The United Republic of Laredo- is a gargantuan, orderly nation, ruled by President Travis Markham with an iron fist, and remarkable for its free-roaming dinosaurs, sprawling nuclear power plants, and frequent executions. The cynical, humorless population of 25.754 billion Laredoans are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

The enormous, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Torrance. The average income tax rate is 79.5%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The very strong Laredo-ian economy, worth a remarkable 1,792 trillion Dollars a year, is highly specialized and mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Arms Manufacturing. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 69,590 Dollars, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.6 times as much as the poorest.

Citizens brought into court for parking violations are never heard from again, citizens know never to accept cookies from strangers, corrupt industrial practices are spreading like a plague, and exorbitant spending on icebreakers breaks the ice at every budget meeting. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Laredo-'s national animal is the Black Bear, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Laredo- is ranked 30,180^th in the world and 1,724^th in Balder for Longest Average Lifespans, with 90.1 years.