Episode Summary
In this episode, Johnny Mueller discusses the organized nature of illegal immigration caravans from Latin America to the United States, suggesting that these groups may be orchestrated by external entities like Soros-funded NGOs. He argues that the individuals in these caravans often come from the lower end of the economic and intellectual scale, lacking the skills and resources to thrive in their home countries. Mueller also references a recent article about Ecuador implementing new requirements for Venezuelans seeking asylum, which he views as a necessary measure to protect the country from criminal elements.
He then shifts to discussing the irony of Ecuador's strict immigration policies toward Venezuelans, comparing it to the United States' border control issues. He highlights the criticism of Ecuador's president, Lenin Moreno, for his xenophobic comments and the new police report requirement, which human rights groups argue violates international human rights. Johnny also notes the hypocrisy of Western media focusing on the U.S. while ignoring similar policies in other countries. He contrasts Ecuador's approach with the U.S., where sanctuary cities are seen as welcoming poor, uneducated immigrants from different cultures.
Mueller further discusses why Latin American countries like Ecuador, El Salvador, and Panama use the U.S. dollar, explaining that it was a response to hyperinflation and economic instability. He highlights the depreciation of the U.S. dollar over time and the irony that the U.S. dollar is essentially 'funny money' for many Latin American countries.
He then delves into the economic and social consequences of Ecuador's dollarization in the late 1990s. He highlights how the move to the U.S. dollar, intended to attract investment and stabilize the economy, backfired. The former president, who was ousted in 2000, saw his popularity plummet from 70% to 6% due to the controversial switch. The dollarization led to chaos in financial markets, frozen bank accounts, and a drastic devaluation of the sucre, leaving most Ecuadorians with no savings. The economic turmoil resulted in over 200 suicides, far exceeding the number during the Great Depression. Additionally, more than 20 banks collapsed, and many board members fled the country with their money, settling in the U.S.
Johnny also shares his observations on living in Latin America, emphasizing that safety depends on the neighborhood and that small towns are generally safer than big cities. He concludes with a discussion on oil theft in Mexico, highlighting the scale of the problem and the role of corruption and organized crime.
In the final segment, Johnny expresses frustration with the U.S. government's inefficiency and overreach, particularly through the lens of expatriate experiences. He criticizes the U.S. embassies and consulates, especially the one in Guatemala, for their excessive size and lack of accessibility for ordinary citizens. He highlights the absurdity of the embassy's features, such as its massive size and green energy claims, which he views as insincere public relations efforts. Johnny also conveys a sense of hopelessness about the U.S. government, suggesting that it has become unfixable and that moving out of the U.S. was the best decision. He ends by encouraging listeners to reach out for more information or to take action regarding their expatriate plans.
Topics
Organized illegal immigration, Economic and intellectual status of migrants, Government policies on asylum seekers, Ecuador's immigration policies, U.S. border control and sanctuary cities, Hyperinflation and currency adoption in Latin America, The U.S. dollar's depreciation and its impact on Latin American economies, Ecuador's dollarization and its consequences, Economic turmoil and social impact in Ecuador, Safety in Latin America, Oil theft and organized crime in Mexico, U.S. Embassy in Guatemala
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:31 The Organized Nature of Illegal Immigration Caravans 00:01:22 The Economic and Intellectual Status of Migrants 00:03:45 Ecuador's New Requirements for Venezuelan Asylum Seekers 00:06:19 Ecuador's Immigration Policies and the Irony of Border Control 00:12:39 Ecuador's Dollarization and Its Consequences 00:12:45 The Economic Context of Dollarization in Latin America 00:13:36 Suicides Due to Financial Losses 00:14:09 Bank Failures and Capital Flight 00:14:34 Public Opinion on Dollarization 00:14:51 Safety in Latin America 00:15:32 Small-Town Justice in Latin America 00:16:48 Oil Theft and Organized Crime in Mexico 00:18:48 Johnny's Encounter with a Witchy Calero at a Car Mechanic's Lobby 00:19:45 Analysts Say Oil Theft in Mexico Is More Complex Than Just Thieves 00:21:34 Pipeline Explosion in Tula: Fuel Theft Leads to Tragedy 00:24:35 The Expat's Frustration with U.S. Embassies 00:25:55 The New U.S. Embassy in Guatemala: A Monument to Surveillance 00:26:59 The U.S. Government's Cancer Has Spread
Transcript
