This week on 4 From the South, Steve and Fab talk about how things are getting better in Venezuela and a new genre of video games that’s growing in Brazil. They also talk about the tragic and unbelievable story of a deer killing a Paraguayan presidential bodyguard. Finally, the guys discuss the latest innovation to come from Atlanta, Coca-Cola’s newest beverage.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It. Welcome back. It's four from the South. I'm Steve Healey.
I'm here with my man, Fabrizio Capano. Fab. How are
(00:22):
you doing, Bud? Hello? Everyone, Happy to be back in
the premier place to know what's going on all over
Big Latin America. If you want to know what's going
on all over Big Latin America, but you want it
in English, and you want it with a slightly humorous twist, uh,
this is the spot for you. It's four from the South,
so let's not screw around. I'm gonna give us the
(00:44):
rundown of the show Today. We're gonna be talking about Venezuela,
which apparently, Fab, you're gonna fill us in on this
is getting better. We're gonna cover Brazil, where video games
starring politicians have become kind of a sensation. It's somewhat tragic,
but also a quite weird story from Paraguay where a
presidential guard was killed by a deer. We're gonna talk
(01:05):
about that, and then we're gonna hear about a new beverage.
Coca Cola is going to be bringing us um pre
made Fresca cocktails, which I think we can call that
a somewhat. It's a that's a big Latin American story.
So look, we don't have any time to waste for
bto what is going on. Talk to me about Venezuela.
I'm hearing Venezuela is getting better or at least that's
(01:26):
a that's a pr campaign. I mean that once again,
we're in this weird dystopian world where there's one reality
and there's another one happening on the internet. And this
story goes back to a couple of months ago where
the youtubeer sensation called Luisito Comunica. There is a Mexican
YouTuber that is famous because he traveled around the world.
(01:47):
He showed you places and he's like silly and fun
and that's it. And there's there's a famous video of
him going to Chernobyl and just hanging out in Chernobyl
and be like this is the craziest place, and everyone
in the comments is like a lot of people die there. Stop. Stop,
it's not your playground. But the thing is like Luisito
(02:11):
is a huge YouTuber. Everyone loved him, and he went
to Venezuela and make a video like I bought a
big how it's a big mansion in Venezuela, so chip
and it's amazing and looks like Venezuela is getting better.
And that started a trend that is like Venezuela is
getting better because we all know Venezuela has been in
(02:34):
a bad place for decades now and it was getting
worse and worse. There's like, I don't know the number
of inflation. It's just insane. There's no way that you.
I mean, I think the minimum which is like three
dollars um. So it's really really, really really bad. But
it looks like in the last couple of years something
(02:55):
interesting how happened that It's like, first the dollar went
a little bit up. Uh in Venezuela. We're talking about
like the inflation is insane, so just a little bit.
It's a lot when you when you're in that position. Uh.
And then it used to be like the government didn't
allow you to pay in dollars. You know, they were
trying to you to use their currency. But it's not
(03:18):
like now they don't care. I mean no, now they
it's not like they officially say they don't care, but
like they stopped caring. They're like, okay, just dollars whatever,
we don't we're not. We're not. We can't handle currency.
Are you kidding me? We don't even know what is that.
It's that's still a concept. So they decided to just like, okay,
(03:38):
bring your dollars and spend it here, and looks like
that got the system a little bit better. And there was,
of course, once again a lot of criticism because it's like, hey, listen,
it's getting better if you have money, but for real people,
this is still a nagmare. And and at the same time,
it's like, stop putting out there on the internet that
(04:00):
a Venezuela is getting better, because make it looks like
this government is legit. It's like doing the things the
right way, and it's not helping, you know, the Venezuelan
cause of taking down Maduro and restoring democracy. So it's
like this dystopian YouTube world where like Gusito said that,
and then another started a trend, and another YouTuber is
(04:21):
starting like, yeah, it's getting better. I went to this
and now this is happening, and like I went to
like this restaurant and blah blah blah, and they started
this whole trend of Venezuela getting better. A lot of
Venezuelans who were abroad went to Venezuela to visit, and
they say that it's like getting slightly better, but at
the same time still slightly better in a place that
(04:41):
is like so so bad, it's still unfair for the
people in Venezuela. So that's what's going on right now.
You know, I've noticed something fab about famous YouTubers and tiktoker's.
They generally are not known for like really precise, nuanced analysis.
(05:03):
Usually the first impression that they get they go with
that and they go on the vibe. And they're also
generally not um like cynical. It doesn't seem to play
on YouTube. Is not like the kind of dour talking
about how bad things are. Talking about how great things
are plays a lot better. I'm looking at this guy, Luisito.
He seems like he's just he's got a you know,
(05:26):
his shirt down to like almost his belly button. He
seems like a positive kind of guy having fun. That
seems like what he's his brand. And I don't think
it would be in his interest to talk about Venezuela's
nuanced problems of politics and uh currency management. So maybe
he's just doing this. It looks like they can go
(05:47):
to Hell and you have a great day and say
it's awesome, buddy, Satan, it's so warm down here, you
don't need to wear clothes. It's great. They got the demons,
just like bring new fire whenever you needed. Just have
one good day, just one good day and that's enough.
You need to make that like broad statement. Yeah, that's
(06:09):
beautiful Hell. That would be a good YouTube for sure.
Maybe we should send Luisito to Hell and see what
he can do with that. I'm sure he will come
out with a very positive outcome of the Yeah, by
the way, Lusia is annoying, but it's not the worst one.
Like when you have like a Luisito, then you have
(06:29):
a world around him of more annoying and less successful YouTubers. Yes,
those are the one who are really pushing this idea
they have They don't have the natural gift of Luisito.
