Puertego: Difference between revisions

|government_type =    Unitary Marxist-Leninist Dominant Party Presidential Republic

|Gini = 50.8

|HDI = 0.646

}}

The '''People's Republic of Puertego''' commonly called '''Puertego''', is a {{wp|unitary state|unitary}} {{wp|Marxist-Leninist}} {{wp|Presidential system|presidential}} {{wp|republic}} 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. Puertego shares naval borders with [[Cartadanians|Cartadania]] and [[Pelaxia]]. Puertego covers 350,710 square kilometers and has an estimated population of 85 million. Puertego comprises of 8 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 considered a {{wp|developing country}} with a lower-middle income economy and as a {{wp|newly industrialized country}}, a large portion of their economy is made by natural resources and industry. The government of Puertego is considered an {{wp|authoritarian 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 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]].

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.

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.

| value4 =2.7

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 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 crises throughout its history, the national debt of Puertegto is currently being reduced by the government.

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.

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.