Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller begins by addressing common language confusion between the Spanish letters 'B' and 'V,' explaining that they are pronounced the same but distinguished by their appearance in writing. He shares a tip from expat Eddie about identifying whether a Spanish speaker learned English in Latin America or the U.S., based on specific words like 'Chicago,' 'Pepsi,' and 'pizza.' Johnny then transitions to discussing real estate and land measurements, explaining that 'vadas' (not 'baras') is a common unit for land, while structures are measured in square meters. He concludes by noting a shift in expat sentiment, with more people now viewing Latin America as an escape from government surveillance and overregulation in the U.S.
Johnny also discusses the widespread apathy and denial among the American population regarding the country's declining state, drawing parallels to the Vietnam War era. He highlights the lack of meaningful action despite the majority's complacency and suggests that traditional protest methods are ineffective. He then shifts to discussing the necessity of preparing for potential societal collapse, suggesting options like becoming a prepper or relocating to Latin America. Johnny emphasizes the growing surveillance state, citing examples like the NSA's data collection and the use of license plate readers, which can capture detailed images of individuals and their surroundings. He concludes by warning about the extent of surveillance and the need for individuals to consider their options for privacy and safety.
In another segment, Johnny discusses the widespread collection of driver data by police agencies through fusion centers, which began with repo men using scanning devices. He explains how this technology has expanded to include police departments and fixed locations, allowing for the tracking of vehicles and personal data. He highlights the lack of regulations, the potential for data misuse, and the implications for privacy. Johnny also addresses the generational divide in privacy awareness, noting that younger people are more accustomed to surveillance, while older individuals may still value privacy. He offers practical advice for expats to protect their privacy, such as using fake documents and avoiding real ID sharing in Latin America.
Johnny then discusses the differences between the United States and Latin American countries in terms of government overreach and surveillance. He argues that the U.S. government has become increasingly authoritarian, while Latin American countries have not adopted a similar 'big brother' approach. He also shares personal experiences about leaving the U.S. and the reasons behind his decision, including the financial crisis and government overreach. Additionally, he makes light of the media's overreaction to 'dry ice bombs' by comparing them to common pranks from his engineering school days.
In the final segment, Johnny discusses the prevalence of dry ice bombs in Latin America, comparing them to traditional fireworks and highlighting the cultural and legal context. He mentions the ease of making these bombs with common materials like dry ice and plastic bottles, and notes that while they are illegal in some states, they remain a popular and accessible form of celebration. Johnny also touches on the broader theme of expat life in Latin America, critiquing the inefficiency of first-world government aid to the region and highlighting the freedom and lack of police state presence that attracts expats.
Topics
Language confusion in Spanish (B vs. V), Real estate and land measurements in Latin America, Expat experiences and changing perceptions of Latin America, Apathy and denial in American society, Surveillance state and data collection, Preparation for societal collapse, Relocation and privacy considerations, Surveillance and privacy, Data collection by law enforcement, Fusion centers, Privacy in Latin America, Expatriate privacy strategies
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:32 Language Confusion in Spanish (B vs. V) 00:01:39 Real Estate and Land Measurements in Latin America 00:05:58 Shift in Expat Sentiment and Perceptions of Latin America 00:06:33 The Ineffectiveness of Traditional Protest Methods 00:07:09 The Need for a Backup Plan for a Business Idea 00:11:15 The Extent of Surveillance in the United States 00:12:01 The Origins of Fusion Centers and Data Collection 00:13:12 The Lack of Regulation and Potential for Data Misuse 00:14:29 Privacy in Latin America vs. the First World 00:17:14 The Difference Between the U.S. and Latin America in Terms of Government Overreach 00:17:39 The Benefits of Leaving the U.S. and the Reactions of Friends and Family 00:19:18 The Financial Crisis and the Turning Point for Leaving the U.S. 00:20:41 The Impracticality of Surveillance Systems in Latin America 00:22:07 The Media's Overreaction to 'Dry Ice Bombs' 00:22:24 Introduction to Dry Ice Bombs 00:23:38 Connection to Latin America 00:27:10 Expats' Perspective on Freedom and Government
