I remember in junior year of high school, my IB Spanish teacher (thank you Ms. Knecht!) taught us about Latin American History, starting from the Conquistadors to the modern times. I had always thought of Central and South America as vibrant and lively, but plagued with economic problems. I had no idea how horrible and corrupt some of the government actually was.

I distinctly remember her mentioned Venezuela and being completely shocked. I never thought about Venezuela and did not realize what was happening there. Years of corruption and a manipulating dictatorship have forced the country into ruins.

Here is more about the situation in Venezuela:

Venezuela has been through quite a few coups and government party shifts over their history. In 1998, Hugo Chavez was elected President using his campaign of working for the poor people. With his position of power, he created a new Constitution, implemented socialist policies, and an anti-USA culture. He maintained power through propaganda, even refusing to renew the license of a TV channel that was being critical of him and his actions.

His reforms became more and more socialist, prompting his supporters to adore his fight for the "poor man." He even forcibly took over the control of major oil companies for the state, including two American companies, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips. To benefit the rural poor, he took over large estates.

There is more and more censorship, and more of the opposition is jailed.

To curb inflation, the government implements price controls (everything must be a certain price). How bad of an idea is this? Well, private companies can no longer export the raw materials they need.

Meanwhile, Chavez himself is fighting cancer and is in Cuba for treatment. He promises the country that it is nothing but he eventually dies from it. He names Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver with obviously a great deal of political knowledge (sarcasm), his successor. However, the country detests him. His policies and beliefs do not differ much from Chavez' but Chavez had a great deal of charisma to balance the terrible situation the country is in. He was also constantly on TV addressing the nation, and pointing at the horrible situations outside of Venezuela, making it seem like Venezuela isn't that bad.

Fast forward to modern day, riots shake the country daily. The government does not have the money to afford exports in foods like meat, fish, fruits, sugar, and bread. Meat exports dropped 63%, fruit exports plunged 99%, and fish exports dropped 87%. Those percentages do more damage than my IB Calculus II final grade. Look at all the options they are given:

People are starving. People are unemployed.

So what is the solution to the lack of food? Maduro, the current President thinks that boosting investment and labor in the agricultural sector will solve it. He plans on forcing citizens to work on state- owned farms for as long as "circumstances merit."

But eventually I forgot about all this, as news and anxiety of the "imminent" (as the media would lead us to believe) danger of Ebola and the Zika virus swept news channels.Anger created a few questions. Why had I never heard of all this before? Surely this is more important than that cat being rescued from that tree, or most of the stories local news stations are reporting? Why is none of this being reported in the media? Why does the media have a monopoly on what type of news to show? What can we do about this?