By the way, I'm on luisito is Wikipedia page. It
says here that he um he owned shares of a
Japanese food restaurant Diego and Kato in Mexico City, and
(06:50):
he launched a tequila called Grandmallow, and he's got a
fast food restaurant that he created called fast food. Um,
have you had an opportunity to try this? It sounds
like another YouTuber has been criticizing the quality of Luisita's
fast food. But next time in Mexico City, I might
look this up, go to fast food. This is a
(07:13):
new thing I I know also another instagrammer who's getting
his restaurant. I think it's that's that does anything you need?
You see again, that doesn't match, you know, a restaurant.
You quality control, precision. Sometimes you have to reject some
things like you know it's it's not it doesn't go
with the YouTuber attitude. And these guys are doing fine.
(07:34):
As YouTubers keep doing that, they want more money, they
want more power. They know that the powers and restaurants Venezuela.
It's not getting like really better. It's just like having
maybe like a not that that that bad moment. But
you they Internet created this STrenD of like hey guys,
(07:56):
we're out of this problem. And of course they government
was like, yes, it's true, I were doing great and
yes is right. Some of these journalists who worked for
the Chavismo like they were like yes, yes he's right,
thank you for saying it, you know, like the real
(08:18):
media is scared of telling the truth. We're doing great,
So yeah, that's that's that's what's going on. I think
in Venezela. Well, in a way, you know, Venezuela, it
seems like it's kind of it's been. It's been in
what I perceived to be sort of anarchic chaos or
disorder for so long. That's sure. There'll be ups and downs.
I mean sometimes it will be better or worse. The
(08:40):
situation doesn't seem to be improving, right, there's still this
guy Madua. They're numerous coups that have sort of flopped somehow.
They're not shaking this guy. But the economy is a
total disaster. If you want to have if you wanted
to do something like build a business in Venezuela, I
don't know how you would do it. So you just
sort of it's just a it's a struggle. But I
don't know. There will be ups and downs with in
that cycle, right. I mean, even if you have like
(09:02):
a terminal ill patient in a hospital one day, one
war me, he will be like a little better. That
doesn't mean like he's out of like he needs to.
You will go home. The same day. Yes, when you
have somebody who has like a very very sick relative
or their grandfather something, it's like they go, they go,
(09:24):
he has good days and bad and that's sort of
maybe that's how it is. Like one of those good days,
one of those good mornings you have happened next to
him screaming in a camera and they're like, he looks great,
he's amazing, looks like he can run a marathon. I
think he's in accative. You know, I'm not going to criticize.
(09:46):
I've never heard of him before he began recording this podcast.
I've now looked at a picture of him, scan his
Wikipedia page. Hear do you describe him? And I think
we need people like that. He's positive, he's bringing some joy. Look,
if you go to him for a sharp political analysis,
I think that's kind of on you. That's not your guy. Yeah,
that's that's your mistake. Yeah, that's very happy. He have
(10:06):
his own brand of clothes. I don't know if you
want to get some Lusito call himself also, Oh yeah,
that's that's Lusito. Well let's reach out to him. We'll
get him on the show. Let's see if we can
get him on four from the South this season if possible. Okay,
(10:34):
what else have you got for his fab Something's going
on in Brazil video games, political video games not AP
phrases here often. A couple of weeks ago, we were
talking to this m M a fight between a council
Brazilian part of the Brazilian I think of sal Paolo,
councilman and I think a senator, like they went to
(10:58):
an m mL fight to solve their problem MS. And
looks like this trend is now going online because someone
came up with a video game where they it's like
a street fighter or Mortal Kombat kind of format. You know,
we all know those games. Sure, two guys fighting classic Classic,
just the basics, and they he decided to do with
(11:20):
the Brazilian politicians. Okay, cool. Yeah, it's called candy that
those with a k uh and you can play with it. Yeah,
and you can play with players like both Scenario or
Lulu that are Scenario and Lula. Um. Yeah, and the
(11:44):
graphics are pretty cool. People are just went viral online,
like fifty people have don't loaded this game. It's uh,
it's uh and yeah, it's just like a lot of
people that high because it's like the country is so
polarized right now that it just became a trend to
(12:06):
play this video game with politicians, of course right now
the extreme right, and we can say like, yeah, they
left fighting, yeah for your entertainment. This I learned something
from reading this article here I'm in the Economist talking
about it. The headlines video games involving politicians have gone
(12:28):
viral in Brazil. But it's it says it's in the
article that because of weird taxes and stuff, like, the
video game culture of Brazil evolved in kind of a
weird way. So like Sega, the Sega console is still
kind of popular and people are still playing Sega there,
which I think is cool. Yeah, okay, So the idea
of like an independent, homegrown video game that could be
(12:49):
up to speed with the news totally foreign to me
when I was a kid playing video games. But now
it seems like people can. It's not beyond the realm
of the possibility to like make a video game that
you can and then you can tell to people within days.
It's not like you need to make it and put
it in a little box and sell it the toys
r us. So I think we'll see more and more
kind of like political commentary, social commentary through video games,
(13:11):
right that seems like a trend to keep an eye on. Yeah,
this is this is my problem with this is like
I I, of course I'm watching movies, TV, listening to
some podcasts. Then I tried to read books, then video games.
It is too hard to pull into my system. I
think video games are so relevant right now, and I
(13:33):
know they're great. I'm not saying that they're they're like
for kids, they're really great graphics and storylines and wherever
I can't it's just like I can't. I can't imagine
when I'm going to like put a video game and
play for six hours, so we can't see it. It's
also like the sort of like initial like I tried
to play the game Red Dead Redemption, highly acclaimed video
(13:56):
game Beautiful World Wild West kind of stuff looked awesome,
but like the first thing I have to do is
spend like twenty minutes learning how to get on a
horse in the game. It seemed to suddenly video games
require like discipline and attention and hours and hours of
preliminary work, where they used to be like you put
in a quarter, you go nuts. Um, it's and it's
(14:20):
like you have to learn this new language. Yeah, yeah,
let's start. No, it's it's they're very complicated, and I
know people love that about them, that they're getting very
specific and whatever. But at the same time, it's just
like it's supposed to be destructive and and now it's
it's also a lot of work. So I don't know,
(14:43):
I don't know. I can't put video games in my mind.