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 First let's get this out of the way a number of you guys and gals who have been down here to Latin America Report you're seeing real estate being rented and sold with the term bar as the a ras Which is pronounced in Spanish like bar as with a B like bar
[00:48] Ah since bees and these sound exactly the same in Spanish So then you might ask if you hear a word like vadas or any Spanish word that sounds like it begins with a B How can you tell if it really does begin with a B or a V since they pronounce them exactly the same? Well, you can't to our gringo ears a Spanish B as in boy and a Spanish V as in Vincent Sound exactly the same and if you ask a Latin to spell each of those words boy and Vincent He'll say the word boy begins with B Alta which means high B Alta meaning high and the word Vincent starts with B Pakenia Pakenia meaning small because that's how the two letters look when you write them on the page B looks higher or more Alta and
[01:36] V looks Pakenia or smaller now We're talking how the letters B and V look in lower case when written on the page or typed Because if you write in caps, the letters are always the same height confused yet Well, believe me, even if you've been speaking pretty good Spanish for a couple of years You'll be confused and as for me, well, I get it, but it still took me a long time And by the way, that's why a native Spanish speakers have so much trouble when they try to speak their B's and V's in English One by the way, here's a little tip from expat Eddie He says if you're down in Latin America and some Latin start speaking pretty good English to you though obviously with a heavy accent Eddie's learned through experience that there's an easy way to tell if that person's learned his English in Latin America in a school situation or
[02:24] Snuck into the States illegally learned his English on the streets in the barrios of Chicago or New York or Atlanta For example, then got caught as an illegal and deported back to his own country Eddie says there'll be three telltale words in English that are a dead giveaway that the guy was deported Instead of saying Chicago, they'll say Chicago instead of saying Pepsi. They'll say Pepsi Instead of saying pizza. They'll say pizza so there you have expat Eddie's simple test that he uses in an employment situation because like Eddie says No, Latin's ever gonna tell you in an interview or casual conversation that he's been deported from the States as an illegal I mean put yourself in the guy's shoes. It's just too much of an embarrassment really
[03:12] Anyway, like Eddie says when he interviews a person for a job opening at one of his restaurants and they speak a little bit of English To him. He always tries to get him to say Chicago pizza or Pepsi And if they say Chicago pizza or Pepsi, well, they've already started out on the wrong foot Anyway back to real estate and land measurements the word vadas and that's with a V Not a B is a very common measurement for tracts of land and just remember this Five thousand six hundred vadas is one acre that's fifty six hundred vadas to the acre But that's only when dealing with land not the actual structures that might be on that land Crazier yet when you buy or rent an office a house or living space. It'll never be in vadas
[03:58] It'll always be in meters squared But the land that it's actually sitting on or the land around it will be in vadas go figure That's the way it is But don't let that confuse you even though the actual construction area will be in meters if you multiply that by ten It works out quite nicely to just about what that size is in square feet Which is a big relief for gringos because unless you were a hard science or engineering major back in college You learned and forgot the metric system back in sixth grade So for example, if someone's selling or renting a hundred square meter office or townhouse if you multiply that by ten It's around a thousand square feet. Well, not exactly. It's actually 1076 square feet, but it's close enough to get a pretty good idea what they're talking about
[04:47] Okay, enough said about that. So now when you're doing some kind of real estate deal down here, you'll actually understand what's happening Now what I say next might scare you and i'm not talking about being scared down here in latin america I'm talking about being scared up in the states Then again, you might be so used to being used and abused by the government That you just won't flinch and you'll be numb to what i'm gonna say next Anyway, here goes over the years as more and more you expats wannabes and guannabes Are tuning into shows like mine and richard martens and getting newsletters like international man and doug casey and international living Etc, etc I've been noticing a pretty big shift in the kind of emails i've been getting i'm getting more and more emails from expat wannabes Who complain that they're sick and tired of being surveilled and tagged and monitored?
