#1280 – The Expat Files: Migration, Corruption, and the Cost of Living 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 out to play and now as I wonder Hello there all you ex-pad wannabes. I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started So then what do you guys and gals live in up in the states, especially on the border states? How are you dealing with the mass influx of illegals? Seems like more than ever before I'm talking to regular Latinos down here and they've all got friends and relatives

[00:47] Thinking about or who are already in transit Ultimately going through Mexico because they're all hearing that the borders wide open In the US I'm here and it is too and down here in Latin America when you look at TV and social media You see all kinds of pictures and videos of hordes of people just walking across no rush No hurry with cops and authorities just standing there doing nothing Oh and all kinds of do-gooders and NGOs with their matching t-shirts passing out food water and care packages Isn't that nice? I'm telling you every Latin American I know is thinking the doors wide open so why not just come right in or at least give it a try All I've got to say is if you're living up in the states the clock is ticking man

[01:34] You guys are screwed like expat Eddie once said You pour yourself a nice glass of wine an expensive nice high-end wine that's been aging for a couple of years Took a lot of work effort and time to get the quality of it up there So that it's head and shoulders above all the cheap and crappy wines out there nice, huh tastes good Then you try an experiment you take an eyedropper full of water you drop one or two drops of water in that wine you taste it It's still exactly the same wine, right? You just can't tell the difference. What's one drop of water? Let's say in 10,000 drops of wine now. Let's try that again. This time you pour yourself a nice glass of wine You put it under the faucet and fill it half full of water Taste it It's not a nice glass of wine anymore

[02:20] You just diluted the crap out of it and destroyed all the positive qualities that took months even years to cultivate Going back to the grapes on the vine that were hand-selected from a certain region this special oak barrels It's been aged in for years, etc. Etc. In other words years of thought planning and work go into a nice bottle of wine But you could destroy all that in a flash just by carelessly deluding it In other words, it takes a lot of planning and ingenuity to create something of value and just a little uncontrolled chaos to ruin it Which brings us to this email that just came in from our favorite boots on the ground listener South of the border in north of Guatemala permanent resident in Oaxaca, Mexico Roberto G. Roberto says hi Johnny greetings from sunny central Oaxaca, Mexico

[03:11] basically a continuation of your own altiplano region in Guatemala But just a tiny bit northwest of you Just wondering he says if the Catholic Church in your area that is Guatemala Is it as corrupt as in my region here in Oaxaca, Mexico? He says us expats in our particular kind of self-made gringle bubbles often don't see or prefer not to notice The true extent of the local corruption in all its forms somehow we just roll with it Though recently I got a wake-up call big time while investigating the local relief effort to aid the illegal migrants Little Freudian slip there on their way to the states looking for a piece of that cracked in the form so-called American dream By the way, the number of aspiring border jumpers passing through here has gone up

[04:01] Astronomically in just the past two to three months. How do I know that? Well, I make frequent trips from these mile-high central valleys down to the Oaxacan Pacific coast And just a few months ago I would pass just a handful of migrants who are heading up north during my six hour run across the Sierra range that separates the inland Settled valleys from the steamy coast below but in this past trip just about three weeks ago He says I saw over a hundred or more Border jumping migrants as I traversed each way Most single young guys bound for the great American dream Hooting and cat calling by the way for me to pick them up as I passed But there are also a fair smattering of obvious families with kids in tow Anyway, Johnny, there's a small effort here now

[04:47] In our Oaxaca department the capital Oaxaca City to ease the plight of these migrant folks So apparently the word has gotten out on the migrant social media sites that it's worth it now to pass through Oaxaca Despite it being easier to cross the isthmus corridor to the Texas border the usual way All right, me, Johnny here. So you're saying Roberto. That's not the normal route going through Oaxaca on the illegal alien express You're saying it seems the word's getting out at least in the last couple months anyway, right? That it's less hassle to pass through Oaxaca And now you're seeing more and more of it firsthand in your own neighborhood So anyway, Roberto goes on to say so once I got back home