Uh sorry, world can't. I think I'm glad that there's
something there's like sixty hours of activities a week for
unemployed young men especially to do, because god forbid, like
they didn't have video games, what these people, what would
get up to out in the world like this is
if that's if they're diffusing the energy of the youth
(15:06):
of the world, maybe that's good. Although on the other hand,
maybe that's like exactly what the corporate masters want to
distract the energy that could be turned to political revolution
into video games. I guess the key question is, like
who who is the better fighter? Would you choose Lula
or Bolsonaro? Because Bulsonaro have guns and he's like he's
(15:29):
like an army guy, but Lula like a street fighter.
He looks like someone who can I mean a bar
you're getting a fight with him. Lula will destroy you
in real life or in the game. I think in
real life, well, he's old, super old. Because if I
started playing this game and Bolsonaro is just better and
(15:49):
I win every time I picked Bollsonaro, that's kind of
affect my politics. Probably you're gonna be like both of
the strongest one in the video game. Yeah, Like imagine
if Mario and Toad ran against each other for president
of the United States. I mean, like I'd have to
think about their various abilities in Mario Kart and and
so forth. Yeah. Mario, well he he's supposed to be
(16:12):
working with pipes and stuff. Yeah, he's a plumber. He's
a plumber, So he's kind of a working man. Yeah,
I think. But Princess Pete, she just knows how to rule. Anyway,
we're getting distracted. This is not the kind of thing
we need to be talking about. Okay. So I have
a somewhat tragic but also bizarre story fab that was
in the Guardian newspaper in the UK headline Paraguayan presidential
(16:36):
guard dies after being impaled by deer. And this was
sent to us on Twitter by the way, by um,
I don't have the guy's name, Handy, but he's a
fan of the show and I appreciate him. I will
look it up and get it to you. Shout out
to listener j baumanis for sending us that one. Okay,
So the Paraguayan military officer died. Uh. He was killed
(16:58):
by an axis deer, which is a weird kind of
dear beautiful animal but it has really long uh antlers.
And I guess the Nation of India donated some of
these deer to Paraguay. They're not native to Paraguay, and
they roam around the grounds of the capitol and somehow
the guard he antagonized the deer or misinterpreted its motion.
(17:23):
There's a deer around the presidential palace. There's also ostriches
and ponies there, and the deer like flipped out and
it was a weird interaction and it shoved its antler
into the guy and killed him. Tragedy. Uh, sorry for
the guy, but also and his family and loved ones,
but also like, what a weird, weird thing to happen.
And Paraguay doesn't make it into the news that much,
(17:45):
and it seems like um when it does, it's usually
something pretty odd that just kind of makes you raise
an eyebrow. What's going on down there? Have you visited Paraguay?
This is my thing. I I tweeted a couple of
months ago that I I don't even remember that Paraguay
was still there. And I know it's a very controversial tweet,
(18:05):
but this is like probably like not the brightest side
about Latin America. It looks like countries they don't care
about each other that much, and especially small ones who
have no real significance during the World Cup. I think
if you're a country Latin America and your team it's
not competitive in the World Cup, you have no space
(18:30):
in the Latin American world stage, and not in soccer,
just in any any in the media, in culture, and
in politics. You have nothing to say if your soccer
team it's not doing at least okay in the Sorry.
I mean, it is a very very very bold statement,
(18:51):
but that's what happened with Party truth. You're just you're
just a truth telling journalist and that's the fact. Now
Paraguay is also it's like very it's landlocked, right, and
when of a landlocked country, it's just tough for them
to get in the Afghanistan, uh Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia. You just don't.
These countries just don't get the stuff that they that
(19:12):
other countries get. It's not their fault, they're just trapped.
It's a it's a it's a bad deal misfortune of geography. Yeah,
they had a bad deal during the wars. And and
but by the way I think they I know people
who've been to bar Away and they say say that
it's beautiful. They say that it's like very like the
(19:33):
the accent is very interesting, Like their accent is like
a mix between like an Argentinean Northern Argentinean tone, but
speed it up. I don't know. People say that it's
is a very interesting way of talking. And but who's
the president. I mean, I don't even have the basic
(19:55):
facts about bar Away right now. That a friend of mine,
a guy who's kind of an interest in my college roommate,
who's kind of like looks for unusual travel, he went
to Paraguay and he sent me about twenty photos of
it and waterfalls and the jungle and whatever. But I
was like, nothing, screamed Paraguay. This could only be Paraguay,
Like he could have gone to Uh, it could have
(20:18):
all been in Brazil and he just sent me the
photos and I never would have been the wiser. Like,
Paraguay needs something, It needs a symbol, It needs a
thing that people go to see. Um, maybe we can
maybe it could be these deer the place where deer
are still killing people. I don't know, or big point.
That's my own solution to everybody. Oh yeah, if you're
if you're a tough country at the moment, you have
(20:39):
to be thinking about bitcoin. Now are you after your tweet?
Did anyone invite you, like, hey, come do stand up?
What's the stand up scene in Paraguay? Maybe you could
be uh, you could kind of put it on the map.
No one ever talked to me about the stand up scene.
And I'm sure like this, it's like in every country
in Latin America, there's like always one guy who's like
(21:00):
and stand up comedy here, So I'm sure you can
find that guy in Paraguay. It's like, yeah, we were
the first in this bar and it's so okay. I
think stand up comedy in Paraguay. I'm googling right now.
There's an Instagram account. Yes, they sees people doing this.
