#900 – The Expat Files 900: Vegan Living, Health, Water Crises, and Venezuela’s Exodus

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 that I wonder Hello there all you ex-pat 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 red letter day today It's show number 900 for me and good old expat Eddie who hasn't made an appearance on the show in quite a while Wants me to tell you all that he's alive. In fact, that's how he checks in with me He writes his toy Vivo, which means I'm alive and sometimes he writes Asta or Vivo, which means until now anyway

[00:52] Anyway, we'll be checking in with some brand-new expat Eddie stories shortly. So stay tuned for that Wow show 900 hell you think I'd run out of things to babble about huh and all in all after a couple of million downloads I guess more and more people have figured out It's time to have a plan B But you knew that already right or you wouldn't be listening speaking of having a plan B I'm gonna throw in my seminar plug right now and get it over with my next expat insider seminar will kick off January 10th 2020 that's Friday night and we'll go all the way through to the following Thursday night January 16 half the time or more we'll be hanging in the Guatemala and Altiplano region the perpetual spring like weather You'll experience that and then every morning

[01:37] We'll have a lecture from 8 till noon and then we'll be off with boots on the ground excursions To some of the most fabulous than mind-blowing places and yes, we'll be going to one of those gigantic food markets I'm always talking about so you'll be able to see for yourself Why fresh food and vegetables down here cost a third to a fifth of what they cost up by you in the states Then we'll be seeing doctors hospitals real estate city living burb living various subdivisions the good the bad the ugly and the great Well, you know the whole fire hose treatment and of course expat insider seminar repeat offenders will get a thousand dollars off the regular price And I've got that extra sign-up bonus offer that is for everyone who signs up for the seminar You'll get a free one-hour skype or phone consult just you and me

[02:25] Where we can talk about everything and anything that has to do with the seminar your plan be starting a business housing cryptocurrencies apartment living off the grid living health care in Latin America or the price of hockey pucks Whatever you want to talk about for all the info the itinerary how to sign up the pricing etc Just go to www.the expat files calm and click on Johnny's seminar link or just go to www.the expat files calm seminar and Of course you could do what a lot of people do that is kill two birds with one stone Stay on an extra week after the seminar and apply for your Guatemalan residency If that's in your plan our seminar lawyer will hold your hand through all of that. Anyway, hope to see you there

[03:10] Now you heard me mention that at the seminar will be visiting one of those gigantic fresh vegetable and produce markets Which leads us right into this email from John. He says Johnny still playing catch-up with 20% of your shows I've not heard yet mostly in the last two years So I don't know if I've missed any wisdom from you about this particular subject I'm almost completely vegan, but I'm willing to taste Latin American food that contains animal products at least once But I wouldn't want to eat a complete meal and I have no intention of giving up being mostly or totally vegan in the long run I would probably try dishes though where the non-vegan components can be easily removed Which rules out food that has been extensively cooked or makes extensive use of non-vegan sauces

[03:59] So Johnny the question is how are vegans in Latin America dealing with all of this? It seems to me that at least 75% of the food down there contains animal flesh Dairy eggs or all three so short of exclusively doing my own cooking or opening a restaurant Would I have a rough time staying mostly vegan? Would that be a no? Yes, or a maybe regards Johnny from expat wannabe and gonna be John from the belly of the beast Alright John all good questions and I know you're up there in the belly of the beast But I'm kind of thinking you've never been to Latin America at least not off the gringo tourist trail Because if you've spent any time down here you've probably meandered over to one of those gigantic fruit and vegetable markets and

[04:46] Being a vegan or nearly a vegan your eyes would have practically popped out of your head there's simply nothing like them not up where you live and Vegetarians vegans natural food types. It's like 7th heaven forum because the truth is there are many vegans who've come down to my expat Insiders seminars a lot of them ended up staying in Latin America mostly in Central America and they've got nothing but amazing things to say about the food down here And you know if you visit one of these guys or gals and you walk into the kitchen or pantry you'll see gigantic Quantities of fruits and vegetables of the sort you just don't see up in the states even at those very expensive non-gmo organic farmers markets Nope, there's really no comparison So not only if I never heard a single complaint from a vegan down here, you know, it's just the opposite