[05:33] In my own altiplano region. I was intrigued to go check out the basic nature of the migrant relief scene My gringo neighbors had been asked by a guy spearheading a feed the migrants effort in downtown Oaxaca to pick up some donated food and deliver it to his makeshift relief kitchen So I tagged along to see what was happening Well, we picked up the guy and the donated food and he proceeded to spill the free hollies about how difficult it was To spearhead such an endeavor since groups of local police were shaking down the migrants and stealing their goods Plus they had the local street gangs shaking them down, too That's why he says so many border jumpers are mired here in Oaxaca Due to being fleeced of all their resources and can't move on

[06:22] Everybody seems to be cashing in on the backs of these guys a strange kind of opportunistic economy You might say even the local bus lines. He says are charging way above the stated ticket prices The locals seem to be in a price gouging orgy of greed Anyway, he says I sat quietly in the vehicle as it was obvious The guy we picked up really needed to purge his guts about what was going on as did my two friends in the front seat According to the gringo there's loads of corruption including catholic church corruption In fact, the guy went into great detail on how the initial relief effort was dealt almost a mortal blow When the catholic priest in charge cleverly made off with all the funds and then skipped town

[07:07] Then he said that a mass police action had driven off the migrant squatters from a downtown area and the only negotiated landing spot for them was a catholic church ground But to get that spot the catholic priest in charge had to be paid off Meanwhile, he says there was a side scam run by two reputedly cold hard nuns Who routinely took the finest donated goods and sold them on the side? I guess it is true. God helps those who help themselves Then he says my gringo buddies and I were somewhat startled at the blatant corruption and cold-heartedness Of some of the local catholic functionaries My question to you johnny is are you seeing the same thing across the border in guatemala? It's amazing what greed and selfishness will do, but I guess it's to be expected

[07:55] Given the history of the catholic church, especially here in mexico Then he says, you know as gringos living down here, it's easy not to see that stuff Even guys like me after a decade living down here We don't see that stuff because we're cultural outsiders really So even after a decade down here, he says the wife and I consider ourselves only slightly seasoned expats Anyway, johnny keep the faith in via con queso sign roberto Oaxaca mejico All right. Thanks for that roberto You've always got some good stuff to add when you're checking in But man, are you right? A gringo or expat could live down here in latin america for a decade or even two or three decades And not have the pulse of what's really happening with the locals or nearby towns people because they're not going to tell you

[08:47] You're really not part of that club Besides that gringos and expats even long-term gringos and expats don't speak enough spanish To even check out the local latin media get on the websites and understand any of it or check out the news in spanish I personally don't know any gringos who do that and even gringos and expats who speak pretty good spanish They don't go on spanish language social media sites. It's too much work It's too much work to watch spanish language tv or local news, too And you'd think all the gringos who hook up with latinas marry them or have long-term relationships with them and vice versa That they'd have their ear to the ground and know some of what's happening and even the dirt that's happening in the local communities But they don't though their latina girlfriend or latino boyfriend sure does

[09:35] But that stuff unless it affects them personally is not a topic of interest The fact is this is kind of sad all the gringo expats. I know with latina wives or girlfriends They'll be somewhat glued to the news and media, but only the stuff that's coming out of the states Yeah, you can't believe how many gringos and expats who've been down here years and years They're totally focused on what's happening up in the states The sports the politics the trends and i'm always thinking why the hell you spending so much time on that shit when you don't even live There and it doesn't affect you anymore. You're living in a completely different country in a completely different culture And still you seem absolutely stuck on sometimes you've been obsessed with all the media coming out of the states Sure, I get it. You got to know what's going on in the world, right? But how about spending just 10 minutes a week checking out the local media?

[10:22] What's happening at the grassroots level in the town or district you're living in? Fact is I know gringos and expats who've been living in guatemala for five even ten years And they don't even know the name of the mayor of the town They live in much less the name of the president of the country And it's 10 times worse with gringos and expats who live on the gringo tourist trail. They're living in an extreme bubble So really I don't know what to say people don't change, right? Like Roberto says in his email He's been living off the gringo tourist trail in Oaxaca, Mexico for something like 10 years And he's just now finding out how corrupt the local catholic church is I know I know we all just assume that we've heard the stories about priests and kids and all that, right? We assume the worst right but not our local priest or our nuns

