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The Expat Files Podcast

#296 – The Expat Files: Drug Use in Latin America, U.S. Influence, and Venezuela’s Economic Chaos

Show #296 · September 29, 2013

Johnny Mueller explores misconceptions about drug use, U.S. military presence, and Venezuela's economic crisis.

Episode Summary

In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller explores several key topics related to expat life and the broader socio-economic landscape of Latin America. He begins by addressing common misconceptions about drug use and danger in the region, clarifying that while drug production is a significant issue, the reality is more nuanced. He explains that the perception of drug lords with AK-47s and drugged-out narco-zombies is exaggerated, and that drug use is more prevalent among backpackers and recreational users, with the cost of drugs being extremely low. He also discusses the shift in drug production from Colombia to Peru due to U.S. intervention and the continued gringo advantage in South America due to the difficulty of travel and the relatively low number of tourists.

Next, Johnny delves into the complex relationship between the United States and South American countries, particularly Colombia and Peru, in the context of the drug war and military presence. He highlights how the U.S. has a significant military footprint in Colombia, which has led to the relocation of much of the cocaine production to Peru. He critiques the stereotypes associated with Colombia, pointing out that it is often seen as a drug hub, while Peru is more commonly associated with tourism and historical sites like Machu Picchu. Johnny emphasizes that Peru is now the world's largest producer of coca leaves, which are used both for traditional chewing and for cocaine production. He also notes the normalization of coca leaf use in Peru, even among people in various social and economic classes, and suggests that it is a cultural tradition rather than a sign of poverty or criminality.

The discussion then shifts to the legal status of coca leaves in South American countries like Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina, where they are legal to possess and sell. He contrasts this with the United States, where possessing even a small amount of coca leaves is a felony. He then moves on to Venezuela, highlighting its role as the number one drug trafficking route in the world due to its 2,000-mile coastline, lack of monitoring, and the absence of U.S. law enforcement on its soil. He also mentions the porous border with Colombia and the economic conditions that drive illegal migration and black market activities. Finally, he touches on the impact of currency controls in Venezuela, explaining how the disparity between official and black market exchange rates leads to significant profits and contributes to economic chaos.

The segment continues with a discussion on the economic situation in Venezuela, focusing on the government's strict control over the availability of dollars at the official rate of 6.3. Venezuelans are exploiting a special provision for travelers with valid airline tickets, allowing them to exchange up to $3,000 at the official rate. This creates a significant arbitrage opportunity, as the black market rate is much higher, allowing individuals to profit by exchanging the dollars back at a 700% profit margin. This practice has led to many planes being half-empty despite all seats being sold, as some people do not actually travel but use the exchange opportunity. The segment also highlights the broader economic issues in Venezuela, including high inflation, shortages of basic goods, and the government's attempts to address these problems through measures like a hotline for reporting illegal economic activity. Johnny critiques the government's approach, suggesting it is part of the problem and highlights the widespread involvement of Venezuelans in illegal economic activities to survive.

Finally, the podcast segment transitions to a lighter topic about piranhas in the Amazon and the nickname for Peruvian women, providing a brief respite from the more serious discussions.

Topics

Drug use in Latin America, Perception of drug-related dangers, Shift in drug production, Gringo advantage in South America, U.S. military presence in Colombia, Drug production and trafficking in South America, Coca leaf use in Peru, Stereotypes about Colombia and Peru, Cultural traditions in South America, Coca leaves legality in South America, Drug trafficking in Venezuela, Economic conditions in Venezuela

Chapters

00:00:00 Opening
00:00:37 Addressing Common Misconceptions About Drugs in Latin America
00:01:41 Are There Drugged Out Narcos Walking Around?
00:03:39 The Shift in Drug Production from Colombia to Peru
00:05:43 The U.S. Military Presence in Colombia and Its Impact on Drug Production
00:10:03 Peru's Role as the World's Largest Coca Leaf Producer
00:11:38 Coca Leaf Use as a Cultural Tradition in Peru
00:11:45 Coca Leaves in South America
00:12:50 Legal Status of Coca Leaves in the US
00:13:14 Venezuela as a Drug Transit Route
00:15:45 Economic and Political Challenges in Venezuela
00:16:16 Currency Controls and Black Market Profits
00:18:26 The Profit from Exchange Rate Arbitrage
00:19:14 The Widespread Impact of the Exchange Scheme
00:22:26 Inflation and Government Misrepresentation
00:24:23 Venezuela's Overnight Tourism Boom Due to Black Market Dollar Discrepancies
00:24:37 Johnny Mueller's Take on the Situation in Venezuela
00:25:10 The Risks and Requirements for Expats Taking Advantage of Venezuela's Black Market
00:26:40 Transition to a Lighter Topic: Piranhas and Peruvian Culture