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 out to play and now I wonder Hello there all you ex-pat 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 All right. Now here's something that needs to be said, but nobody's saying it you got all these refugee rights groups and people out in the desert giving food and water to illegal aliens that have Slipped through to the states and believe it or not. If you were down here watching these caravans of people
[00:49] Organizing themselves. Yeah have to wonder who's really doing the organizing? They don't have some kind of Vulcan mind-meld going and 2,000 of them show up 10 miles from the border and say all right. Let's begin the march I'm telling you there are organized groups Soros funded types down here setting up NGOs Making all these new and stronger caravans possible. It's so true I've been down here almost 28 years now and I'll tell you I've never seen anything like this happen before Sure, people have always been slipping in and out of the US illegally But never I mean never in organized caravans like this you have to realize one thing about people trying to get across They've got nothing they even got a pot to pee in they've got no diplomas education careers
[01:34] Nothing that could get in my head in this world in a legitimate way They're at the low end of the economic IQ and creativity scale Obviously if they were way above average, they'd have figured out how to make a living and stay safe in their own countries Hey, and if you think that's a stretch or I'm just being plain old racist You ought to read up on the most common traits of successful men and women now You may have heard or read this before it's a truism and the experiments been tried over and over again If you take a successful smart creative man or woman you drop them into any country with just a hundred bucks in the clothes On their backs and even if they don't know the language If you come back a couple months later to check them out You'll find that most of them have got something going for themselves once again, which brings us back to the original question
[02:22] Why do all these dirt poor? uneducated people with nothing left to lose Suddenly form themselves into these giant organized caravans I mean look it takes a liter or two and great organizational skills to drive a caravan a couple of thousand miles through Cities and country sides highs and lows rivers and valleys, etc There's a lot of logistics involved not to mention it takes dough And of course, that's one thing illegal migrants don't have is dough, which is why they're heading to the states You know else when you Americano the American dream streets paved with gold the promised land and all that Just think about the basics the necessities the food the water the shelter the porta potties at least well for the women Because you know for most Latin males. Anyway, the world is their porta potty. Oh and get this
[03:10] I've seen these guys up close and isn't it funny that a lot of them have better footwear than I have Doesn't that seem rather odd? Alright on that note. I want to read you this an article that just came out this morning and man It's like deja vu all over again though. It's not happening here. It's happening in South America And after I read this then all you bleeding hearts out there telling me about the big bad United States It says it tries to hold back all the poor wretched masses who are just trying to get a leg up in the world All right. Here we go. And the title of this article is refugee rights groups blast a new government requirement for Venezuelans entering Ecuador. This is from the newspaper el telegrapo the telegraph actually translated into English. How about that?
[03:59] Starts out refugee rights representatives are claiming that a new requirement that Venezuelans entering Ecuador must show proof that they have no criminal record is Unfair and could amount to a death sentence for people trying to escape the Venezuelan regime. All right, let's stop and analyze that a bit Do you think it's unfair that a government would require immigrants to prove that they're not criminals before permitting them to settle in their country? Man, does that touch a nerve, huh? Especially since if any gringle wants to get his residency in a Latin country He has to get an apostol police or FBI report and it's got to be squeaky clean or your application gets rejected Anyway, the article goes on to say Daniel regular o spokesman for a Venezuelan refugee organization
[04:52] Yep, they got those too He says the rule is grossly unjust since the document Ecuador is requiring. That would be a clean police report is impossible to obtain for most Venezuelans Then it says like most other functions in the Venezuelan government the website that accepts Requests for the police report document is not working now and even when it does he says it's only processing around 60 Applications a month. So then why is this such a big issue now? Well before this week Venezuelans were allowed to come into Ecuador without such a document an Ecuadorian vice president Otto sons and holds her Say what sons and holds her man that sounds a hundred percent German. How'd he get to be vice president of a Latin country?
