The Connect- with Johnny Mitchell - The Truth Behind U.S. Invasion Of Venezuela: Oil Cartels, China, & The Decline Of American Hegemony

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

In this gripping episode, Johnny sits down with security expert Ed Calderon to break down the brewing storm across Latin America — from U.S. military posturing near Venezuela to narco-terrorism, drone warfare, and covert operations in Mexico. Ed warns that the “War on Drugs” is being rebranded as a war on narco-terror, granting governments new powers while blurring the lines between criminals, rebels, and civilians. They discuss how cartels are adopting drone and submarine tech, how Colombian mercenaries are shaping global conflicts, and why Mexico may already have U.S. boots on the ground. From fentanyl myths to Venezuelan oil politics, rare-earth resources, and the future of North American geopolitics, this episode dives deep into the shadow war few are talking about. -U.S. and Venezuela tensions -Covert ops and “narco-terrorism” narrative -Drone and submarine warfare by cartels -Rare-earths, oil, and geopolitical motives -Mexico’s internal corruption and militarization -Predictions for a continental conflict Go Support Ed! Website: https://www.edsmanifesto.com/ Merch: https://sneakreaper-industries.com/ Podcast: @manifestoradionetwork3191 IG: https://www.instagram.com/manifestoradiopodcast/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Deepop. Where taste recognizes taste. Well, it seems that the prediction you've been making for years about military strikes on drug cartels is coming true. It's just in a different country. Yes. It's just further away. Venezuela. I think my whole thing wasn't that I was predicting that, you know, military strikes and terrorist organization designation. My prediction is that it was going to be utilized as a very broad sword.

You know, just like, hey, how can we get at these people who are terrorizing us or causing terror events across the globe? Let's figure out a way to get at them. So a whole concept had to be created around global terrorism and Islamic terrorism and a whole culture or a way to basically sell that war to the masses. And I think Sicario one and two was the beginnings of that, I guess, in a lot of ways. And now we're here accepting multiple people in drug boats being blown up in the middle of the ocean. And then maybe sometimes they go and rescue one of them. Well, that was probably not a drug boat. That's why they sent him.

They immediately expatriated him. They were like, hey, don't say anything, are bad. Yeah. Because if they're terrorists, if they were. terrorists, you really cared about stopping terrorists and you've just gotten a terrorist alive. Wouldn't you ship him to the U.S.? You would just let him go? I mean, again, broadsword, undefined territory. We don't really know exactly how far they can push the whole aspect of that man is a terrorist,

narco-terrorist, because he has some sort of relationship to drugs, moving them. getting equipment for them, knowing people living in a camp with other people that sell them. Like, where does this? Yeah. You know. It looked like a few of those boats, it looked like they had big blue fuel tanks. Like, it looked like they were the refueling boats that would bring the actual drug boats more fuel. Yeah.

I mean, there's logistics on that and do. I mean, there's boats that go out there and feed people. people, you know, because they're the logistic side of like, hey, we're going to feed all these people in this unloading and loading drug, a cladestine drug space in the middle of the jungle that has absolutely no contact or linked to other parts because it's, I mean, they're moving drugs there. So you would imagine that there are whole communities around this smuggling culture out there. So, again, with Islamic terrorism, we experience getting weddings blown up. and collateral damage that way. I think we're about to see some of that on this end as well. And again, what is acceptable to the populace, I guess?

Because that's what we're seeing. We're seeing, hey, this is a new concept, narco-terrorism. Let's blow a few of them up in the ocean and see what the, let's see what the audience does or let's see what the reaction is. So do you, you say we're going to see some of that over here. You mean you think there's going to be terrorist acts? in the U.S. in response to these drug boat bombings? We've already heard a lot of noise in different parts of this drug war, where we're hearing

cartels are now issuing money rewards to people targeting ice, right? Or we're expecting some sort of large-scale event with drones and cartels at the border, targeting border patrol agents, which between you and me, Johnny, that really doesn't make much sense or it seems like it is an unrealistic thing. I mean, yes, a drug cartel that is currently hiding underneath rocks to not get blown up is going to come out of hiding to pay some rando somewhere in the U.S. 50 grand because he just outed an ICE agent or beat an ICE agent or something. And there's an element of disinformation or even propaganda warfare there that is pretty interesting to see.