[05:35] Lately the tone of the emails i'm getting are more angry and pissed off about what's going on up north than ever before You know when I first started this show three years ago or so I'd get a lot of nice pleasant emails from people saying they'd like to come down to latin america lower their stress levels and buy or rent a house on the beach and Just live the life of riley and get off that first world treadmill Well, you know, I don't get those kind of emails anymore nowadays people are looking at latin america like one of the last escape hatches I know it still seems like 98 percent of the rest of the population up there Are comfortably numb about the whole thing and people are telling me amongst their friends and family ambivalence and denial are everywhere In fact one guy said in his email he remembers back in the 60s his old man telling him
[06:23] Practically every night while he was reading the newspaper at the dinner table that he was glad He wasn't a young man anymore because the us was going to hell in a hand basket And that was during the vietnam war. So like this guy said nothing's really changed Everybody's still bitching as usual while less than two percent of the population is actually doing anything about it Though this time around like that guy's email said nothing's going to be changed by protesting marching in the streets burning draft cards or bras either Everyone listening to this program knows the us is down for the count and it's not coming back The cure for someone who's bankrupt is not more dead And the cure for an alcoholic is not more booze and the cure for someone with cancer is not more morphine
[07:09] So what's your plan to maintaining your first world style of life? Are you going to become a prepper and barricade yourself and your supplies in your basement or your bunker? Like you hear so many guys talking about on alex jones Or are you going to get out of dodge while you're still allowed to do so? You can't wait for the next crisis, you know That's when uncle sam's really going to block the exits as all you international travelers already Know restrictions on travel have already started and what about currency controls? They've started too and they're going to get worse. In fact, you better start thinking about this scenario What if you can get yourself and your loved ones out of the country? But you're not able to get your capital out Sure If you pick the right spot, it can be dirt cheap and terrifically comfortable to live down here in latin america
[07:55] But it's not free. So what are you going to do then? You got a backup plan for a business idea? Maybe have you even had your boots on the ground down here for a while to check it out? You better get started So here's a question for you How do you like living in a surveillance state? Of course the true extent of it's been all over the news lately with snowden and the nsa and all that Now, you know all the phone services and google and yahoo and facebook are collecting your data and turning it over to us government agencies Meanwhile the nsa is building a billion plus dollar data trapping catching and storing complex out west Isn't that comforting news? And for all you guys and gals out there who are so nuts about your iphone and android apps I wonder if you knew that all the data you put into those apps is being collected and sold too
[08:40] For example, some of the most popular apps these days have to do with diet exercise and fitness And when you log on to one of these apps they ask you for all kinds of information about your lifestyle What you eat your weight your age your medical condition your blood pressure cholesterol level height weight body mass index Family history fitness program, etc. And what do you think happens to all that data? Well, it's sold off of course to companies that could use that data to sell your products But guess what down here in latin america if you buy an android or a smartphone, you can buy it completely anonymously In other words, you can stay off that data collection radar But I guarantee you'll never be able to buy a smartphone up in the states without answering a hundred questions And they all better be true or you will be breaking some laws
[09:26] And you'll have to give references and there'll be a credit check, you know the story But that's just the big picture and you've probably heard a lot of that and of course you don't like it But if you want an email address and a smartphone and you want to get on facebook Well, you got to turn over your life to them and then they own your data, right? Okay, all that's bad enough. In fact, it's tragic But get this here's what you didn't know and if this doesn't make you want to get out of dodge in a hurry You're a lost cause Now about five years ago the city of san leandro, california Purchased one automated license plate reader and attached it to a single patrol car on their police force Now a guy living in that town a computer consultant named michael. Lockerbie
[10:11] He asked the city if he could have a record of every time that license plate scanner tracked and logged him And to his surprise they complied and by the way I don't know if you knew this but those kind of scanners when they lock on your license plates They photograph your car at the same time and when this little thing's attached to the outside of a police car It can scan and photograph thousands of cars in an eight-hour shift Anyway, when the city turned over the results to this guy The police department had in their files 112 photographs of this guy's car and get this the photos aren't just images of the plate and the surrounding bumper of the car Depending how far away the cop car is from you when your license plate is scanned They can get whole shots of your car and the surrounding area
[10:57] In fact this guy went down to the police department and requested to see the photos and guess what they showed them to him Yep in some places those small town values are alive and well and in one of those photos He saw him and his daughter stepping out of his toyota in his driveway in front of his own house Now if that doesn't verify that you don't live in a surveillance state 24 7. I don't know what does And remember that happened in a town where one single cop car had a unit like that And of course every time your plate is scanned the time and your location are logged in too So what can we learn from this? Here's how it breaks down in every u.s state now Almost completely hidden from the public is the fact that police agencies throughout every state have been collecting
