#1401 – The Expat Files: Security, Scams, and Cultural Insights in Latin America

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now I wonder Hello there all you ex-pad wannabes. I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started You might remember a couple of shows ago I was talking about how gringos are getting kind of nervous up in Mexico things are kind of falling apart You heard me tell a story about how even cleaning ladies are getting extorted by cartels up there. Oops

[00:46] I said up there. Well for you it's down there for me. It's up there because I'm way south of south of the border Anyway, since I've been speaking about that I've been getting emails here and there from people up in Mexico who are running scared I'm talking about gringos and expats live in there Long-term expats guys living there 5 10 even 20 years saying man. I really was living the good life Now I'm scared to go out out of my nice safe gated guided community alone. That is yep Gringos and expats up in Mexico are telling me their stories. All right, and they ain't pretty in fact None of those stories are good. In fact, I don't get nice emails from Mexico anymore I used to get them here and there Johnny. What are you talking about? I love it here in Mexico It was the best move I ever made Wish I'd have come down sooner. The people are nice weather is perfect

[01:33] Food rent in the general cost of living very cheap. Nope. Unfortunately, I do not get emails like that anymore Not at all. No one defends living in Mexico anymore So anyway, not only have I gotten a number of emails from people saying Johnny Mexico. No way bad move. Sorry I came I've also got a couple of audios from gringos living in Mexico explaining the situation and a Very interesting video from gringo live and I think eight years in Mexico now He's been in a nice quiet rural area in Oaxaca and man have things changed So I thought I'd play you a little chunk of the audio from that video You'll hear him doing a voiceover on this video. The video is a 360 degree pan of the area is living in

[02:18] showing his place and a couple of the neighbor's houses looks really nice peaceful and wonderful Until you hear him explain what's going on So listen to this and of course, I'll edit a few things out of this video for security reasons. So here goes listen up Hey, Johnny Here in the Highlands of Oaxaca. I thought I'd send you a quick video To exemplify the security situation here in Mexico This is the gated piece of land that we combination of gringos and Mexicans live on It's a beautiful highland morning December 7th about 58 degrees Fahrenheit That's our house right over there. We used to live in that house right there

[03:08] The gate is right there The landlord of Mexican lives right over there. He's not here right now But to show you the security situation, this has been a little Shangri-La of security for eight years And we're about maybe 10 miles from the capital city, but essentially in the Campo As you can see him That's north right there Anyway Victor's nephew is the local representative of The ruling cartel which is in charge of this area. He's their lieutenant Victor allowed to move to that house. That's in center frame there

[03:57] Now in our neighborhood, we have a giant pit bull over there we have traffic all the time at dawn during the night because they traffic in cocaine and stolen gasoline and popping off of pistols In mill the night no loud music though Victor forbade His nephew from doing a lot of music on the one hand It means that we're secure here But on the other hand some of Victor's family will not come and visit anymore because they're afraid that a turf war may break out a rival gang may spill through that gate there and We will have a shoot-out situation here

[04:43] That's how fast things change in the early days of your show you mentioned that you were if things Changed for you. You would go to Columbia And since then as we've seen things change quickly in Latin America You can see how quickly things change and one darling is no longer the darling Mexico never has been it's worked out. Well in Oaxaca. We're off the drug corridors but Just as exemplified by this little piece of turf here. You can see how fast things can change so All right Take good care. It's always great to listen to your show Alright, so there you have it

[05:33] Those are the kind of emails videos and audio seven get from longtime gringos and expats living in Mexico Did you get what he was saying his neighborhoods now infiltrated with cocaine runners? He's got knuckles living in his neighborhood. In fact, if you'd watch the video, you'd see the red across the yard from him He's been a good friend of the show on a longtime listener and it's never ever been like that before He's mostly been positive and upbeat about Mexico till the last few years Remember, he's been down there eight plus years now though in the back of his mind He's always tossing around the idea of a plan C In fact, I remember when he first started talking about security problems You longtime listeners might remember some years back He talked about how one of the major families in the area