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 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 Now before I get into that rant that I started last week and never finished I'd like to mention a few things about drugs down here in Latin America since I get a lot of emails from people Asking me about just that some people email me asking if they come down here

[00:48] Are they gonna encounter drug lords with ak-47s on every corner and others want to know if they're gonna find coked out drugies Sleep in the ditches and the alleys begging quarters from you just like in Detroit, Chicago Or New York first off in the states. They won't be begging quarters from you They'll be begging fives and tens and yes, there are beggars down here in Latin America But they're happy with believe it or not ten cents. Yes, and for ten cents you get a hearty. Thank you That's sincerely meant to you try to give a guy a dime or a quarter or even a dollar in the states And he'll shove it right back in your face and probably Bina up in Cleveland a quarter is an insult down here It's an avocado a papaya or a giant-sized mango, of course down here It's a generic coca-cola too, but you can hardly tell them what to buy with your donated quarter now, Kenya

[01:38] But the question is since Latin America is where most of the drugs come from Are there drugged out narcos walking around like zombies in the streets ready to pounce on hapless tourists and expats? Well, if that were true, then some of you big-city folks would feel right at home now, wouldn't you? Well, you know, I've been down here 20 plus years and that hasn't happened to me yet Though I've heard a few stories about backpackers But when you're looking for a $5 a night fleabag hotel, which is gonna be by definition a scummy dive You've kind of self-selected a certain kind of neighborhood now, haven't you? Anyway regarding the emails that I get about drugs Some people email me asking the going price and availability of such drugs because well up north apparently They're easy to get but expensive and if you get caught you could end up in the slammer for a long long time and believe

[02:24] It or not There are some laid-back Hippie type first worlders that come down here because of course they love to travel and see the world the other reason coming in at a close second is that they want to test all the world's drugs to and Because most of these guys and gals come down here as backpackers Their main objective is to do everything on the cheap Now if you come down here and you're interested in that stuff, you'll find the recreational drugs so cheap. They're practically free I mean pot plants for example don't need any human help at all to grow 14 foot tall So in that respect Latin America is a retro hippie backpackers paradise So yes I have to admit I do get my share of emails from casual drug users looking for pointers before they come down here and believe me Unless you come down here looking like a cop or a jarhead as soon as you end up near any tourist spot in Latin America

[03:11] Some locals can approach you to make some kind of deal and according to some expats and gringos I know that's when gringos get ripped off for gringo prices and really when you're on the tourist trail What do you expect? It's always gringo prices for everything Let me start out by saying that green gringos and first world tourists who come down here think they're so smart about drugs in Latin America They all believe because of movies like Scarface and the reputation of guys like Pablo Escobar That Columbia is the absolute epicenter of the cocaine industry always was and always will be well guess what you'd be wrong about that It's actually Peru. Yes, and it's true Columbia once was king of the cocaine club But bad publicity and heavy-handed US intervention with your dollars changed all that

[03:58] So get it in your head that Columbia's not number one anymore nowhere near it So what really happened then? Well, you see the thing is that terribly expensive and pathetic We're on drugs that the US has been losing every battle in since day one well Because the focus was always on Columbia little by little over the past five or so years the cocaine producers got smart and Relocated to Peru and why not you would do since the US has now deployed tens of thousands of troops Or I shouldn't say troops. They're called technical advisors and law enforcement Auxiliaries and they're known on the street by regular working-class Columbians by a few other choice names too, but I can't repeat them here even in Spanish And isn't it funny that the more US troops and auxiliaries and quote official and non-official help

