#1191 – Navigating Legal Challenges, Scams, and Preparedness in Latin America

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

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now as 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 Let's start out with the boots on the ground story No, not a boobs on the ground story though. That happens Gravity can be a well, you know what it can be Anyway, let's start with a controversial boots on the ground story one that will warm the cockles of your heart

[00:47] Did mine by the way, what are those cockles that are supposed to be in your heart? People always talk about Somehow I don't recall reading about them in my anatomy and physiology book. Oh, well, anyway, the other day I was driving around in a big Latin American city and wouldn't you know it dead ahead a cop stop a roadblock? Then suddenly you have to make a decision decide what lane to get in to try to lower the odds We're getting picked out of the crowd yourself Though sometimes they'll set up those orange cone pylons So you have to go through a maze and no one can sweep around different lanes to get out of it Everyone has to go in single file past them Now I know I know you've heard me say many times there are ways you can get out of it Especially gringos off the gringo tourist trail that is there are methods that work like a charm But on the gringo tourist trail cops know a bit of English and they use Google Translate

[01:35] They love the nail gringos because we'll pay up in fact in a place like Costa Rica cops will Purposely go after rental cars they can spot a mile away because they know gringos are renting them and they'll pay up Oftentimes who rental cars are the only ones they stop why antagonize the locals? Anyway, when you're on the gringo tourist trail There are ways for gringos and experts to get off easy with transit cops at roadblocks The easiest and most reliable of which is just to play dumb no hablo español And if you're off the gringo tourist trail that works almost every time because the cops stopping you won't know English They won't even know how to read the pertinent data on your driver's license Which is why I know so many gringos that are still driving around on their expired US licenses expired sometimes for two or three Years, by the way, you probably know this already But in order to get a driver's license in any Latin American country have to be a permanent resident though many years ago

[02:23] When I first got down here It wasn't like that at all You could pay a hundred bucks sign up for a driver's ed course and they'd guarantee you a driver's license at the end of it And you wonder how could that happen especially for gringos who didn't speak a lick of Spanish yet They'd get that license. Well, that was because most driver's ed schools in whatever Latin country were owned by By a connected government official or someone high up in the police department They were owned by insiders who could get things done. Oh, and here's a little tip of your US driver's license expires And you're in need of a current one any kind of current one Not just a US one There are some workarounds and remember if you're living in Latin America or anywhere outside the US and your driver's license expires In most US states these days. You can't just pop back and get it renewed You have to show that you live there states are getting tougher and tougher about that

[03:11] So anyway as mentioned if you've got your plan be going you're living in Latin America And you don't plan on going back and living in the states just to renew that driver's license it's a problem and that usually means you know if you don't have a Property there with your name on the title or a rental contract or utility bill with your name on it That is you can't provide proof. You're living somewhere in the states Then you'll have to use a relative's house or domicile But for a lot of gringos and expense who don't want to go back to the US That's not possible and as mentioned if you don't have permanent residency in a Latin American country You can't go down to the driver's testing station and get a local license But if you ask around by hook and crook you'd almost always find someone that could get you a license for a hundred bucks or so Of course, they're not exactly legal and though they might have actually come from the driver's license bureau by hook and crook

[03:58] They're normally not registered in the system I've seen a lot of those gray market driver's licenses and some of them are absolutely perfect in every way The problem is of course, they've got a magnetic strip and or a QR code on them that can be scanned So if you get pulled over by a cop or get in an accident and they scan your license Well, you better have your lawyer on speed dial. Hmm. I guess I'm showing my age everything speed dial these days, right? Now remember what we're discussing here is for informational purposes only once again Let me remind you what the show is all about living playing working and or doing business in Latin America I'm just giving you the lowdown on what some gringos and expats do to get by Since you know rules and regs down here are flexible and the bureaucracy Sometimes absolutely mind-blowing often corners will be cut shortcuts will be taken. Anyway lately just lately

[04:46] I had the opportunity to check out one of those licenses a gringo expat friend of mine Who was exactly in that boat his u.s. License expired a couple of years ago And he knew the clock was ticking he knew if he got stopped eventually some astute cop would call him out on it Especially since his license was getting pretty ratty and long in the tooth So he picked up one of those gray market licenses and amazingly enough when he and I were in a Walmart He said Johnny have a look at this. We walked up to a scanner You know, you see him once in a while posted in various aisles He took out his freshly minted gray market driver's license scanned the QR code and guess what? His photo came up and a list of all the right dads Superprofessional everything looked just right So obviously the guys making up those things are up with the latest tech