I mean, some of the stuff you see on some of the Russian blogs when they're talking about the Ukrainians, it reminds me of there. So I don't foresee a criminal organization somewhere in Venezuela or even in Mexico, maybe one organization I could probably see doing something like that. Most of these people, if we talk about Venezuela, we're talking about El Cartele de los Soles, which is basically the army there, you know, they work moving drugs through the region because why not? There's nobody supervising them.

They're in charge of that place and they need to make money because people eat out of the garbage there and it is pretty bad. So everybody's looking for a way. El Chapo Guzman used to make deals with him. That's the first time he was arrested. Are they a real cartel? I mean, real or in comparison to what? Are they the new generation cartel and are they doing some of that?

Or are they just the military in Venezuela and they represent a regime that wants to take over some oil fields that their neighbor has? Right. I don't know. What exactly are we looking at? And when we say cartel, it has now this whole upper meaning which narco-terrorism. which means a lot of things. But this is a, this is a, I don't know, like as a society and as Americans, how, how comfortable are we with this tool being utilized and then to what degree?

I mean, we're seeing an aircraft carrier now going into the Caribbean. We're hearing a talk about an exercise around Venezuela. Yeah, I mean, I think part of it is programming when you talk about the language of terrorism. They're training us through propaganda. You know, the narco-terrorist, fentanyl, drugs, drug cartels is the new WMD, like how it was in 2003. Weapons of mass destruction. And they're doing their best to throw this at the population. And I think, I think training people, too, you know, the cynic in me says,

they're blowing up people that have not been convicted, tried, no evidence. They're blowing them up and calling them terrorists. They're getting ready to do something in the U.S. where, you know, they might be now shooting down protesters. That's the cynic in me says that. But, you know, historically, they're trying to cause, in my opinion, kind of like a Gulf of Tonkin pre-Vietnam war incident. Like you're trying to push Nicolas Maduro to do something.

You don't like this? Take a shot at us and then we're going in. And from everything we've seen, I mean, he's gone from threatening Trump over the airwaves in his daily weird show that he has, which is highly entertaining. People should watch it. I like his tracksuits. I want to figure out where he buys all his weird tracksuits that he's always wearing. He's very charismatic.

I want to get him on the show. He's pretty funny. He went from being very, like, openly rebellious and antagonistical to, like, trying to figure, hey, can we kind of deal? Can we figure something out? Is there a way out of this? I have this sneaking suspicion that he's going to pull a Syria and he's just going to fly to Russia at some point pretty soon.

That's my weird prediction that might or may or may not. not come true, but I don't think that's going to be enough. We are seeing a lot of assets being put on that, on that, on that, on that side of the ocean. We're seeing a lot of rhetoric specifically tied to them. I mean, you want to talk about the hilarious moments. The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, being dedicated, being dedicated to Trump after it being won was of.

And then you're talking about the opposition leader. Yeah. The opposition leader in Venezuela was granted the Nobel Peace Prize. Then what's the first call, maybe the second call she made? Yeah. Hmm. Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel. What does Israel, what does a small country in the Middle East have to do with a banana

republic in South America? I'm confused. I mean, it's in the news. very involved in world politics, apparently. So for me, for me, it's just fascinating that the, I mean, like everything, everything is being manifested towards this country and its leader who, I mean, we can both agree that he probably isn't the best leader that country has ever had. Oh, no, he's a, he's a jerk.

Yeah. And socialism, their form of socialism. is run the country into the ground. Nobody's arguing that. Nobody's debating that. But how many countries, Israel's being run into the ground by bad leaders. Yeah.

So it's, this is not the argument. Independently of all that, we're about to. Spring weekends are all about family, sunshine, and evenings on the patio. Before everyone arrives, I stop by my local total wine and more to grab a great bottle to share. With such a wide selection and the lowest prices, it's easy to find something amazing for everyone to enjoy. If you're not sure what to pick, their friendly guides can help. Find what you love and love what you find only at Total Wine and More.

Shop Total Wine and More in store or online. Spirits not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly. B-21. As a country, maybe take military action here, where there are going to be people in their 80s with rifles defending their their own lands. And we're probably going to go kinetic in a few places that are now deemed as narco-related or narco-specific targets, but they're probably military targets. And, you know,

the effects of a military action in Venezuela are going to be felt everywhere in the world except the United States, maybe later on. The displacement of people that has already occurred and a lot of the Venezuelans going other parts of Latin America, where they are very much treated in a very negative way. And locals are not about receiving more of that. And we're about to basically launch a giant military campaign into a country that's going to produce a little bit more of that. Now, is that going to stem or stop the flow of fentanyl from Venezuela?