[04:49] We send in with our bases and money and hardware the more locals in any country start disliking gringos Which is why I'm so surprised that Columbians haven't taken that attitude against gringos yet The gringo advantage is still in full force down there And I believe it's because although the US has a big military presence there obvious or not It is South America after all and a long long way for gringo tourists to go I mean taking a flight to Rio or Medellin or Lima is a pretty big and fatiguing ordeal because there are very few direct flights And you're gonna pay twice or three times as much as you would if you were taking a trip to Mexico City Costa Rica or Panama So in South America, you could say it's the lack of gringo civilians and tourists Which keeps that gringo advantage rolling for those of us who actually do make it down and as one ex-pet gringo in Chile told me

[05:39] He said that people all over South America still like gringos a lot Except maybe in parts of Venezuela because the gringo dollar has not disrupted or distorted any of the local Economies in South America yet like it's done already in places like Costa Rica a country That's totally dependent on US tourist dollars now So like I said, Columbia has few US tourists really compared to Central America, for example In fact, they have way more European tourists But they have plenty of US military bases and quasi military support Not to mention the US has more than 10 billion dollars with a B Worth of high-end low-tech military hardware down there like tanks and half-tracks and drones and AWACS In fact everything you need to start and maintain a war that's not winnable and will never end

[06:27] Which was the plan all along, right? And if you don't believe me, all you have to do is take a flight into any Colombian Airport You think the Colombian government a third world country pays for all those serious looking first world security people and all that first world Nope you're paying for it And the irony is the US funds both sides of that war the winning and the losing side the winning side through recreational drug users up north and the losing side the military and the government with your tax dollars Man, is that twisted or what and also if you're on a road trip in Colombia Let's say Cartagena to Medellin or Cali and I know you're familiar with those city names because of all the drug press they get But believe me that's not where the cocaine gets processed or sent out that stuff happens hundreds of miles away in the mountains and in

[07:16] The jungles and near the Amazon and you know, it's not like Columbia's as big as Massachusetts It's in fact similar in size to Texas So if you want to stay under the radar in Colombia, you can do it with ease and forever if you want in fact They still have some desolate indigenous Indian tribes so far away from civilization and so deep in the jungle that they still use Blogons and poison darts and some of the people have never seen a white person before to even bring down with one of those things Well, I take that back. Maybe they have seen a Mormon or two But I've heard that God protects drunks children idiots and Mormons and Texans, but I could be wrong Well, the thing is in regards to Colombia because in the last 10 or so years has been such a huge US military presence

[08:01] That a great many of the larger cocaine cultivating and processing operations have moved over to Peru Now I'm sure when you're at a party or a get-together up north and someone mentions the country of Colombia the first thing Everyone thinks of his drugs then Sofia Vergara and Shakira Second and third and then Juan Valdez the coffee guy and his mule running a very distant fourth That is if you're a baby boomer and remember those TV commercials there I go dating myself again, huh? And all that means is Colombia's been forever Stereotyped in our minds as drug central but at that same party or get-together if you mentioned the country Peru The first thing people are gonna say is machu pichu and a close second Well, there is no close second

[08:47] But when pressed first worlders just might say the Peruvian Andes or the capital Lima Since we did learn capital cities in fifth grade geography class, right? Oh, I forgot that was before no child left behind and it takes a village and the progressive dumbing down of American schools So if you vaguely recall it was Lima You were probably a baby boomer like me and you probably passed your geography class before they invented the term social promotion But I digress as usual anyway in the minds of first-world people Peru is a tourist destination for the hiking and archaeological ruins crowd not to mention most people up north consider Peru an Outdoorsy non beach type destination for people with not too much money and a lot of time on their hands like teachers In fact, what's a tour operator there?

[09:33] Told me that fully one third of all the people that go up to machu pichu are first-world teachers of some kind and another third Are European backpacker types who also are entitled to month-long vacations and more as mandated by most European labor laws now? The thing is for first-world people Peru is way off the radar in regards to drugs and the drug war and people are Always surprised when they find out that it's the number one cocaine producer in the world now get this in 2012 Peru produced a hundred and thirty thousand tons of coca leaves And if you want to get a better feel for the magnitude of that problem According to the United Nations office of drug crimes little off-the-radar Peru harvest enough coca leaves each year to fill