[11:10] Nah, not them though. The question always remains when you talk to people up in the states One of the reasons they'll often give as to why they'll never put a plan b into effect for themselves Is that down there in latin america everyone's so damn corrupt. How could you live that way? The politicians the cops the tax authorities the immigration people are all undertake. They say why would I want to live in a place like that? meanwhile every institution they deal with up in the states is totally corrupt too the banks the dickheads who run local state and federal government Lawyers defense contractors hospitals the military the va insurance companies the pharmaceutical companies They're all lying to you and gouging the shit out of you, too Yeah, but let's not go to latin america because they're all corrupt down there

[11:58] The difference is up by you. You've got mass corruption on an institutional scale down here in latin america. It's one-on-one You get pulled over by a cop down here You get a lecture for speed and they're not having your papers in order you pay the guy 20 bucks and you're gone In the states you get pulled over by a cop for speeding or making an illegal turn You get a little lecture and you pay the state 100 200 even 500 bucks. The question is which do you prefer? Oh and look if you own a house in the states, let's say it's worth two hundred thousand bucks You're paying five or ten grand a year in property texas, right? What do you get for it? Nothing? Meanwhile down here in latin america if you own a house that's worth let's say two hundred thousand bucks Your property taxes may be a tenth of that five hundred or a thousand bucks a year

[12:45] Often much less and what do you get for that? Nothing. So again, I ask you what would you prefer? Paying five or ten grand a year to your state and getting nothing in return or paying 500 to a thousand bucks to your local latino municipality for nothing in return Oh and up in the states, let's say you're making 50 to 100 maybe even 150 000 bucks a year That will put you in a 50 to 60 tax bracket when you add up all the taxes licenses and government fees Meanwhile down here in latin america no matter what you make no matter what your income You'll almost never pay more than 10 in taxes And when you find gringles and expats who say they do pay more Well, that's because they don't have the right lawyer or accountant

[13:31] Fact is I know many many gringos making tons of money down here. They pay zero taxes It's all legal too because in latin america you pay no taxes on your worldwide income Like you must do if you're a u.s. Resident In other words, let's say you're living in guatemala and have an internet business and all your clients are online And all english speakers from other countries like the u.s. Canada europe. Well, guess what you pay no tax on any of that income But wait a minute You say if you're a gringo u.s Citizen you got to report it back to the irs every year in the states and pay taxes on it, right? The u.s. Tax is your worldwide income But down here if you have half a brain you have a lawyer set up an sa corporation for you Well, that corporation will pay no taxes So then how do you get paid? How do you get your money out of the corporation?

[14:18] Well, you have your lawyer set it up so that you're an employee of that corporation With a very nominal salary, which you will have to report back to the states and pay taxes on Are you seeing the value of this? Are you getting it? You set your own taxable salary In other words if your business takes off you let your corporation get rich because it pays no taxes Meanwhile on paper, you're just a low paid employee in a very low tax bracket perfectly legal too Nope, the irs does not like that, but it's perfectly legal So then what about all that money that's accumulating in that sa corporation of yours? Well, your corporation can buy houses and cars Land and other businesses too Not in your name, of course because you'd be taxed on it, but in the corporate name

[15:03] That's what the big boys do. You know Obama Bush Biden Soros Bill Gates Jamie Dimon Nancy Pelosi Practically all those sociopathic dickhead billionaires and multimillionaires It's perfectly legal and you can do it too, of course on a much much much much smaller scale But you knew that already, right? Yeah. Yeah, I know I digressed as usual. Well, what are we talking about? Oh Roberto was asking if the same kind of corruption He pointed out there in Oaxaca Mexico with the Catholic Church and all with the cops and the officials shaken down illegal migrants, too He's wondering if we're seeing that happen in Guatemala Well, all I can say is I haven't witnessed it or seen it personally though as is with everything in Guatemala All of that kind of corruption including the narco stuff is ratcheted way down as compared to Mexico

[15:52] Oh, and there's so many bad things that happen in Mexico You just don't see in guadamala like for example You don't see decapitated bodies hanging from bridges like you see almost every day in northern Mexico You don't hear about kidnappings or groups of school kids Just disappearing and they don't find unmarked mass grave sites and the cops in guadamala They're lard-assed softies compared to the cops in Mexico Sure, occasionally, they'll try to shake it out for 20 bucks at a traffic stop But they won't as i've heard from my own gringo friends in Mexico Walk you over to an ATM and make you take out a couple hundred bucks in cash And the cops in guadamala won't or don't have the capacity like they do in Mexico to call ahead To a cop friend farther down the road in the next state or department giving them your plate number and telling them to go