[06:19] I think it may have been his landlord's family was talking about how he or a family member had a trucking business It had been active and making money for years and suddenly something happened and they just up and quit closed down the business They quit delivering because the narco cartels were extorting the drivers on the road You know the drill the cartels are in charge of the roads and you have to pay a toll At first they started out smaller, but the toll never goes down only up up and up Anyway, I thought you might want to hear that boots on the ground case from the horse's mouth I know it seems extreme but in mexico What seems extreme one day is commonplace the next And you know in that video he was talking about having a plan C You have to consider what you would do if your plan B country took a turn for the worse

[07:08] Hey, it could happen, right? But in the case of mexico, anyway It's not as if we didn't know the cartels basically run everything from agriculture to the cops to the politicians It's even spread to tourism Which was sort of the last holdout Narcos would leave the gringo tourists alone the hotels the tourist beaches, etc. Those places were off limits Well, they used to be anyway after all high-end narcos like to go on vacation too and they own property in those resort towns Oh and by high-end narcos, I mean the educated class of narcos. Yeah, lots of them went to university Speak a couple languages, you know these days they're much more sophisticated than back in the pablo escobar days You know these days they've got accountants and bankers and nerd software developers working for them

[07:57] So you've got sophisticated narcos at the high end Big-time property owners in places like playa del carman cancun talum guys in thousand dollar italian suits with not a tattoo inside Speaking of the riviera maya. I have talked to expats living there. You know, that's that big beachfront tourist strip cancun Playa del carman kazamel talum. They're saying things have changed a lot over there and for the worse I remember the very first time I drove that strip. It must have been in 2005 about 20 years ago now. I made a road trip out of it I decided to drive from guatemala through bolise on through the very southern tip of the mayan coastal riviera region I stopped off at all those places mentioned starting with talum

[08:42] Which was at the time pretty much the first resort town you came to when coming up from bolise And let me tell you it was a sleepy little town Starting to get developed here and there but no lines or crowds of loud gringo tourists No, big disco nightlife scene or after hours parties spilling into the street Just some serious backpacker types looking to go to the mayan ruins of talum and now 20 years later It's super built up and overcrowded the gringos have arrived and so have the cartels and extortionists That's what i'm hearing from a couple of my buddies who set up little businesses there You know when I was there 20 years ago I saw no evidence of cartels or corruption gringo prices weren't anything to complain about there was really no gringo gouge

[09:30] I didn't see any though. What's always par for the course in mexico is the cops were corrupt Yeah, they'd stop you and try to nick you for 20 bucks even 50 But hey when in mexico you got to expect that You know every time I get an email an audio or a video from a gringo expat living in mexico When they mention the cartels corrupt cops extortions, etc When I hear the stories what they're seeing what's happening to their neighbors the rumors It always brings me back to that long taxi ride. I took in porto viarta Just two years ago now when going from my hotel to the stem cell clinic To the tomography and cat scan center back and forth back and forth five days running with the same taxi driver Well, I got a long talk with the taxi driver in spanish. Of course, he spoke no english

[10:19] I said how's the crime situation here in porto viarta? There are lots of wealthy subdivisions must be lots of calls for bodyguards around here Especially around that all-inclusive first world hotel strip Lots of beautiful houses mansions even with fantastic gardens fountains waterfalls high-end cars Well, the taxi driver said crime. Nah, we don't have much at all not compared with the rest of mexico I said what accounts for that? There are lots of wealthy people here prime targets for bad guys and no good nicks He said yeah. Yeah, it would seem that way But the thing is he said for the last couple of years There's been a truce between the two cartels that run the city He said for the past couple of years the cartels have been playing nice One has their particular jurisdiction and the other one theirs

[11:06] They don't cross lines. They don't compete And I tensed up a bit. It made me feel a bit uneasy. I said so that's how it goes, huh? That's how you keep the peace I said, how do you feel about living like that? He said like what I said The city being under control of a couple of cartels He said I don't know it's always been like that He was a young guy maybe 24 years old So in his experience what he said must have been true by the time he started working for a living maybe 16 18 years old Mexico in general had been on narco state for some time now. I noted there was never a mention of cops or politicians He never mentioned law enforcement policing. None of that things remain calm and peaceful as long as the cartels Weren't warring with each other