[05:35] I hear nothing but good things about the quantity quality and of course the prices Hey as for me, I hit the markets all the time I usually go once every two weeks and I stock up with vast quantities Because you know health and nutrition are kind of my hobbies too ever since my dear old dad croaked heart attack 54 Ex-professional sports guy and still at 54 quite thin no weight problem But he was on the all-american junk food diet had to have his bread lunch meat candy bars and donuts every day Not to mention he was addicted to diet coke and tums And I'll tell you the day he died is when I swore off all that stuff I have not had a fast food hamburger hot dog anything like that or processed meats in 35 years

[06:22] That's when he passed around 35 years ago I have zero fast food junk food packaged food or processed food around the house Though sometimes when I'm out at a restaurant, I'll wax up and have a nice big slab of cheesecake But I know myself all too well And if I have junk food or any kind of fast food around the house I'll get up at 2 in the morning and eat it So I just avoid temptation and don't have it around though talking to gringles and expats were not very health conscious They're not very picky discerning or knowledgeable or don't care what they're putting down their cake hole The unfortunate thing at least from my viewpoint is so many gringles and expats decide they have to eat American food brands, you know the imported stuff and that stuff's here. Alright, I mean they got Walmart and Costco everywhere So you can get practically every well-known name brand of packaged and processed stuff

[07:10] You're used to getting back home But then of course your favorite US crap food brands will have to be imported for example a food I never eat ketchup now you go into a Latin American food store even a Walmart or Costco They'll carry two or three brand names of ketchup That's made locally or at least within the country or nearby country and if you're in one of the bigger supermarkets They'll have Heinz ketchup too, which just might be twice the price of the local stuff So you might ask yourself why is that stuff even in the store when they've got a couple of local brands won't they suffice? Well because there's a market for it With gringles and expats being a very small part of that market unless you're in a gringoized tourist area Then American products will be seen in most all stores But when you're not on the tourist trail or near one most of the demand for American labels will be coming from the Latino

[08:00] gringo wannabe sector because you know the image is firmly Implanted in almost every Latinos mine that anything made in the US or Europe is better than the local stuff And that's definitely not true in the perfect example ketchup which if you look at the label you'll see contains a hell of a lot of sugar and With the more expensive US label Heinz brand that sugar is high fructose corn syrup And that's a recipe for obesity diabetes and all kinds of other health problems, but you knew that already Meanwhile the local brands have regular cane sugar still not good for you But I don't have to tell you guys the difference between real sugar and high fructose corn syrup So there's really two problems with buying imported foods here in Latin America number one they're gonna jack up your cost of living because they're always more expensive and

[08:48] Number two your health will slowly Deteriorate if you don't try to wean yourself off the good old American diet The truth is locally made and produce products are often very good and much healthier Definitely cheaper now John also questions in that email if you're a vegan will you have to do much of your own cooking? Well, it seems like these days even the hole-in-the-wall Restaurants will have some kind of vegan or vegetarian selections on the menu so you'll have no trouble if you eat out a lot and The closer you are to a tourist or gringo area the more you're likely to run into vegetarian restaurants It's all the rage, you know And even when you're way off the gringo tourist trail if you happen to be in a wealthy or more high-end area You know the buildings the cars the roads everything looks first world

[09:34] you're sure to find some vegan and vegetarian restaurants there too because Latinos with dough are extreme gringo wannabes and since vegetarian and vegan restaurants are trendy up in the states Naturally, you'll find them in the wealthier districts here in Latin America, too Another great example of the gringo wannabe effect sushi restaurants I mean hell that's how some 10 years ago or so now expat Eddie made all his dough He opened his first tiny little sushi restaurant. Actually. It was a kiosk in a mall. It was totally off the gringo tourist trail Where do you think all his clients came from? Well, they weren't gringos because there were no gringos around They were Latino gringo wannabes with more dough than brains Which brings up another point don't ever confuse a Latino with money or a nice car for a well-rounded Latino with a legitimate brain

[10:24] They don't correlate all that much seems with Latinos the more dough or credit they have the more they show off Down here. It's a hard and fast rule the bigger the car the smaller the dick the bigger the dickhead though I guess it's like that in the states, too, isn't it? All right, let's move on and this time we'll hit on the subject of that never-ending Venezuelan saga it might surprise you to know that I've got lots of listeners in Venezuela and Lots of listeners up in the states were part Venezuelan or married to Venezuela knows Check out this email. I just got from rod. He says hi Johnny. I'm addicted to your show I was born in Venezuela, but I've lived most of my life outside of it, and I did elementary school in France But I did go to high school in Caracas in the 1980s