[10:20] 6,000 shipping containers to the brim that means if those shipping containers were loaded one by one on a freight train And you sat at a railroad crossing watching one of those container cars roll past you each second You'd be sitting at that railroad crossing for an hour and 40 minutes The fact is there isn't a freight train in the world that could pull 6,000 cars Oh, and by the way of the hundred thirty thousand tons of coca leaves produced each year in Peru a hundred and twenty thousand tons of that gets exported as cocaine The other ten thousand tons are used within the country by locals with the traditional habit of just chewing the leaves And no, it's not just a low-class poor indigenous farmers with machetes chewing that stuff all day

[11:05] The fact is you've got cab drivers bank tellers McDonald's hamburger flippers middle upper management and presidents of countries like evil Morales who does it right on camera with no stigma or embarrassment about it at all And if you want to see it for yourself just rent that documentary south of the border by Oliver Stone and you can see both Oliver and Evo chewing the stuff along with the cast and crew and they do a little bit of explaining about this stuff, too Anyway in Peru, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia and many other countries It's like cigarettes. Everyone's tried it at least once and about a quarter of the population does it with some frequency They call it a quick pick-me-up. You know, it's a tradition in South America a little boost

[11:50] They're equivalent to a shot of espresso and it's perfectly legal to do so In fact, I remember some years ago. I was at a high-rise Melilla Hotel in Cartagena Now this is first class all the way four stars a Spanish chain and right in the main plush lobby where you sit around the bar Listening to a little jazz trio. There happened to be a beautiful little granite table Sitting between two fresh tropical flower arrangements and on top of it was a nice big dish of fresh green coca leaves For anyone to dip into and start chewing anyone who was a guest or worker at the hotel that is and there was a little plastic Sign alongside the dish just like the sign in most hotel bathrooms in Latin America That said for a hotel guest use only and it said it in five languages

[12:36] Spanish English Italian Portuguese and German it still makes me laugh, you know And it always surprises people when they find out that in Colombia Ecuador Bolivia Peru and Argentina It is legal to sell or have in your possession Raw coca leaves in any quantity even a container full Yet if you fly back to the states and have the tiniest pinch of that stuff on you You're looking at a felony and a nice jail term. Oh and on that list where coca leaves are legal I forgot to include Venezuela there and Speaking of Venezuela What's never on a first world person's radar about that country is that it's the number one route for narco trafficking in the world

[13:22] now you might think that Mexico would be the number one because all the drug traffic is said to come from South and Central America on through Mexico to the states where the biggest demand in the world is and by far the largest amount of recreational users Well, that's only partly true. What makes Venezuela the number one drug transit route in the world Is that it's not only the intermediary route for most of the drug trade from South America up north But it's the main route for cocaine going to Europe too. And why is that? Well, it's got a 2,000 mile coastline and it's impossible to monitor that in fact It's a longer route to protect than the US Mexican border and considering that the US Mexican border leaks like a sieve

[14:07] Even though they've got all that US technology drones a wax night vision, you name it Well, you can see what the problem is now Can't you not to mention the fact since Hugo Chavez got into office a dozen or so years ago He prohibited deals with US law enforcement Even though the US would have gladly donated failed drug war troops like they do in Colombia Just to buddy buddy up to him because he had so much oil But as we all know it didn't work out So anyway US troops and law enforcement have no authorization on Venezuelan soil Oh, and by the way, Venezuela's got about a 1,500 mile border with Colombia Which is even more porous than the US Mexico border In fact about a million poor and low-income Venezuelans and Colombians walk back and forth across that border each year

[14:58] Completely illegally but the vast majority of the illegals are the Venezuelans trying to go over to Colombia to make some money Where the economy is much better and more stable and it's the underground economy Of course because with 24% inflation last year in Venezuela and about 6% in Colombia there's a hell of a lot of money to be made in the black market buying things cheaper in Colombia and Selling them over in Venezuela So you can see the problems here and the impossibility of even putting a dent in the drug business The only way they'll ever be able to do that is to make it legal But as we know on the US side, it's a huge employment program and a massive black hole for American funds Thus it'll never go away and the government cancer will just grow and grow until the malignancy kills the host us

