Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller dives into several key topics that expats in Latin America often face. He begins by discussing a seminar he conducted in July 2016, encouraging listeners to sign up for it, and shares a story about an expat who moved his business to Latin America and is now looking to expand into the Latin market. The expat needs a bilingual marketing professional and reaches out to Johnny for help in evaluating a candidate's resume, which is in Spanish. Johnny reflects on the candidate's background and the challenges of hiring in the region.
Johnny also discusses the challenges of verifying academic credentials in Latin America, particularly highlighting the prevalence of fake degrees and the lack of a social safety net. He notes that many people pursue MBAs as a natural progression after a business degree, often attending weekend classes due to the need to work during the day. He also touches on the cultural differences in reference-giving and the unique way job references are handled in the region, including the practice of publishing ads to warn against dishonest employees.
The segment then shifts to the challenges of vetting job candidates in Latin American countries, particularly highlighting the prevalence of fake or misleading resumes and the cultural norms that make it difficult to verify references. Johnny, through the perspective of his friend Eddie, explains how Latin American businessmen often write glowing letters of recommendation for employees who have stolen from them, simply to get rid of them. He outlines a strategy for expats to protect themselves by asking specific questions during the hiring process, such as whether the candidate has ever been fired from a job and whether they are willing to take a polygraph test. Johnny also suggests that expats can capitalize on the fear of polygraph machines among Latin Americans by offering polygraph services to small businesses.
In another story, Johnny discusses a situation where a friend is trying to hire a bilingual marketing manager in Latin America. The candidate, a woman from El Salvador, is asking for a salary of $4,000 a month, which Johnny finds excessive given her circumstances—living with her parents, not working for over a year, and being a member of the most expensive gym in the country. Johnny advises his friend to be cautious, suggesting that the candidate may be taking advantage of the friend's lack of experience or naivety. He also highlights the broader issue of overqualified candidates in Latin America, particularly those with business degrees, who often end up in low-paying jobs.
Finally, Johnny discusses the transformation of Acapulco from a glamorous vacation spot to a dangerous city plagued by drug violence. Initially, he mentions that there are cheap vacation packages, but he later receives emails from expats in Mexico who praise the city. However, a news article reveals that Acapulco has become Mexico's number one murder capital, with a high murder rate per capita. The violence has led to business closures, fear among residents, and a decline in tourism. Johnny also notes the city's historical reputation as a tourist destination and its current crisis due to drug cartels infiltrating local government.
Topics
Expat life in Latin America, Business opportunities in Latin America, Hiring challenges for expats, Language and cultural barriers in business, Expatriate seminars and networking, Education in Latin America, Cultural differences in reference-giving, MBAs in Latin America, Social safety nets and employment, Fake resumes and misleading information, Cultural norms in Latin American business practices, Polygraph services for expats
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:26 Overview of the Show's Content 00:01:10 Promotion of the Expat Seminar 00:01:42 Introduction to the Expat Business Story 00:02:50 Opportunities for Expats in the Latin Market 00:03:27 The Expat's Need for a Bilingual Marketing Professional 00:05:02 Evaluation of the Candidate's Resume 00:06:04 Praise for Academic Achievement in Latin America 00:06:17 Challenges in Verifying Academic Credentials 00:07:03 The Uselessness of MBAs in Latin America 00:09:26 Cultural Differences in Reference-Giving 00:11:45 Introduction to the topic of fake resumes and misleading information in Latin America 00:12:17 Explanation of the cultural norms in Latin American business practices regarding letters of recommendation 00:12:48 Recommendations for expats on how to vet job candidates in Latin America 00:15:12 Discussion of a bilingual marketing resume and its potential authenticity 00:18:34 The Shock of the Salary Request 00:19:18 The Candidate's Motivation and Johnny's Assessment 00:20:26 Lessons from the Hiring Experience 00:22:59 Cheap Vacation Packages and Initial Opinions on Acapulco 00:23:05 Receiving Emails from Happy Expats in Mexico 00:23:10 Positive Feedback from Acapulco Residents 00:23:15 Introducing Jeff Berwick and His Influence 00:23:19 Jeff Berwick's Anarchopoco Convention and Newsletter 00:23:25 Transition to the News Article on Acapulco's Violence 00:23:29 Acapulco's Decline and Recent Violence 00:23:35 Acapulco's Fear and Business Closures
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 up to play and now I wonder Hello there all you expat 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 Before we get into our usual stuff today I was made aware of the fact more than once that if you go to the Www.thenewexpat.com website and click on Johnny's July 2016 Seminar at the top of the page if you decide to pay with PayPal when you click the buttons