[11:53] But when you've got taxi drivers telling you one of the most well-known cities in mexico porta voyardas run by two cartels That's pretty scary stuff. I would not be thinking that it was a good place for a plan b By the way, i'll let you in on a little secret. I ran into a pretty famous american psychologist who's written some best sellers Again, he's an american self-help author Well after he had a bad divorce up in the states lost practically everything He decided to get out of dodge got his plan b going in mexico Porta voyarta to be precise. That's where I met him. Well, according to him. He met a really nice mexican girl whilst in porta voyarta They got married and are living happily ever after so he says it was only much later

[12:39] I found out that he met his wife at a massage parlor She was his masseuse now down in mexico a massage parlor is you know full service Just like strip clubs are full service with happy endings. It's all legal. You know here in latin america Anyway, i'm wondering how that's going to work out in the long run for him Because you see when I first came down here to latin america 30 plus years now I hate saying that It seems almost from the very first when I was wandering the streets of san jose costa rica Now you have to remember I played in a very popular bar and restaurant that caters almost specifically to gringos and expats A place owned by a canadian Called the beetle bar as in you know, the beetles john lennon and all those guys So naturally gringos would congregate there a little piece of home, you know

[13:28] My band was a house band there for i'd say at least a year Played every friday and saturday night and it never failed i'd be on break Or just sitting at a bar before or after a gig and I watch these 30 40 50 and 60 something gringos Most all of them single suffering from uh bad divorce up in the states One of the reasons they came down to costa rica for a spell in hopes of meeting a young latina girl That was worth hooking up with and saving hence the gringo savior complex Now, of course, we're talking about guys that do not know the ropes guys that do not know the games These ladies are playing guys who had generally only been in the country a week or two or maybe a month It would never fail You'd see him sitting at the table with a young 20 something or even late teenage something beautiful ghost or rican girl

[14:15] Chatting her up buying her drinks and eventually taking her out as his girlfriend on dates All of these guys with the savior complex thinking this time around I say this time around because they're all mostly coming off Bad divorces up in the states Anyway, many of these guys are coming down here to find a wife a wife They could mold a nice simple latina girl and to the girl of their dreams Anyway, it would never fail. I'd run into gringo expats with a savior complex hooking up with these young costa rican girls They'd meet in bars restaurants and massage joints in strip clubs Man, i'll tell you middle-aged gringos are suckers for a pretty face Most all of these young girls were basically part-time hookers and those gringo guys blissfully unaware of that Worse yet the guys can't speak any spanish and the girls usually just enough english to capture a guy's heart

[15:05] So these young ladies they know exactly where to go to find love lauren gringos in san jose The capital city and largest city of costa rica and i'd hear the logic from these gringos and expats who had that savior complex They'd say yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, she's had a couple of bad breaks She's fresh a new hire at the strip club or massage parlor. She's only been working there a week She's not hardened yet And i'd say to these guys where'd you meet her and when they'd say at a strip club or massage parlor, man Of course, they'd say she's an innocent just starting out first week on the job Right, that means not yet hardened by the cruel facts of the situation eminently savable Only been there a week, huh? Yeah, right I remember expat eddie saying ask any stripper how long she's been working the joint. She'll tell you she's fresh on the job

[15:55] Just started Yeah, uh-huh perfect line for a gringle with a savior complex So then why am I bringing this up? Because I see it all the time and it's so hard to watch It's not my place to tell some clueless gringo I don't even know that there's a time bomb taken right next to him I guess one of the main reasons i'm ranting on this today is because just yesterday last night I got an email from a gringo in the states. He sent me a little video clip I don't know if it was he who filmed it. It was at the equatorian airport. There was a gringle guy Loaded down with backpacks and luggage Just sitting in the airport on a piece of luggage near the carousel. He was moping. All right, you can see it on his face Turns out the guy had flown from the states to equator to meet his fiance an equatorian girl

[16:41] It was supposed to be their first reunion first face-to-face meetup. She was supposed to meet him at the airport She never showed up and when that video was taken of him moping around at the airport carousel He'd been sitting in the airport for four hours The backstory is that over the last six months or so he'd sent her a total of thirty thousand dollars And what he probably failed to realize is thirty thousand dollars is about seven to ten years salary for the average equatorian guy And you know what usually happens in those cases is the girls had a steady boyfriend all along Maybe she's even got a kid by him She and her boyfriend are playing the stupid gringo They might even be playing a couple of clueless gringos at the same time

