Episode Summary
In this episode, Johnny Mueller dives into the cultural and linguistic intricacies of living in Latin America, particularly in Colombia and Mexico. He discusses the use of politically correct language, the challenges of dealing with corrupt police, and the impact of these experiences on expat life. From the confusion of cash vs. credit card pricing in restaurants to the absurdity of roadblocks and bribes, Johnny shares personal anecdotes and reflections on navigating life as an expat in the region.
Johnny begins by discussing his experiences in Colombia, where he notes the practice of having separate price columns for cash and credit card on restaurant menus, which he finds confusing and redundant. He also touches on the topic of politically correct language, noting that terms like 'third world' and 'gringo' are considered outdated or offensive. Johnny shares a personal anecdote about a party where he was corrected for using the term 'third world,' and he discusses the use of derogatory terms like 'mojado' and 'Negro' in Latin America, explaining how these terms are used in different contexts and how they can be offensive. He also reflects on the cultural use of the word 'Negro' in Hollywood movies and how it is translated in dubbed Spanish versions, leading to confusion among Latin American audiences.
The segment transitions to a discussion on the Spanish word 'hombre,' which is commonly used as a filler or to mean 'man' or 'yes, man.' Johnny contrasts this with a conversation where a Colombian man dismisses the idea of Colombia being a third-world country, instead calling it a developing one. Johnny responds with skepticism, questioning the direction of development. He then reflects on the state of cities in the U.S., comparing them to the less developed areas of Bogota, and expresses relief at having left such places. The segment transitions to a listener's report from Oaxaca, Mexico, detailing an experience with road extortion by state-sanctioned police, highlighting the broader issue of corruption in Latin America.
Johnny then discusses the concept of 'anti-extortion insurance' for expats in Latin America, where keeping small amounts of cash or junk food in a vehicle can be a way to avoid trouble with corrupt police. He acknowledges that the term 'extortion' might be too harsh for small bribes, but he also shares a personal story about how he used a fifth of high-end tequila to navigate a tense encounter with Mexican state police. The story highlights the absurdity of the situation and the unpredictable nature of interactions with local law enforcement.
In another segment, Johnny recounts an encounter with corrupt cops in Mexico, where he was initially offered a bribe but then unexpectedly bonded with the officer, who eventually gave him a fist bump instead. Johnny reflects on how locals vary in their approach to dealing with corrupt cops, noting that some may ask for a small bribe, while others might demand more. He also shares his strategy for dealing with corrupt officers, such as playing the 'dumb gringo' by not speaking Spanish or using broken English, which often leads to the officers giving up and letting him go. Johnny also discusses his experience of being pulled over multiple times over five years, with only a small percentage of encounters resulting in a bribe. He highlights the importance of group dynamics among officers, as larger groups of cops are less likely to engage in extortion, while solo or small-group stops are more risky. The segment ends with Johnny sharing a story about a former illegal immigrant who became a police officer in Guatemala, emphasizing the role of English proficiency in the hiring process.
Finally, the podcast segment discusses the challenges of living in Mexico, particularly the risks associated with law enforcement interactions and the prevalence of crime. Johnny Mueller describes the typical experience of being stopped by police, including the process of showing documents, the informal nature of interactions, and the eventual payment of a bribe. He also references a news article from August 2019 about the severe crime situation in Mexico, highlighting the discovery of numerous bodies in residential areas and the use of private rental properties for illegal activities. The segment concludes with Johnny advising against Mexico as a safe place for expats and suggesting a 'plan B' with a location south of the border.