[00:50] You'll sometimes be directed to a PayPal page in English and sometimes one that's in Spanish. That's alright They'll both work But since I have to assume that most people's Spanish sucks if the page comes up in Spanish Just go to the upper left hand corner where it says language preferences and click English and you're back in business a little Clarification there. So the way to sign up for my July 2016 expat insider seminar being held in and around Guatemala just go to Www.thenewexpat.com click on Johnny's 2016 seminar link at the top of the page and you'll get all the information and sign up details and Don't forget to check out and sign up for John Galt's pre and post seminar trips, too They're highly recommended by me and I just might tag along myself if John Galt comps me the hotel room
[01:41] We'll see hey now Here's something for all you expat wannabes and gonna bees thinking of putting a business down here in Latin America or bringing your business down if it happens to be on the net or convertible into Spanish to grab Latin customers just listen up because this could save you thousands and Untold amounts of grief. So today we have another boots on the ground true to life expat business story That will help you if you need to hire educated upscale Latin employees more importantly You'll get some tips on how not to be a clueless gringo when starting a business now Today's story comes from the mouth of a new expat who came down to one of my previous expat insider seminars Well, needless to say he liked it so much. He's down here permanently now Well settled in and he's transferred his successful internet business from the States
[02:28] He says it's really no trouble at all for him to service his first world clients from Latin America as far as they know He's still located somewhere up in the first world because his operation hasn't skipped a beat The only thing that's changed. He said is the way he does banking It's all offshore now and out from under the bony greedy malignant finger of Uncle Sam And now he wants to further develop his business model and market his software products to Latin customers Now if you remember I said in past shows only about 15 to 20 percent of Latin adults have internet 24 7 So there's huge room for expansion and growth and he sees that now those figures are for the general public However, medium and large-sized businesses are on the net and have a presence because that's just the way things are these days
[03:16] So anyway, I got a call from my new friend about a month ago, and he said hey Johnny I need a favor, but before he laid it on me He went into a diatribe saying Johnny You know my internet business is doing just fine but there's a huge untapped Latin market out there and what I want to do is hire a Bilingual sales and marketing person that can set up a Spanish language website market the software get the word out to Latin businesses Maybe create a Spanish blog and a quarterly newsletter pretty much create a new branch of the company to surface Latin clients Exclusively by the way right now this guy's only got one other full-time employee Anyway, I said it sounds really good But what's that favor you want from me and he said well the problem you know is my Spanish absolutely sucks
[04:02] So this person's gonna have to be 100% bilingual not to mention I need him to be from around here and with a business and marketing degree Hopefully then I said you'd be surprised there are a lot of qualified people like that down here Smart people with business and marketing degrees who never get a chance to work in their own fields So they work anywhere they can they have to eat You know I've met a few myself driving UPS trucks working behind counters at hardware stores or waitress jobs at Starbucks Then he paused for a second kind of gave me a weird look like I was BSing him and just kept brambling on he said Johnny I'm writing up a to-do list for this new person and a complete job Description for both me and that person because I've never hired someone like that before this is all new to me So we left it at that then about a week later. He called me back and said Johnny remember
[04:52] I asked you for a favor well guess what I found a bilingual person I think would be perfect for my marketing manager job. She sent me a nice thick resume However, it's all in Spanish, and I was wondering if you could look it over and give me your opinion By the way in Spanish a resume is a res zoom in Ari s u m e n Way too easy, huh, so he sent it on over to me, and yes It was a pretty thorough resume turns out this 31 year old divorce lady with no kids had over the past few years Worked at three different medium-sized corporations in Central America two of them in Salvador one company in Panama But one thing really stuck out get this she went to high school in Texas Which got me wondering how'd that happen how'd she end up back down in Central America after being up in the states during her high
[05:44] School years now looking over her resume and the photos attached. She was a tall light-skinned attractive bottle blonde straight-haired Latina Definitely not lower or middle class in fact her resume had all the tell-tale signs of a privileged upscale child of the rich a bachelor's degree from an upscale private university in Latin America in Industrial engineering no less got to give her kudos for that even in the states very few women go into that field However do note down here in Latin America. It could be almost impossible to prove. She really graduated That's one of the problems with resumes and diplomas down here, okay? So she had an IE degree listed on her resume, but not only that a master's in business administration and marketing Oh, and here's another thing you almost never see a middle-class or lower middle-class person with an MBA here in Latin America sure