[05:32] It was a bit of a shocker to me to see it actually scanned correctly I thought hey, no way but I was wrong again. Now that means that a routine traffic stop It will absolutely pass muster But if it's a car accident someone gets hurt and the insurance companies pulled in There's a chance especially if someone's hurt that the cops and the insurance company will do a deeper dive That means your first phone call should definitely be to your lawyer By the way after speaking to a noted Latin lawyer about this very issue again just to gather information and cover all the bases I discovered and just recently too that for example, if you have a decent gray market license from one particular Latin country Let's say from Colombia That means you'll always be at some risk Driving around in Colombia with that license getting pulled over getting an accident or whatever that they'll do a deep dive and find out

[06:19] It's not real But I was told by a Latin lawyer who can do a deep dive himself on such things That Colombian license will be good as gold in any other Latin country In other words, you could drive on it in Mexico Panama Brazil Even in Europe or the US and Canada and it will pass muster As long as that qr code will scan correctly In other words, if you're driving on a good gray market license in a country It wasn't issued in If you get an accident or are pulled over on a routine traffic stop you get stopped for speeding or another moving violation They'll write you up for a ticket, but they'll never be able to access in other countries official licensing and transit database again I'm not recommending anyone try this I'm just telling you what lots of gringles and expats do when they're American or Canadian or european driver's license expires

[07:08] And they don't go back to their home country to get it renewed But as that latin lawyer pointed out beware There are tons of older gray market licenses out there with qr codes that don't scan So then you might ask what sat got to do with me driving around the other day in a big latin american city Coming up on a police transit stop a block eight and why would that of all things make me feel warm and fuzzy? Because you see for the first time in all the years i've been down here I saw the lard ass traffic cops providing a real service to humanity as I crept closer You know, there is a big bottleneck for a couple of blocks. You'll see when there's a cop stop like that I saw right next to those six or so cops that were pulling over traffic a big 40 foot flatbed truck with police insignias on it

[07:54] With 10 or so motorcycles chained to that flatbed and as I got even closer I saw two cops throw another bike up there for a minute. I thought what's going on here? This can't be right They're actually stopping Motorcyclists checking their licenses and plates and actually doing something about it Enforcing the law for once They were really and truly impounding bikes of idiot drivers who were in violation of well, practically everything, right? Let's face it you long-time listeners have heard me say over and over again 50 of the motorcycle drivers don't even have driver's licenses at all So I don't know if it's the fact that maybe they hired a couple of new people in the transit department that have iq's Over 50 or maybe it's some other political game plan. I don't know but I like it In fact, I liked it so much. I rolled my window down and gave the cops a high five as I was rolling past

[08:43] Now you might ask how could the cops even manage to pull over a motorcycle? This one normally they just whip right on by or take another route when they see the cops putting up a roadblock After all motorcycles will run red lights and have three or four people on a bike They'll do it right in front of a cop and a cop will never chase them down So in this case, how did they even get those bikes to stop? Well, it was because in this case they had about six cops spread out across the road and some of those orange pylons So the bottleneck kind of clogged everybody up at that point and there was no room to wiggle out Anyway, being that motorcyclists are on our top 10 list of scourges at least for us gringles and expats I have to say for the first time I was seeing real progress. It was definitely a holy shit moment Of course, this is latin america

[09:28] So it all could have been a mistake and tomorrow we'll be back to business as usual But one could always have hope you might even start believing in karma. By the way How are you with karma as for me? Sometimes I believe in it Sometimes I don't though. I gotta tell you every time I see one of those gold tooth mental midget rappers or regga teneros Bragging in the media about their million dollar cars mansions and hoes Sometimes it makes me think we're stuck inside of a twisted video game with psychopathic advanced alien teenagers at the joysticks How else can you make sense out of all this? But that's just me By the way, here's something I forgot to bring up on the last show But here it is today, you know, i've been talking a lot over the years about stem cells had them myself So have my family members friends lots of people I know and most of us a very big percentage of us have had great results

[10:14] Anyway, ever since this covidia thing It's made quite a few people wonder and i'm getting emails on this If when you get those stem cells, are you getting them from a vexed person or a non-vaxed person? It's something to consider right? I mean who wants that spike protein injected into them at any time Then again woke people want as many jams as they can get right? In fact, i'm all for jabbing wokesters myself Then we could just let darwinism kick in I bet a lot of you listeners feel exactly the same way though The current knowledge is and you probably heard this before if you're around people who've been vexed They're shedding and spreading atia anyway So if you've been actively avoiding those synthesized spike proteins, you don't want to be around vexed people But they're everywhere. So there's almost nothing you can do about it Meanwhile practically all the people you know and love are vexed and all the strangers you're stuck next to in lines and in elevators, too