[05:41] Anyway, I don't sons and holds are announced Monday that all Venezuelans entering Ecuador must now present an apostle certificate from the Venezuelan government Showing that said person has not been arrested or ever been held on criminal charges Which on the surface of it sounds completely logical but get this the new requirement follows the Saturday night Murder of a pregnant Ecuadorian woman in Ibarra her lights were put out by her Venezuelan boyfriend Meanwhile president Lenin Moreno says that Ecuador was now taking several extreme measures to protect itself against foreign Criminals including the establishment of a special police unit to monitor the habits of Venezuelans once they enter the country
[06:27] Now isn't that ironic you got everyone up in the states So worried about Trump and the border control and ICE threatening to crack the whip on illegal immigrants Meanwhile in Ecuador you got president Lenin Moreno and his vice president who've always been very socialist leaning Seriously cracking the whip not just threatening to do it But of course, you don't read about that in the first world press only the big bad USA monster cracking down on those poor cold shivering Unfortunate who many say deserve asylum in the grand old us of a but I digress as usual Anyway, then the article goes on to say human rights groups and legal organizations Criticized president Moreno's comments following the murder calling them xenophobic in a violation of international human rights
[07:15] Saying the new police report requirement slams the doors in the face of Venezuelans fleeing poverty and oppression Where have we heard that before? Every night on the 6 o'clock news, maybe anyway Regalado says quote with this policy Ecuador is turning its back on its publicly stated policy of offering Anyone from any country refuge from oppression then it says other South American refugee rights Advocates claim that the new policy will not stop criminals at all Do you think that criminals will go through the process of getting those documents? Of course, not says Carmen Gomez a university professor and immigration expert in Ecuador Then there's a note of caution. It says following vice president Stein in Holzer's announcement of that clean police report requirement
[08:04] Wait a minute. Wait a minute. There is again vice president states in Holzer. How'd he get that job? Don't worry We'll talk about that later Anyway, it says the president's secretary Ron Sebastian rolled in suggests that Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro is knowingly Exporting criminals out of the country Saying that he is emptying prison cells. He said and allowing dangerous criminals to pass through Ecuador's borders Saying now is the time for Ecuador to protect itself from such activities Alright, there you have it fresh off the presses talk about deja vu man Are you hearing this and you thought the US had immigration and border control problems? No, it's interesting to see how other so-called democratic countries handle it
[08:51] Especially when known criminals are penetrating their borders now Here's the part that really differs from the problem the US has and why it's even stranger than it sounds Think about the type of people they're doing it to and who it's affecting the most They're targeting people who share the same culture and speak the very same language and in most cases They'll admit are more educated than their own population So in effect the Ecuadorian government is turning away a higher class of people than its own citizens In other words, they've got a reverse brain drain going and they want to put a halt to it Meanwhile up in the states, you've got for brains politicians like governor Jerry Brown of California creating sanctuary cities In fact a sanctuary state for poor uneducated people from a different culture who don't even speak English
[09:43] Hmm. I wonder what are your thoughts on that? Well, here's mine I think Jerry Brown and all his Hollywood liberal loudmouth friends should let a few of those poor Indigent families move in to their guest houses, don't you think? Meanwhile Ecuadorians are having none of that even with people who are culturally and educationally Superior and speak the same language. What do you make of that? Oh and speaking of Ecuador Here's a question I get a lot not just about Ecuador El Salvador beliefs in Panama, too You know what they've all got in common. They use the US dollar as their currency Yep, they all had their own funny money at one time But they switched over just in the last 10 or 20 years and people occasionally ask me how could that be? How can a country give up its own currency a currency that's been around for in some cases a hundred years or so money with their
[10:36] own favorite corrupt genocidal Dictators on it not to mention they're always printed in sizes and colors that are a lot prettier than the paper u.s Dead presidents are printed on now You'd think a country's own funny money is part of their sovereignty part of their patrimony National identity so to speak. So why would they give that up? And then you get the question doesn't having a US dollar currency make them kind of US puppets in a way Well, of course and all Latin government officials are on the take and who shovels up most of that dough to those idiots Well your own idiot uncle Sam and of course most of you listeners to this program Know the US dollar is nothing but its own kind of funny money