Topics
Cultural differences in Latin America, Language and politically correct terms, Experiences of expats in Latin America, Use of derogatory terms in different contexts, Language and cultural nuances in Spanish-speaking countries, Perceptions of development and modernization in Latin America, Corruption and law enforcement issues in Latin America, Expatriate experiences in Latin America, Corruption and bribery in law enforcement, Cultural and social interactions with local authorities, Personal anecdotes and humor in navigating expat life, Corrupt cops in Mexico
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:01:10 The Redundancy of Dual Pricing in Menus 00:01:50 The Politically Incorrect Term 'Third World' 00:03:55 The Cultural Use of 'Negro' in Hollywood Movies 00:06:02 The Use of 'Hombre' in Spanish-Speaking Countries 00:07:08 Perceptions of Development in Latin America 00:09:56 Road Extortion in Oaxaca, Mexico 00:11:58 Is it a bribe or extortion? The debate over small bribes in Latin America 00:13:02 The story of the fifth of tequila and the roadblock encounter 00:17:32 The Initial Encounter with a Corrupt Cop 00:17:37 The Offer and the Change in Mood 00:17:42 Bonding and the Unexpected Gesture 00:17:49 Johnny's Reflection on the Officer's Hand 00:17:54 The Decision to Avoid Knowing 00:17:56 The Officer's Hipster Persona 00:17:58 The Joke and the Fist Bump 00:18:03 The Influence of Pop Culture on the Officer's Behavior 00:22:58 Time Spent with Police in Mexico 00:24:04 Crime Situation in Mexico
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 out to play and now 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 All right. Here's something you won't see up in the States now lately I've been in Colombia mostly Bogota Medellin and you know you hit the restaurants You can imagine my surprise when I open up a menu in a decent restaurant to see on the right side where they show the
[00:45] Prices there's two columns one column says cash and one says credit card now for any of you out there who've been to Latin America You know a lot of times you walk into a store or restaurant and there'll be a sign up there by the cash register Or maybe a little notation in a menu at a restaurant that says six percent or three percent or five percent will be added If you use a credit card, alright, so I'm used to seeing that but I'd never ever my life Saw such a preponderance of restaurants that went out of their way to actually have the menus printed up with two columns in them Talk about overkill now I didn't take the time to do the calculations to see, you know If the credit card price was four five or six percent more every time I should have though because let's say if every single item In the credit card column was five percent more than the cash price talk about idiotic redundancy
[01:34] Why don't they just stick with a little footnote at the bottom of the menu? I don't get it. So anyway, just another small thing to let you know things are different here in Latin America Sometimes a lot of times you can't really explain why there's not a lot of logic to it Hey, that's why they call it the third world Speaking of the term third world. Did you know it's not politically correct to use that term anymore? You know what I say come I was at a little party a get-together a couple weeks ago I was the only gringo as usual most everyone there had money or pretended to have money and mostly a college educated crowd And during the conversation I said the phrase third world once or twice and a guy corrected me He seemed a little bit insulted like I just told him his wife was ugly or something and she was
[02:20] He said, you know third world or in Spanish trecer Mundista is a pejorative term and I said like what and he couldn't think of an example now I didn't know this guy and in the moment I felt a little argumentative and I said come on Tommy like what? Like for example gringo Then I said, you know Depending on the way you use the word gringo and the inflection Determines whether or not it's an insult to first world people or not And I emphasized the first world part and he cringed a bit Apparently these days to say first world is not PC either. Well by then I knew I'd set a bad tone for our conversation So I said forget about the word gringo. It doesn't bother me when people call me gringo But I said, what about the word? Mojado which directly translates to the word wetback in Spanish a word that would be considered an insult or
[03:12] Derogatory term up in the states. He didn't see what I was getting at he didn't see the point nor did anyone else in the room But it's a term Latinos use all the time for illegals up in the states Except when they're spoken about formally like on the 6 o'clock news or in a magazine or newspaper Then they call illegal aliens up in the states by their formal name in document arrows, which means Undocumented people meanwhile on the streets at work in restaurants clubs here in Latin America. They call them mojos wetbacks Not even knowing it's a pejorative term. The fact is they've got no other name for them same with black people Latinos call them Negros. There's no pejorative term for a black person in Latin America It's just Negro, which reminds me of a very funny incident
[03:58] I was at a Latinos home sitting in the living room watching a recent Hollywood cops and robbers movie dubbed in Spanish When suddenly one of the Latina ladies watching the flick with me blurted out. Hey, Johnny I'll come in so many American movies people use the word Negro over and over again Sometimes two three times in the same sentence then I thought man talk about lost in translation I know what she means, you know how people talk in the states, especially black people in the hoods and the ghettos They use the n-word like white people use the a word awesome Yeah, you know, there's a certain class of people that sprinkle the n-word in every single phrase and informal conversation Especially in the rap and hip-hop crowd not to mention for some classes of people It's become a very common greeting when you meet a friend. Tell me how many times have you heard this one?
[04:48] Hey, what up my n-word and obviously certain Hollywood movies are just littered with the n-word Take Quentin Tarantino movies. For example in the movie Django Unchained the n-word was used a hundred and ten times Then there is his movie pulp fiction The n-word was used ten times and with his movie The Hateful Eight the n-word was peppered throughout 45 times So what do you think happens when those movies get to Latin America and they all do they're dubbed Translated or subtitled and every time an actor says the n-word it's translated in Spanish literally as Negro Which is why the young Latina was so curious Why does that word show up so much even two or three times in a single phrase or sentence?