[11:44] Millions of records on drivers including you and feeding them to intelligence Fusion centers they're called. That's a new one on me. Have you heard of that? I doubt it Anyway, all that data is fed to these network fusion stations operated by local federal and state law enforcement And kept as permanent files and it turns out the way this technology got started is with repossession guys Those repo men who drive around using these little devices to scan and capture plate numbers as cars rolled by To check against repo databases Then of course some five or six years ago all the first world police departments wanted in on that action too But it gets worse Not only do all police departments have these devices now and with all the thousands of scans of your car
[12:31] And everyone else's the police can instantly reconstruct where your car has been On any day in the last five years and like one cop who uses this system said If they haven't got a few photos of your plate and car on a particular day That was one day. You probably never left the house and it's not only roving police cars that have these things Every transit and police department in the united states is installing these things at fixed locations They're being mounted at all on and off ramps going in and out of cities So now they have a record of every vehicle inbound and outbound for any city in town as well And you know because there are really no rules and regulations on this new technology They can do just like google yahoo and facebook collect your data and sell it to anyone they want
[13:18] I mean face it police departments throughout america are basically broke All big cities in america are in desperate straits and they're cutting back on their police forces One way they could fill the coffers is to sell this kind of data To marketing firms or maybe your data will get hacked by someone who wants to kidnap your kids or rob your house or your office What about private detectives? They would love that kind of data for divorce cases and such Wouldn't your time date and location data come in handy for that? And when you think about it, you know that data is really public since you're on the public roads with your car So you'll never beat the government in court on the personal privacy angle no matter how pissed off you get So what can you do about it? Well, basically you can let that technology eat away at your privacy what you got left of it
[14:04] Then I guess you're just thrown in the towel, right? And of course this kind of talk doesn't apply to 95 of people under 30. They grew up with the surveillance state They don't know what it's like not to be monitored in tag. They don't care They give up their data and whole life story to anyone who asks even non-humans who ask Take facebook, for example, george orwell would have a stroke if he wasn't dead already But the rest of us the over 30 crowd We remember what privacy was like and though in the first world it's practically extinct down here in latin america believe it or not There's almost too much of it Not that you can't get on the radar down here if you're stupid enough to give up your debts Like most people do up in the first world, but believe me if you want to you can really be under the radar I mean you could get down and low easy and still live a perfectly first world life
[14:52] And the fact is even if you do give up your real debts on occasion because you have to let's say you rent a mailbox At mailbox, etc. Well, you know what? No one's got their databases connected to anyone else's So outside of a few government agencies computers just aren't talking to each other about that kind of stuff Oh, and by the way, I was kidding about giving you real debts when you get a mailbox down here You don't have to do that either. You can do what so many expats do You just scan and photoshop yourself a nice document and change the debts any way you want them For example, you can keep your own name, but change your address your phone your birth date your business address Anything you want and nobody cares for example If you have to go into one of those very secured buildings where you go through a metal detector
[15:37] And you stop at a desk where you trade your id for a visitor's pass Like in a government building or in a first world ngo complex or a first world office tower complex Well, you're a gringo and you've got that gringo advantage and you could give them any id They don't speak english remember especially off the tourist trail and they just don't scrutinize anything and even if they did Practically anyone can make a fake id look pretty professional. So for that matter you could photoshop your library card from 1986 and they'll take it with a smile and give you a visitor's pass Oh and another thing a lot of these guarded communities in latin america have a guard station where you stop and hand them your idea And you get a visitor's pass too. Well, the fact is I never give them my real id
[16:23] Why should I because you know if it's an upscale community the guard might scan it enter it into a computer or write you down On a clipboard and why should you have your real name and address and phone number and everything else in their possession? Cataloged in that guard check. So what do I use? I have an international driver's license that I bought for 50 bucks a long time ago And I scanned and photoshopped it and printed it out and had it laminated and believe me That thing has pretty much never failed me. Now, of course, i'm not saying you open up bank accounts with that All i'm saying is when you go through an official check-in process like that and you have to trade your id for a pass In latin america, they'll accept almost anything from a gringo or a first world person that is But as for the locals because they don't know any better
[17:11] They always give up their real id but then again They haven't been accosted like folks up north have been so abused by the strong arm of big brother down here There is no strong arm and what passes for big brother is pretty much a joke Down here only a very few countries panama costa rica argentina and chili Have been trying to create a latin version of big brother based on who else but uncle sam's version And still they just can't get it right or wrong And that of course is a very good thing Or you can get out of dodge like I did, you know When I first started doing the expat files living in latin america about 300 shows ago I never did give too many reasons why I thought you should get out of the states I just talked about what it was like to live down here for expats
