#1062 – Chile’s Challenges: Lockdowns, Politics, and Expat Life

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, you know people are always asking me about Chile Of course people who've never been there before call it chili But once you land there and you find everybody looks at you funny or correct you you get the hang of Chile right away Of course, one of the reasons expats are so interested in Chile is because it's probably the most first world style country in all of Latin

[00:50] America, it's calm. It's peaceful. Well, it was up until about a year or so ago However, it is pretty much first world expensive and as with every country in South America The products we use and buy and then name brands we're used to seeing are often unavailable And if they are they're really expensive because of one a gluttonous malignant government and two because of logistics Same reason why if you take a flight to Central America or the Caribbean You could pay three to five hundred bucks maybe and when you go to South America, you're looking at double that So today anyway, we'll start off with talking about why I'd never want to live permanently in Chile Though it's a good place to visit. Of course, you longtime listeners No, I never recommended Chile as an outstanding plan B exit strategy though as with all Latin American countries even places like Cuba and

[01:37] Venezuela are options if you got the dough you can make it work and like it but as for Chile Let's talk about some very bad recent developments that most gringles and expats who haven't been there before and look upon Chile as some kind Of glowing example of a Latin American country that's doing things mostly right Well today you'll find out if you've believed that all along you've been had Let's start with this very recent email from mr. A. He says about Chile, which I know you don't recommend anyway Here's what's happening on the ground there, and it ain't good. They just imposed a third nationwide lockdown Seems like Chile apart from most other Latin American countries takes Enforcement of the law quite seriously, so you better stick through the rules or you'll end up with a finer in the slammer He says my friend a lady expat says they're only allowed to go outside for four hours a week

[02:26] That's all you get to get any kind of groceries or important things you might need But you have to go by yourself, too You can't bring your husband wife partner, etc It goes without saying if you're living up in the United States and you hate this new world we're living in well It's happening in the worst way in Chile to worse yet. Chile has gone full communist retired, too Right before all the lockdowns. They had massive riots and looting think BLM and Antifa Santiago Chile style they also changed and amended the Constitution to hammer in their Communist agenda the old Chile is gone then he says I wanted to seriously move there about two years ago These latest developments certainly popped my bubble then comes this email from Sal who's been living in Chile for quite a while

[03:13] He says here in Chile we have our own minor league version of Anthony Fauci his name is Enrique Paris and he directs the Ministerio de Salud de Chile a cabinet-level office in the Chilean government what he says goes and he's in charge of all the lockdowns Then cell says here in Chile one of the world's most aggressive mass Vaccination campaigns began shortly after the start of this year as of May 1st 2021 He says around 13 million Chileans have gotten the jab with somewhere around 140,000 people being jabbed a day The most interesting fact about that now is Chile is seeing an explosion of new kovat cases We're talking from six to eight thousand people a day between a hundred and 150 deaths per day, too

[03:59] Attributed to kovat and of course everything is attributed to kovat Even if your dog gets run down by a car if the driver tests positive It's a kovat related death think about it. Technically it is So the kovat cases are actually rising in a country that's considered one of the most vaccinated on earth With the most stringent of lockdowns beginning on April 1st that's made international travel Which was hardly easy before then a nightmare now even for citizens and foreign residents if you're not in either group and insane enough To want to come here to Chile forget it You're not getting in any citizens or residents coming in a forcibly quarantine for five days in a hotel at their expense Even if you've got a negative notoriously unreliable PCR hockey stick up the nose test

[04:45] Me Johnny here. Yeah can tell he's from Canada. Who else would use hockey analogies? Anyway, Sal goes on and you better believe that curfews here are enforced with threats of jail time and huge fines So for the last year curfews have become permanent now, I know Johnny There's lots of hearsay going around plenty of rumors and people don't have the facts But here are the facts from a guy living in Chile Here is exactly what you have to go through if you want to go anywhere out of your house Number one you have to obtain per miso permission from a garbineiro. That's a police officer You do that by going to the police department website You have to print fill out the form and save it in your phone It lists your name your Chilean ID number and foreigners with permanent residency must use their passport number

[05:33] You have to put down your age address and destination You're allowed up to two excursions out of your house per week up until recently You were allowed three hours out of your house per per miso slip Which means you had six hours of free movement per week to get groceries do your banking go to government offices, etc Etc, and they'd only authorize your per miso slip If your reason was to visit one of the essential places open for business Say you grabbed your pooper scooper and you wanted to take your dog for a walk in the park Hmm. Wait a minute. Well, I guess you can't do that because your dog died a kovat related death. Remember? All right, then let's suppose you want to go fishing or visit your sick old grandma on the nursing home Well, forget about it. That stuff's not essential. Oh, and you have to know thanks to the rules and the usual Latin American manana time