If you're the top stand up comedian Paraguay, hit us
up for from the South at Gmail, for from the
(21:22):
South on Twitter, let's talk. We'd like to have you
on the show. We uh, we're curious about Paraguay. Paraguay
as part of our purview here on the show, we
do not want to slight your country. We want to
get your perspective. So reach out to us. And if
you don't I have I can't help you. Paraguay has
to speak up for itself. Come on, we're rooting for you. Okay,
(21:53):
I'm gonna take us out with someone more pleasing story.
No one died in this one, and it could be
quite positive. Yes, So basically, here's the headline, Coca Cola's
Fresca to join crowd of canned cocktails. It's in the
Wall Street Journal. Now, I fresca sweet sodas, sweet drinks
as a somewhat associated with Latin America. Perhaps that's a stereotype,
(22:13):
but I think there's something to it. So basically, Fresca
is going to start making Coke. Realized that all over
the world, not just not in America, but all over
the world, people are adding spirits alcohols to fresca. They're
making drinks out of fresca. So they're like, what the heck,
We're not gonna We're gonna cut out the middleman here.
We're gonna make like bottled frescas. They haven't. It's called
(22:35):
Fresca mixed. Will start with cocktails inspired by recipes from
people around the world who use fresca as a mixer,
and they're going to market and distribute these in the US.
I think this could be really interesting. I mean, what's
going on to talk to me about fresca, your relationship
with fresca. Where are we at here? So fresca people
people know fresca here because you can if you maybe
(22:56):
if you go to any Mexican restaurant, you see your
fresco in the in the Yeah. Yeah, and uh, firsts
a drink that is like juicy but very water down,
so it's not like heavy juice at all. Yeah, it's refreshing,
it's served very cold, and yeah, it makes sense that
(23:18):
it's like for cocktails and um and and once again,
we have a tradition of very cool fantasy drinks. I
don't know if you call them that way here. Fantasy
drinks in Latin America. I don't know this term till so. Yeah,
like if you think about coca cola or pepsi or wherever,
(23:39):
like this garbo hydrated drinks, they're all they're all part
of like we call it fantasy drinks. And in fantasy
drinks you you can find inca coola from Peru. Oh yeah,
that's a that's a famous one. That's a big one.
I don't think there's there's there's a drinks within a quala. Never. Never, No.
(24:02):
I only get incacola at the Peruvian restaurant. That's where
I see it here in Los Angeles. And it's a
little it's too sweet for me. Frankly, what what and
what is the flavor? That's the flavor is like gold
golden nous. It's similar to the flavor of mountain dew
or something. Yeah, it's like a golden sugar. Yeah yeah, yeah.
(24:28):
The sick of drink of ka. We used to have
one between child and Argentina called was like kind of
a coke, like a homemade coke with with cherry. But
this is the interesting part. If you if you go
(24:49):
to the store and buy the cherry still inside of
the bottle, Oh elegant and at the end you will
find a cherry that is dead inside of this drink.
It's just that that the amount of sugar that's been
absorbed into that cherry, which itself is already just a
little ball of sugar, that's gonna knock you out. It's
(25:11):
sugar with sugar, guys, it's what you love. And you
know what, here's this thing that we've been around. I
gotta like the sugary drinks in Latin America. I think
of as a thing. And yet like here, no one
is worse than the United States in terms of obesity
and overdoing it on sugar. And I think that's because
all of our sugar is like corn based versus like
(25:33):
actual pure cane sugar, which kind of just like burns
through your system and it's fine versus like making you
into a three hundred pound guy who needs to use
a scooter to go to Walmart. Did I say that
corn was a real enemy this whole time? Yes, that
was it. It was corn. Corn has got us. I
read somewhere, actually was reading this the other day. Like corn,
(25:54):
like if you live off corn, you have to work
about like fifty days of the year or so to
grow enough corn to feed you and your family versus
like rice, something like a hundred and twenty days or
two hundred days or something like an incredible amount of
work if you live on rice, but if if your
thing is corn, you don't have to work that much whatever.
And I think that kind of may have affected like
(26:14):
world geo political history, the vibe of say China versus Mexico.
I don't want to speculate too much, but it does
seem like there's something to the fact that the corn
based cultures are a little chiller than to say, a
rice based culture. Boy, could I have said anything that
would be closer to cancelation, but probably not quite getting
(26:36):
me there, because it's just boy, that's the thrill of
podcasting though. Yeah, we're just talking about Vegel podcast. What
was getting in trouble without getting in trouble? By the way, Um,
I want to finish with this. Uh. We used to
have our own version of Coca Cola for many years
in Latin America before CoA Cola decided to invade US, UH,
(26:56):
and it was called free Cola, and everyone was making
fun that during the dictatorship years, everyone was drinking. It's
something that would say free everyone has like a can
that said free in their hands. Uh, in the least
free moment of their history. Wow, does anybody have sort
(27:16):
of like nostalgia for free cola? Can you still get
a free cola? Is that like a hipster sort of someone.
I'm sure someone it's like, yeah, like you know, hoarding
free cola billboards from the eighties. But it's a dark
period of time, so people I don't think they remember
free cola with that have like that. That's not a
(27:38):
focus of joy and happiness. Well, between the Banana Milk
and a previous episode and Fresca and free colas, our
beverage segments have been quite popular here on the show,
So if you have any news of beverages developing in
Latin America, hit us up here at four from the South.
You can find us on Twitter. We have a Gmail
as well, and we would love to hear from you
and what's going on in your corner of big Latin America.
(27:59):
Thanks so much for bring guess the news here. Really
appreciate it. And uh, guys, we'll get you next week.
Thank you. Every one, Bye Bye. Four from the South
is hosted by me, Steve Healey and Fabrizio Capano. Robert
O'Shaughnessy is our producer. Original theme song by Amy Stolsenbach.