[17:56] By now i'm sure that two percent of you guys and gals up in the states who really have it together and gathering your data And making your plans you've already figured out that the less said to your friends and relatives the better They're part of the other 98 percent the sheep and you're not going to convince them of anything They're only going to think you're nuts or you're going to scare them Because like one guy said to me in a recent email a guy that's coming down to my seminar in january By the way, he said the reason he was coming down the straw that broke the camel's back for him was obama care He said basically when he started telling his friends and relatives that he was going to leave which he abruptly stopped doing by the way He said only half of them thought he was nuts and the other half wish they were going to and get this He detected a bit of latent jealousy in some of the people and those were people that were just too tied down
[18:45] And encumbered with things in their own hometowns than to ever pull off a disappearing act like that themselves Anyway, a surprising number of them gave him a pat on the back and a thumbs up Hey, man I can tell you that's a big change in attitude even from just three years ago when I first started the expat file show And as for me people ask me all the time How come I had a crystal ball and could see far enough into the future so that I was able to get out a long Time ago and I always answer it was dumb luck Remember I left the united states well before 9 11 and as you all know by now That was the turning point when the government decided to flush your liberties and rights right down the toilet and as for the financial crash Well, I knew that was coming I was always a gold bug and realized that every government in the history of the world that used paper money
[19:32] Eventually debased their currency to such a point that the whole system In fact the whole empire collapsed and the thing is if you study history, you know, it's going to happen But you just don't know when so 20 something years ago when I left I knew the financial crunch was coming But as for the big brother thing back then I didn't have a clue though after watching a few of my friends up in Chicago go through the irs ringer I certainly had a healthy hatred of those guys and that's reason enough to leave really And now if you've been looking at the leaks lately and what the irs has been up to targeting protesters and freedom Organizations and anti wall street groups. Come on after hearing that give me one good reason why you shouldn't vote with your feet Now one last thing about first world police taking automated photographs and running license plates numbers If you think a thing like that could ever happen in latin america, I want to remind you that police cars in latin america
[20:23] Routinely stay parked at the side of the road or off to the side of the gas station because they're only allotted Two or three gallons of gas a day and if you think by any stretch of the imagination These slugs are going to drive around scanning license plates and photographing cars All i've got to say is you better throw another rock in your crack pipe Even if the first world donated a box car full of these high-tech license reader devices It just wouldn't make any difference They get installed all right and in six months half of them won't work in the other half We'll simply go missing and by the way, i'll bet you a hundred bucks Some idiot first world country like south korea singapore or the us they'll do just that They'll donate a load of those things to a bunch of cops with a sixth grade education
[21:10] Who don't have the brains of the culture to take a pee in a regular bathroom? So take my word for it no matter how much they try latin american governments are never going to get a big brother surveillance plan Off the ground not in my or your lifetime. Anyway, okay. Let's get on to something else now I've noticed that all over the news in the last couple of days They've been talking about these dry ice bombs like they're some kind of secret new terrorist innovation You know that really makes me laugh because way way back in chicago in my engineering school days We used to blow those things off all the time. I remember getting those two liter pepsi bottles Shagging down the ice cream guy or the mr Softy man down the street remember those guys and we used to sit up on our second floor apartment Toss them out the window into the parking lot just to blow off the car alarms
[21:56] Everybody's thinking these things are so dangerous Well, let me tell you about the only thing you have to fear is that the plastic is going to hit you in the face Or in the eyes So even if you're three or four feet away as long as you're wearing glasses They really don't do anything but sting because remember it's just little shards of coke bottle plastic. Come on And yes, they're really stupendously loud and that's what it's all about Anyway, I just wanted to give you the personal lowdown on those things before you go into a big panic And I think a lot of you guys out there know what i'm talking about You probably experimented with those things too. Now remember back in engineering school That was 30 some years ago for me So don't go thinking those dry ice bombs are some kind of new thing They aren't and the fact is the reason why we even started doing them once in a while Maybe on friday night was because one we were bored two We didn't have any money for real fireworks, which we could have gone
[22:44] And even if we did we'd have to drive an hour to the illinois, wisconsin state line and buy the real thing out of a guy's trunk illegally, of course Now I understand there's statewide movements to ban the things And now I hear in some states you can go to jail if you blow one of them off So let me see now I understand if you have bomb making materials you can go to jail, too So I guess if you have a bottle of coke or a bottle of pepsi in the house And maybe a chunk of dry ice in the freezer It's a felony and you could go to jail for a long time Wait a minute. You say who's got a chunk of dry ice in the freezer? Anyway, no one right? Well the mr. Softy guy on the street can go to jail because not only does he have a ton of dry ice in that thing But he sells those dangerous plastic bottles of coke pepsi and seven up too. You know what that means, don't you?