[05:35] And you know when she asked me that I thought for a second. Hmm This is gonna be an awful long explanation and still she probably won't get it. It's a cultural thing So to make things quick and easy and not hold up the movie too much I said it's like this in certain parts of the states in certain cultures in the states They interchanged the word Negro for the word man like hey, man. Hey Negro. She bought it Oh and here's something you probably didn't know when Latin Americans are using street slang Just like many people up in the states They throw in the word man quite a bit as a filler word, too Like oh man or what's up, man only man in Spanish is hombre So if you're talking to somebody your gardener your mechanic the lady in the checkout window and the tienda once in a while And maybe even quite often you're gonna hear the term see hombre
[06:22] See hombre, which means yeah, man or right man, and you'll also hear people say hombre It's like oh man and often just as blacks use the n-word as a greeting sometimes So will middle class and lower middle class Latinos use the word hombre Hombre hombre no creo like good to see you what up man or man I don't believe it when most of the times when they say see hombre Which means right man or yes, man, it'll come out as just one scrunched together word See hombre see hombre instead of see hombre By the way Latinos and Latinas alike will use the word hombre see hombre But I digress as usual where were we oh yeah talking about the guy that was calling me out for
[07:08] Saying that his country in this case Colombia was third world well from the start I knew I was wasting my breath on that guy, but he pushed on he said you know gringo when you say third world country It gives the image for your people as if we were a bunch of lazy Latinos in a Zorro movie Just sitting around with our sombreros and tequila watching the corn grow He said you ought to get with it modernize your way of thinking have a look around We're not a third world country. We're a developing country. I said oh a developing country, huh? Excuse me, and what may I ask are you developing into? He thought a second and said something like my jammy and I thought oh no he didn't really say my jammy Well, I really wasn't that surprised because that's the promised land for middle and upper middle class Latinos
[07:57] Oh a little background here We were on the eighth floor at the top floor of a residential tower You know a lot of the residential towers have a big open balcony on the top floor sometimes with a gym in the swimming pool The whole works plus a place for residents to party in the upscale towers anyway And we were looking down on the city in this case Bogota and to the left It was pretty impressive lots of construction cranes everywhere with dozens of brand-new office buildings and towers Then the Latin guy said to me doesn't that remind you just a little bit of my jammy I mean without the sand in the ocean front Then I spun around and looked over to the other side of the city the side that looked all grungy and tacky with piles Of garbage everywhere. I said yeah, but what about this side? Then he said I wouldn't worry about that in three or four years all that'll be high rises and nice neighborhoods, too
[08:46] And I thought he's probably right and you know in the moment I couldn't help thinking about what's happening in the big cities up in the states LA San Francisco Chicago They're all looking more and more like the skanky side of Bogota the difference is Bogota is on the mend It's gaining ground not losing it exactly the opposite of what's happening in the big cities in the states And then in the moment I thought man am I glad I'm not living up there anymore. How'd I get so lucky? I know for expats and gringos. It's sad to think about I mean look I'm from Chicago Don't think that what's happening to Chi town isn't a bit painful for me to hear about I mean I've got all my relatives and old friends up there, and they're stuck there believe me. They do want out now But they're stuck, but I was lucky I escaped unlike them
[09:34] I'm not in the thick of it and I can watch the place implode from a nice safe distance It truly is a sad thing to think about especially with all the relatives friends and connections you have back home But I'm afraid it's like a freight train at full speed heading for a gorge and the bridge is out But you knew that already and that's why you're listening to this show, right? Meanwhile back in Latin America in sunny Oaxaca, Mexico to be precise today We've got another listener boots on the ground report Highlighting why it's no longer a good idea to have your plan be in Mexico as if we needed more proof But with this story today our loyal listener strikes a nerve in the hearts of almost every gringo not just in Mexico either Since it's all about cops bribes and extortion and that can happen to anyone anywhere in Latin America
[10:24] So this time in Bob's email subject line he puts details of my first Federali road extortion experience. Well, sorry about that Bob, but it does happen, you know Alright, let's get into it and I'll paraphrase a bit as usual He says hola Johnny from sunny Oaxaca, Mexico after being here in bean landia That's bean landia as in refried beans, you know Frijoles the wife and I've been here five years now Well, wouldn't you know it? I was christened with my very first Federali road extortion this past week now I knew that eventually it was gonna happen. It had to happen I've listened to friends and travelers coming through here with all kinds of mixed stories about being hit by these state-sanctioned