Or at least some of the actions it takes as being like a way station or a point where some of these substances cross or produce. Is that, I don't know, like, I'm trying to gauge the math of this. Well, first of all, does fentanyl come out of Venezuela? I think substances do make their way to Venezuela that then move through or pass Venezuela. And maybe Venezuela has contact or an ability to put that product in places being that it holds the authority of their place where they operate and as a country. Now, is it the main producer and exporter of fentanyl to the United States?

Probably not. I don't think it makes a list. I don't think so. But you're really trying to get your green card, aren't you? You're really trying to get your citizenship, are you? No. I'm speaking around, you know? The answer is no.

No. Not a lot of fentanyl goes from China, south to Venezuela, and then put in drugs and then gets shipped up. No. A lot of that. Mexico, yes. A lot of it goes to Mexico. Canada and a lot of it realistically goes through the mail directly into the United States. Like most of it,

probably. I tell people that, I'm like blow up some drug boats. I can go to Medellin. I got a guy. We can put a kilo in a DHL overnight and it'll be in New York in 12 hours

and it'll probably make it through. Yeah. Yeah, volume is what makes it through. If you have the ability to throw volume at it, it makes sense economically. But again, I think what we're talking about is one, the broad sword that is this designation now in the hands of the government and how it can utilize it for, I mean, it's a it's a sword that now designates a whole country's government. as a narco terrorist. So now, you know, all the other rules of engagement are kind of out the window. It's the new Islamic terrorism, right?

It's like it reminds me of pre-invasion of Iraq, right? Yeah, yeah. And also like just it's being utilized in the same way. And again, some of the things that I kind of predicted where you saw Islamic terrorist supporters in the form of companies, in the form of individuals, be targeted. and how that kind of like how that that

kind of started off with targeting directly some of these terrorist organizations and it went on in concentric circles around them. I mean, we're seeing, for example, in Mexico, we're seeing a bunch of political individuals that are in office, their visas and their immigration is being kind of looked at closely, so no more visas for you.

So musicians. we hear these stories about Beza Bluma being a U.S. citizen, but every time he crosses that border, he gets put into the room, you know, then ask questions. So, I mean, when you say that you're worried about some of these tools now being utilized within the United States, I mean, that's, I think that's where we're going to, going to, to see them, I think, you know. Definitely. I want to get back to the situation in Mexico for a sec.

You mentioned, so just strategically, Venezuela, obviously is a ton of oil. The high-ranking general of the military, I just saw a clip of her the other day. They also have a ton of, I believe it's lithium. And what is the thing that goes into your cell phone that everybody needs? It's going to go into all of the electric, all of the AI, all the robots, all the EV vehicles. What's that mineral? Is it palladium? I saw palladium.

It's, anyways, it's rich in that. Yeah. Rich in that. Oh, oh, rare earths. It's rare earth. They have a lot of rare earth. They have a lot of gold. They have dirty oil.

They need more refineries to fix that oil. The Chinese just built the oil processing facilities somewhere in the Caribbean. I'm not too sure where, like I kind of was reading a little bit about the before we came online. So that might have something to do with this, you know? Right. The Russians are adding all their technology. There's some Wagner people there probably or whatever the name of that company that arm is now. But China doesn't, China is there, but as an influence.

I mean, yeah, I think this is really realistically. There's a lot of resources in that environment, one. Venezuela is a pressure point for Russia. And I think we're in some shit with Russia right now. So that's probably being utilized as a bargaining chip. We have 100% we're getting tariffed 100% on rare earths from China. So we need a release valve. Yeah.

So where are the other sources of it? Well, all over South America, Sonora. And parts of Western, you know, parts of the Western United States. But you mentioned French Guiana. Yeah. Now, what is, you mentioned, They come into their fold somehow. They have access to cleaner oil.

Oil that you don't need the amount of processing capabilities that you would, some of the stuff coming out of Venezuela. Venezuela had all the abilities to process its own oil. But, you know, they experimented with the whole socialism thing. And they kicked out a lot of the Western back companies. And they took their toys with them and their engineers. And slowly but surely that infrastructure has been collapsing over the years. So here we are.