[23:32] Every single mr. Softy guy in the ghetto is in possession of bomb making materials Now you're probably wondering why i'm mentioning these dry ice bombs. What does that have to do with latin america? You're thinking right? Well, the fact is every couple of blocks There's a little guy pushing an ice cream cart just loaded with dry ice and latin america is the land of discarded plastic bottles Not to mention people absolutely love their fireworks down here. It's a national sport and it's legal Not only can you buy bombs bigger than your head and explode things that are equal to a stick of dynamite It's even cheaper to blow off dry ice bombs And so every time there's a special event People blow him off all the time and sometimes for no reason at all In fact the other day I saw an 80 something year old guy blowing went off in front of his driveway
[24:21] I even held the bottle for him because his hands were a little shaky And guess what? He was having the time of his life and he told me he's been doing that every year for about 40 years He said ever since those plastic soda bottles came out And he still has all 10 fingers and both eyes intact Now when I asked him what he did for fun before those plastic bottles came on the market He said he'd make acetylene bombs now I'd never seen one before but I heard about them and they're supposed to be quite dangerous And believe me I can vouch for that because when he found out i'd never seen one or heard one before He went into his garage and made up a couple of them Especially for me the gringo the visiting dignitary in the neighborhood And believe it or not it took him all of about two minutes to do it
[25:07] And you know, that's part of the gringo advantage too when I mentioned I'd never had the acetylene bomb experience Well, he just had to show the gringo, you know, and he was proud to do it Man, I tell you I never heard anything so loud in my life. And how did he do it? Well, he took a regular balloon and he blew it up with pure acetylene gas from the nozzle of an acetylene tank And this guy was a car mechanic and he did a lot of welding back then when he was still young He said when he was in his 70s When he got bored or a company came over he'd make an acetylene bomb and wake up all the neighbors So he had oxy acetylene tanks around all the time Anyway, you fill the balloon up with acetylene and you tape a firecracker fuse to it light it and run like hell
[25:54] All right, enough said about that Now let me remind you to go to expatwisdom.com and click on the seminar link if you want information about my upcoming January 2014 expat wisdom seminar off the gringo tourist trail as usual in central america Go ahead and click on the seminar link and have a look now as I mentioned before first world government stupidity seems to be never ending For example, I just noticed that the u.s. Government donated 10 new helicopters to guatemala seven new helicopters to nicaragua And three new helicopters to al salvador a gift totaling about a hundred million dollars of your money Now when are these idiot first world governments ever going to get into their head that latin governments don't even have gas for the police cars
[26:39] Yeah, but they're going to have high grade high test jet fuel for those delicate turbines in those helicopters, right? Well, you know in a show a long time ago I once mentioned that a jet pilot offered to take expat eddie and I up for a ride When with our gringo advantage we got invited by a general to an all-military party and that jet fighter pilot told me Pilots only go up in their jets about one hour a week because they can't afford the jet fuel to run any longer And by the way, he said only five of the country's 10 jets were actually working Now can't you see why us expats just love being down here? The thought of big brother or any kind of police state is just beyond ridiculous Uh-oh
[27:26] Did you hear that moms and dads better call the bomb squad 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 See you next time. Nos vemos