[11:09] Legalized Banditos they call the police In fact, I know of people who've had multiple extortion experiences and others who've had none like myself. I held out for five years Alright me Johnny. Let me toss in a comment in a way. I don't like that word extortion. It sounds so severe I say that because I'm sure some of you longtime listeners heard me tell the story of how I like to keep a two-liter Bottle of coke and a big bag of Chettos. That's Chettos. That's Spanish for Cheetos a tough translation there, huh? In the back of my car for times when I might get pulled over at one of those police roadblocks and checkpoints You'd be amazed how happy and friendly the cops get when you say hey You wouldn't mind taking this stuff off my hands now. Would you here take it? I'm not hungry. I had mine earlier Yeah, right, and if you're in any way health conscious, you know, that's a lie
[11:58] So is that kind of a bribe to avoid a possible extortion situation? Why sure it is though some sticklers might say extortion is extortion whether it's for 10 cents or a million bucks But I'd say the word extortion is a little harsh if you're only talking about a coke and a bag of Chettos Oh, and by the way, I always buy the real brand name coca-cola and junk food as an American You know you have to maintain certain standards because you know Latin American cops are making four or five hundred bucks a month They always buy the cheap off-brand colas that are half the price of real coke and the local mega salty junk food Which is even more poisonous than Cheetos that stuffs dirt cheap, too It'll give you the Oprah look twice as fast So the point is having two bucks worth of junk food stashed in the back of your car in the off chance You'll get pulled over at a routine traffic stop is the cheapest kind of anti extortion insurance. There is
[12:48] I still don't like that word extortion for the small stuff, but back to our emailer He says Johnny my wife thinks it's foolish Me keeping a fifth of high-end gold tequila in an open bin between the front seats of my van She always thought it was pointless, but man did it come in handy this time and here's what happened He says I rolled up on a pretty expansive roadblock on a four-lane stretch manned by about ten cops in brown uniforms I figured they were Mexican state cops of some variety So there I was alone in my weathered old van and the cars ahead were being questioned lightly Then allowed to pass on through as I neared the zone where they pull you over But eight of them walked off down the road somewhere maybe to eat maybe to hit a whorehouse
[13:33] Who knows that left just two guys pulling cars over when I got closer They sized me up and told me to pull over for an inspection Truthfully Johnny, it's always been a dilemma for me as to how I was gonna handle that eventual shakedown situation I knew it had to come First off do I speak Spanish or played dumb as dirt? Well, here's what happened Johnny when the first dirty uniform guy came around a Guy who was definitely short of average on the IQ bell curve He came to my window and told me to unlock the passenger side door Unfortunately, my pride kicked in and I started speaking Spanish and in that moment I thought of myself. Uh-oh what I do thinking back on it Maybe it would have gone better if I'd have played the dull eyed gringo room, but so be it too late for that
[14:20] What's done is done? So the guy slipped into my passenger seat Sized up my minimal gear and surfboard and promptly said do you have two dollars for us? He said it smiling the whole time two dollars. I thought is this a setup two bucks You can't even go to McDonald's for two bucks So I said to him in Spanish. I don't have any dollars only pesos to which he said. Oh, no, I problem. Oh, that's okay After that I sat still and didn't say a thing as we both sized each other up Yep for a while there was stony silence like a true gringo Rube I was who labors a sad inclination to stand on ethical principles Yeah, as if ethics existed in this kind of situation and then his partner who seemed to be a real hipster cowboy type
[15:09] Whatever that is, but the description paints a nice picture, doesn't it? Anyway, he had perhaps a handful more brain cells than his partner The first thing he said when he came over to the door was do you have any guns or drugs? Of course, I said no, I mean who would say yes, right then he asked about that obvious bottle of tequila He said what's that for what I should have said was it's for drinking and bribing cops you moron And since I didn't know they were actually federales because of their brown uniforms I recklessly said what that tequila that's a gift for the federales Then he said no sotros on federales We are the federales and then you're not gonna believe this Johnny. He asked if I like drugs
[15:54] What a question. I thought some interrogation technique. What do you think I said? I said no I don't like drugs and he said well My partner here sure does and then he made the sign of a vagina with his two hands Well, his partner leered on and shook his head Enthusiastically, I'll tell you Johnny It couldn't have been more surreal if a Mexican version of Rod Serling stuck his head in the window and said Ben Venitos las zona desconocido Welcome to the Twilight Zone As for me, I guess I should have remained stone-faced. What do you do when confronted with something that crazy? I figured it was better to just smile and say nothing Then the hipster cop said get out We'll have to search you and I said who me yeah, right who else?