[17:27] Hey, it's not an easy thing to admit, but it happened to my brother twice Yep, and it was all made possible by that wonderful little app called. What's up? The saving grace though was that the two girls that stiffed my brother one was an american girl and the other a girl from So at least they weren't latinas though. They could have been yep. That's right He was left holding the bag at the airport twice himself. Imagine how that feels Yeah, I know my brother was a sucker. You know what they say fool me once All right, speaking of emails. How about this one from william in california? He says hey johnny I see the us state department has travel advisories on the website. They advise about countries They don't feel are safe for americans to travel including latin american countries

[18:15] Kind of funny. I wonder he says what other countries? Have advisories telling their citizens not to travel to america Signed william in california All right. Thanks for that william. You know That's a very astute observation The us state department has the balls to put out travel advisories on other countries where the us Is more dangerous now than it ever was and is very much more dangerous than a lot of countries They have the nerve the state department that is to put out an advisory on Take el solvador for instance The state department has always had a travel advisory on at least as long as i've been around You should read the state department's harsh wording on el solvador Meanwhile el solvador is safer than any state in the us

[19:01] In fact, it's about as safe as the us was back in the 1950s and 60s When little five six and seven year old kids could play outside unsupervised Until the streetlights came on that was always the rule for me Mom said be in the house by the time the streetlights come on Not that anything would ever happen to you if you stayed out late It's just that parents wanted their kids in the house at a decent time so they could do their homework From what I can tell the streetlight thing was an arbitrary signal Sort of picked out of thin air just like the six foot social distancing crap during covid By the way, if you look it up, that's another thing you'll find. Dr. Fonsi pulled out of his ass But you knew that already, right? So anyway, william to answer your question I know of three countries that issue travel advisories if their citizens travel to the us one is canada

[19:52] They've issued a warning about the risk of violent crime and terrorism in the us The uk government has issued a warning about the risk of crime terrorism and civil unrest in the us Hmm shades of george floyd and blm And I know that australia has issued the same Warning about the risk of crime terrorism and civil unrest in the us. If you don't believe it check out their government websites Isn't it funny almost no americans know the us has been traveled blacklisted by many foreign countries Oh, they know about the travel advisories to israel russia ukraine places in south america Africa parts of asia. Yeah, right the us state department knows best. They know how to call the kettle black, too Don't they? All right changing gears now. Here's something I learned along the way

[20:40] I learned over the last 30 plus years or so that nearly all latin american people drink coffee Why wouldn't that grows right in your backyard? Now, of course, most people don't brew it up the way. I like it In fact in indigenous households, they just throw coffee grounds in an aluminum pot Boil it up grab a cup and pour it into the cup through a strainer Yep, practically everyone here in latin america brews their coffee or boils it up in an aluminum pot And you'll find in practically every latin american kitchen teflon pans in aluminum pots. That's it Oh and everyone's got a pressure cooker and they use them especially for fiholes. You have to cook those things a long time unfortunately 99% of all the pressure cookers are aluminum. You know what i'm getting at right aluminum is not good for you

[21:26] Never was you should avoid it at all costs But how can you do that when everyone down here has a kitchen full of the stuff? And believe it or not latin american ladies love cooking with it. You can't convince them. Otherwise, I have to tell you a long time ago I'm talking 15 years ago probably I threw away all my aluminum pots and pans actually I gave them to my cleaning lady Because if I'd have thrown them in the garbage sheet and dug them out anyway and took them home And of course, I haven't had a teflon frying pan for probably 30 years Anyway, I gotta tell you something funny. You know when you have a cleaning lady She'll cook her own food for herself on your stove using your stuff That's completely normal. They don't bring anything like a sack lunch or anything They just cook up what's in the refrigerator and they make themselves whatever now remember I said I don't have any teflon pans in the house