[06:24] You could easily spend the bulk of those six hours a week your free time So to speak standing in lines constantly violating the so-called social distancing standards. Come on How many people really stand the required six feet away from each other? Oh and when you're out and about in Chile The security covid police are out in front of the entrances to all the so-called essential services Where they dutifully inspect your per miso slip They then point that stupid temperature device at you and people just buy right into it Latinos and gringos alike Talk about George Orwell I was at mall the other day and there's an enforcer at every elevator door Where the sign says in big letters three persons only solo tres personas heaven forbid? You try to stuff four people in an elevator that the manufacturer Otis

[07:14] Says right on a stainless steel plaque inside that elevator maximum load 13 people maximum weight 900 kilograms That's around 2,000 pounds. By the way, that'd be 13 Latinos or 6 Americans Made it the truth. All right Then our emailer says welcome to Chile where checkpoints have now been established at all toll booths on private highways And when you pull up to pay that toll the car be narrows the cops will stick out a hand and say your papers Please pop bellies before I've been in those lines and traffic backup is like a scene from the zombie apocalypse The thing is Johnny many first-world people that don't live in Chile. I'm talking about Americans and Canadians They praise the Chilean system being that it's a Latin American country that's dug itself out of extreme poverty and is heading towards first world status

[08:02] that's the rumor anyway and people up north hear and read about the fact that because the Chilean government has Privatized a lot of services including their social security system Therefore capitalism has given him a shot in the arm problem is the private companies that Chilean government farmed out their services to We're hand-picked by corrupt Chilean bureaucratic insiders You know the story crony capitalism loaded with nepotism Etc, etc And because the system is crumbling now all that gives privatization a bad name But it's really not true privatization not when your brother-in-laws company gets the electrical power distribution contract So don't be fooled when you hear about the so-called success of Chile and the word privatization in the same breath for example, one of the reasons for the great unrest of

[08:47] 2019 where there were riots in the streets the worst in Chile's history since the now despised dictator Pinochet's era one of the number one reasons people took to the streets is to protest Chile's Privatized retirement pension system though as mentioned if you really peel back the layers You'll see it's not private at all Just crony capitalism with everyone taking their cut along the way then our emailer says as an expat English teacher and English tutor One of my students in 2019 walked me through a pension calculation for the average Chilean with the numbers crunched I was surprised to find out you had to be retired 40 years before you got all the money back you paid into the system Nobody lives that long So the government and its private partners simply skim off the rest of that money in reality a privatized Social Security

[09:36] System will definitely work and it'll definitely put out a lot more money than anything the government could put together But only if it's completely independent of government and selected without crony ism or bias and that'll never happen The other thing that makes Chile such a bad bet for a plan B Is that there's absolutely no alternative media here and though the internet is everywhere just like in the US nearly all alternative media is in English and it's been estimated that no more than 5% of Chileans can read English well enough to understand it and only about one percent of Chileans are Motivated enough or curious enough to actually seek out alternative opinion But when there is a riot and people start taking to the streets Chileans love a demonstration and just like everywhere People look at the news on television and the internet and the most popular news outlet by far here in Chile the Spanish

[10:28] edition of CNN Now if that's not enough to make you want to redirect your plan B to a place other than Chile Here is something that'll put you over the edge According to the latest political poll numbers out on May 24th The person leading in the opinion poll for our next president with elections slated for November is Communist party candidate Daniel had away and just to show you how the world views that Chile has the highest credit rating in all of Latin America, but now with a communist candidate in the lead investors are very skittish Oh, by the way, Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro was the first to celebrate the most recent communist candidate poll numbers in Chile Question is will Chile hit the skids like Cuba and Venezuela Oh, and by the way Monday the first business day after the news of that poll Chile's stock market fell 10% of the news

[11:17] Which is a sign of things to come and how the business community feels about having a commie in charge now We're not talking about creeping socialism here. We're talking about actual communism. Oh and just to complete the picture You know if you work legally on the books in Chile your monthly social security Contribution is 10% of your income which as mentioned takes 40 years to recover and we're not even counting in inflation there So hypothetically if for example you retire at 60 and managed to live to be a hundred Only then would you break even that is in a perfect world because we have inflation in our world and in the last 40 years The Chilean peso has lost 90% of its value So today in Chile, you'd have to live to be over 200 to get the money back that you put into the system So naturally people are pissed off about that and well It's the same kind of thing with the US social security system, too