[06:35] They're pumping them out like they are in the states But most of them never ever get a job in their field unless daddy owns the company or the family's got which called quayo Which means connections you know nepotism pull favoritism in Spanish? Nepotismo favoritismo connection is God if only all English Spanish translations were that easy, huh? So now you might be thinking what's this crap about MBAs in Latin America doesn't everyone know by now? They're completely useless waste of time and money well with a good dose of first-world lag time It's all the rage down here now And you find billboards and newspaper ads all over the place with universities advertising useless MBA courses So just like up in the states if you have a business administration degree, and you can't get a job
[07:21] Which is pretty normal you waste another couple years and go for an MBA right and note I'm not picking on all you dummies who have MBAs out there I stupidly picked one up too But that was back in the 80s when the perception was they actually had some value wrong again Oh, well So then most of these Latin kids with business degrees can't see working the counter at office depot or a hardware store for three 400 bucks a month, so they sign up for weekend MBA classes Yes, few people know that probably 95% of all MBA degrees received in Latin America Were obtained at night school or weekend school. Yes in Latin America weekend universities are all the rage and surprise surprise just like in the states an MBA is the natural progression for a person with a business degree who's
[08:08] Slogging away as assistant manager in the fishing tackle department at Target However down here it's different for the children of the rich who right out of school end up with an executive job in Daddy's company You know how that goes. Oh, and by the way, it's been estimated that a full 70% of all bachelor's degrees earned in Latin America are obtained on Saturdays and Sundays because nearly all Latin universities offer weekend university plans that goes for MBA programs, too So then why do universities offer those plans on weekends? Well, because there's a big demand down here in Latin America where there is no social safety net No welfare, etc. Nor are there student loans? That means 70% or more of people who go to university have to work day jobs crummy day jobs
[08:55] But I digress where was it? Oh, yeah So this lady with an industrial engineering degree and an MBA Has worked in marketing and management in three medium-sized companies in Latin America And of course, she's got references for each place. She worked at to that said Let me give you a few pertinent tips about resumes and references in Latin America Now you've heard me and many people in blogs and reports say that in many ways including social ways Latin America is much different than up in the states and in the first world in general Starting with the fact that people are friendlier nicer happier less judgmental less assertive and less aggressive more Cooperative and unwilling to rock the boat and thus much less likely to tell you the truth when faced with writing an evaluation
[09:41] Report or giving a personal reference that said Latin's hate to say anything bad at all about their fellow workers or employees Which is why most Latin's can come up with good even sterling work references In fact expat Eddie tells me and remember he owns a string of restaurants He says there have been a few times when he's fired employees instantly when he's caught them red-handed stealing yet When they come back a week or two later for that final check They'll actually ask him for a written recommendation and job reference In fact, one of the guys he fired told them that a job reference from a gringle boss is worth 10 References from a Latin one. How about that? Talk about the green quick vantage Of course Eddie laughs and says you steal from me and want a reference sure I'll write a reference and I'll stuff it right up your well something to do with mother anyway
[10:31] You get the idea, but they're dead serious and seem upset when he won't write a reference for him only in Latin America Huh doesn't quite make sense does it now? I bet if you were down here and could read a little Spanish You'd probably do what I do check out the want ads in the local papers once in a while You know the help wanted ads and Latin papers sometimes make you laugh till you cry Anyway ever so often you'll see in the help wanted section a person's face Along with his national ID number formerly called a sedula It's almost always a guy by the way when you see that it's definitely not a help wanted ad. It's just the opposite It's an ad that's been put in by a company to tell everyone that this guy their former employee Is a thief and he's stolen unused company receipts, so don't do business with him if he tries to sell you something
[11:20] He'll give you a receipt that's been stolen from us now think about it If you could run such an ad in the paper up in Cleveland saying that a former employee when you fired is a thief Wouldn't that be great now that would mark a thief with a scarlet letter forever right but up in the states He'd be able to get a lawyer and sue your ass, and you probably wouldn't have a company anymore But down here in Latin America if you want you can plaster a bad employee's face all over the newspapers You come down here get some boots on the ground learn a little Spanish You'll see what I mean so then why am I bringing this up because you see expat Eddie who actually belongs to the rotary club And Salvador yeah, they have one so he knows a lot of Latin American businessmen personally Well, he's met a few that have put ads like that in the paper because their employees have stolen unused receipts