[22:14] But I gotta tell you in the three decades or so i've been down here I must have been through I don't know six eight cleaning ladies and with every last one of them suddenly A teflon frying pan appears mixed in with my stainless steel pots and pans Oddly enough none of my cleaning ladies have ever asked me to go out and buy them one Even though I probably would i'm not going to try to train them up about teflon. I'd be like talking to a brick wall By the way, it's normal for your cleaning lady to do some cooking She'll cook up breakfast and lunch for you. Most of them are very good cooks basic, but very good Just don't let them cook with that teflon pan Now they don't have any trouble cooking, you know soups and stuff in stainless steel pots They're the same as aluminum as far as she's concerned But they sure know the difference between a stainless steel frying pan and a teflon coated one the teflon one, you know

[23:03] Cleans up real easy the stainless steel one got a scrub Now, of course the number one reason latin americans love aluminum pots and pans is because they're cheap Sure, you can go to an upscale hardware store and get cast iron or stainless steel pans But they're gonna cost three or four times as much as aluminum So in the hardware and appliance stores, they just mostly sit and gather dust As do stainless steel pressure pots sure they sell them. I have one that I almost never use They also cost quite a bit more than an aluminum one That's why when you go to a hardware or appliance store You'll see on the shelf 10 times as many aluminum pressure cookers as stainless steel ones Because you see down here in latin america It really is all about the money which is why the chinese have made such inroads down here with their cheap junk

[23:52] Of course, they make some good stuff too But usually when it's under a first world brand name Like for example, if you're buying professional tools like Milwaukee or Bosch or stanley that stuff's all made in china too But there are higher standards for well-known commercial brand names Remember too that you can get practically everything down here if you want a kitchen aid or queasy nart high-end kitchen brand anything You can get it down here. Then again, all those high-end brands are made in china as well Admittedly to higher standards than the no-name stuff or the off brand But even those high-end brands ain't what they used to be speaking of off brands have noticed A new car brand is popping up everywhere down here gili g-e-e-l-y That's an indian brand from india though. Most people think they're from china. They're not they're from india

[24:42] I wonder are they selling those things up in the states yet? I've been seeing a few of them almost every day whilst down the road down here myself Oh, but back to the coffee thing another thing i've noticed as mentioned most all latin americans drink coffee Yet in all my years down here. I've never met a single latin american who drinks coffee black I take that back. They drink it black but with tons of sugar in it. So it still looks black Which confused me when I first got down here because you go into a bank for example or hardware store Since latin america is a land of coffee It's pretty much a standard that there's coffee in a pot for the customers of any business Insurance office doctor's office tire shop. There'll be a coffee pot there and cups. You just help yourself But generally I know better so I don't because down here in latin america

[25:30] You'll soon find out the coffee and the help yourself pot is just spiked with sugar As opposed to up in the states where you put in sugar as you please or none Down here in latin america. It's understood that all coffee must have sugar in it and I mean tons of sugar in it That's the way it'll be served if you're at someone's house But that doesn't stop them from having extra sugar on the table next to the pot for people to spike it even more That's just one of those little quirks latin americans all seem to have Now according to some gringos and expats who've been down here a long time They say those help yourself pots in most businesses are spiked with sugar Because they use the absolute cheapest brand of coffee, which is often quite bitter and acidic makes sense You kill the bitterness with the sugar. So anyway, just note that latin america is a land of free coffee

[26:17] Practically any business you walk into you get a free cup. So help yourself. It's expected or not By the way captain mango who is in and out of the coffee business himself? Over the past few years. He's made me aware painfully aware That the coffee bags in guatemala and elsewhere in latin america have been reduced to 400 grams down from 454 grams which is a pound, right? So as it turns out nearly all of the brand names coming out of guatemala and the rest of latin america Are no longer one pound. They're 400 grams. It turns out they were downsizing even before the covid you think I understand now Some coffee brands are even down to 360 grams Hardly seems right, huh? Which begs the question which any good marketer should have figured out by now

[27:04] If you sell bags of coffee and really want to distinguish yourself from the others Really catch the attention of the public kick the bag size back up to one pound And advertise it as such that you won't compromise You won't shave 54 grams off the product like all the other skin flint taconio competitors Just a thought but then again, that's how americans think unlike latinos and how about this slogan make america Caffeinated again. I'll wear that hat. I'll buy that t-shirt You've been listening to the expat files living in latin america If you need some help with your own plan b we can schedule a one-on-one phone or skype consult Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week long expat insider seminar in central america

[27:51] Where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan b. Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com nos vemos