Four from the South is a production of Exile Content
Studio in partnership with I Heart Radio is Michael tour
(28:19):
podcast network. For more podcasts from my Heart, visit the
I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen
to your favorite ships.
It. Welcome back. It's four from the South. I'm Steve Healey.
I'm here with my man, Fabrizio Capano. Fab. How are
(00:22):
you doing, Bud? Hello? Everyone, Happy to be back in
the premier place to know what's going on all over
Big Latin America. If you want to know what's going
on all over Big Latin America, but you want it
in English, and you want it with a slightly humorous twist, uh,
this is the spot for you. It's four from the South,
so let's not screw around. I'm gonna give us the
(00:44):
rundown of the show Today. We're gonna be talking about Venezuela,
which apparently, Fab, you're gonna fill us in on this
is getting better. We're gonna cover Brazil, where video games
starring politicians have become kind of a sensation. It's somewhat tragic,
but also a quite weird story from Paraguay where a
presidential guard was killed by a deer. We're gonna talk
(01:05):
about that, and then we're gonna hear about a new beverage.
Coca Cola is going to be bringing us um pre
made Fresca cocktails, which I think we can call that
a somewhat. It's a that's a big Latin American story.
So look, we don't have any time to waste for
bto what is going on. Talk to me about Venezuela.
I'm hearing Venezuela is getting better or at least that's
(01:26):
a that's a pr campaign. I mean that once again,
we're in this weird dystopian world where there's one reality
and there's another one happening on the internet. And this
story goes back to a couple of months ago where
the youtubeer sensation called Luisito Comunica. There is a Mexican
YouTuber that is famous because he traveled around the world.
(01:47):
He showed you places and he's like silly and fun
and that's it. And there's there's a famous video of
him going to Chernobyl and just hanging out in Chernobyl
and be like this is the craziest place, and everyone
in the comments is like a lot of people die there. Stop. Stop,
it's not your playground. But the thing is like Luisito
(02:11):
is a huge YouTuber. Everyone loved him, and he went
to Venezuela and make a video like I bought a
big how it's a big mansion in Venezuela, so chip
and it's amazing and looks like Venezuela is getting better.
And that started a trend that is like Venezuela is
getting better because we all know Venezuela has been in
(02:34):
a bad place for decades now and it was getting
worse and worse. There's like, I don't know the number
of inflation. It's just insane. There's no way that you.
I mean, I think the minimum which is like three
dollars um. So it's really really, really really bad. But
it looks like in the last couple of years something
(02:55):
interesting how happened that It's like, first the dollar went
a little bit up. Uh in Venezuela. We're talking about
like the inflation is insane, so just a little bit.
It's a lot when you when you're in that position. Uh.
And then it used to be like the government didn't
allow you to pay in dollars. You know, they were
trying to you to use their currency. But it's not
(03:18):
like now they don't care. I mean no, now they
it's not like they officially say they don't care, but
like they stopped caring. They're like, okay, just dollars whatever,
we don't we're not. We're not. We can't handle currency.
Are you kidding me? We don't even know what is that.
It's that's still a concept. So they decided to just like, okay,
(03:38):
bring your dollars and spend it here, and looks like
that got the system a little bit better. And there was,
of course, once again a lot of criticism because it's like, hey, listen,
it's getting better if you have money, but for real people,
this is still a nagmare. And and at the same time,
it's like, stop putting out there on the internet that
(04:00):
a Venezuela is getting better, because make it looks like
this government is legit. It's like doing the things the
right way, and it's not helping, you know, the Venezuelan
cause of taking down Maduro and restoring democracy. So it's
like this dystopian YouTube world where like Gusito said that,
and then another started a trend, and another YouTuber is
(04:21):
starting like, yeah, it's getting better. I went to this
and now this is happening, and like I went to
like this restaurant and blah blah blah, and they started
this whole trend of Venezuela getting better. A lot of
Venezuelans who were abroad went to Venezuela to visit, and
they say that it's like getting slightly better, but at
the same time still slightly better in a place that
(04:41):
is like so so bad, it's still unfair for the
people in Venezuela. So that's what's going on right now.
You know, I've noticed something fab about famous YouTubers and tiktoker's.
They generally are not known for like really precise, nuanced analysis.
(05:03):
Usually the first impression that they get they go with
that and they go on the vibe. And they're also
generally not um like cynical. It doesn't seem to play
on YouTube. Is not like the kind of dour talking
about how bad things are. Talking about how great things
are plays a lot better. I'm looking at this guy, Luisito.
He seems like he's just he's got a you know,
(05:26):
his shirt down to like almost his belly button. He
seems like a positive kind of guy having fun. That
seems like what he's his brand. And I don't think
it would be in his interest to talk about Venezuela's
nuanced problems of politics and uh currency management. So maybe
he's just doing this. It looks like they can go
(05:47):
to Hell and you have a great day and say
it's awesome, buddy, Satan, it's so warm down here, you
don't need to wear clothes. It's great. They got the demons,
just like bring new fire whenever you needed. Just have
one good day, just one good day and that's enough.
You need to make that like broad statement. Yeah, that's
(06:09):
beautiful Hell. That would be a good YouTube for sure.
Maybe we should send Luisito to Hell and see what
he can do with that. I'm sure he will come
out with a very positive outcome of the Yeah, by
the way, Lusia is annoying, but it's not the worst one.
Like when you have like a Luisito, then you have
(06:29):
a world around him of more annoying and less successful YouTubers. Yes,
those are the one who are really pushing this idea
they have They don't have the natural gift of Luisito.
By the way, I'm on luisito is Wikipedia page. It
says here that he um he owned shares of a
Japanese food restaurant Diego and Kato in Mexico City, and
(06:50):
he launched a tequila called Grandmallow, and he's got a
fast food restaurant that he created called fast food. Um,
have you had an opportunity to try this? It sounds
like another YouTuber has been criticizing the quality of Luisita's
fast food. But next time in Mexico City, I might
look this up, go to fast food. This is a
(07:13):
new thing I I know also another instagrammer who's getting
his restaurant. I think it's that's that does anything you need?