So strategically you think, okay, we go in there, we do regime change, we bring in our oil companies and our refineries to then tap the clean oil from French Guiana. I mean, French Guiana gets guaranteed security because they're your boys. And also now you have access to this dirty oil in the ground. And again, I'm aware that United States is running a surplus and it's exporting fuel. like it's not it's not fuel hungry uh right but when you look at things at a long period you know think chinese like chinese think generationally if you think about 50 100 years from now and what's the play and i think the play for the united states is continental it's not global a globalism is done um so i think that's i think that's what the united states is looking at when he's even as well

and mexico yeah i know i agree i think We've realized that we are irrelevant in many parts of the world. So now we're just going to focus on dominating and controlling what we can, which is our neighbors, our neighbors to the south. So it's too bad. It's too bad for you guys. I think rare earths is, you're right, is a bigger deal than oil. That's a huge deal. I mean, that is the future.

Yeah. That's the future. I think rare earth is an element. manufacturing base, industrial base, and capability base is also another element. And where in the world do you find a manufacturing and industrial base with the people to man it that is superior than China by skill set and productivity? Where is that? Mexico? Mexico?

I mean, I don't know. I don't know how Venezuelans work, but not as good as Mexicans. No, not as good as Mexicans. I mean, you know what I noticed, Ed? You know what I noticed? Even the crackheads when you go to Mexico and you see people at stoplights, they're even working harder than our bums here. Like, at least they give you a show there. They're juggling pinballs.

Wash your window. Yeah, yeah. They're small and fire sticks. I'm like, you've earned a pesito. Yeah. Or they have like a deformity they show you. And they don't want to get off. And they don't want to get it fixed because that's their income.

Right. We had a guy in TJ that I grew up with We had a giant foot He had elephantitis And a bunch of it with the school We raised We raised the money to help him out And he was like, oh, thank you

He took the money, put in his pocket He said, what are you going to do with that money? I mean, stuff for the house, I guess Yeah You see this foot? Are you going to fit? Yeah, that's my disability insurance This is my job.

My foot is my job. I think I think the rare earth element that Mexico has and not many have is its people. And its ability to basically tap in directly, if not it's already tapped in directly to most of the southern part of the U.S.'s industrial base. Even energy-wise, we're already tapped in. I think that's the rare earth element that the United States sees in Mexico. And in between the U.S.'s ability to access and tap into Mexico's industrial base that greatly needs. to survive China's cool, very chief

fucking automotive and electric automotive industry. The only thing between that and its ability to maintain or to set that up is stability and security because Mexico's a shit you when it comes to security and stability. Right. By this, I mean, you know, you get, I do security every now and then, but consultation.

and this is the main issue that I hear constantly. We just set up this plan. We put all this money into it where we invested in security. A member of our own security team basically came into the office and handed us a telephone and we have to pay $50,000 every month from now on. What can we do now? And I'm like, well, have you said anything to the government? They said, the people that just,

showed up for the first payment were uniform police officers. So what do you respond to that? Right. Like, you're going to get in, oh, like, yeah, hire mercenaries for your small medical equipment company that you're set up in, in central Mexico. Like, what can you say to that? And that is happening all over Mexico in various different ways, because the small rules in Mexico don't matter.

The cops are usually working one side or the other. And realistically, there's nobody supervising anything. So that is in the way of one, the United States global plans to take over or have an industrial base to its southern border. And also just the Mexico's ability to decide for itself. Because, you know, hey, we have elected officials. Yeah, but who paid for those elections? No. I know.

It's so hard, right? Because I feel powerless right now in the U.S. Like, I feel like I want to have my own militia and start killing. This might not go in the episode. Like, I want to, like, I want to go to war against the government. That is the nice thing about Mexico is you can actually go to war against the government. But then there's, then you're at the mercy of the CJNG. So, like, what's worse?

