on their side and 204,000 dead on the Red Flag side. Both sides retreated back to their bases near the battlefield to recuperate after the battle until August where the Red Flag side suffered multiple revolts in San Lina drawing more and more soldiers away from the front lines until the White Flag rebels felt confident, they had enough manpower to overwhelm the government forces and made a second large push with this one being much more successful and leading to them controlling the entire eastern side of the country along with many central northern provinces locking the Red Flag side almost exclusively to the peninsula San Lina rests on and the northern province above it increasing their desperation for numbers and starting another mass conscription drive in San Lina leading to some of the worst riots the city has ever seen costing millions in damages and killing hundreds, after the riots finally calmed the rioters declared their allegiance to the White Flag party and after almost a month of fighting and desertions on the Red Flag side San Lina was captured and ceded to the White Flag rebels finally forcing the battered and depopulated government forces to surrender to the rebels

Climate and environment
The climate of Puertego is largely subtropical with the country's environment being made up of many forests in the south and central regions along with the western peninsula of the country and prairies in the northern parts of the country which eventually fade into small temperate forests which turn into the nations hot and humid rain forests, the eastern parts of the country are very mountainous and hilly. The country gets an average of 1132.84 millimeters (44.6 inches) of rain annually with the southern areas getting as much as 1574.8 millimeters (62 inches) of rain annually, temperatures across the country reach a high of 27.7 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit) with the southern parts of the country getting temperatures as high as 43.3 degrees Celsius (110 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer and around. The country has had many natural disasters over its history with the most common one being floods, flooding has been thought to have caused as much as 710 million dollars in damage to Puertegan civilians and infrastructure. Puertego's environmental policy has also been extremely controversial with the country being regarded as very callous to environmental destruction including water pollution, air pollution, and deforestation, it has been hypothesized by researchers that many species native only to Puertego could go extinct in the next 20 years due to widespread destruction of their habitats if nothing is done about the countries deforestation and pollution.

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 210 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 coopting unions in order to reduce their effective power. The National Assembly of Puertego is make up of 210 representatives from different districts around Puertego who serve 10-year terms with a 1 term limit elected via closed list party list proportional 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 4/5ths 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, and grant pardons. The incumbent president of Puertego is Matthias Torres who is the third 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
Puertego is ruled as a unitary state with individual states only existing for the purpose of elections and not being able to operate with any autonomy on their own. The electoral boundaries are drawn by a committee in the National Assembly with members appointed to it directly by the president, so far almost all districts in the country have shown at least some signs of being gerrymandered. Puertego also has one federal district in the capital of San Lina.

Politics
The political scene of Puertego is dominated almost entirely by the Puertegan White Flag Communist party (WFC) which has maintained a virtual monopoly on political power in the country since 1997. The political culture in Puertego is generally regarded as oppressive with the country operating under a dominant party system where there is no enshrined singular party allowed to run but due to various factors a singular party holds control over a country, this is shown in Puertego by the WFC currently holding all but 12 seats in the National Assembly due to the electoral system which places them on all national ballots by default while any party running against it must collect at least 5,000 signatures and pay the equivalent of $10,000 before it is allowed to run, additionally they have also been known to subject opposition parties and opposition party leaders to harassment, legal charges, and sometimes even violence with one infamous case being where opposition leader Sebastian Tarranoga attempted to run his party against the incumbent WFC, after collecting the required signatures and paying the required fees the government declared that a quarter of his signatures were acquired invalidly and wouldn't accept his application until he collected another 5,000 signatures and paid another $10,000 plus $4,500 in fines causing him to not seek to run further due to financial circumstances, Sebastian reported that his signature collectors were repeatedly harassed by police with two even being murdered though the government officially listed their deaths as being gang related.