You see again, that doesn't match, you know, a restaurant.
You quality control, precision. Sometimes you have to reject some
things like you know it's it's not it doesn't go
with the YouTuber attitude. And these guys are doing fine.
(07:34):
As YouTubers keep doing that, they want more money, they
want more power. They know that the powers and restaurants Venezuela.
It's not getting like really better. It's just like having
maybe like a not that that that bad moment. But
you they Internet created this STrenD of like hey guys,
(07:56):
we're out of this problem. And of course they government
was like, yes, it's true, I were doing great and
yes is right. Some of these journalists who worked for
the Chavismo like they were like yes, yes he's right,
thank you for saying it, you know, like the real
(08:18):
media is scared of telling the truth. We're doing great,
So yeah, that's that's that's what's going on. I think
in Venezela. Well, in a way, you know, Venezuela, it
seems like it's kind of it's been. It's been in
what I perceived to be sort of anarchic chaos or
disorder for so long. That's sure. There'll be ups and downs.
I mean sometimes it will be better or worse. The
(08:40):
situation doesn't seem to be improving, right, there's still this
guy Madua. They're numerous coups that have sort of flopped somehow.
They're not shaking this guy. But the economy is a
total disaster. If you want to have if you wanted
to do something like build a business in Venezuela, I
don't know how you would do it. So you just
sort of it's just a it's a struggle. But I
don't know. There will be ups and downs with in
that cycle, right. I mean, even if you have like
(09:02):
a terminal ill patient in a hospital one day, one
war me, he will be like a little better. That
doesn't mean like he's out of like he needs to.
You will go home. The same day. Yes, when you
have somebody who has like a very very sick relative
or their grandfather something, it's like they go, they go,
(09:24):
he has good days and bad and that's sort of
maybe that's how it is. Like one of those good days,
one of those good mornings you have happened next to
him screaming in a camera and they're like, he looks great,
he's amazing, looks like he can run a marathon. I
think he's in accative. You know, I'm not going to criticize.
(09:46):
I've never heard of him before he began recording this podcast.
I've now looked at a picture of him, scan his
Wikipedia page. Hear do you describe him? And I think
we need people like that. He's positive, he's bringing some joy. Look,
if you go to him for a sharp political analysis,
I think that's kind of on you. That's not your guy. Yeah,
that's that's your mistake. Yeah, that's very happy. He have
(10:06):
his own brand of clothes. I don't know if you
want to get some Lusito call himself also, Oh yeah,
that's that's Lusito. Well let's reach out to him. We'll
get him on the show. Let's see if we can
get him on four from the South this season if possible. Okay,
(10:34):
what else have you got for his fab Something's going
on in Brazil video games, political video games not AP
phrases here often. A couple of weeks ago, we were
talking to this m M a fight between a council
Brazilian part of the Brazilian I think of sal Paolo,
councilman and I think a senator, like they went to
(10:58):
an m mL fight to solve their problem MS. And
looks like this trend is now going online because someone
came up with a video game where they it's like
a street fighter or Mortal Kombat kind of format. You know,
we all know those games. Sure, two guys fighting classic Classic,
just the basics, and they he decided to do with
(11:20):
the Brazilian politicians. Okay, cool. Yeah, it's called candy that
those with a k uh and you can play with it. Yeah,
and you can play with players like both Scenario or
Lulu that are Scenario and Lula. Um. Yeah, and the
(11:44):
graphics are pretty cool. People are just went viral online,
like fifty people have don't loaded this game. It's uh,
it's uh and yeah, it's just like a lot of
people that high because it's like the country is so
polarized right now that it just became a trend to
(12:06):
play this video game with politicians, of course right now
the extreme right, and we can say like, yeah, they
left fighting, yeah for your entertainment. This I learned something
from reading this article here I'm in the Economist talking
about it. The headlines video games involving politicians have gone
(12:28):
viral in Brazil. But it's it says it's in the
article that because of weird taxes and stuff, like, the
video game culture of Brazil evolved in kind of a
weird way. So like Sega, the Sega console is still
kind of popular and people are still playing Sega there,
which I think is cool. Yeah, okay, So the idea
of like an independent, homegrown video game that could be
(12:49):
up to speed with the news totally foreign to me
when I was a kid playing video games. But now
it seems like people can. It's not beyond the realm
of the possibility to like make a video game that
you can and then you can tell to people within days.
It's not like you need to make it and put
it in a little box and sell it the toys
r us. So I think we'll see more and more
kind of like political commentary, social commentary through video games,
(13:11):
right that seems like a trend to keep an eye on. Yeah,
this is this is my problem with this is like
I I, of course I'm watching movies, TV, listening to
some podcasts. Then I tried to read books, then video games.
It is too hard to pull into my system. I
think video games are so relevant right now, and I
(13:33):
know they're great. I'm not saying that they're they're like
for kids, they're really great graphics and storylines and wherever
I can't it's just like I can't. I can't imagine
when I'm going to like put a video game and
play for six hours, so we can't see it. It's
also like the sort of like initial like I tried
to play the game Red Dead Redemption, highly acclaimed video
(13:56):
game Beautiful World Wild West kind of stuff looked awesome,
but like the first thing I have to do is
spend like twenty minutes learning how to get on a
horse in the game. It seemed to suddenly video games
require like discipline and attention and hours and hours of
preliminary work, where they used to be like you put
in a quarter, you go nuts. Um, it's and it's
(14:20):
like you have to learn this new language. Yeah, yeah,
let's start. No, it's it's they're very complicated, and I
know people love that about them, that they're getting very
specific and whatever. But at the same time, it's just
like it's supposed to be destructive and and now it's
it's also a lot of work. So I don't know,
(14:43):
I don't know. I can't put video games in my mind.