[11:21] It itself is a rapidly depreciating currency when you consider that in 1913 when that wretched organization Called the Federal Reserve was born three cents back then would buy what a dollar buys today So that dirty little secret is that the US dollars lost ninety seven percent of its purchasing power in a hundred years But compared to Latin currencies, it seems like the rocket Gibraltar the gold standard So as it turns out in the last 10 or 20 years or so when Latin countries have had hyperinflation many of them switched to the US dollar as In the case of Belize Panama Ecuador and El Salvador in fact, it was on January 9th 2000 just 19 years ago President Hamil Mulhaled Announced that Ecuador would end the use of their national currency the sukre
[12:09] Which at the time suffered Latin America's highest rate of inflation. However, if you look back on 1999 when Ecuador's inflation numbers topped a hundred percent a year that seems absolutely tame even rock-solid stable Compared to Venezuela's inflation rates of thousands of percent a year. Anyway back in Ecuador in 1999 the national economy had contracted 7.5 percent in one year topped a hundred percent inflation and president Mahoud Hoped switching to the US dollar would attract investment and stabilize the economy Well, he wasn't around to see what would happen when they dollarized He was kicked out of office on January 21st by the National Congress and replaced by his vice president Gustavo
[12:55] Nuboa in fact back then the country was so pissed off that he would sell the country down the river to the Americans by Switching to the US dollar that his popularity dropped from 70 to 6 percent So they booted him and he left the country then as you might expect There was chaos in the financial markets the conversion to the dollar was very controversial and bank accounts Were frozen and the sukre their old funny money was drastically devalued just prior to the change over to dollars leaving Most Ecuadorians busted the majority with no savings at all And for those of you who knew that already, I'll bet you didn't know that the why I killed newspaper Universal reported more than 200 suicides by people who suffered massive financial losses
[13:43] Now compare that with the so-called jumpers of the Great Depression in 1929 It got a lot of press, but did you know there are only around a hundred people who attempted or committed suicide due to huge financial losses It sounds hard to believe but the Ecuadorian economy took a bigger beating than Wall Street did in 29 Not only that more than 20 Ecuadorian banks went out of business between 1999 and 2000 Oh, and here's something else You didn't know many on the board of directors of those 20 failed banks fled the country with the dough Most of them settling and guess where? my tummy Furnishing yet more proof that nice guys finished last and who says crime doesn't pay Oh, and by the way, every time I happen to be in one of those dollarized Latin countries
[14:28] I asked a porter a taxi driver or some local who's sitting next to me in a coffee shop What he thinks about the fact that they don't have a national currency and almost to a person they don't like being dollarized They complain about it. They all say the dollar makes things more expensive and it never really helped the common man All right enough said about that But just one more thing about Ecuador and Latin America in general, you know Another question I always get is how safe is it to live in Latin America? And I always say it's all about the neighborhood just like up in the states or in any country There are lots of crap neighborhoods and lots of very good ones and lots of well Okay ones in the daytime, but not so okay to walk alone at night But as a general rule, it's much safer to live in a small town a town under 50,000
[15:15] Why well for one a lot of the bad boys and troublemakers? Get the hell out of a small town and move to a big city because there's more action there and a lot of them Get the hell out because of what I'm reporting on now that comes from a recent article this one entitled Ecuador Lynching mob is halted Now you've heard me say many times that in small town Latin America Just like up in the states Everyone knows everybody and when a bad boy or boys commits one too many petty crimes The public goes into action because they can't depend on the three or four lard ass Compstanton who are most likely sleeping off a hangover at their version of the local donut shop That would be the tortilla stand. Anyway, this article says suspect rescued
[16:00] One of two delinquents caught robbing parked cars in El Valle was almost burned to death by neighbors The neighbors being tired of a spate of car robberies It says the two robbers fled in a car without plates and were chased by owners of the vandalized cars When the thieves stopped they were surrounded by over a hundred neighbors armed with sticks rocks ropes and gasoline One thief was later apprehended by the police. However, two of the policemen were injured in the scuffle Hey, you gotta love small-town Latin America, huh? You could say it's like the Wild West but man Wild West had its heroes to bat Masterson Well, Bill hicca Doc holiday, you know the names and a lot of those towns were much safer than Cleveland Meanwhile, we've got some more bad news coming out of Mexico