[11:09] I remember that on the way to my parents house There was a broken pipe that ran over a paved road The leak was so great and remained unfixed for so long that it created a little forest in an otherwise barren landscape Things started growing all around it Well guess what last time I went to Caracas a couple of years ago The leak was still there and the forest ever bigger 35 years later Needless to say my parents who still live there have a cistern in their condo building and another two Sisters right in their condo the one inside their apartment was added later when Hugo Chavez Water shortages became so horrible that the building cistern the big one was no longer enough

[11:55] These days. It's so bad. They keep buckets around the house as well by the way Johnny I bought one of those little water filters you recommended Thank you so much for that the cool thing is the Sawyer filter can use regular water pressure Plus it has a gravity filtration pouch that comes with it You can use when there's no pressure at all in the pipes which happens in Venezuela a lot, and it's a dreadful situation So when you use the Sawyer filter gravity bag, you don't need any electricity or water pressure. It's great All right, just a little comment from me here I know Rod wrote that email in response to the show I had about Having your plan be here in Latin America and whether or not you're gonna be on municipal or your own private Well, and you know, I've warned if you have a municipal system You have to have a big cistern because chances are the water won't be pumping 24 hours a day

[12:44] It just won't be available That's the way things are here in Latin America when you're on municipal water because municipal water is run by the government It always is just like up in the States But up in the States you have water 24-7 even though the government runs it But let's see how long that lasts when the next crisis comes Anyway down here when you're on municipal water meaning you live in a city You might have water 8 12 or 16 hours a day, which also is a dreadful situation but if you have a big cistern You won't know it because the cistern will be filling all the time when the water pressures on and that'll kick in When the water pressure is gone, it's automatic. And of course, you could collect rainwater from the roof It's not illegal like it is in so many places up in the States Now about the fact that most municipal water supplies in Latin America are only on so many hours a day

[13:31] You heard me mention that in a previous show, but it does not have to be that way because it's not that there's not enough water There's plenty of water It's been estimated that in almost all Latin American municipal water systems 50% of the water is lost By leaky or broken pipes And that's why rod mentioned his own experience with a pipe that's been broken for 35 years And you know Venezuela is a basket case But believe me that kind of stuff doesn't just happen in Venezuela I could drive through any Latin American city or town and point out certain patches of moisture that have been there for weeks Months, who knows even years the fact is it's got to be a real broken pipe gusher For the municipality slugs to get off their dead asses even so the repair could take days

[14:19] So just be aware of that and if you're gonna live in the city on municipal water have a nice big sister And you'll be fine. Oh and get one of those recommended Sawyer water filters that rod was talking about Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com I'll send you off an Amazon link and you too could buy that system for well under 50 bucks And it'll last you a lifetime and with the extra added bonus as rod says It'll work if you've got no electricity or water pressure at all It's got a little gravity feed pouch attachment that'll give you a constant supply of drinking water under any adverse condition It's a tiny little thing too no bigger than a clenched fist by the way it's a favorite of backpackers because you take that thing out in the jungle or on top of volcano and Rig up the gravity attachment then you could make up a batch of pure drinking water every time you run across the stream or body of

[15:11] Water as for me. I've got two of those Sawyer water setups I take one with me everywhere and the other ones a spare all right then rod says in his email Johnny Regarding the privatization issue in Latin America yes I agree with you people love their subsidies But the big problem at least in Venezuela is that when they privatize they usually give the company the same Monopoly that the government company enjoyed in other words the government doesn't open the business up for competition And it's often a no-bid sweetheart deal to friends relatives or cronies or for a payoff and often government Services if you can call them that are so inefficient that private enterprises offer cheaper services even without a subsidy

[15:59] That is provided there is actual competition in the market And yes, you can have competing companies using the same pipes and distribution when it comes to water It's complicated But the landline phone and cable companies have shared the same networks in the USA and electric power companies Share wiring networks and transmission lines etcetera so other countries can do it too anyway Johnny Keep up the good work rod from Venezuela living in Toronto Canada man Talk about culture and weather shock moving to Canada from Venezuela anyway since we're all over Venezuela today How about this one isn't it funny not in a laughing sense? That Venezuela has had an exodus of nearly five million people in the last couple years