[12:05] Nobody ever talks about how much the average American contributes in his lifetime and how long it takes him to get that back When he finally retired you can search those numbers All right, but they never factor in the almost 400% inflation that's happened in the last 40 years Oh, and another reason it's no fun living in Chile is that they've got that VAT You know, that's the value-added tax called IVA in Latin America The EVA or national sales tax in Chile is 19% now in Guatemala and many other Latin American countries the Eva is only 12% So in Chile and elsewhere in Latin America, you pay the EVA on everything you buy and it's even worse If you're vacationing traveling or touring, that means when you get your restaurant bill There'll be 19% VAT added to the bill plus 10 to 15 percent automatically added as a tip called propena

[12:53] In Spanish plus in some resort towns There'll be an added tourism tax on top of all that that means the price of a meal or a nice time out with your friends Will cost 35 to 50 percent more than the rack rate for your hotel or price on the menu It's all due to those postulate government parasites. And if that isn't bad enough There's a whole category in the Chilean tax code for taxation of what they call luxury items they get taxed with the 19% VAT plus 15% on top of that and with some products the luxury tax is 50% not 15 50% plus there's a soda and beverage tax on top of that 19% VAT of 20.5% and when it comes to beverages with high sugar content, there's a 31.5% tax added to the VAT

[13:40] Which is why a can of Coca-Cola might cost you two bucks in Chile though for Coca-Cola lovers It's a slow death by poison. So maybe that's not such a bad thing Of course intended as a deterrent But the government will get the dough and just piss it away Of course when it comes to alcoholic beverages all countries clean up in Chile you pay 19% VAT plus 20 to 31 percent additionally depending what kind of booze or booze preparation it is So if you're wondering why basic items in South America can cost twice or even more then what Japan Central America and up in the states Now, you know why so consider that if your plan B was to move on down to South America specifically Chile though again Like I always say if you got tons of dough You can move anywhere and create a nice little island of tranquility for yourself, but not many people are in that position

[14:28] That's for sure then comes this email from Lex. He says Johnny. I don't get it It's either super ironic or just completely hypocritical But how can there be such rampant corruption in Latin America bribes more D does a culture of getting over on the government in Tax evasion which I thoroughly applaud by the way But being that Latinos are so very religious and me being a pure tall white blonde gringo from New York Who's had a few Latina girlfriends? I've seen the religious shrines in their houses first hand and I always wonder how can such a very religious society Have such broken down morals and ethics. I spent a lot of time in Latino neighborhoods It's obvious immigrants bring their cultures with them look at New York Every ethnic group has a little section the Polish section Italian Irish Slovak section Chinatown Puerto Rican town Jamaican and Dominican neighborhoods and those enclaves are just saturated with social and moral problems

[15:20] Not to mention criminal elements and gangs You've got Puerto Rican gangs Cuban gangs Dominican gangs Jamaican gangs every ethnic neighborhood as its criminal activities Yet their houses seem filled with religion all the mothers grandmas and old ladies are churchgoers though It seems no one under 50 has the fear of God in them I just don't get it. Maybe I never will maybe I'm not supposed to signed white boy Lex. All right WBL Let's try to tackle that if you don't think every gringo and expat that lands here in Latin America Doesn't have those same thoughts and see the same double standards. How can we not see it? Religion is in your face down here and except for Cuba and Venezuela. There is no separation of church and state I get it Lex the dichotomy the irony and how there could be so much corruption bribes infidelity, etc

[16:07] Etc when churches are full on Sundays and everyone's got a prayer altar in the house with statues of their favorite saints and candles everywhere By all appearances, it seems that Latinos are very very serious about religion That is until you see the way they act if you've been living down here a while Well, I once had this very same conversation with a Catholic priest missionary I got stuck sitting next to at the airport in Panama on a delayed flight layover I thought he'd start preaching to me thrown on and on about it because he had a captive audience Now when you make the mistake of telling a Catholic priest you went to Catholic school yourself Suddenly, it's old home week that could be a mistake. But that time I got no lecture at all In fact, he surprised me with his answer. He said I really think a lot of the double standards You're talking about they're due to the confessional