[11:05] And if you check out the scientific articles the white papers, you'll find out those people are shedding all over the place So basically every non-vaxed person is at risk as long as they're around other people But still why compound that problem? So the thing is if you're going to get stem cells You should tell them ahead of time at the clinic you want your stem cells derived from a non-vaxed person If the clinic can't promise that you might want to look elsewhere. However, if you've been vexed already, I guess it doesn't matter The good news is that I talked to the director of the stem cell clinic in the dr just yesterday And she told me that very point has been brought up a number of times in the past and of course Upon your request, they'll derive the cells from a non-vaxed person Now you might wonder how do they do that? How do they determine that? Of course, you could take the person's word for it

[11:54] But some might be lying though. There is a more definite scientifically provable way All they have to do is check for antibodies to covid in the blood of the donor If there's no antibodies that person has never been vexed nor has that person ever had covid Because the only way antibodies will show up is if you've had a vax or covid already Now you might wonder how easy or difficult is it to find someone who's not been vexed and not had covid either They're out there. All right. I've run into quite a few myself. In fact yesterday I was talking to a couple of longtime expats sitting in a coffee shop a couple of un-woke geezers One of them a 70 something ex-fbi guy who got the hell out of dodge because he saw better than you I ever would how absolutely screwed up the system is from the inside And this guy plus another guy sitting there too reported they'd neither been vexed nor had covid

[12:43] The only caveat to that is, you know, you could get covid and not know it So who knows they can only assume they've never had it, but they've never had their blood checked Now if you think about it though, it's probably okay to have stem cells from someone who's had covid Then they've developed the natural immunity After all stem cell donors are teenage and adult women who've had children, right? That means they're loaded with antibodies from all the childhood diseases they've had like measles mumps all the variations of regular flu Like you and I they're just loaded with all kinds of antibodies from diseases and infections they've had in the past So if they have covid antibodies because they picked up the strain but were never vexed, that should be all right At least it was a result of a natural process But I definitely agree that wherever you go for your stem cells

[13:30] You should insist on having a donor that wasn't vexed And if they can't guarantee that well either go for it or shop around now again Just to repeat the stem cell clinic I recommend in the dr They can guarantee your treatment comes from a donor that hasn't been vexed Just make that clear when you set up your appointments or not your choice All right. Let's take an email talking about plan b's from mr. Robin Should you or shouldn't you get the hell out of dodge and have a plan b? He's one of those guys who knows the titanic is sinking But he prefers to stay in the us and take his chances That's always an option. He says johnny I've been listening to your show for at least a year and a half now And even though i'm not a planned beer in latin america

[14:16] I did launch my own plan b exit plan out of dodge to europe. That was a while back just before september 11th 2001 He says I was a lifelong new yorker then Who made his decision to get the hell out of dodge after taking the overall temperature of not just new york city But of the us as a whole the political social and economic temperature, etc It was not looking good to me I didn't know I care if I ever would return to the states as it turned out I did return several years later in order to capitalize on a project that was working on Then he says as far as europe's concerned Good luck trying to make money on a creative project in a satisfied social economy where all things creative are considered hobbies He says as I look back on the shape of europe now

[15:05] I consider my return to the states entirely justified Europe is just a rehearsal space for what's coming to a government near you Besides it's harder to pull some of the fascist tricks here in the states because a good slice of the us population Quote got guns with no sign of that ever slowing down But make no mistake all that chaos is coming soon and it needs to be stopped Even though I may go down with the ship the us ship i'll go down swinging Anyway, johnny enough about me. I find your advice to be salient and your views hilariously educational Keep up the stellar working. Thanks for your sharing heart All right. Thanks for that robin You know, I never was very good at accepting compliments But when you say thanks for your sharing heart come to think of it. I do give away a lot of free stuff, don't I?