[16:48] How about this article and I'll translate this titled oil pipeline theft by cartels on the increase and big business in Mexico And I'll paraphrase this and cut out the boring parts as usual It starts out oil thieves stole more than six hundred million gallons of fuel from Mexico's panex refineries in 2016 Representing at least one point five billion dollars in losses to the state-owned company in 2017 incidents of oil theft recorded by Pemex reach record highs jumping to nine thousand five hundred nine reported oil theft incidents According to various reports including one in US magazine Rolling Stone state that Mexico's oil and gas reserves
[17:36] Represent a store of wealth to narcos much greater than cocaine or marijuana ever could Thus as marijuana and marijuana products become more and more legalized throughout the world Narco groups are adapting and changing their focus to stealing oil, but it's not only organized crime and narcos It's the corruption within the government and the fact that the Mexican government owns and operates the oil business That makes the industry so vulnerable since Mexico has nine thousand kilometers That's around seven thousand miles of pipelines that really need to be monitored 24 hours a day to prevent pilferage It's an impossible task say oil pipeline engineers There are not enough soldiers policemen or sailors to monitor a tenth of it
[18:21] But here's what you didn't know Mexico's oil theft industry is booming and has been a staple of organized crime in the country for years In fact oil thieving is so common. It's considered a profession and they're known as what she caleros What she caleros man? Can you imagine sitting in the lobby of the car mechanic making small talk with the guy next to you? You say hey, I'm Johnny retired engineer living here in Latin America. Now, what do you do? He says who me? I'm a witchy calero and you don't skip a beat you give them a fist bump and say cool. How's business? This your day off Anyway, you know, it used to be small time groups with an insider or two that would rip off the oil company here and there And oddly enough it just kept going on No one seemed to care because it was a government enterprise because man
[19:09] I'll tell you when a private company owns resources like that They make sure there's very little theft and when they catch someone they make him pay But you know, whatever the government does it does poorly corruption is rampant and people just don't give a For example, yeah, right like examples are hard to find just the other day I was reading about the welfare benefit system in california. Did you know that california has 70 that's 70? Different welfare programs you can get on but I digress as usual. Were we oh, yeah So what about the massive increase in oil thefts? Well Analysts are saying it's not just oil thieves. It's far more complicated than that They're saying it wouldn't be possible without the complicity of engineers and workers at pemex's refineries
[19:56] The fact is you need guys on the inside to pull off the kind of thieving that's been going on lately That means just like any cancerous government organization pemex Mexico's nationalized oil company has employees who are sharing maps of the pipelines as well as information as to the best ways of piercing them like for example the weakest points the most isolated points and when Skeleton crews are in charge because men are on vacation and get this the former head of security at pemex His name is leon trowitz is under investigation for his role in helping facilitate oil theft according to a recent article in the publication Are you getting this the head of security of the oil company the guy in charge Of eliminating theft at least keeping it to a minimum is a corrupt sob himself
[20:45] Oh, and this is good according to one highly placed echo coloro Certain pemex officials notify thieves of the exact time that oil will be pumped through the pipelines in addition Providing them with the equipment needed to extract that oil safely In fact this particular highly placed oil stealing informer says that it involves public prosecutors municipal authorities state secretaries And it goes as far up as you can imagine with everyone getting a slice everyone getting paid off To make matters worse pemex is facing serious fuel production issues With pemex's six main oil refineries operating at just 40 percent of their capacity and producing The lowest amount volume of oil registered in the last 25 years Meanwhile the disaster news story of the week out of latin. America is
[21:34] Talluche le pan mexico where a gasoline pipeline blast killed at least 79 people You've probably seen a drip and a drab of that story in the first world media because it's kind of close to home But here's what you didn't know about that story. It ties in with fuel theft It turns out investigators have found that fuel thieves were the ones that punctured the tulula Took sepan pipeline a few miles from one of mexico's main refineries on friday And get this and man don't you wish someone would have got this on video up to 800 people flocked to fill their plastic containers From the 25 foot pure gasoline geyser that ensued after the pipeline was punctured Yeah, you can bet that was real safe. Anyway a couple hours later. It erupted in flames resulting in a huge explosion