[16:39] Why do people always say that who me when you're the only one there? Then he said yes. Yes you get out and come over here So I turned off the engine got out and walked around the front of the van the whole time saying to myself Well shit is this going south, but oddly I didn't seem too rattled at the time So once I was at the passenger door the guy just touched my pocket Then climbed inside the van then he rifled through my stuff in my backpack But later on when it was over I checked and he didn't take anything Then he jumped out of the van and said to me How about you give us a little of that tequila to which I said well That's a lot of tequila for two guys to which he said yeah But there's gonna be four of us drinking it then I said in Spanish to him
[17:25] I guess we'll call this a donation then right he nodded and said see Undonation correct Oh, then I said fine Okay, and the guy lifted out the fifth and gave me a smile again and said Pass a lee pass a lee which means now you can pass or get the hell out of here Then oddly enough his mood changed. He was happy. We somehow bonded so he put his hand out for me to shake it All the while Johnny. I was wondering where that hand had been previously Better not to know Though like I said the guy was a hipster So when I reached out to take his hand he drew back slyly like the joke was on me Instead he gave me a fist bump the guy had definitely seen way too many fast and furious movies Which are by the way called in Spanish rapido y furioso
[18:13] Anyway, it was fist bumps all around with his partner, too Then they slithered off to some unknown bar cafe or whorehouse where the other cops had gone So in the end Johnny, maybe I got off cheap who knows I learned too that the locals here vary on how they deal with these Guys turns out the offers and bids do vary from a hundred pesos for a simple cup of coffee and on up as for me I carry another kind of insurance a hundred dollar bill Secreted away just in case I run into some real psycho knuckle dragger types some cops You know play the power game to the limit and talk about jail time So I guess this my first encounter with crooked cops turned out alright I'm only short a bottle of tequila, but in the end after all was said and done I just kept thinking why even deal with these sub morons in the first place
[19:01] I kept on thinking this is reason 842 to fix my gaze Somewhere south of south of the border. So then he says keep the faith Senor J. That's it. That's my story I'm sticking to it Thanks for the great continued tips via the shows me and the wife continue to learn something useful in nearly every expat files episode Signed Bob. All right, Bob. Thanks for that I'm just wondering if that was the first time you ever got pulled over or had you been pulled over before and just skipped on By now, I know you've been down in Mexico five years now That's a pretty long time how you managed not to get nicked for more data in five years I don't know especially if you drive a lot over the years It's happened to me quite a few times though It's never cost me that much at the most 20 bucks That's not to say I haven't been stopped in my almost 30 years down here now and not been nailed for more data
[19:52] If I was to put a percentage on the number of times I was stopped by the cops and paid more data I'd say maybe one in five So I'd say four out of five times they got nothing out of me And you know, I've always found the best way to deal with them is to play the dumb gringo No, Spanish, please or hit them with some Spanish. That's so god-awful bad and Incomprehensible their ears just can't take it and they give you the bums rush and shoo you along The problem is though if you're in Mexico Most of the cops know enough English so that if you don't know any Spanish or play the dumb gringo They'll use their 20 words of English on you and one of those words will always be money dinero Another popular English word with cops on the take gift as in where is my gift? However, when you're south of south of the border as you pass into Guatemala and parts south
[20:41] There probably isn't one cop in 50 that even knows 20 English words unless of course prior to being a cop He was an illegal up in the states got caught and deported then he'll know plenty of words of bad street corner English Which reminds me of a show I did five years ago or so You might remember I mentioned two cops. I kept running into over and over again I used to see their cruiser parked out in front of various fast food joints one of the cops would go out of his way to come and talk to me in his broken street English and his backstory exactly as Mentioned he snuck into the states worked for three years in a meatpacking joint got busted and deported and now he's one of Guatemala's finest Whatever that is now You'd think a guy who would snuck into a country illegally and got deported would upon his return have very limited job opportunities
[21:28] But just the opposite he pointed out that on the police department application you put down You know some English you get extra points in your favor in fact It's such a desirable thing to have on your resume when you check the box and put down your comprehension level They'll send you into another room to have a talk with an English-speaking cop just to make sure you're not BSing about it Oh, and he told me because his English was pretty good They bumped him up to a cop with his own patrol car and that as you might imagine It's every cop stream to have his own patrol car because they don't make enough to own their own cars The patrol car becomes the family vehicle, too Here's another thing you can count on in the cop extortion racket Remember Bob said the other eight cops took off for a walk and only two cops shook him down Well, that's the plan the cops will never shake you down if there's a big group of them