ICE and the troops that are unconstitutionally getting sent to our cities or guys that have no problem disposing of tens of thousands of people a year. I mean, think about how fucked up it is. ISIS protests. ISIS is picking up people on the, like selling stuff in the corners in L.A. and deporting them. And there's protests about that. Mexico City has their people protesting gringoes living cheaply in Mexico and making it impossible

for Mexicans to live. where they grew up. And then, yeah, who do you trust, you know? And then when you're in the interior, when you're in the theory of the country, when you're in Zacatecas, then you're at the mercy of these gentlemen. Mentiono was almost arrested a few months ago

and he was surrounded by federal agents apparently is the going rumor around that last attempt. So is he a Cardiff member? Or is he just a member government? Right. Or is he a senator? Yeah. Yeah.

Like, yeah. I mean, if you, and that's like something that comes up a lot when I speak about this in the U.S. Like every now and then I get placed in front of policy makers. And I always tell them the same thing. If you're envisioning a scene from Sicario where you're going to drop in a bunch of special operators into a field somewhere and have these very bad, evil-looking dudes with AKs and a big giant death F-A-G behind them, like the billion people, you're going to be surprised because what you're probably going to be facing is uniformed police officers somewhere in a town, and the townspeople are going to

fight you because you're invading their space, and these cops are their family members. So now you turned one regional cartel into a freedom fighting force, and now you're fighting an insurgency. And that's very, very, very possible. Okay, so how do you think, now that the eyes are of the government seem to be off Mexico for the time being as Venezuela ramps up, right?

How do you think an invasion of Venezuela affects Mexico? I think it's a, you know, when I talked about this, before online every now and then I talked about some of the stuff. I said, I would look for some sort of naval blockade or naval actions taken in the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean around Mexico as a sign that something was about to happen, you know? And I think we're already seeing naval eyes.

I mean, we're not seeing interdictions in the ocean, but I think, you know, I don't think the United States is leaving, leaving. Mexico on pause. I think there's already actions being taking place somewhere in Mexico by the U.S. Well, are we talking CIA or is it something more overt? I think they realize that they can't be as loud as they could be in Venezuela. So they're doing a lot of things very quietly. I think from what the government has said publicly to what it says privately. So we had a we had the secretary state visit and asked for a few things from Mexico. And Mexico says, fuck no.

But then a few weeks later, legislation gets passed to facilitate what the U.S. asked for. So I think we're basically in a game of like publicly they can't acknowledge, but privately and discreetly, we're probably seeing the U.S. special operations are probably operating within Mexico already. in if I was a betting man, I would stage them near the ocean, near a staging area that you can fly to or fly over places like Calisco and Colegan or Cine Law. So, and if people doubt that, then why did we see all this activity of spy planes over the same area a few months ago? it's because they were preparing for what they're probably doing right now, which is there on the ground.

We saw what we saw in Iraq, what we saw in Afghanistan, people running around horses, paying people money off with with buckets of money and shit like that. I think that's going on right now somewhere in Mexico. How so? Explain that further. Who's paying who? How do you fight a quiet war in a neighboring country that you don't want to see spin out into a, you ally with a criminal group you pick one you know right oh okay so like we picked sinaloa yeah when when the zetas were running running around the country yeah i mean we're we're speaking in theory i have no fucking clue what's going on i'm just an idiot that read too much

books and uh but if if i was a betting man i would say some sort of u.s mexico coordinated units somewhere operating near the ocean in a staging area, probably on the Pacific side, which would make sense because of everything coming from China, according to the narrative. So, you know, you will see the sinking and or the elimination of landing sites probably in many parts of the Gulf of Baja, for example. You know, and when you pay attention to it right now, it's awfully quiet in that region like too quiet you know right um you

would probably see sorry are they flying product in like like Mexico drops the precursors off in Sinaloa Colima those places yeah it's quiet now it's like really quiet in those areas like there's nothing flying everything is on the ground so

it means that there's something in the sky watching or they're way that's something in the sky watching or any land sites that they had or used are compromised now and they know this. So they're moving things. And if that is the case, then either the Mexican military just got an augmented ability to see things from space or from really high up, people have to realize Mexican military doesn't have, isn't, it has some stuff and it has some capabilities. And even in a high and special level, it does exhibit some aspects of intelligence gathering and high altitude planes being utilized

for surveillance. But realistically, that's like a minuscule thing. It's not, so whenever you see capabilities expressed in the limitations of traffic in a certain area or a sudden, a sudden shift in activity, I mean, at night, you go and camp out in the desert in the middle of the, Baja Peninsula and just, you know, bring some night vision and see all the traffic you would see in the sky, you know? It was beautiful. Really? And then you would say like, hey, there's just a shit down the planes.