[16:44] mostly escaping to adjacent Latin countries and now there are 90 and 180 day visas have expired so most of them are Technically illegal and at first the neighboring countries welcome them with open arms until the flow became too much for them Sound familiar now just lately last year So I've been traveling a great deal through Latin America and everyone and I mean everyone in whatever Latin American country you're in is Singing the same tune. They're saying at first we were nice enough to let them in but now enough is enough They're wreaking havoc on our social services and some of them have turned to crime and worse and doesn't that sound familiar, too? Now the difference between the diaspora of Venezuelans flooding into adjacent countries Then let's say the masses of Haitians slipping into the Dominican Republic is that Venezuelans are almost always

[17:35] Much more educated and cultured than their neighbors because you know for years some would say even a century Venezuela was the richest country in all Latin America the most cultured had the highest literacy rate at least till around the year 1999 when the corrupt socialist Chavez regime took over So what you get is a giant exodus of mostly educated Venezuelan or at least more educated than the neighboring countries But they've overstayed their welcome as this article that just came out on October 8th points out kind of a brutal way Starts out Venezuelan migrant Freddie Brito. No, not burrito They don't have burritos in Venezuela who lost a leg when he was shot years ago Uses a borrowed wheelchair to get to the site where he boards buses to sing for tips

[18:23] That's how he makes his money in Lima, Peru on this day Mr. Beto had just finished belting out a couple of tunes on the bus and was crossing the street on his one good leg When a taxi driver feared toward him aiming to hit him He yelled get the hell out of my country The taxi driver brushed up against him with his car knocked his cassette player and backpack to the ground Which was filled with his songs that in a previous lifetime had made him almost famous in Venezuela Now the Peruvian taxi driver was hurt to yell Veneto That's a derogatory term now used for Venezuelans in other countries It'd be the Venezuelan version of the n-word veneco So what's going on? What's it all about? Well as Venezuela's mass exodus persists the initial warm welcome

[19:10] Most Venezuela's got from neighboring countries is wearing awful thin in fact in the last few months Multiple videos have appeared on social media in Peru especially having shown immigrants from Venezuela being assaulted threatened and harassed in various ways sparking concerns that Xenophobic attacks on the newcomers are mounting and in some cases approaching a critical stage In fact polls and data point to a great uptick in the number of Venezuelan migrants and refugees who report experiencing Discrimination, especially in South America where the majority have settled in Peru for example It's gotten so bad in such a hot spot for discrimination a recently established Army men in uniform are saying on a loudspeaker that they won't let another

[20:13] miserable Venezuelan into Peru then in another video a young Venezuelan man is seen pleading with dozens of officers surrounding him as They take away his small box of chocolates He's selling to try to make a living for himself on the street on the video You can hear him saying in Spanish, of course How am I gonna eat now and he's on the verge of tears and in Peru? The xenophobia has even reached the Congress where one angry lawmaker one Esther Took up the microphone to lash out of against the Venezuelan saying good or bad. They need to leave Peru now So it's not surprising people are acting in that way when foreigners arrive in a country where economies are not prepared to absorb the workforce Whose social safety net has been stretched to the limit but back to our one-legged musician Brito

[21:02] He admits in an interview that Peruvians are screwing with him all the time and in one instance Even tried to make off with his prosthetic limb as he sat on a park bench near his home He said some adolescent Peruvians grabbed his leg and yelled at him This thing must be worth something as they unsuccessfully tried to remove it after demanding his watch and wedding ring He says his prosthetic leg attaches to his right knee and requires a liner that must be replaced every six months But it's now three years old and cuts into his skin painfully So he mostly chooses not to wear it which is why he hops around Lima on one foot instead Then there's the case of his wife who took a job at a beauty parlor when they first arrived She said some Peruvian clients the uppity ones Actually refused to let her touch their hair because she's a dirty Venezuela