[15:45] I mean you if you're still up in the States when that happens and you know, it's gonna happen. Don't fool yourself Now speaking of Venezuela a place, you know by now. I have no love for I don't recommend it for expats Unless you're a dirty hairy or a John Wayne style cowboy expat then because of all the chaos crime and disruption in the economy There's an awful lot of money to be made for wheelers and dealers But you could get your balls lopped off in the process. So Venezuela is not for the faint of heart Anyway, I just have to read you a part of this article that just came out from Reuters concerning the disastrous effects of currency controls In Venezuela and how people have found ways to get around it and make some really big money fast in the process So can expats get in on that game? Yeah, but like I said, it's not for the faint of heart and

[16:35] Here's how that Reuters article starts if you live in Venezuela and want to fly abroad get in line Flights are booked solid months in advance not from a new interest in exotic destinations But because locals are profiting from a play on the nation's tightly controlled currency market The airline scramble has added to shortages power cuts and runaway prices as another symbol of the Byzantine economic challenges Facing the new government of president Nicolas Maduro quote. It's like you're trapped here unquote said travel agent Doris Gao Telling a customer he'd be better off taking a boat to a Caribbean island because the daily flights are fully booked quote It's all because of these stupid dollars unquote then the article explains that by saying

[17:25] After a decade of currency control set up by late socialist leader Hugo Chavez in 2003 The disparity between the official and black market rates for the local Bolivar currency is higher than ever dollars now sell on the illegal black market at seven times the government official price of 6.3 to the dollar that means if you exchange your dollars on the street for Bolivars you make a 700% profit versus if you exchange them at a Venezuelan bank The government has strict limits on the availability of dollars at the six point three official rate But Venezuelans are cashing in on a special currency provision for travelers if you have a valid airline ticket

[18:13] Venezuelans may exchange up to three thousand dollars at the government rate of six point three Some people who buy tickets don't even fly leaving many planes half empty with totally sold seats Quote it's possible to travel abroad for free due to this huge exchange rate magic said local economist Angel Garcia Bunks He says the profit is realized from the arbitrage in other words the huge differential between the black market and the official rate known locally by the Spanish term El Raspao or the scrape in English and here's how it works once you go abroad on a trip Credit cards are used to get a cash advance rather than buying any merchandise The dollars you get are then carried back to Venezuela and sold on the black market for seven times

[19:03] What you can get at the bank and with such a huge profit margin? 700% that easily absorbs the cost of your flight and your accommodations for the trip No matter where you decide to travel outside of Venezuela, but as you'll see you don't have to travel far Quote I've been able to buy new clothes and give some cash to all my closest family members Unquote said one extremely delighted Venezuelan lady. I just got back from a trip to Europe quote It was really easy There was a guy in a hotel room with ten point-of-sale machines who swiped my card for a thousand bucks each day Unquote said a Venezuelan pensioner Also asking not to be named as he described his trip to a Caribbean island

[19:52] Now some Venezuelans don't even bother leaving the country But merely send their credit cards to friends overseas who swipe the cards at cash machines ATMs and send the dollars back to Venezuela and remember when you're outside the country getting dollars the Venezuelan bank Who issued the card is gonna debit your boulevard account at that bank at six point three to the dollar? So if you're allowed to swipe three thousand dollars Purification when you go out of the country and you bring almost all of it back when you return You can go on the street to the black market and change it back to boulevards at a seven hundred percent profit Quote this is the reason many airlines are seeing half-empty planes Even though all the seats are sold says Ricardo Cuzano head of the local Caracas tourism council

[20:44] He told Reuters the government should cross-reference flight lists with people requesting for an exchange to outwit airline no-shows And by the way, I just like to say here as it aside that this spokesman Ricardo Cuzano sounds exactly like part of the problem Just the kind of government jerk you want to kick the crap out of Anyway, the article goes on to say there's so much of this airline musical chairs going around that it's become a hot topic of conversation And even morbid humor on the street For example the nation's leading satirical website a kind of Venezuelan Version of the onion ran a comic spoof of a new airline route They call Caracas to Caracas where passengers would board in Caracas fly slightly out of Venezuelan airspace

[21:32] Just long enough to swipe their cards on cash machines up in the airplane Then head right back down to Caracas again And though the scrape as it's called is a point of humor right now The sad thing is it's the most dynamic sector of the country's economy That's according to highly placed Venezuelan economists They say the currency controls that Chavez implemented have exacerbated the very problems They were meant to address inflation and capital flight from the country The lack of dollars has left importers struggling to pay for items resulting in huge shortages and basic consumer goods Right now in fact, there's a big shortage in toilet paper bread even the wine that priests use at church normally imported from Argentina and Chile and