[15:54] That's why after doing this show for the last 12 years I have a reason to feel pretty good about it That is I feel good about the fact that i'm not in it to make money gouge people or even sell anything at all Basically, although in the past occasionally just occasionally i've had a few people Tell me email me that they wanted to come to one of my seminars But they thought it was too expensive But you know what that comet has never ever come from anyone who's actually taken the seminar In fact, i've heard scores of people tell me after just hearing the legal part of the seminar That's one day out of six They'll tell me if I left right now I got more than my money's worth by the way for any of you guys and gals out there who think I Have to do this show and do seminars to make a living to make sense me you're 100 wrong

[16:40] In fact, if you're ever down here and meet up with some of my friends my gringo expat friends the people I recommend the physicians lawyers dentists Captain mango oscar minor bitcoin dan mr B any of the expat seminar guys and gals who end up living down here Ask him if I need to do this show or the seminar. They'll set you straight. They'll probably laugh, too The thing is, you know, and i've said this a million times once you get down here You're gonna have lots and lots of time on your hands Just think if you're up in the states or canada wherever right now and you had a full-time cleaning lady How much time you'd have on your hands? Well, guess what? If you're above average at all and have any kind of creative thinking going You'll start developing those hobbies You never had a chance to do before and you'll start tinkering with things That is if you're good with your hands or you like working with your hands If you're above average and everyone listening to this show certainly is

[17:28] You've got some projects or ideas on the back burner of your mind that you just haven't got around to it Because you never had the time though. You certainly will once you get that plan b rolling Now some people who come down don't have any big projects or plans not right off the bat in that case Maybe you're a good organizer and you like to give the local kids the poor kids a leg up As for me doing this show and having the occasional seminar are ways. I fill my empty blocks of time for some expats You know, it's painting or writing the great un-american novel or whining and complaining or getting political on the internet for some It's watching netflix and drinking a case of beer a day to each his own, right? The thing is though, there'll eventually come a time when you hit 50 or 60 when you say to yourself. What am I here for? What have I accomplished? It'd be nice to go out accomplishing more or giving more than what you took

[18:18] Otherwise the whole ride wasn't much worth it then was it then again Every other person you pass on the streets below average So half the world just plods through life never even thinking about it Most of them check out thinking their measure of success is how many toys they've accumulated But somehow when I hear people say you can't take it with you I recall that guy a few years ago You probably remember him who wasn't buried in a casket He was buried in the driver's seat of his Cadillac. No need to tell you what his priorities were You got to wonder millennia from now when humans are dead and gone and aliens land on the planet and their Archaeologists unearthed some of our graves, you know like we do with egyptian mummies They'll judge us of course by what they find dental implants and bridges contact lenses artificial knee hip and shoulder joints

[19:04] Synthetic hairweaves pacemakers heart stents gastric balloons silicone boobs and butts nike shoes, etc Etc In 10,000 years, that's all that will remain along with a lot of uneaten wonderbred twinkies and happy meals, too I bet those aliens just scratched their heads. They probably got two or three heads and they'll be thinking those crazy humans What were they thinking? All right now this just in more news about loan sharking in latin america. Yep. That's right Loan sharking is huge here in latin america. In fact, I personally know two loan sharks myself No, i've never done business with them. I just happened to meet them through other friends First, let me point out that the lag time you see in latin america Is not the same not universal in every latin american country turns out mexico has the least lag time

[19:53] Which is obvious because they have a border with the us and there are thousands of people going back and forth every day So fads new technology and developments that may take 10 15 or 20 years to get to honduras or guatemala Might land in mexico in five for example hybrid and electric cars They made it to mexico years before they hit the country's south of south of the border Anyway, now let's hit the subject of loan sharking and extortion here in latin america And how in mexico new types of extortion methods are popping up all the time Turns out loan sharking and extortion go hand in hand Just like people say every new fashion and trend that takes hold in the state starts first in california Whether good or bad in latin america it happens in mexico first. So mexico's latin america is version of california

[20:42] Take for example the recent news about the latest extortion and loan sharking schemes in mexico The title of this article is express extortion How easy smartphone credit apps extort money out of millions of unsuspecting mexicans. Yep. That's right thieves No, good nixon gangsters in mexico have found out you don't have to own a business or a store To be a victim of extortion. All you need is a smartphone It's all made possible since mexicans and practically every other latin american Will give up their personal debts on their phones to practically anyone who offers them a happy meal Let me paraphrase this article and you'll see how this newest scam works And i'll try to translate it says scammers in mexico have yet again evolved their modus operandi by using express smartphone