Law
Puertego operates under civil law though with very little judicial independence and the courts being much more subordinate to the legislature than in most other countries with civil law, the 1997 constitution of Puertego is considered the supreme law of the country consisting entirely of written text with no unwritten conventions on it being considered legitimate. The Constitution of Puertego primarily covers the roles of different government bodies and the powers they have but the constitution also lists various rights the citizens of the nation have such as freedom of assembly, speech and freedom of the press however the government has repeatedly and often blatantly ignored these rights it guaranteed in the constitution. All manners of law in Puertego from criminal to family and property are considered federal responsibilities to enforce and uphold as is law enforcement with the government spending 12% of its budget on law enforcement in the country. The Puertegan government has the authority to declare any trial they see fit to be taken to a secret court where the media is unable to report on it.

Military
The Puertegan People's Armed Forced are divided into three main branches the Puertegan People's army, the Puertegan People's Navy, and the Puertegan People's air force. The Puertegan armed forces has an active manpower of 450,000 but if needed could muster a total strength of around 3,000,000 men. The government of Puertego spends 6% of its GDP on the military equating to 84 billion dollars.

The Puertegan government has mandatory 2-year military service for all men the day they turn 18 with them not being able to get a job in the country and not being allowed to emigrate out of it unless they've either completed their military service or are currently in the nations reserves. Puertegan soldiers are often regarded as being comparatively poorly trained and equipped to the military of other countries though the government has been trying to offset this by investing more into the mechanical elements of the army with the most impressive weapon made by the government so far being the Type-22 Torres missile. The doctrine of the Puertegan military has primarily been focused on keeping peace with all three major powers around Puertego trying not to sour their relations too much with one power in particular over the others, though despite trying to keep good relations with foreign powers Puertego gets very territorial when it comes to their own territory getting them into many disputes over their history primarily over the Natiserve Bay.

Corruption
The levels of corruption reported in Puertego have repeatedly been ranked as among some of the worst on the continent with nepotism, bribery, and embezzlement commonplace in the government with it being reported that embezzlement and bribery being equivalent to 12% of the national budget combined, corruption is especially common in law enforcement, education, healthcare, and immigration. The government of Puertego passed an "anti-corruption law" in 2012 corruption still runs rampant in the country with most corruption arrests made in the country being made against political rivals and opposition of the ruling party. Corruption in Puertego runs all the way up to the top level of government with the current president Matthias Torres being suspected of having embezzled as much as 645 million dollars though this has never been proven with the president himself claiming these are lies made up by the opposition to demonize him, so far anyone who has gone public with claiming Torres embezzled the money has been charged by the government with slander. Additionally, there have been many cases of the government granting land to foreign investors or to the state-run mining or oil company and evicting the villagers currently living on said land with native communities disproportionately, so far as many as 5-8,000 Puertegan natives have been evicted off their land by the government.

The 2012 anti-corruption law provides no protection for whistle blowers inside it and anyone who claims to have experienced corruption without any evidence can be punished with up to 5 years in prison. In Puertego any government official that is charged with corruption can face a maximum of 35 years in prison though so far only eleven members of the ruling WFC have ever been charged while several dozen opposition figures have served prison sentences for alleged corruption charges.

Human Rights
In Puertego the country's repeated and blatant human rights violations remain a significant concern with some of the most common issues regarding the nation's status on freedoms of association, speech, the press, and assembly with the government passing many pieces of legislation allowing them to seriously curb these freedoms with one such piece of legislation being the 2011 Defamation act which allows the government to charge people with libel, slander, or attempting to incite public disorder, additionally the government has been criticized by international observers for the status of torture by police and the poor overcrowded conditions in the nations prisons. international bodies have also expressed extreme concern over the nations policy of mass sentencing, detention without trial for up to a year, and the disappearances of human rights advocates at the hands of the nation's security forces and in its prisons. Puertego has repeatedly been ranked as one of the worst countries for press freedom and one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists with blackmail, threats, harassment, and violence all having been reported against the country's security forces by journalists with reports of security forces forcibly shutting down television stations and newspapers also being reported often.

The curtailing of civil liberties in Puertego is extremely common with the government having passed dozens of acts and laws to allow them to easily get around any civil liberties the constitution says the people have such as the Insurrection Act which mandates that all protests must be registered with and approved by the government who can at any time in the process and without any legal recourse available refuse the request without giving any reason, if the protest continues anyway the government has the authority to break it up under the pretext that it is likely to turn violent due to the protesters already breaking one law. Another such act is the Social Safety act which allows for detention without trial for up to a year, allows the police to search and detain anyone they simply suspect of being involved in a crime, and allows the police to monitor suspects for any reason they see fit.

