The objective of this visit was to show students a little bit about the economic realities and relationships among Latin American nations.

We designed a turn-based trading game to help simulate these relationships. Students were divided into small groups, and each student was given a particular Latin American nation. The students received an background information on their nation, and a set number of resources which they could trade. Resources included water, military, food, medicine, and oil, in varying amounts. Their objective was for each country to have two of each resource.

The rules of the game were like an auction. You take turns, and you could only ask for one resource at a time. Other countries negotiated for that resource. For example: Brazil would say “I want water for two units of oil.” And other countries would say “I’ll give you 3 units of this for 1 unit of that.”

Students were given economic crises after each round - for example there was a drought in the region, and the moderator took away one unit of water and one unit of agriculture from effected countries. This rearranged the distribution of resources and extended the bargaining.

At the end of the game, the moderator asked the students to reveal how much of each resource they had, and what they thought that meant for their country. The students analyzed how the trading went and how it reflected the economic realities in Latin America.

We followed the simulation with a video clip about Puerto Rico. The point of the video was to show that demand for drugs in the US helps fuel violence in the countries that supply them. The drug trade is an economic phenomenon that has collateral damage for all countries in the line of supply. Not only do drugs affect your personal health, but the lives of millions of others. With the drug trade being cracked own on in Mexico, countries that are along the trade route have begun to become implicated, such as in Puerto Rico. Students are encouraged to think about the connection between their own lives and other countries.