[16:39] Ahead and pull you over because you're good for a hundred or two hundred buck bribe That kind of stuff just does not happen in guadamala. I've never heard about it I've never even heard a rumor of it, but in Mexico. It's not just a rumor I personally know people who've had that happen to him In fact, that's exactly what happened at bitcoin den when he first came down some years ago He kept getting stopped over and over on his way down through Mexico and in guadamala. He didn't get stopped once But as far as the catholic church and the charities that are supposedly helping those illegals as they pass through guadamala I suspect there's just as much hanky panky and thievery going on as in mexico I don't trust any of those organized religions Or those do-gooder NGOs, especially those do-gooder NGOs I can tell you NGO stories that will sicken you and if this show goes on long enough, I will

[17:27] Oh, and if you don't know what NGOs are those are called ONGs here in latin america. Those are Non-governmental organizations that are tax exempt up in the us In other words in the states you can incorporate as a non-profit NGO do-gooder And state as your mission you're doing charity work in some shithole country somewhere Then you can collect dough and care packages and distribute them and all the money you make or that's donated to you is tax-free After all, you're a registered charity, right? Building solar outhouses for jesus Oh, but the way those NGOs work is you see the top dogs the administrators They fly first class stay at four-star hotels drink fine wine undiluted and make six-figure salaries

[18:12] Which is why I never ever give money to charitable organizations the bigger they are the more corrupt they are, too Now if you're the generous type, I always recommend you read the book called toxic charity. It's the book charities. Don't want you to read It's the best seller you never heard of and for a reason It's like that book the real anthony falsi by rfk Also a huge best seller that never gets mentioned in the new york times or in lame street media But if you want that book toxic charity or that rfk book the real anthony falsi Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com and i'll send you a copy For nothing for informational purposes only All right staying on this immigration theme. So hey, you want to get really on pc here?

[18:58] Piss off more than a few people Well, then I should read this email because it ties right in by the way. I just got this yesterday starts johnny another dave here Another dave i'm soon to be going the right way down a wrong way street. You get my meaning Why am I leaving the u.s? And why might I say i'll be going the right way down a wrong way street? Well when you allow unlimited uneducated violent adult men from failed nations into your country It stands to reason they'll be taking over and destroying your country eventually It also stands to reason that the male offspring of these illegal alien men Will only follow in the footsteps of their fathers whether the children are legal american citizens or not

[19:46] The common wisdom johnny is that parents set the example for their kids to get educated? I know it was a common theme around my house ever since I can remember my parents who pushed me to get educated Any book I wanted any educational thing I was interested in they weren't rich by any means, but they'd make it happen And if any mush-brained politician thinks illegal aliens in our country will impress those kinds of ideals on their kids They're dreaming When politicians allow or let in the hordes of illegals What part of quote they won't assimilate unquote is not being understood by the powers that be Is it just foolish optimism on their part or are they thinking about a big simple-minded block of future voters?

[20:31] Ask yourself this question. Do politicians really think that uneducated masses from shithole countries will become like us? When has that ever happened? It took a hundred years for the irish the jewish and the italians to assimilate completely and they were white caucasian Europeans and it still took them a hundred years and they were completely intact families with strong religious values And still I repeat it took them a hundred years to assimilate And by assimilating, I mean really assimilating where no one even questions. They're not 100 American Assimilation sounds so simple cold hard and simple You learn the language and assimilate to the host culture period but illegal immigrants the millions of them end up in barrios and slums

[21:21] Where they create microcosms of the failed neighborhoods where they came from Many are just unwilling to assimilate. They don't want to learn the language If one is unwilling to assimilate or unable to learn the language correctly It's simple biology If you continually feed off the host you disable or kill it If you continuously feed off the riches of your host country, it becomes a shithole country like the one you left When you move to a new country, you must have a sense of loyalty and responsibility to that new country It must be number one That doesn't mean erase the country you left out of your mind Just put it way way way on the back burner, but somehow with illegal immigrants that does not happen