Okay, let's inform up the chain of command when I was active. This is 13, 14 years ago. And nothing would happen, you know? And now it's big. All right, class settled down. Today's lesson is on the Argo Rewards app. Try to stay with me. The fundamentals.

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Savings of up to $1 per gallon redeemable with $20 rewards dollars in the or low of the account. At participating locations, terms and conditions apply. The call, you make the call, but planes are still flying. I mean, what do you think they're going to send the Mexican Air Force? after this blade or something like that, they probably send like a Humvee somewhere or maybe not even that. Maybe it's something they already knew about. Who knows?

It's like calling the cops for a stolen car in L.A. Oh, yeah, we'll get right on it. Yeah. I think that's the, yeah, that's a perfect analogy. And now what you're seeing. Have you heard of these fully automated in Columbia? You know, they send most of the cocaine comes out of the Pacific coast of Columbia. It goes out of the port of Buenaventura, all of those really, really remote areas that the guerrillas control.

They're now talking about there's automated submarines. You don't even need humans dry, and these are fully submersible. Now, they cost about a million and a half bucks, but you can doable. At 1,500 a kilo, you put 4,000 bricks in the submarine, you know, you've well paid for itself. Yeah. I think you'll see that more. I think you'll probably see that. I mean, certainly if I was a drug trafficker, I'd be like, okay, we're not going to be exposed at all on the high season.

You want to hear something that'll blow your mind a little bit more? Yeah. Where do you think in the world that that type of technology is being experimented the most successfully, if you had to guess? I don't know, dude. The Ukrainian conflict. The Ukrainians are very good at it. And guess who is one of the members? Like, guess what nationality is all over their fucking drone and direct action units?

Colombia. Mexico. Oh, Colombians, right. Oh, yes, they're the best mercenaries out of the right. All over the drone stuff and they're all over. And basically, what you describe is a water drone that has been utilized to put the Russians on their fucking knees when it comes to their navy. God. So there's Colombians in Ukraine learning this shit.

There was a news story around. story around and a few of the cartel reporters that we both don't like, we're talking about it. And they were speaking about Mexican cartels sending their fighters over to the Ukrainians and then having them come back with like knowledge base of drones and shit like that. No, that's not what happened. Colombians have been one of the main exporters of methodology when it comes to fighting, blowing shit up or killing people for decades. Yeah. They learned it from the IRA. Right. They learned it from the Irish Republican Army.

The IRA showed them and they, that's why some of those plastic pot mines that we were talking about when we went to Coelah, those are Colombian. They come from the Colombian influence in the region. We just saw a coordinated drone attack on the anti-kidnapping office in Baja and T.J., right? and I got to see some of the device components and stuff like that because I have cool friends. And all that shit is fucking Colombian pipe bomb regurgitation of what they learn from the Irish. So what we're seeing there with these drone narcosubs is just one more element of this conflict in the Ukrainian. this Ukrainian conflict, sending shit, exporting shit outwards, which is, you know, the Colombians just took, they took down a helicopter with 11 or 12 special operators in Colombia,

a Black Hawk helicopter that is upwards of $11 million worth with a fucking little drone with an explosive charge. They just flew it at the tail rudder, which is, I've been waiting for that to happen in South America. And now that's, that we have seen it, now the classic advantages that the Mexican government has with this helicopter in the sky with a big gun on it. And now it's not that big of advantage because you can fly a drone right through a tail rotor and it's gone. Wow. Wow. Yeah, when we were in Kali, when we were in Kali filming about a month ago, the FARC had just planted a, not a suicide bomb, but, you know, an Irish IRA style gigantic car bomb in front of the military academy.

They killed like 20 people. Yeah. And that's in the city of Kali. Yeah. And when we were in Guadalajara, how many troops, how many mercenaries from Colombia are working with Mexican organizations now? I mean, how many times that we hear that accent around us? Barchero.

Pinchia parcherero. Wow. So it comes from Colombia. So I guess some, not all of it, but a big part of what we're seeing. now as an uptake or this weird like, hey, why are all these cartel guys carrying around those fucking anti-dron space guns? Or, hey, we just saw the first wired drone in Mexico three weeks ago. Why? Where the fuck are they getting all this? Are they just very astute at watching military blogs from the Ukraine? Or do they have like an active pipeline of people just bringing

back information, shopping lists, like what the latest and greatest weapons? will be, you know. Right. It seems like they have a direct access, at least in some way, shape, or form to that conflict zone. Oh, my God. The situation in Mexico, it's just so out of control. It's just, it's not good.