Uh sorry, world can't. I think I'm glad that there's
something there's like sixty hours of activities a week for
unemployed young men especially to do, because god forbid, like
they didn't have video games, what these people, what would
get up to out in the world like this is
if that's if they're diffusing the energy of the youth
(15:06):
of the world, maybe that's good. Although on the other hand,
maybe that's like exactly what the corporate masters want to
distract the energy that could be turned to political revolution
into video games. I guess the key question is, like
who who is the better fighter? Would you choose Lula
or Bolsonaro? Because Bulsonaro have guns and he's like he's
(15:29):
like an army guy, but Lula like a street fighter.
He looks like someone who can I mean a bar
you're getting a fight with him. Lula will destroy you
in real life or in the game. I think in
real life, well, he's old, super old. Because if I
started playing this game and Bolsonaro is just better and
(15:49):
I win every time I picked Bollsonaro, that's kind of
affect my politics. Probably you're gonna be like both of
the strongest one in the video game. Yeah, Like imagine
if Mario and Toad ran against each other for president
of the United States. I mean, like I'd have to
think about their various abilities in Mario Kart and and
so forth. Yeah. Mario, well he he's supposed to be
(16:12):
working with pipes and stuff. Yeah, he's a plumber. He's
a plumber, So he's kind of a working man. Yeah,
I think. But Princess Pete, she just knows how to rule. Anyway,
we're getting distracted. This is not the kind of thing
we need to be talking about. Okay. So I have
a somewhat tragic but also bizarre story fab that was
in the Guardian newspaper in the UK headline Paraguayan presidential
(16:36):
guard dies after being impaled by deer. And this was
sent to us on Twitter by the way, by um,
I don't have the guy's name, Handy, but he's a
fan of the show and I appreciate him. I will
look it up and get it to you. Shout out
to listener j baumanis for sending us that one. Okay,
So the Paraguayan military officer died. Uh. He was killed
(16:58):
by an axis deer, which is a weird kind of
dear beautiful animal but it has really long uh antlers.
And I guess the Nation of India donated some of
these deer to Paraguay. They're not native to Paraguay, and
they roam around the grounds of the capitol and somehow
the guard he antagonized the deer or misinterpreted its motion.
(17:23):
There's a deer around the presidential palace. There's also ostriches
and ponies there, and the deer like flipped out and
it was a weird interaction and it shoved its antler
into the guy and killed him. Tragedy. Uh, sorry for
the guy, but also and his family and loved ones,
but also like, what a weird, weird thing to happen.
And Paraguay doesn't make it into the news that much,
(17:45):
and it seems like um when it does, it's usually
something pretty odd that just kind of makes you raise
an eyebrow. What's going on down there? Have you visited Paraguay?
This is my thing. I I tweeted a couple of
months ago that I I don't even remember that Paraguay
was still there. And I know it's a very controversial tweet,
(18:05):
but this is like probably like not the brightest side
about Latin America. It looks like countries they don't care
about each other that much, and especially small ones who
have no real significance during the World Cup. I think
if you're a country Latin America and your team it's
not competitive in the World Cup, you have no space
(18:30):
in the Latin American world stage, and not in soccer,
just in any any in the media, in culture, and
in politics. You have nothing to say if your soccer
team it's not doing at least okay in the Sorry.
I mean, it is a very very very bold statement,
(18:51):
but that's what happened with Party truth. You're just you're
just a truth telling journalist and that's the fact. Now
Paraguay is also it's like very it's landlocked, right, and
when of a landlocked country, it's just tough for them
to get in the Afghanistan, uh Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia. You just don't.
These countries just don't get the stuff that they that
(19:12):
other countries get. It's not their fault, they're just trapped.
It's a it's a it's a bad deal misfortune of geography. Yeah,
they had a bad deal during the wars. And and
but by the way I think they I know people
who've been to bar Away and they say say that
it's beautiful. They say that it's like very like the
(19:33):
the accent is very interesting, Like their accent is like
a mix between like an Argentinean Northern Argentinean tone, but
speed it up. I don't know. People say that it's
is a very interesting way of talking. And but who's
the president. I mean, I don't even have the basic
(19:55):
facts about bar Away right now. That a friend of mine,
a guy who's kind of an interest in my college roommate,
who's kind of like looks for unusual travel, he went
to Paraguay and he sent me about twenty photos of
it and waterfalls and the jungle and whatever. But I
was like, nothing, screamed Paraguay. This could only be Paraguay,
Like he could have gone to Uh, it could have
(20:18):
all been in Brazil and he just sent me the
photos and I never would have been the wiser. Like,
Paraguay needs something, It needs a symbol, It needs a
thing that people go to see. Um, maybe we can
maybe it could be these deer the place where deer
are still killing people. I don't know, or big point.
That's my own solution to everybody. Oh yeah, if you're
if you're a tough country at the moment, you have
(20:39):
to be thinking about bitcoin. Now are you after your tweet?
Did anyone invite you, like, hey, come do stand up?
What's the stand up scene in Paraguay? Maybe you could
be uh, you could kind of put it on the map.
No one ever talked to me about the stand up scene.
And I'm sure like this, it's like in every country
in Latin America, there's like always one guy who's like
(21:00):
and stand up comedy here, So I'm sure you can
find that guy in Paraguay. It's like, yeah, we were
the first in this bar and it's so okay. I
think stand up comedy in Paraguay. I'm googling right now.
There's an Instagram account. Yes, they sees people doing this.