[22:20] those unnatural currency controls have caused the highest inflation rate in all of the Americas a 45% inflation just last year according to independent economists though the government says it's 24% Now that confirms that the Venezuelan government lies just as much as the US government lies But you knew that already Now here's the part I like for new President Maduro and his team. They say it's symptomatic of unscrupulous and greedy Capitalist opponents who are sabotaging Venezuela's economy in order to sink him and by the way If you've been paying any attention at all to what's happening in Venezuela You'll know he doesn't need anybody's help to do that. And here's his latest stupid move to fix the problem

[23:10] He's recently set up a telephone hotline 800 sabotage for Venezuelans to report illegal economic activity and That's so Maduro can round up all those troublemakers put him in jail and throw away the key and by the way It's been estimated that 90% of Venezuelans are involved in some kind of illegal activity Just to make ends meet For example nearly all of them avoid paying the VAT tax whenever they can By making deals with merchants to remain off the books by not getting a receipt and at least a quarter of all Venezuelan adults use the black market currency exchange at least once a month since a good percentage of

[23:55] Venezuelans have Remisses sent to them in dollars from relatives and friends living up in the states or in adjacent Latin countries That means everyone has to get prosecuted for financial crimes and go to jail, right? And funny enough with that phone number 800 sabotage the word sabotage in English is Sabotage in Spanish the same letters and as a secondary effect to this huge dollar discrepancy pricing phenomena Caracas and other international airports in Venezuela have become sudden hubs of overnight tourism For people from other Latin American countries who want to cash in on the black market dollar discrepancies, too And that's the gist of the article. So what's my take on it?

[24:41] Well, I can tell you this a couple of my long-term expat friends in Colombia and in Central America are thinking about taking a round-trip Run down to Caracas just for a day or two to make 700% on their money So I'm revising my negative recommendation about Venezuela temporarily But only if you're a real chance-taking adventurer because like I said, it's not for the faint of heart But it'll only work if you have a Venezuelan friend or two and you speak decent Spanish Since Venezuela's way off the tourist trail, you won't find many English speakers now Expat Eddie who knows all the angles like this told me that this is how he would do it And of course, he doesn't need the money, but he just might go down and do it for the adventure He likes that gamblers rush when you do something edgy like that. That's the way he is, you know

[25:30] Anyway, he says you bring a few thousand US dollars in have your friend change your dollars into Balboa's on the black market for Seven times the bank rate then you can either go on a fabulous spending spree in Venezuela and believe me They've got some very nice resorts there and my choice would be margarita island where all the rich Venezuelans hang out and if you don't want to blow it on a nice vacation You could always buy gold or platinum something portable that you could take back out of the country with you You can even buy a Rolex or buy a new car and drive it to Colombia And when you get there you sell it or keep it and like Eddie says if you don't want to fly out with that stuff Speaking of gold or diamonds or portable wealth like that for fear of a customs shakedown

[26:15] Again, you just take a bus trip to Colombia. You get the idea now. I'm not recommending that you do any of this stuff I'm just mentioning the fact that Venezuela's idiotic government has created a big loophole and that some expats are cashing in on it, too Okay enough said about that now speaking of Peru and Colombia and the Amazon Basin I've yet to tell you that I've got an expat friend who lives part-time of the year in Peru on a Tributary of the Amazon River. He's married to a piranha, which is a great segue to what I'm gonna talk about now Peruvian women are called piranhas Which sounds quite a bit like the word piranha? And that's what we're gonna talk about now piranhas the fish not the women now the reason why I mentioned this is because he tells me that he often swims in the Amazon and the

[27:05] tributaries right in the very same stream that piranhas are living in and he says they Never bother anyone and he's never heard rumors of trouble with them either He said the one that worries him is a fish called the paku which has the nasty Spanish nickname of gome Nuevos in English testicle eater and though my expat friend has never seen one. They've been in the news lately ouch 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 don't forget to check out expat wisdom.com to sign up for your free reports on Latin America

[27:52] See you next time. Nos vemos

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