And truly, I know in Colombia, truly, like, Mexico, I think this is, and you tell me if I'm wrong. I think at least the Marina, but maybe down to like the Federal allies, they can, they usually have the weaponry and the technology to take on even the biggest cartels.

In Columbia, dude, these guys are genuinely scared to go into the jungle because they will be killed. Like they, they are the, the ELN and the Guerrilla,

the FARC, and the Klondel Gulf War, they're genuinely as well-armed and trained, well-trained and better funded, of course. And they're fighting on home turf. Yes. Which is always an advantage that people just don't realize.

Right. You know, if you don't understand that lesson, go to Afghanistan and ask him where they got all those fucking cool attack helicopters, you know? The, and it's, it's changing, though. Like, we, that concept you have, like, yeah, the Marina seems to, like, they seem to kill everybody. they come across. Right. But then on the other side of that, Johnny, you and me have been in rooms where people have described how they've taken down

helicopters that we've never heard about on the news because Mexico is pretty bad about reporting its casualties and events of that nature. And when he was speaking about it, I was paying special attention. I told you about this. He was describing how they took out the minigun. in that thing, that fucking Gatling gun. And I was like, that's bullshit. And then I called him a friend of mine in the U.S. military who was worked around these.

And I said, hey, how would you take that off? Oh, you would have, there's two points of contact between the aircraft and that fucking machine. And, you know, I mean, I don't think this gets full of shit. I think they've taken down helicopters. So whatever advantage we've seen, is that part of the Mexican Army's propaganda machine telling us that they're on beatable than fucking, you know, is this another Marino local, you know? Yeah. No, that's a great point.

And the more time goes on and the more powerful that the four letters get, the more they are truly able to militarily take on or at least guerrilla fight and have the advantage against the Mexican, the top levels of the Mexican military. Yeah. And also, like, just completely from an outside perspective and looking at this, the Four letters make a pretty cool villain, right? Like, whatever we thought Al-Qaeda was, do you think the four letters have that? You know, they're militarized on one end.

They've set up surveillance and counter-surveillance ops on the DEA on American soil, you know? Is that true? They've not only exhibited, but also done actively anti-aircraft capabilities. as a small non-state actor, which is pretty impressive. They've run their own cell phone networks. They have camera systems installed. I've heard rumors that they have some of the same setups in American cities now, where they have eyes and ears in certain American cities,

where they are trying to gain a foothold. And if people think that's bullshit, we saw El Mancho's son-in-law being arrested in rigorous life, California, after faking his own death. basically working and growing right underneath the nose of a thousand agencies that operate in that area. Right. I think I mentioned this because I think as we go forward in whatever this war is, I think they're going to be clearly defined and pointing at as the enemy.

Like this whole concept of cartels in general is going to kind of go away, and we're going to focus on those four letters probably. and look at who they allied themselves with. Lechapisa. Lecchapisa, which, like, why them, you know? When, like, and, you know, why didn't, what, why didn't, why didn't those elements of Lechapisa cut a deal with the U.S.? And we're a part of those exiles. Yeah, that, right, right.

Why is that? I don't know. I don't know. We talk a lot about the four letters, but we don't talk about the three letters, you know? Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I mean, that's the thing. If you think about, dude, if you want to go conspiratorian, and again, I don't shit about anything.

I'm just looking at this. And then, hmm, that's interesting. That's an interesting ally, you know? That's an interesting. So let's talk about what do the four letters benefit from an ally ship with Lechapisa? Right. they are consumed. They're smaller now than they weren't at the start.

They're embattled. A lot of their people are no longer active. There's many heads were arrested. I mean, what do they have left? I think I have an idea what they have left. They probably have left whatever tunnels are surviving that their father probably built during his time active. Because I know from what I've gathered,

Lachapa was pretty active building tunnels throughout most of his career. And that was like, that's his retirement package. And the legacy leaving left for his sons are some of those tunnels, which may number, I don't know, who knows? Like how many of them there are. But there's a few of them out there. They're very strong in Sonora.