Demographics
In 2030 Puertego has a population of 120,265,300 living in the country with an additional 14,000,000 Puertegans legally working abroad. The population of Puertego is very young with it being estimated that around 30% of the population is 14 or younger and only around 4.1% of the population is 65+. Puertego has an annual population growth rate of around 1.4% with the growth mainly being for ethnic Puertegans a mix of Latins and native Puertegans while ethnically native Puertegans have experienced the largest loss losing 67% of their population in Puertego annually. Puertego has a median age of 27 with the countries fertility rate making this number seem like it will be fairly stable.

Ethnicity
Puertego is primarily made up of 5 ethnic groups ethnic Puertegans, Pelaxians, Cartadanians, Latins, and native Puertegans. Ethnic Puertegans are a mixture of Puertegan natives and Latins with them forming the largest percentage of the populations while ethnic Pelaxians and Cartadanians form the second and third largest ethnic groups respectively and primarily arrived at Puertego during the country's years when it was colonized largely as wealthy landowners at the time, native Puertegans form the smallest ethnic group in Puertego and despite the Puertegan constitution officially stating that the government will not discriminate based on the grounds of race Puertegan natives are some of the most likely to have their land confiscated by the government without any compensation with up to 1.6 million having been displaced in this way.

Language
The population of Puertego overwhelmingly speaks Spanish with around 96.3% of the population being native speakers of the language while 0.7% are split between many native speakers of languages belonging to small native tribes. The languages of Pelaxia and Cartadania are natively spoken by 3% of the total population and almost exclusively by ethnic Pelaxians and Cartadanians.

Religion
Puertego is predominantly Catholic with 94.5% of the population reporting belonging to this religion however there is also a small Jewish minority in the country with 3.7% of the population identifying as Jews.

Education
The most common level of education in Puertego is a 6th grade education as most citizens drop out at this point to begin working, the literacy rate in Puertego is currently sitting at around 85% though for youths in the nation it has been reported at around 92% while for the elderly literacy rates were reported at just over 50%, the government made it mandatory in 2011 for all children to attend school though this law is often ignored in rural areas of Puertego where children are often tasked with working on plantations with their parents. Public schooling in Puertego is free and compulsory for all children to attend until 6th grade where they are allowed to drop out.

In Puertego there are only three universities and only an estimated 9.5% of the population has a degree from one of the universities. In Puertego university is free though due to a large percentage of the population dropping out after 6th grade in order to work only a small percentage of the population in Puertego is qualified to attend.

Health
The average lifespan in Puertego is 74.8 years old with the average being 72.8 for men and 75.8 for women, this number has gone up from 64 years old in 2000 and has shown a steady trend upwards ever since. The government of Puertego has mandated that all adults and children in the nation must be vaccinated and has made the process free with parents who refuse the process being charged with child abuse, in 2030 the rates of Tuberculosis went down by almost half and there were only 17 reported cases of Polio alongside the sanitation campaigns the government rolled out and the infrastructure they built which have been credited for reducing cholera cases by two thirds. The infant mortality rate in Puertego was reported at 19.5 deaths per 1,000 down from 34 deaths per 1,000 in 2000, teen pregnancy stays a large issue in Puertego with the average age at a woman having her first child being 17.6, the main reasons attributed for this issue are the lack of sexual education in Puertegan schools, the lack of availability of abortion in the country with it only being available if it can be proven the mother would die from having the child, and the artificial inflation of contraceptives in Puertego with all forms of birth control for both men and women being subjected to a 75% sales tax.