[21:28] No background check quick cash loan apps and the purpose of these apps to extort users and drain their bank accounts It says according to a recent investigation by bubbly metro a raft of unlicensed credit apps have been appearing Offering immediate loans at high interest rates. These cell phone apps have become extremely popular in mexico They've taken off just in the past year since most people live paycheck to paycheck mexicans are used to taking payday loans And quick cash loans at very high interests from neighborhood loan sharks And suddenly a rash of loan apps have appeared that do not require any documentation to be submitted by the user No background history. No credit check. That is no proof of work references or bank statements and the transfer loan money

[22:15] Is transferred in less than 24 hours? Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, it is What makes these loans so appealing is they offer rates much less than the neighborhood loan sharks Who normally charge up to 50 percent a month? However, it says in signing up for such loans users are exposing themselves and their families to real dangers Most of these absences are part of a well-coordinated extortion scheme known as monta dutas Mounting of debt which ramp up the pressure on customers to make them pay up There are two problems here first in order to sign up for the app users must allow it to access their photo gallery And all their friends and contacts Which the mexican loan applicants are glad to supply the teaser is for the first few months They offer a very low interest rate then as the small print bears out

[23:03] Monthly interest fees ramp up rapidly to exorbitant amounts with little to no warning In some cases users are charged as much as five times the value of their original loan per month And when users can't pay the owners of the app use the access they've gained to their personal details and their friends and relatives to issue threats It works like this. If you're behind the contacts gleaned from your user's phone will receive phone calls or what's up messages Telling them the user must pay up or they'll take over their social media accounts Often threatening even personal harm where's yet these loan shark app companies Collect personal materials gained from cell phones and publish them online and share them with each other Many delinquent users have reported receiving phone calls where the person on the other end will say quote

[23:52] If you don't pay up by midnight tonight, one of your relatives will be dismembered Then how often does this stuff happen? Well, according to mexico's national commission for the protection of financial service users The commission national para protection de defense de los usarios surficios vienencieros That long and ridiculously stupid name going by the acronym Conducet Really What a mouthful, but that's what you'd expect from pompous Bureaucratic useless lard as government turds, huh? And of course that's meant in the kindest most christian sort of way. Anyway, as of last month september 2022 33 000 people have reported that they have fallen victim to the scam Meanwhile a government official from that financial investigation group who wishes to remain anonymous

[24:43] Believes that less than 10 percent of victims will call in a complaint So he believes more than a half a million mexicans have been scammed already this year It makes sense too since more than 130 of such quick cash apps have popped up in the country in the last year With hundreds of new customers jumping on board every day because they bait them By advertising on social media and claiming that no credit history is needed Just hand over yours and your friend's data By the way, the situation has become so severe that mexico's president commented at his daily press conference on july 5th Warning against using the apps claiming we can say the so-called montadudas smartphone apps are definitely part of organized crime Hmm you think I mean really when's the last time your bank if you were behind on your payments

[25:30] Threatened to dismember your friends and family though I guess all of us have a family member or two He wouldn't mind seeing that happen too. The problem is you can't pick them. They will Then the article says it's amazing and alarming the amount of personal information clients are willing to give up On such loan apps, they know nothing about they think they're legit because the apps are nicely designed and appear like every other app Then it says these loan shark apps are popping up in two other latin american countries columbia and brazil In fact, it said in brazil. It's led to a spike in express kidnappings of family members in the city of salpalo It says according to brazil police criminals are migrating to express Kidnappings via these apps when they realize large amounts of money They could be collecting in short periods thanks to the personal data clients are willing to give up so easily

[26:17] In fact, it says in brazil It's gotten so bad the country's central bank was forced to set transfer limits and a minimum wait time for transfers On the payment platforms on apps all in an effort to discourage the explosion of express kidnappings All right. So there we have another piece of information regarding brazil that there's an explosion and an express kidnappings That'd be reason number 427 why I don't recommend brazil as a viable plan b for expats nice place to visit certain places But I want to live there. One of the only places I'd consider is a place called florianopolis It is sort of a neutral island of tranquility. Very nice scenic inexpensive But forget about walmart costco and amazon and as for me since I don't speak portuguese

[27:04] It's out of the question for me as a plan c Yeah, you heard me right plan c once you've got your plan b going it's not a bad idea to have a plan c Just in case that plan b goes south who knows any country could be hit by earthquakes hurricanes Civil unrest economic implosion currency controls creeping or even galloping socialism Why not have a plan c? I mean look you got more than two pair of shoes and two pair of underwear in your closet, right? I hope So You've been listening to the expat files living in latin america If you need some help with your own plan b we can schedule a one-on-one phone or skype consult Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week long expat insider seminar in central america

[27:52] 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 No spamos