If you're the top stand up comedian Paraguay, hit us
up for from the South at Gmail, for from the
(21:22):
South on Twitter, let's talk. We'd like to have you
on the show. We uh, we're curious about Paraguay. Paraguay
as part of our purview here on the show, we
do not want to slight your country. We want to
get your perspective. So reach out to us. And if
you don't I have I can't help you. Paraguay has
to speak up for itself. Come on, we're rooting for you. Okay,
(21:53):
I'm gonna take us out with someone more pleasing story.
No one died in this one, and it could be
quite positive. Yes, So basically, here's the headline, Coca Cola's
Fresca to join crowd of canned cocktails. It's in the
Wall Street Journal. Now, I fresca sweet sodas, sweet drinks
as a somewhat associated with Latin America. Perhaps that's a stereotype,
(22:13):
but I think there's something to it. So basically, Fresca
is going to start making Coke. Realized that all over
the world, not just not in America, but all over
the world, people are adding spirits alcohols to fresca. They're
making drinks out of fresca. So they're like, what the heck,
We're not gonna We're gonna cut out the middleman here.
We're gonna make like bottled frescas. They haven't. It's called
(22:35):
Fresca mixed. Will start with cocktails inspired by recipes from
people around the world who use fresca as a mixer,
and they're going to market and distribute these in the US.
I think this could be really interesting. I mean, what's
going on to talk to me about fresca, your relationship
with fresca. Where are we at here? So fresca people
people know fresca here because you can if you maybe
(22:56):
if you go to any Mexican restaurant, you see your
fresco in the in the Yeah. Yeah, and uh, firsts
a drink that is like juicy but very water down,
so it's not like heavy juice at all. Yeah, it's refreshing,
it's served very cold, and yeah, it makes sense that
(23:18):
it's like for cocktails and um and and once again,
we have a tradition of very cool fantasy drinks. I
don't know if you call them that way here. Fantasy
drinks in Latin America. I don't know this term till so. Yeah,
like if you think about coca cola or pepsi or wherever,
(23:39):
like this garbo hydrated drinks, they're all they're all part
of like we call it fantasy drinks. And in fantasy
drinks you you can find inca coola from Peru. Oh yeah,
that's a that's a famous one. That's a big one.
I don't think there's there's there's a drinks within a quala. Never. Never, No.
(24:02):
I only get incacola at the Peruvian restaurant. That's where
I see it here in Los Angeles. And it's a
little it's too sweet for me. Frankly, what what and
what is the flavor? That's the flavor is like gold
golden nous. It's similar to the flavor of mountain dew
or something. Yeah, it's like a golden sugar. Yeah yeah, yeah.
(24:28):
The sick of drink of ka. We used to have
one between child and Argentina called was like kind of
a coke, like a homemade coke with with cherry. But
this is the interesting part. If you if you go
(24:49):
to the store and buy the cherry still inside of
the bottle, Oh elegant and at the end you will
find a cherry that is dead inside of this drink.
It's just that that the amount of sugar that's been
absorbed into that cherry, which itself is already just a
little ball of sugar, that's gonna knock you out. It's
(25:11):
sugar with sugar, guys, it's what you love. And you
know what, here's this thing that we've been around. I
gotta like the sugary drinks in Latin America. I think
of as a thing. And yet like here, no one
is worse than the United States in terms of obesity
and overdoing it on sugar. And I think that's because
all of our sugar is like corn based versus like
(25:33):
actual pure cane sugar, which kind of just like burns
through your system and it's fine versus like making you
into a three hundred pound guy who needs to use
a scooter to go to Walmart. Did I say that
corn was a real enemy this whole time? Yes, that
was it. It was corn. Corn has got us. I
read somewhere, actually was reading this the other day. Like corn,
(25:54):
like if you live off corn, you have to work
about like fifty days of the year or so to
grow enough corn to feed you and your family versus
like rice, something like a hundred and twenty days or
two hundred days or something like an incredible amount of
work if you live on rice, but if if your
thing is corn, you don't have to work that much whatever.
And I think that kind of may have affected like
(26:14):
world geo political history, the vibe of say China versus Mexico.
I don't want to speculate too much, but it does
seem like there's something to the fact that the corn
based cultures are a little chiller than to say, a
rice based culture. Boy, could I have said anything that
would be closer to cancelation, but probably not quite getting
(26:36):
me there, because it's just boy, that's the thrill of
podcasting though. Yeah, we're just talking about Vegel podcast. What
was getting in trouble without getting in trouble? By the way, Um,
I want to finish with this. Uh. We used to
have our own version of Coca Cola for many years
in Latin America before CoA Cola decided to invade US, UH,
(26:56):
and it was called free Cola, and everyone was making
fun that during the dictatorship years, everyone was drinking. It's
something that would say free everyone has like a can
that said free in their hands. Uh, in the least
free moment of their history. Wow, does anybody have sort
(27:16):
of like nostalgia for free cola? Can you still get
a free cola? Is that like a hipster sort of someone.
I'm sure someone it's like, yeah, like you know, hoarding
free cola billboards from the eighties. But it's a dark
period of time, so people I don't think they remember
free cola with that have like that. That's not a
(27:38):
focus of joy and happiness. Well, between the Banana Milk
and a previous episode and Fresca and free colas, our
beverage segments have been quite popular here on the show,
So if you have any news of beverages developing in
Latin America, hit us up here at four from the South.
You can find us on Twitter. We have a Gmail
as well, and we would love to hear from you
and what's going on in your corner of big Latin America.
(27:59):
Thanks so much for bring guess the news here. Really
appreciate it. And uh, guys, we'll get you next week.
Thank you. Every one, Bye Bye. Four from the South
is hosted by me, Steve Healey and Fabrizio Capano. Robert
O'Shaughnessy is our producer. Original theme song by Amy Stolsenbach.
Four from the South is a production of Exile Content
Studio in partnership with I Heart Radio is Michael tour
(28:19):
podcast network. For more podcasts from my Heart, visit the
I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen
to your favorite ships.
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