Carlos Miguel Acosta wanted to make a statement with one of his first Instagram posts from USC. He tied a Venezuelan flag around his neck so that it cascaded down his back like a cape. He donned a red cap, backwards, with seven stars instead of the flag's usual eight, identifying him with the opposition movement to Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Earlier that day, the Trump Administration officially recognized Juan Guiadó as the Interim President of Venezuela, and praised the people of Venezuela who have "courageously spoken out against Maduro and his regime and demanded freedom and the rule of law."
Acosta, a junior spring transfer, spent the entire day decked out in Venezuelan gear.
He follows the news from his country closely because he worries about his family and friends who have lived for years in political and economic turmoil.
Acosta grew up in Acarigua, a small town within the state of Portuguesa, Venezuela. He lived in his grandmother's house with his parents in the countryside, among rolling hills and farms. Acosta has endless fond memories of running around Acarigua with his cousins, spending lazy days by the pool and warm nights stargazing.
"I remember this one moment, specifically, when you would leave my grandmother's house and look at the sky at night," Acosta said. "The stars would just light up the whole entire neighborhood. My cousins and I used to just sit down and stare at the stars all the time."
But that was a long time ago, Acosta said. Things began to change quickly as he got older.
Acosta's father was a working journalist, and along with several other people started a television channel, PorTuTV. Acosta noticed his parents paced nervously in the house when the president, Hugo Chavéz, appeared on television. He remembers the constant stress in his father's face, particularly around the time Chávez was reelected in 2006.
"[My father] was very open about his opinion about the government," Acosta said. "That's when he started getting threats, [about] my family, myself, my mom."
In what felt like a blur, Acosta and his parents packed all of their belongings and fled the little house they had called home. They landed in Miami, Florida in 2007. Acosta had just turned nine.
Hugo Chávez was elected president of Venezuela at the end of 1998, at a time when both inflation and poverty were high. His policies were solidly left-leaning, and his popularity had rippled throughout the country with his promises to build up the poor and end corruption. But as a massive flood swept across the country at the end of 1999 and the country plummeted into further catastrophe, Chávez repeatedly failed to carry out his vows to the Venezuelan people.
Chavéz was re-elected twice more in 2006 and 2012, but he died of cancer in 2013.
An election was held the following year to replace Chàvez, elevating Nicolas Maduro to the presidential seat. Chávez had publicly favored Maduro as his successor, and Maduro took the election with a narrow win.
In Maduro's first term, the economy plummeted even further. Inflation had soared well above 50 percent, and household items became scarce and expensive.
In 2015, there was a key election in the Venezuelan parliament that seemed to boost the opposition party.
"This would have been a huge check on the power of Maduro, and so it seemed that the opposition was really gaining in strength," said Gerardo Munck, a USC professor of international relations and expert on Latin American politics. Munck said that Maduro's control on stifling the opposition tightened, which lead to more power for his administration.
"Things changed with Maduro," Munck said. "There's a lot of debate if Venezuela stopped being a democracy. I'd say, by 2016, it's a dictatorship really, because the opposition had won the election and they weren't allowing them to use that power. There was some kind of coup against the opposition."
Acosta and his family had been lucky to escape when they did. His father was able to obtain a visa that was catered for journalists, and the three of them started rebuilding their life in Doral, Florida, just outside of Miami.
Doral has one of the highest populations of Venezuelans, and Acosta said it made the move a bit more comforting. But he still deeply missed his family back in Acarigua, and the United States was not the glittering Disney castle that he had envisioned.
"The transition was difficult in the sense of school, like learning the new language," Acosta said with a laugh. "I remember the first month I got detention because I didn't know we had a pop quiz […]So I was helping my friend out. Then the teacher thought I was cheating and she was like 'You have detention' or whatever and I'm like, 'What does that mean?' I didn't know what that meant. Did I get expelled?"
Before long, Acosta was in high school and Venezuela seemed like a distant memory. His parents worked day and night to support their housing, but their community was tight-knit and supportive.
Much to Acosta's surprise, he was accepted into USC after attending a local community college close to home. He remembers that while his life was falling into place in the United States, his family and friends back in Venezuela were sinking deeper into desperation.
"I have family in Venezuela who haven't been able to get visas, that haven't been able to get out," Acosta said.
According to a report from Reuters in December 2018, two million people are expected to flee the political and economic crisis in Venezuela in the next year. The United Nations appealed for $738 million to distribute to neighboring countries supporting the refugees pouring in.
"It's just crazy. Why are they leaving, right? There are push factors from the country," Acosta said. "You are leaving because you don't have food, you don't have anything."
Acosta was wearing the flag out of pride for his country, and to try and seek others who were a part of the Venezuelan community.
"I was hoping that people would ask me, oh why are you wearing the flag?" Carlos said, "I'd much rather you ask me so I could tell you, so you're informed, right? If you want to participate in anything Venezuela-related, we're always going to be open arms… the Venezuelan people are such a nice, great, unified community. "