[16:52] You see the Catholic Church allows you to commit any sin at all murder theft anything and if you go to confession It's all wiped out So if when you're walking out of the church you get run over by a car and your croak you'll go instantly to heaven It's a get out of hell free card doesn't matter if you're Mao Stalin Hitler Bill Gates George Soros or Obama if you go to confession all your sins are wiped Away, so my new airport buddy with the funny collar said Latinos are well aware of that It's funny though none of the hundreds of other organized religions have that kind of loophole just Catholics and most Latin American countries are 80 plus percent Catholic down from around 95% Catholic just 50 short years ago Oh and get this a good long-term Latin American sociology study has concluded that

[17:38] Latinos in general mentioned God in a reverent way three times more often in general conversation than any other culture They say twice as many prayers and watch much less porn Statistically than the average first world person But that could be because they have less disposable income and thus can only afford slower internet speeds enough said about that Alright now in a completely different US immigration study data shows that a very large percentage of Latino adult males Who are in the states illegally are initially caught and deported because they're caught violating US traffic laws now Of course, they have the same laws in their own countries But cops almost never enforce them in the state says, you know, you can't drive around with burnt out lights You can't run stop signs pass on curves not give way to ambulances and school buses

[18:25] You can't have a cracked windshield or missing side view mirrors You'll get pulled over and the cops will run the barcode on your license to in many cases They find out for Latinos. They're fakes and not registered in the system or they are actually registered in the system But obtained with a false or stolen social security number. The thing is here in Latin America There are tons of fake driver's licenses going around Almost anyone could get one for between 50 and 100 bucks and they look absolutely real except they're not Properly registered in the transit department's database But the average Latino holding such a fake license here in Latin America doesn't worry when he gets pulled over because almost no Latin American country transit police except I believe just Costa Rica and Colombia Can scan the barcode or run the numbers to see if it's actually registered. Oh, and here's another trick

[19:15] You see quite often here in Latin America a couple pull over a person who's a foreigner in the country Let's say a Venezuelan. There's a ton of them around and they'll flash that Venezuelan driver's license and maybe the couple write him a ticket Well, they'll never have to pay that ticket for one thing because there's really nothing they can do to you if you don't However, if you're a local driving on that country's driver's license and you get a ticket and have to pay a fine It will catch up to if you ever buy a car or a motorcycle and try to register it But back to that hypothetical Venezuelan who got pulled over when he or she flashes that driver's license The cop will never ever be able to get into the Venezuelan database to see if it's real same thing for example, if you're pulled over in Panama and you're driving with Mexican or another Latin American country driver's license

[20:01] The cops will never be able to run that barcode or those numbers to find out if you exist in the Mexican or other Latin Country legit driver database. So what's it got to do with anything? Well, here's the trick and I've seen gringos and long-term expats use this as well They'll buy a driver's license from a guy who knows a guy in an adjacent Latin country Let's say you live in Honduras and you pop over to El Salvador and you buy one of those fake licenses from a guy who knows a guy well once you pop back to Honduras where you're living if you're driving and get pulled over and Flash that El Salvador license that will satisfy the cup Even so there'd be no way for him to verify it because he could never get into another country's driving or transit database You know, that's the way it was in the states before

[20:46] 1970 you could have had tons of moving violations even revoked license for drunken driving in one state Travel to another state and get pulled over the cop would have no way of knowing your past deadbeat record Of course in the first world now the states Europe Canada their state country and territorial databases are all linked up But in Latin America, no way there's still huge lag time now I know I mentioned this on a previous show One of the main reasons gringles and expats are worried about having a valid driver's license is because once your home state lights This expires you can't just pop back and get it renewed because they're now requiring that you prove that you live in the state with rent And utility receipts etc And you can't get a legit driver's license in a Latin country unless you're a permanent resident and believe me There are tens of thousands of gringles and expats in Latin America that are not permanent residents and their stateside driver's

[21:38] Licenses have expired or on the verge of it, so they carry an expired license and do have some anxiety about it Oh, and here's something you'll never see on blogs or on YouTube one of my expat gringle acquaintances Who cannot get his driver's license renewed he's from Texas and had a DUI and here's what he did And this is for entertainment purposes only he made a nice color scan of his Texas driver's license He had someone photoshopped the expiration date changed it from 2020 to 2025 he printed out a nice color copy went down to the local police station He was living in Panama reported his wallet stolen with the driver's license in it the police made out a nice Robbery report all nicely signed and stamped officially at the police department and on that paperwork The driver's license was described by number and now he carries around that official document in his glove compartment stapled

