NationStates Jolt Archive

History

Rojo Quisqueya (Red Hispaniola) is a new nation built in part from one of the oldest independent nations in the Americas (Haiti) by combining it with the more prosperous ex-Spanish colony that became the Dominican Republic.

Terrible poverty in the once profitable land of Haiti and rampant corruption and inequality in its eastern neighbour provided fertile ground at least for rebellion, even if agricultural potential had been left to go begging. A Haitian radical named Victor Wiltord rose to the fore in a new rebel army in that troubled country, and the force distinguished itself through Wiltord's leadership thanks to relatively serious planning and controlled violence. In contrast, Vicente Batistuta's sudden and shocking brutality across the border in the traditionally more stable Dominican Republic rocked that nation from its foundations upwards, and cross-border co-operation between the two groups soon put the men at the head of Haitian political life. From there, the more difficult Dominican revolution was conducted with the help of a relative haven in the west.

Shortly the issue of unity became central to both revolutions as westerners saw the east's facade of relative prosperity and easterners saw the movement towards equality and against corruption already taking hold in the west. Initial talk of a united Hispaniola gave way to the title Rojo Quisqueya, Quisqueya being the pre-colonial name given to the island, re-taken so as to avoid total reliance upon any one of the three major languages spoken by the people of the two involved states.

Following the revolutions and unification, the Quisqueyan Red Party was established as the government of the island of Hispaniola and its more than seventeen million people with Wiltord swept into the Chairmanship on a tide of revolutionary favour and the forcefull Batistuta becoming Premier of Rojo Quisqueya.

Geography
Location: Caribbean, the island of Hispaniola
Area: 76,430sq.km.
Climate: Tropical maritime, seasonal variation in rainfall, semi-arid in small western areas where mountains cut-off trade winds
Terrain: Mostly mountainous and rough rugged highlands with some fertile valleys
Elevation extremes: Lago Enriquillo -46m, Pico Duarte 3,175m
Natural resources: Nickel, bauxite, gold, silver, copper, calcium carbonate, marble, hydropower potential
Land use: Permanent crops 11%, arable land 25%, other 64%
Irrigated land: 3,290sq.km
Natural hazards: Lies in the hurricane belt and is subject to severe storms from June to October, occasional flooding and earthquakes, periodic drought
Environmental issues: Deforestation, soil erosion, water shortages

People
Population: 17,100,000
Growth Rate: 1.75%
Median age: 22 years
Life expectancy: male 61 years, female 62.5 years
People living with HIV/AIDS: 350,000
HIV/AIDS deaths: 30,000
Nationality: Quisqueyan(os)
Ethnic composition: Black 50%, 10% white, 40% mixed
Religions: Majority Roman Catholic, some Protestant, few other, growing atheist minority; significant part of the population also practices Voodoo to some degree
Languages: Spanish, French, Creole (all official); English increasingly spoken in some circles
Literacy: Above 70% and rising since revolutions

Government
Country name local long-form: Republica Rojo Quisqueya
Government type: Single-party democracy with Red Party membership elections for provincial Chair positions, positions of National Premier and Party Chairman accountable to referenda called by Party membership or public petition and submitted to popular vote, and both provincial and national laws and Party policy likewise subject to referenda accountability.
Capital: Pedernales. A small town on the south coast, experiencing rapid growth and development .
Other cities: Santo Domingo (2,400,000), Port-Au-Prince (1,900,000), Santiago (1,000,000), Cap-Haitians (600,000), La Vega (250,000), La Romana (140,000), San Pedro de Macorís (125,000), San Francisco de Macoris (100,000), Haina (90,000), Barahona (65,000), Higuey (35,000), Gonaives (34,000), Les Cayes (34,000), Monte Cristi (25,000), Elias Pina (20,000)
Chief of State: Premier Vicente Batistuta
Head of Government: Chairman Victor Wiltord
National Anthem: A modification of Quisqueyanos Valientes (Valiant Sons of Quisqueya)
National Motto: Unitas! Pregreso! Fureza! (Unity! Progress! Strength!)
Foreign Section: Foreign Minister Aimon Le Guin

Economy
GDP per capita: US$4,000
GDP total: US$67.75bln
GDP real growth rate: 0.5% (on going armed conflict blamed for hampering reconstruction)
Agricultural products: Sugarcane, coffee, tobacco, cotton, rice, corn, beans, potatoes, bananas, other fruits, sorghum, wood, pigs, cattle, dairy products, eggs
Industries: Sugar processing, ferronickel and gold mining, tobacco, cement, textiles, flour milling, light manufacturing
Oil consumption: 140,000bbl/day
Export commodities: Ferronickel, gold, silver, sugar, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, mangoes, other fruits, meats, consumer goods
Major trade partners: ?
Currency: Quisqueyan peso
Notes: Rojo Quisqueya inherited Haiti's primitive agricultural economy, beset by under-investment and natural disasters; and the Dominican Republic's increasingly service-based economy with massive inequality and significant banking fraud. The new leadership has begun to tear-down the recently unstable tourist industry and to replace some service sector pursuits with industrial efforts, and to mechanise the west's primarily subsistence farming economy.
Though the Rojo Quisqueyan economy is on the face of the matter growing at a gradual rate, this lays only a thin mask over on-going difficulties. The 0.5% over-all growth rate is dwarfed by 1.75% annual population growth.