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Economy
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 $70 billion each year from the 14 million Puertegans working abroad. The economic liberalizations brought by the incumbent president have switched the country from an extraction based planned economy to a more market based 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 primarily in utilities, banking, and natural resources. Economic growth in the nation has been relatively steady with the economy growing by an average of 8-9% each year since 2008 primarily attributed to the Special Investment Zones established at the time, foreign investors in Puertego get many benefits from the government for investing in the SEZ's including temporary subsidies for their businesses, introductory tax rates being set up for their business, and tax shelters being used so that not all the wealth they make from the business is subject to taxation in Puertego, these practices have widely gotten Puertego labeled as a tax haven. The poverty rate in Puertego is around 4.5% of the population living on less than $1.90 a day, 36% living on less than $3.20 a day, and 75% living on less than $5.50 a day, 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. 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 66% 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 crises 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.

Labor
Unions in Puertego are technically legal though they are heavily restricted with the government having co-opted all unions in the country, the government has made laws forcing all unions that attempt to be formed must be monitored and approved by the government with them allowed to make any changes they wish without the unions input needed, most of the time the government using this opportunity to fill up with the upper levels of the union with government loyalists to make sure the unions won't impeded on the economic progress of the nation and discourage investment due to them demanding better pay and benefits. Unemployment in Puertego currently sits at approximately 1.2% with the government having a program to almost guarantee employment among the population, this is supplemented a lack of unemployment assistance offered by other countries encouraging people to find work rapidly once they are able to. Puertego is a large exporter of its human capital to other countries around it due to the young average age of its population and the cheapness its workers are willing to work at with it having agreements with several countries to allow workers to be trained in a skill such as welding and go over to another country on a temporary work visa in exchange for the government taxing the money they send back in reminiscences. Puertego has very controversially had a policy of allowing child labor in the country with many families relying on the practice in order to collect an extra income since often one income isn't enough for low income families to survive on in Puertego.

Infrastructure
The infrastructure of Puertego has long been recognized by international observers as being of poor quality with the two main reasons attributed to this being widespread corruption in the government and the prevalence of shanty towns in Puertego's major cities making planning for the locations of infrastructure difficult though there have also been other reasons given that are less widespread than the previous reasons such as the presence of land mines in the country from the nations long history of civil wars with it being estimated that as much as 8% of land in Puertegan territory is unusable due to the presence of landmines on it. However, the government has been making large efforts to try and improve the nation's infrastructure though with them trying to counteract the lack of services in the nations many slums by working with the population there to set up infrastructure in their communities primarily in terms of electricity, sanitation, and water access, the government of Puertego has made much progress with the latter two in recent years with the government with the government connecting around 6.6 million citizens to the nations sewer system and raising the number of citizens with access to clean drinking water by 38%.

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 since only 20% of roads in Puertego are paved, 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 2% of its annual budget on transportation and maintenance of roads. Puertego currently operates 62 airports including 4 international airports with an additional 6 international airports being planned to be built by the state-owned company, in addition to airports the country has 10 functioning sea ports with an additional 3 under construction.

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 provides electricity to the nation's citizens. The government has been trying to provide more of its citizens with electricity by building new infrastructure for it, but this has proven difficult for the government due to the large amount of shanty towns in Puertego's cities with it being estimated that as many as 54% of Puertegans live in a slum, currently only around 45% of Puertegan citizens have access to electricity in their home.

Healthcare
The constitution of Puertego specifically states that the government must offer 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 lots 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 prescriptions 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 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. In the nations hospitals there are 11 doctors per 10,000 citizens.

Technology
Technology has long been an area where Puertego has struggled to make a large impact in with many innovations coming from Puertego being made in areas such as mining equipment, it is thought that a large reason for this lack of technological innovation is a general lack of education in the country with higher level education for the most part being reserved for the upper class in Puertego. For this reason, Puertego is a large importer of new technologies though in recent years the large numbers of foreign companies investing in Puertego has brought the nation's manufacturing and energy sectors up to scratch with the rest of the world thanks to the governments payments to them for a more modernized infrastructure though areas such as healthcare remain behind the rest of the world by 10 years according to some metrics. Military technology has also been one area where Puertego has been rapidly improving with the countries latest Type-22 Torres missile being considered fairly top of the line and the Type-45 Heavy Tank having made many large advancements to the countries previous models, these advancements in military technology have primarily been attributed to the government offering very generous payments to any foreigner who has had previous experience with the technology of other countries militaries to come and work on the Puertegan militaries technology.