[22:17] However, expect a possibility of an extortion play if you're stopped by just one or two cops So why is that? Well, you probably heard me say this before but when it's a group of cops, let's say 5 10 Whatever there's always one or two guys in the group that don't go for that kind of stuff and or there are clicks Rivalries and jealousies in the group Besides if there's eight cops in on it. The split is gonna be pretty miserable So remember if you do get pulled over and there are lots of cops around Everything's usually on the up-and-up but still make that offer of the two liter coke and Chetos Why because that should make sure you're off and on the road in record time Because you see in my experience every time you get pulled over at one of those stops and you're not bearing gifts That's generally a half hour or more out of your day. You can count on it
[23:02] And why is that? Well first thing they'll ask is for your papers They'll walk off somewhere with them three or four of them will huddle and have a look at your stuff They'll open your doors and trunk poke around a bit They'll make a few orbits around your car talk about uncle Julio and Cleveland and ask if you know him Let's just say when you're dealing with cops south of south of the border They're on their own kind of manana time manana time on downers Oh and Bob's dead right when he talks about the reaction you get after you paid him off suddenly It's old home week your best friends now I remember that happened to me just about a year ago now two motorcycle cops Stopped me at night on the beach in a big resort town and they asked to see my papers I didn't have they were in my hotel room just about two blocks away They said it was a requirement that everyone had to have papers on them, which I knew was not true in the end
[23:51] I ended up giving them a quote gift of ten bucks They got off their rice burner put their arms around me and gave me a big bear hug Hey, my own brothers aren't that friendly to me unless they haven't seen me in three or four years Meanwhile since we were talking about Mexico and how it's not a good place to have your plan be Comes this article came out August 30th 2019 the title in Mexican cities you can feel the fear and I'll paraphrase this and cut out the boring parts It says the only hint that anything is wrong in La Estancia a leafy suburb of the Mexican city of Guadalajara Are the dozens of for sale signs posted in the yards of the houses in the neighborhood? It says people started moving out of La Estancia in May when police started finding
[24:38] Decomposed bodies and some of the houses in the neighborhood Then it says just last month a kidnapped victim escaped and directed police to another address in the same neighborhood Inside they found a corpse and three severed heads and so far this year police have discovered more than 15 murder and burial Sites in the city some holding dozens of dead bodies most of them found in rented homes Turns out criminals have found a better way to dispose of their bodies Using private rental properties turns out when you hide or bury a body within a home that act creates legal barriers to Authority access often the bodies can remain in houses for years without being found Neighbors sometimes know about this the silence of those neighbors fuels the impunity although some locals later report hearing screams or smelling
[25:28] Decayed flesh few dare to call the police on the house next door then it says between 2006 in 2016 at least 1,978 clandestine burial sites were unearthed in Mexico then it says there are so many cases of missing persons 40,000 missing in the last 10 years that Desperate parents have taken up the task of digging for the remains of their missing kids and these efforts have led to shocking Discoveries for example in 2016 an anonymous tip-off led one group of parents to a wooded area in the eastern state of Veracruz Where they discovered at least? 298 bodies and thousands of bone fragments But more recently since it's always more difficult to search a private property because you need a warrant to enter
[26:14] Criminal gangs have been burying and storing bodies in house rental units different gangs rent from landlords Who have no idea what the properties being used for but they get the rent and as long as they get the rent No questions are asked. It says there are also many documented cases where Uninhabited properties have been turned into torture houses or burial sites, too Then it says police officials are warning that this particularly new body Disposal tactic is taking its cue elsewhere from the Department of Jalasco Then it says the problem is so severe in a particular housing complex known as Chula Vista That locals have taken to breaking up the doors of abandoned homes to prevent criminals from using them as their burial and body dump sites meanwhile back in Guadalajara in
[27:00] 2018 Authorities discovered so many dead bodies they ended up renting refrigerator trailers to put the bodies in in one case Authorities said just one trailer was filled with 273 unidentified bodies and for some time they had it parked on the street in a suburban area of Guadalajara Wow, talk about gruesome, huh? My advice forget about Mexico for your plan B if you still think it's a good idea You're out of your mind But by all means have a plan B and get it going soon But make sure it's south of south of the border 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
[27:48] Insider seminar in Central America where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan B Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com