[12:06] and we're going around to existing clients taking orders for goods getting deposits and stealing the money and Believe it or not even though Eddie says some of these guys have been ripped off in that way They still will write letters of recommendation for these jerks just to get rid of them because you see Latin businessmen Especially the ones who have their businesses and offices in bad areas are afraid of some kind of revenge later In fact Eddie told me the story of one of these Businessmen who said an employee of his who was a thief actually brought back a book of stolen receipts and wanted to trade them in Exchange for getting his old job back and now the guy wouldn't hire him But he ended up giving him a glowing letter of recommendation So bottom line if you get a resume Disregard any glowing letters of recommendations that are attached and they will be attached believe me fact is nearly every cleaning lady
[12:57] You've caught stealing from you will ask for a letter of recommendation when you fire her too Why because it's customary for a Latin boss to write one just to get rid of her now These days that he says when he hires someone other than I'm just a bus boy He asks on the bottom of the application form right near where they sign their name if they'd be willing to take a lie Detector test a polygraph test called oddly enough in Spanish Examine did poli grapho. Yep yet another dead easy translation, huh? Eddie says that's the third best question you could ask on an application form and the second best question Have you ever stolen anything from work? And if so, what was it? And according to Eddie the best question to ask by far have you ever been fired from a job before and if so, why?
[13:46] And Eddie says have those three questions right before the one that says are you willing to take a polygraph test? Now Eddie says since he's had those three questions on his application forms quite a few applicants almost all guys By the way, we'll ask for another clean form because they made a mistake on the first one Hmm. Well, by the way, like I mentioned a long time ago in an expat file show There's a great business for a gringo a mobile gringo polygraph service Just buy yourself a cheap polygraph machine on Craigslist Download one of those polygraph courses specific to that machine or even take a polygraph course or two in the states and get that diploma And market yourself to medium-sized businesses that have five to maybe 50 employees
[14:32] You offer to do the existing employees and the incoming new employees, too By the way, you should know that Latins are scared to death of polygraph machines In fact Eddie says some of them on the day of the polygraph just won't show up and you'll never see him again By the way, there are many ways to beat a polygraph machine. Go ahead check the internet people sell books on how to do it now what most seasoned Polygraphers will tell you if that's a real word and know it has nothing to do with Mormons least I think that Anyway in order to get good results with the machine The person being tested must believe the apparatus is accurate and all those hundreds of TV cop shows have certainly accomplished that Which brings me back to that bilingual marketing ladies resume So anyway, it's in Spanish and I'm reading through it at first glance. It was very impressive. Why wouldn't it be?
[15:22] She went to what I found out was an elite, Texas high school I checked it out on the web another sign she was a child of wealthy Latin parents I mean, come on You really have to have dough to send your kids to a private high school up in the States Okay, so then I got back with my buddy who sent me the resume and I said, hey How'd you find this person? Anyway, he said, oh, you know, I joined this new gym And then he told me the name of it and I said, you know, that's the most expensive gym in the country That's all you got is high-rolling gringo wannabes with bodyguards in the parking lot, etc And I said, yeah, so you joined an expensive gym. So then what he said, you know The second I walked into the place I had that gringo advantage going since as far as I can tell there are no other gringos That belong to that gym. So everyone is extremely welcoming and they all wanted to speak to me in their broken English
[16:09] Tell me about their trips and connections to the States and all that, you know Just small talk and such and one of the ladies that came up and spoke to me said she went to school in the States Was a marketing major, etc And I thought maybe she's the perfect person for the job bilingual attractive, etc, etc And he said Johnny, what do you think you check the resume out? What's next? I said, you know since you can never check out the references They'll all be sterling and the company she worked for well, you'll never know if they were good or bad But you can bet they were run in a Latin way meaning short on the details because they are Latin companies not Transnationals not to mention you'll have to take her word on how she left the company or got fired or had a parting of The ways whatever and by the way, if she's gonna be your kind of bilingual coordinator
