2009 Alconbrian humanitarian crisis

Excessive military intervention in the Government of Alconbria following the 2007 Alconbrian coup d'état attempt eventually led to a **humanitarian crisis** in 2009.

## Causes

The costly Second Alconbrian-Malpuro War, and the subsequent excessive military spending resulted in the massive increase of Alconbria's trade deficit. The civilian government allowed the military influence over the Bank Cexpengex Alconbria to permeate, which resulted in high levels of inflation beginning from 2008. Undesirable climate led to a massive drop in food production in Alconbria, and unfriendly relations with Altivebrio and Guatemala led to an increase food prices. From 2008 till 2009, inflation rate was around 15%.

Under pressure from the military, the government increased its control over the private sector, and ordered severe reduction in salaries, and job cuts in some cases. Unemployement reached 20% by the beginning of 2009. Alconbrian Army Colonel and Finance Minister Adella de Bettin ordered an immediate reduction in welfare and social spending, including unemployment and food benefits. Food Security Minister and Navy Vice-Admiral Linda Walton banned the importation of food in late 2008. Despite this, the government made no effort to increase agricultural output, which was severely damaged due to low rainfall and increased temperatures caused by El Niño. Due to lack of maintenance and high levels of corruption, emergency food stored by the government were found to have been rotted. With food scarcity increasing, controversy erupted when it was discovered that Ports Minister Lana Elliot, also a Commander in the Navy and Industries Minister Morgana Fox were found to have hoarded high quality food in heavily guarded and properly maintained warehouses around the country. These foods were often diverted to the Armed Forces and high ranking politicians. The government used the Social Responsibility law on the media to prevent them from reporting on food shortages.

During the 2009 Alconbrian general election campaigning, the opposition headed by Daniel Rubens published photographs of parties hosted by high ranking government officials and military leaders, including Commander Elliot, which showed plenty of extravagant food prepared from hoarded and illegally imported food. Two days later, he released aftermath photos of the party, showing excessive food waste. This eventually triggered protests against the Alconbria People's Party and the Alconbrian Armed Forces in the rural areas. Lana Elliot was removed from her post by Voimer, and was given a different command by the Navy. Despite the protests, the APP-led Forward Alliance won comfortably in the elections. The elections were described as fraudelent by the opposition, and large scale protests began against the government, which was heavily suppressed by the government. The protests were quashed by the government within 1 month and 20 days.

## Government responses

President Voimer, First Lady Zervana Voimer and Prime Minister Nino Heurta de Soto met with the non-militant elements of the Alconbrian Opposition to solve the issues relating to the food shortages, inflation and detention of several politicians on 3 January, 2010. 7 days later, Voimer addressed the nation, in which he apologized for failing the Alconbrian people for the food shortages and announced the implementation of the Vyrovizamino reforms. In his speech, he said that he move remove unnecessary military intervention in the government, make the central bank completely independent, reduce defense spending and increase social spending. He also added that most of the active-duty military officers serving in the Cabinet of Alconbria will be removed. Food Minister and active Vice Admiral Linda Walton made a follow-up speech the next day, apologizing for the "entirely man-made" crisis, and revoked the order on food imports. Hoarded food were seized, and were distributed by APP volunteers. According the Ministry of Finance, after inflation is controlled, all welfare programs and social spending would resume and layed-off public and private employees were re-hired with a salary increment. Most of these expenditures were financed by oil sales, which were previously used up entirely by the military. First Lady Zervana Voimer created a sovereign wealth fund for the citizens using the oil profits.

Alconbria issued a new currency with a value of 1/100th of the previous currency, and pegged to the US dollar. The government encouraged private charity, created the Abystato which was run by wealthy members of the government, public sector and the Armed Forces. The government then began selling oil in exchange for food. The agricultural industry was restarted with increased funding and international help. High interest rates and higher interests on government temporarily helped reduce money supply and control inflation. Tax rates were increased for the wealthy and supply-side economic policies were adopted. Inflation began to reduce, along with nationwide hunger. Technological advances implemented by Paulo Delgado and Gilbert Walker led to increased agricultural produce. Inflation reduced to 3.5% by January 2011, and Food Security Minister Linda Walton announced in July 2011 that the nation would be forever free from hunger thanks to agricultural self-sufficiency. In September, she announced that the Ministry of Food Security would be forever closed, and merged with Delgado's Agricultural Ministry to avoid disasterous policy implementations.

## Aftermath

In September 2011, Voimer and newly appointed Prime Minister John Roberts launched the Alconbrian Campaign Against Corruption (ACAC) to crackdown on Corruption in Alconbria. The campagin was received positively by the Alconbrian public, and approval ratings for Augustin Voimer reached all-time high of 80%, the highest for any Alconbrian leader since 1990, and never dipped below 60% again. The ACAC led to the conviction of several high ranking government and military officials, along with business owners. Despite public approval, critics have accused the ACAC of avoiding the corrupt judiciary, which continues to associate itself with the government. Peirvou Cabello, a former Supreme Court of Alconbria judge who fled the country during the 2005 Alconbrian constitutional crisis criticized the campaign for only addressing the symptoms, and not the cause of corruption. He iterated that no campaign against corruption would be successful if the Supreme Court and the Federal Electoral Directorate are overhauled and the Opker-SPT dismantled. Despite this, the country went from 146th in Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in 2009 (its highest) to an all-time low of 41st in 2021.