[22:29] To that nice photoshopped copy of his Texas driver's license and every time he gets pulled over and he's gotten pulled over I think three times in the last year He just hands the cop that official paperwork saying his license was stolen and the cop buys it every time How can they not so you might wonder how long could he safely drive with that document? Well, he did it for a year or so and in time that piece of paper got pretty ratty So he did it again. He went down to a nearby town's police department Pulled the same thing and now he's got an updated police deport saying that he's had his license stolen So I guess he could theoretically keep doing that forever only in Latin America, huh? By the way, he said when you go and report a theft at the police department They're so nice and kind to you Especially he said the country like Panama where they've got a lot of gringos They don't want stories like that to go viral on the internet

[23:16] It could tarnish and damage to tourism this in fact He said one of the cops offered to give him a ride home and believe it or not The same cop told him to remember to carry around that police report and if he ever got stopped and questioned about him He could call him personally and he gave the guy his cell phone number. Yep that gringo advantage kicked in. All right again I'm not recommending you do anything illegal. I'm only relating stories to you that other podcasts and blogs won't talk about I know you do want to hear about gringo expats here in Latin America and how they hack this system, right? Speaking of hackers, here's an email from a nerdy software guy. That's how he describes himself. No names, please He says dear Johnny. I'm sort of an introverted software guy who until recently worked for a big generic insurance company in New York City Now I'm finally ready to get moving on my plan B. I'll be down to your next seminar first a few things about me

[24:05] I have made a fortune in crypto. I didn't need your advice on crypto I was on board before you ever mentioned it on your show I'm writing today to warn people of the pitfalls of online dating. I'm totally sick of it I want to meet a real live girl preferably a latina face-to-face or even mask to mask will do for your and your listeners Information the regular online dating sites are full of scammers I would know I lost five grand to a lady that sucked me right in let's start with Craigslist It's just loaded with escorts photoshopped fat girls and psychologically damaged women who will never do a live video with you Because their photoshop artwork will be revealed and they'll have such lame excuses not to do a video like slow internet Which really only occurs today in North Korea if you think politicians lie

[24:53] You ought to see the girls on the dating sites So skip Craigslist then there's okcupid in various English language cupid sites where you mostly find hipster girls and nightclub party girls With heavy credit card debt. They're usually single mothers on welfare or living with other Perpetually broke friends and those Christian dating sites Well, they're for guys who went from drugs to Jesus often still living with their mothers nice girls are there for sure but boring and Match.com is for hooking up with professional women who have found that when closing in on 40 that their careers are not enough They've won their battles with the alpha males in the workplace They put having kids on hold for a career and now they're biological clocks are ticking They're hunting for that second husband in that 1.6 kids. She'll want to dominate and wear the pants in the family though

[25:41] So beware I repeat Johnny. I'm sick of it I want to meet a real live girl preferably a latina face to vase mask to mask will do my advice my two Satoshi's for your listeners How can some of us software guys be so smart about machines and code and yet so dense about human motivations interactions and the dating game In general, unfortunately when us tech guys entered dating sites We are babes in the woods rubes ripe for the gouging. I've been gouged all right Johnny to the tune of around five grand I know I know what an idiot in the end I realized us techies would be much better served playing less world of warfare Renting a few chick flicks making a few dermatologist appointments and having a gay friend or relative pick out our wardrobes and decorate our

[26:26] Condos have you ever seen a single software guy or single tech guys apartment? You might have Johnny You're an engineer most of my friends even the ones rolling in crypto dough have a mattress on the floor a few beanbag chairs and sets Of unmatched towels swiped from hotel tech conferences. So that's my experience with online dating sites Johnny I'm sick of them or you'll find out my name at the seminar Okay, thanks for that. Mr. Tech guy on just a sad closing note My brother's wife died young and after a year or so, he started going on those online dating sites He met a lot of girls and helped out a few with a hundred bucks here and there money gram in Western Union Of course after a while he fell pretty hard for a Filipina girl. He sent her money for things She said she needed like the rent utilities phone, etc

[27:12] In the end he dropped around five grand to then after a few months He paid for her to come to Chicago and when he went to pick her up at the airport She never showed up how big a blow would that be to your ego? How big an idiot would you feel darting around the airport for a couple hours? Realizing she never even bought a ticket to get on that plane 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 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