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time to take a closer look at Mexico and Brazil. all right not that

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close. back up. all right but first a little background on Latin America. well [monkeys]

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way back when the Spanish and the Portuguese colonized most of the region.

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however while the Imperial yoke has been history since the 19th century, problems

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from that period still remain today. Latin America has the highest degree of

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income inequality in the world, and there are very clear and difficult to overcome

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social distinctions. Latin American countries also tend to rely on natural

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resources like bananas and coffee for cash. and if there's one thing any

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overworked banana will tell you it's that there aren't enough hours in the

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day. industrializing the region has been difficult to say the least. many nations

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have been or are currently underwater on loans from foreign governments or

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international organizations. furthermore Latin America has had a really hard time

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transitioning to democracy. generally speaking there's a lot of corruption a

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lot of violence and a whole lot of deceitful sa-do's aka people who have

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been presumed killed by members of the armed services or police. all right so

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now let's dish on the two giants of the region Brazil and Mexico. [map of South America]

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well after World War 2 Brazil had a lot of problems but it also had a lot of

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potential. the country just had to find a way to modernize and compete with

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everyone else. well Brazil's leader at the time was a man named Zhu Cellino

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kubacheck and he had big plans for his country. he

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built roads he invited foreign investment, and he

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built a brand new capital city in the middle of nowhere in only three years.

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problem was kubacheck moves so fast that he managed to bankrupt Brazil. the

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military decided it could do better than some democratically elected civilian

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dude and it took control in 1964, bringing free market ideas with them. [news cast about Mexican elections pictured]

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well capitalism work great for Brazil up until 1973. that's when all the wage

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freezing foreign loans hyperinflation and increasing poverty of

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the masses finally caught up to the generals in charge. there was so much

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unrest that the military decided hey let's hand it back to the democratically

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elected civilian dudes. that was 1985. well since then Brazil has had to

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struggle with foreign debt again inflation again high unemployment again

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an almost insurmountable gap between the rich and poor and education and

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illiteracy issues. oh yeah and there's that Zika virus. guess the mosquitos just

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couldn't stay away from the party. all right on to Mexico. in the wake of Mexico

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gaining its independence from Spain the Constitution was written, land was [historical figures pictured]

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redistributed and a tight rein was put on the power of the Catholic Church, but

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then there's always a but, Mexico just wasn't a very stable place and it wasn't

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really set up to hold democratic elections, so the Institutional

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Revolutionary Party better known as the PRI or pre lept into the breach. well for

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the next 70 years the pre perpetrated massive voter fraud. its members

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intimidated people and they were incredibly corrupt. And sure Mexico's

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economy grew during the 50s and 60s but an increase in wages doesn't stack up

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too well against the massacre of hundreds or thousands of students and

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others. over the years the Mexican economy became even more reliant on oil [student protests of 1968 pictured]

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which is why when oil prices plummeted in the 80s, well things in Mexico got

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even scarier. oh and then there was that earthquake. oh and then there was the

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North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA which facilitated trade between

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Mexico the US and Canada. well by then Mexico's roller coaster ride under the

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pre was over. vincent de fox a member of the National Action Party was elected [train with PRI written on it goes by]

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president in Mexico in 2000. well another party member Filipe calderón was

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elected president after him. yet lots and lots of problems remain and there's

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corruption. huge economic disparities between the rich and poor. the US was

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always nagging Mexico about illegal immigrants and drugs and walls and

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illegal and stealing jobs and oh yeah drugs. but

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hey at least things are right as rain today, by that we mean as right as acidic

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rain that's on fire and melts everything it hits. yeah things aren't that great so

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Brazil and Mexico Mexico and Brazil, truly A Tale of Two Cities only we were

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just saying that to make a reference, but we know their countries come on guys [man shrugs in front of map]

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give us a little credit there.

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