Communications
Telephone lines: 1.1million with 1.5million aimed-for in near future.
Radio broadcast stations: AM 65, FM 27, shortwave 3
Television broadcast stations: 5 These reduced figures for television and radio reflect enforced closure of many stations accused of supporting the oppressive and devisive old order
Internet users: 500,000 though public buildings offering internet access are also being gradually introduced

Transportation
Railways: Only a few hundred kilometres in standard gauge, with significant expansion programmes under way. A couple of thousand kilometres of narrower gauge rails are given-over to industrial use
Highways: Also under expansion, presently totalling almost 20,000km, with around half yet being paved
Ports and harbours: Cap-Haitien, Gonaives, Jacmel, Jeremie, Les Cayes, Miragoane, Port-au-Prince, Port-de-Paix, Saint-Marc, Barahona, La Romana, Manzanillo, Puerto Plata, San Pedro de Macoris, Santo Domingo
Airports with paved runways: 17
Over 3,047m: 3
2,438 to 3,047m: 4
1,524 to 2,438m: 3
914 to 1,523m: 6
Under 914m: 1
Airports with unpaved runways: 27
1,524 to 2,438m: 3
914 to 1,523m: 9
Under 914m: 15

Military
Branches: Patriotic Army (AKA Quisqueyan Red Army or QER) including Navy and Air Force
Military manpower fit for service: 2.35million males age 18-49
Military manpower reaching military age annually: 190,000 males
Military expenditure as percent of GDP: 6.8%
Military expenditure in dollar terms: US$4.6bln
International disputes: Claims US-administered Navassa Island.

Notes: The Patriotic Army (a blanket term covering all main branches of the military) replaces the vast Haitian popular militia Wiltord's Wanderers and the reputedly press-gang fed ranks of the Domincian-based Quisqueyan Red Army that existed side by side during the revolutionary wars with an entirely professional volunteer service that is proving especially attractive to poor Haitians leaving subsistence agriculture as the state industrialises farming there. It enroles around 0.5% of the unified Quisqueyan population in regular service.
Some equipment is being put into domestic production, and ultimately most is of South American origin, with Pedernales buying heavily from Brazil and Chile.

Manpower total: 85,500
Expenditure per serviceman: US$53,800
Military disposition: Somewhat undecided post revolutionary, but mostly defensive with strong counter-insurgency aspect

Army

Manpower total: 50,000

Notes: The Patriotic Army's ground forces are its most important, being experienced in low-intensity and guerrilla warfare thanks to the recent revolution. The Army's main immediate ambition is to achieve a higher degree of mechanisation and support, transforming from an almost exclusively straight-leg partisan force to a mobile force with combined arms capacities.

The number of available vehicles is increasing gradually, especially as domestic production of many types gets under-way, providing hardware at relatively low cost as has well served such cash-strapped nations. It is obvious that these machines are not of the very highest technology available to many nations, but they are generally workman-like tools often improved practically by various degrees of specialisation for the Quisqueyan environment.

Time will tell whether or not the Quisqueyans are able to maintain their equipment in good order over the long-term, but for now it is largely in good condition. Training, however, may be a problem, to be addressed by mass operations that may be very useful in changing disposition towards combined arms operation, but could be vulnerable to economic conditions as substantial growth proves difficult to achieve under conditions of on-going insurgency (contra-revolutionary terrorism in official parlance).

Air Force

Manpower Total: 19,000

Notes: Pedernales considers its fledgling air force to be of great importance, providing as it will a degree of mobility with which to strike at opponents- the possibility of counter-revolution clearly lingers in the minds of senior party members much as the threat of foreign invasion to support such reversion. For now the force is in a large part theoretical, manpower under-going initial training on a handfull of airframes with a view to major over-haul once economic projects begin to yield significant returns.

Aircraft:
48x Super Tucano basic trainer
36x AMX-T advanced trainer/fighter-bomber
39x IA-58B Pucará fire-support
3x Embraer R-99A airborne early-warning and command
6x Embraer P-99 maritime patrol

Navy

Manpower Total: 16,500

Associated officials and top officers: Secretary for the Navy Cristobal Alvarez

Notes: Headquartered at Port Au Prince. This is set to become a small frigate-navy, an aim that in itself is actually quite ambitious. As with the air force, recruitment thus far largely results in limited training and much labour in readiness for the day when the force becomes really capable.

Fleet:
3x Mine-countermeasures Vessels (3 Ton)
3x Frigates (3 Leander)
4x Submarines (2 Improved Tupi, 2 Oberon)

Bump with some changes and additions.

Up for interest, even if it is the middle of the night.