[21:51] She said that in the year or so they've been in Peru their family has been kicked out of two apartments on account of their nationality and they now live in a church shelter and the two most Latin countries prejudiced against Venezuelans Colombia and Peru because out of the estimated 4.5 to 5 million Venezuelans who fled half of those are now residing in those two countries Colombia and Peru Yes, isn't socialism and I'll use the a word here. Awesome, man. I hate that word Meanwhile back on the Venezuelan mainland more news. You'll probably never hear up in the first world This is according to the Spanish newspaper el nationale and we'll translate here. It says Russia has already begun the process to take over a PDVSA, which is Venezuelans national oil company

[22:39] It's being turned over to Russian state-owned oil company Roseneft Western analysts would say this would make Venezuela a Russian satellite and put the US in peril And here's why turns out the Maduro regime has a huge debt with Russia and to cover that debt He provided forty nine point nine percent of the shares of Venezuelans oil company PDSA to Russian oil company Rosneft as a guarantee and now that Venezuela's defaulted on their loans to Russia a complete handover of the company to the Russians looks imminent soon It says they'll have total control of PDVSA They've already demanded that Venezuela reduced the personnel because currently there are over 70,000 people on the PDVSA payroll and the Russians say it's not feasible

[23:26] To absorb a company that's not competitive They're also reviewing the ships and facilities to determine the actual situation of the Venezuelan oil industry Before they make their bid based on that it says they should close the deal soon the process It says should not take long because there's a dire emergency Default situation and works then the article says the Venezuelan regime is seeking legal means to hand over the control to the Russians Without being labeled in the process as an act of privatization Which is not legal unless the National Assembly votes on it and approves the exemption under Venezuelan law Then it goes on to say previously in the second quarter of 2019 The Russian state-owned oil company announced that PDVSA had reduced its debt from 1.8 billion dollars to 1.1 billion US dollars

[24:18] And it says according to economist Alexander Guerrero Venezuela was able to restructure its debt with Russia by paying them off with a gold shipment amounting to 666 million US dollars turns out it says the multi-billion dollar debt that Venezuela owes Russia is the main link between the two countries then it says what's not widely publicized is that in June of 2019? The Maduro regime gave Russia two new gas fields and granted it a hundred percent control of the project and all rights to extracted gasoline Yup, as they say you don't want to be indebted to the Russians You got that right then it says as of today the Russian state-owned oil company owns large percentages of Venezuelan oil fields Petromongo's oil field they own 40% petro Miranda 32% petro

[25:09] Uhura 40% Bloch Iran 26.6% Petro, Victoria 40% and June in more than 30% then it says it's noteworthy to find that in December 2016 it was revealed that Maduro secretly mortgaged the Citgo refinery to Russia for a multi-billion dollar loan and Citgo and PDVSA are in default on the payment meaning Roseneff should end up owning get this Important oil refineries and pipelines located in the US under the Citgo name now That's the reason I'm reading part of this article in the first place which begs the question you have any Citgo gas stations Where you live well very soon the attendance just might be speaking Russian then it says one

[25:54] Francisco Mondaldi a noted oil industry expert and researcher at the Baker Institute at the University of Raleigh, North Carolina points out that he believes Vladimir Putin's government has played a genius game of chess in Venezuela against the US because since moving into Venezuela and Making deals with the oil fields. They've benefited in every way from the unprecedented crisis And in the end the Russian government will end up owning properties in the US Mondaldi says Putin has made a brilliant move by Acquiring a large position in Citgo from the Venezuelans then it says Madera was only able to play into the hands of Putin Because PDVSA the Venezuelan National Oil Company has destroyed itself

[26:43] The company used to produce three and a half million barrels a day in 1998 and today it only produces 640,000 barrels a day that's down to less than 20% of its maximum production capability, which is why Madera's regime turned to Russia Desperately trying to find a way out. Meanwhile, it says one prominent Venezuelan Economist says it would be treason to the homeland of Venezuela to try to exchange Russian debt for complete control of PDVSA The Venezuelan National Oil Company it will also violate the Venezuelan Constitution But since when has the Venezuelan Constitution ever stopped Nicolas Madero? Who's somehow managed to change it a number of times after all since Maduro got in office Anyway, the Venezuelan Constitution used to mandate presidential term limits

[27:32] You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan B We can schedule a one-on-one phone or Skype consult Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week-long expat insider seminar in Central America Where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan B Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com. No spamos