[22:07] A simple question johnny when you're driving around a big city in the united states In which neighborhoods do you see the most junk the most disorder most stray dogs hear the most noise and see the most litter Is it so hard to spend 30 minutes a week to make your yard not look like a garbage dump? Is assimilation a woke and dirty word? It must be Then dave says the bible warns that the sins of a father will be visited and the next generation Even up to seven generations Seems as if the us and europe are fulfilling that prophecy And for people who think non-english speaking immigrants of the world will certainly be reading these comments and then take The appropriate steps to correct their behavior Maybe clean up their yards out of embarrassment and shame if you believe that you ought to move to san francisco and pitch a tent

[22:58] Then dave says multiculturalism only works when it's among law abiding citizens and guests The keyword here is law abiding and what's the very first thing immigrants coming up from mexico do? They break the law by trespassing and entering illegally. That's two offenses before they even take another step So much for law abiding yet. The border remains wide open When someone gets elected to u.s. Congress, they must certainly pass out a wonderful pair of rose colored spectacles on day one as usually says leftists Fundamentally misunderstand human nature with disastrous results. They never learn from then he goes on to say not long ago mexican president andres lopez obedor Said that mexico is safer than the us and it's economically very sound

[23:47] Well, if that's true every mexican on his way to the states or in the states right now should return To his safe and economically solid country But the truth is mexican politicians want the poor and sweaty masses to go to the states Since mexico depends a great deal on the remissas. They want ever more of their people to go to the us So they send back even more remisses, which is the life blood of the mexican economy Who are these mexican politicians trying to kid? They're just pissed off. There's a log jam of poor non-mexicans stuck there in mexico Coming up from south of south of the border coming from guatemala honduras panama, venezuela, etc There's a huge contingent a bottleneck those guys stuck in mexico broke and destitute

[24:38] That's what happens when you get shaken down by the narcos the coyotes and the cops Then dave and his article sends me a link to an ap article that just came out yesterday The title is drug cartel turf battles cut off towns in southern mexico state of chiapez near the guatemala border Let me just give you the highlights here. It says president andreas lopez orbitor of mexico said the cartels have cut off electrical power in some towns and Have forbidden government workers from coming in to fix the power lines The article says it's happening because two cartels are fighting for control of the drug smuggling routes that lead from southern mexico to central america It says the local roman catholic diocese said in a statement over the weekend that the cartels were Practicing forced recruitment among the local residents and had taken over their territory blocking roads and causing shortages of basic goods

[25:30] It says president obedor also appeared to lend credence to the videos posted over the weekend showing residents applauding about 20 pickup trucks full of armed sinaloa cartel gunmen as they entered the chiapez town President obedor said of the video on one side of the highway that people are apparently welcoming them Welcoming the truckloads of narcos entering the town Apparently they do so in parts of the country because cartels give the locals food packages Oh, and by the way, it says cartels are known for setting up roadblocks in the area and stopping cars Just in case you were thinking about driving down from texas However, do remember mexican president lopez obedor's famous last words mexico is safer than the us and economically very sound

[26:18] So johnny in conclusion, those are some of the reasons why i'm leaving the us and why you might say pretty much I'm leaving to go the right way down a wrong way street Since all the traffic is in the other direction namely northbound Needless to say i'll be bypassing mexico going farther south either guadamala or el salvador Anyhow johnny i've had it. I hope i'm not sounding too dire Signed another dave All right. Thanks for that another dave As the saying goes another dave another dollar You know dave i've often wondered about that remisa thing I've always wondered if any gringles or expats living in latin america are sending remissas back to their poles Families up in the states, you know sort of remissas in reverse

[27:05] Well, I can tell you for sure expat eddie does he sends remissas back to his mother in texas But still she won't leave that trailer court. Can you believe it? She's a rich old lady living in the trailer court, but that's where all her coffee clutch buddies are Got the nicest double wide in the neighborhood though Beautiful garden too. Eddie says she's even got a gardener. Imagine that Probably the only lady with a trailer in the world that's got her own gardener cash only latino gardener too Hmm, how do you like them apples? 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 spambos