[22:26] So as it turns out nearly all the people who were killed had nothing to do with puncturing the pipeline They just saw that it was spewing gas and they went to go steal some Now here's something else people don't know when a private company like bp oil for example owns a pipeline They have detectors up and down the thing and when they detect a slight pressure drop Meaning there's a leak or someone stealing fuel They immediately closed the valve to stop the flow to minimize the leak and the pressure drops to zero with private companies That's virtually immediate But again because pemex is a government owned and run operation The pressure and the flow persisted for at least two more hours after the pipe was ruptured Now investigators said that even if the valve were closed immediately there still would have been around
[23:11] 10,000 barrels of high octane gas in that section of the pipeline between the tula refinery and the local village However, with no pressure in the pipeline, it would have been very difficult to steal efficiently Investigators say part of the blame goes to the government and part of the blame goes to the people at the ruptured pipeline Who knew it was dangerous? And this has got to be the absolute craziest part of this whole fiasco It says the pipeline had been out of service since late december While the government tried to secure it from gangs of fuel thieves who had tapped it 10 different times in a period of just A few months even crazier since the pipeline was reopened on january 16th Just a week or so ago as this broadcast goes out In just the four days following the pipelines reopening on january 16th
[24:01] It was tapped again four different times. In other words fuel thieves hit it four times in four days Hmm. Yeah, so you expect gonna bees and wannabes. You're still thinking about moving down mexico way You know, i'm not exactly sure but I think that's reason 4264 why I i'm speaking for myself would never want to live in mexico Hey, but you know, you might like to thrill the adventure and the danger of it all some people absolutely thrive on that And now from the how to piss off a gringo department I have to tell you it's no fun for an expat to walk into a us consulate or embassy in any part of the world I've been to quite a few us embassies not because I wanted to share milk and cookies with them or say hi to everyone
[24:49] But because I absolutely had to whether renewing a passport getting pages at it getting a certified copy Whatever and I have to tell you every time I visit one of those places I get more and more pissed off at my own freaking government. It's just a monstrously malignant multi-tentacled abortion Don't believe me just take the us embassy in guatemala for one thing. It takes up an entire city block. It's got massive Security it's got four floors. That's four stories But guess what the average us citizen like you or me no matter what services you're there for We'll never ever get to see what's on the second third or fourth floor Those are off limits to civilians. So what in the hell are they doing with three extra floors? Surveillance and alphabet agency stuff, of course and little guatemala with 16 million people on the world stage is insignificant
[25:41] But now surprise surprise there's a huge article in the biggest guatemalan newspaper in spanish Of course called the prince el libre with a two page photo spread of the new vastly bigger us embassy They're building in guatemala now Now the old one was one city block the new one get this on nine and a half nine and a half acres Oh and this article is such a nice pr suck up to the u.s It says it will be green energy efficient and eco friendly with solar panels generating 10 percent of its electricity 10 What a bunch of morons with all the sun in guatemala only 10 percent Oh and it says in the parking lot there will be charge stations for electric cars
[26:30] Well, that's so wonderful considering that there isn't a single electric freaking car in all of guatemala What a kiss-ass suck up puff piece. This is but it's what they're not telling you It's not just another multi-billion dollar monument to the deep dark underbelly of the big brother surveillance state It's a signal to me that moving out of the united states was the best thing I could have ever done There's no going back to what the us once was no party or person that can fix it The cancer in the us government has metastasized to the brain But go ahead if you want to waste some time and energy and a little gas Exercising your so-called right to vote because you think that's actually gonna make a difference before you do that Send me an email the expert files at gmail.com and i'll send you a picture of this multi-billion dollar
[27:18] Monstrosity on nine and a half acres that you're paying for but no one ever told you about meanwhile They're at least 150 of these monstrosities in capital cities all over the world. Go ahead shoot me an email and see it for yourself You've been listening to the expat files living in latin america If you need some help with your own plan b you can schedule a one-on-one phone call with me But first download my free plan b questionnaire at www.thenewexpat.com Better yet if you want to get your plan b going from right up there in the states Just sign up for my nine hour expat essentials course get the perfect plan b blueprint by going to the expat files.com Academy most famous