[16:55] You're gonna lean on her for both things in English and Spanish She's gonna have to write a perfect business letter because you know how gringos are if there's one error one typo We instantly make a judgment and think that person's kind of sloppy or incompetent and it goes in the round file And you know that too is part of our gringo advantage because Latins don't view business letters or any letters at all in English or Spanish That way there are almost always some typos or grammatical errors and Latins. They just tolerate it or overlook it completely That's when my friend said Johnny. I think I know where you're going with this I should tell her to write this resume out in English and I said yeah But that's not all she can do that at home and spell check it and all that and it probably will be perfect But you have to know what her writing skills are too
[17:42] So here's what I suggest you do have her come in for an interview And you have her write a two or three page kind of a short personal biography slash history That way you have a really good idea what her English writing skills are and it'll be on the fly So she won't be able to screw with it or edit it like she could if you gave it like a homework assignment Then I said by the way, I noticed she hasn't had a job for the last year. Her resume stops at about a year ago They said oh, yes, they moved here from El Salvador and she's looking for a job. She's living with her parents now She's divorced with no kids and I said so that's why she's not working and still can afford to go to the most expensive gym in the country, she's living with mommy and daddy who've got the dough and By expensive, I mean around 40 bucks a month then I asked the all-important question
[18:28] What's he willing to pay for a job like that? I said, you know, it's always best to ask them what they want to get He said I did and she wants 4,000 US a month and I paused for a second. I said what? 4,000 bucks a month. Are you serious? That's what she said. Give it to me. I'll take that job Man has she got you spotted out as a clueless freakin gringo with money Then I said think of it a girl who's living with her parents hasn't had a job for over a year Has the right credentials apparently you find her at the most expensive health club in the whole country So obviously she's high maintenance Suddenly she runs into the only gringo at the health club his Spanish sucks And he needs a bilingual marketing manager, then she says with a straight face to four grand a month
[19:18] Well in my book, she's poison now if she wasn't out to take advantage of you the clueless gringo She'd take a grand a month for let's say six months and then we'll talk about raises from there Then I said to my friend listen very carefully No, Latins make four grand a month here unless their daddy owns the company or they started their own company from scratch and worked It into a pretty big deal. Then I asked him. What was his reply to four grand a month? Well, he said that's pretty cheap compared to first-world prices probably half of what I'd pay up there I said see that's what happens to a lot of gringos. It looks good compared to salaries up in the states But man, do you realize you could get four maybe five experienced marketing managers with advanced degrees for that kind of money? Oh and speaking of hungry
[20:04] You'll want someone hungry down here in Latin America when you're born with a silver spoon in your mouth Then you got a huge lifetime safety net. They don't know what it's like to be hungry They've never had to work their tails off like someone who had to hold a job and go to school and bust a nut to survive And then crawl their way up in the world. Now. I'm not saying she's not a hard worker, but chances are well chances are So what are some of the lessons we can learn from this story? Well number one you don't want to let on that you're a gringo not right away So you put out the word in classified one as in the local newspapers and of course on olex.com Which is basically the Latin American Craigslist you write the ad in English in Spanish You haven't sent you the resume in English in Spanish and you ask them what salary they're looking for Oh, and by the way, I told my friend if I was in your shoes and someone popped that $4,000 a month figure in my face
[20:53] I'd say sorry But the job only pays a grand a month and there'll be a three-month probationary period and I'll just bet she'll pause a while And then say I can start Monday bottom line there's a big oversupply of business majors and MBAs and people in MBA programs here in Latin America and 95% of them are working crap jobs. And yes I know that must sound like a huge contradiction considering that only about two to three percent of Latin Americans have a bachelor's degree As opposed to 40% of adults up in the first world who have one Wow And probably only one in about a thousand has a master's degree. So then you might ask how could there be a huge oversupply? Well, it's simply a case like in the states of people taking the easy way out Business degrees are easy to get with a lot of time for a university social life while science degrees are tough with little or no
[21:45] Leisure time for a social life not to mention young adults are sucked in by the hype put out by the universities themselves Who make it seem through their billboard and newspaper ads that an MBA is a ticket to a first-world style life Well tell that to the over 10,000 MBA holders who've been laid off from Wall Street in the last couple years Hey, if I owned a McDonald's and I needed an extra person to run my deep fryer I'd probably pick the guy with the business degree or the MBA. I mean hell 95% of people graduating with those degrees never get a job in that field Anyway, in fact, you might remember a story I told some time ago when I selected an architect to build a house I picked a guy who graduated a few years earlier number two in his architecture class Would you believe during that two years he graduated and when I caught up with him
[22:31] He hadn't built anything nor had he been hired by any architecture firm instead He was selling CDs in the classified section of the local newspaper I mean you gotta eat right and nope, they weren't pirated versions either He was selling the Bible on CD and as far as I know the copyright ran out around 2,000 years ago though I could be wrong. Okay now changing gears a bit if you remember on the last show I gave you some very good reasons why I don't recommend living or investing in Mexico However, there are a lot of good cheap vacation packages, so you can't have a lot of fun there now I figured after that I'd get some emails from people living in Mexico saying that I was full of Mierda And I did in fact I got a couple of emails from Acapulco saying how great it is there by the way That's the home of Jeff Berwick. You know the guy that runs that
[23:19] Anarchopoco convention once a year and he publishes the dollar vigilante newsletter that I really like Anyway after I got those emails from happy expats living in Acapulco Turns out they're eating their words right now because a very sad news article came out about two days later Let me paraphrase here the Pacific City of Acapulco remain gripped by fear Tuesday with thousands of businesses and many schools shut down following the city's latest round of bloodshed as The city slips downward from storied vacation paradise to Mexico's number one murder capital It goes on to say the governor of the state Pleaded for a return to normalcy after Sunday nights attacked by drug gangs on police stations and hotels
[24:05] The attacks were apparently reprisals for the arrest Saturday of Freddy de Valle Elias el Burro head of a local drug cartel It goes out to say prolonged gunfire across the city transformed several blocks into war zones and left residents in a state of shock City streets, including beachfront roads were largely deserted amid fears of more violence Esmeralda Rios a waitress at the famous el fogone restaurant says we haven't had any business for days The few tourists who have stayed don't want to leave their hotels then it says the slow decline of Acapulco has been underway for at least a decade as the city has become more and more important as a cocaine Transportation center at the port the drugs of course destined for the US it says with
[24:54] 903 murders last year some of them beheadings. That's more murders per capita than any other Mexican city Acapulco had 111 killings for every hundred thousand people. That's more than double the rate in the deadliest US city. That's st. Louis Hmm. I thought the deadliest US city was New Orleans Oh, well, the violence stands in sharp contrast to the reputation forged more than a half century ago When the city was a playground for international film stars, including Bridget Bardot Elizabeth Taylor, Errol Flynn, John Wayne and its glamour was the backdrop for fun in Acapulco a 1963 Elvis movie boy, did that movie suck? This attention helped establish Acapulco as a top destination for American tourists including honeymooners Bill and Hillary Clinton in 1975
[25:43] Gee, I hope that weekend. They locked up all the underage women that said Mexican lawyer Samuel Gonzalez says drug traffickers have enjoyed virtual impunity since they've infiltrated state and local governments Acapulco is in constant crisis as far as this week's violence It says gunfire echoed through the city for 20 minutes as people strolling along the beach fronts and roadways ran for cover and restaurant Customers hid under their tables in fear 10 minutes later gunman attacked the federal police station in the middle of a tourist zone Okay, now get this it says on Tuesday 3,800 businesses in the city remain closed according to the local Chamber of Commerce They will stay that way until the government restores order says Alejandro Martinez Sidney the group's president and owner of a restaurant in the city
[26:33] Meanwhile business owners are accusing government officials of abandoning them to the narco traffickers Then it says the hotel occupancy rate in Acapulco has been falling year-over-year and during this month's Holy Week the highest season It was down 21% from last year and since the attacks this weekend Cancellations have been pouring in with only 20% of the rooms occupied in the city and on the tourist front Laura Caballero Rodriguez President of the Acapulco Store Owners Association said that at least 350 stores have closed this year. She said the violence in Acapulco is just terrible a situation We cannot tolerate anymore Meanwhile hundreds of stores that are still open don't know if they'll be in business next year. Hmm still want to move and invest there
[27:22] Okay, we're near the end now So I'd just like to say don't forget to go to my YouTube channel to see the pictures that go along with the audio Do subscribe it's free south of the border You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America coming to you twice a week from somewhere south of the border Email me the expat files at gmail.com And if you want me to help you sort out your own Latin American plans schedule a one-on-one Consult with me just send an email and let me know at the expat files at gmail.com. No spamos