It's one of the only places that's relatively, where they share turf. Yeah. So Sonora, Tijuana. Yeah. Forget about good old T.J. And then what did we just see

as far as something that's never happened before in Tijuana? A drone strike on an anti-kidnapping unit. Yeah. So they basically, they dropped a bunch of pipe bombs because that's what they were.

There weren't grenades. They were pipe bombs with ball bearings, screws, nails. debris, shit like that. It hit their parking lot. So it didn't kill anybody. But it was, I mean,

this type of shit has happened before. They landed a grenade in the backyard of the police director here at some point in the past. But they never, you know, they never thrown grenades at a fucking police building. And the reasoning that they have because of that

is that the cops stole a shit ton of cocaine from them. and gave it to their enemies. The Mayoes. The Mayos or the Arianos. Yeah, they supposedly they hand-delivered, and this is, again, this is going from speaking to some of our, you know, with mutual friends that talk to different circles than we do.

And the going thing is that a bunch of state cops, right now I think there's 15 of them that are currently under investigation. And I think these investigations were announced today or yesterday. that they apparently found these drugs and then took them and hand delivered directly to the local remnants of the Ariana Pius Cartel. This is something that, you know, that's one side of the story. Who knows if it's the right one or not? And that this was an attack perpetrated by Las Quasor Degra. You know, that's kind of the, and it makes sense because of the type of devices used and, you know, how bold it was. I mean, whenever you see anything that bold, it's usually them, you know.

So what are they after? Yeah, what are they after? Access and control of the giant, the biggest, you know, drug board on the planet. Yeah. Into California. That's what they're after. And also, one thing I think you're noticing now is you're seeing a modification of intent and purpose as far as expansion. In the past, you would see attempts at control of a border wall or a route.

That's one thing. Now one thing we have to factor into everything is that they're also after control of a market. The local market. Yeah, because we have a bunch of economic refugees living in Tijuana who will. Everybody's on meth in Mexico. And especially the border towns, everybody's on meth. So that's a market. That's a market now.

So they're not only fighting for the ability to access the border, but also now to control the local market. And this is like, this is exactly how it plays out in most of their, of the most like threat, threat projections with Mexico and like all these companies out there or these think tank groups that are selling this war that is coming, you know? Okay. Go ahead.

Sorry. They, they mention as a call for the call for alarm. if not Mexico fucking on fires on the call for alarm. But one of the things to look out for, and I think Peter Sayhan that global politics guy has also had said this before somewhere, that one thing to look out for is the new generation cartel having full access and control of a border region. Because realistically, if you think about it, they don't yet,

but they might now with this manifestation of their, power in Tijuana. So that is something that the United States is expecting and won't tolerate. It's like a line in the sand for a policymaker is what I gathered, I guess. So I don't know. I mean, when the, when the drone attack happened, the U.S. responded with helicopters on their side. And it was really close to the border.

I mean, you could see the border. Like, well, you have to fucking, it's, it's implias. You can, you can drive to the border from there. So it's pretty close. Yeah, it was in Plias, the rich neighborhood. The American neighborhood. The rich expat. Right.

The American neighborhood is a bunch of gringos there. And they were informed to stay indoors or to leave by the U.S. government. Now, imagine if one of those fucking pipe bombs landed in a barbecue with a bunch of Americans there. Hmm. Like, what do you think the response would have been? Yeah. Les rent just went down. Yeah.

For some people. But I think, I think, I think, that's where we're, that's where we're heading, I guess, for an event of that nature. Okay. I think, I think that America has to be a lot. We're so intertwined with Mexico in so many ways. I mean, it's, it's not as easy as invading. We can invade Venezuela. I mean, there might be an uproar.

Like, the Republicans will probably lose, is my guess. They're probably already going to. Basically, all America First principles have already been betrayed. But I think when they cause kind of a Vietnam-style conflict, I think that'll be the end of them. But that's three years from now. I think, speaking of the ELN, going back to Colombia, the ELN, the Guerrillas, had a huge stronghold in Venezuela, huge.

and they have a peace deal. Unlike in Colombia, where they're fighting the government, they are at peace with Maduro's government. And what do you think that means? It means they're working together. Yep. They're protecting the coca fields on the border and inside of Colombia.

They're sending the blow north and the Cartel de Los Soles, however strong they are, are faring it through the Caribbean. And they're the ones. ones that are getting blown up right now. I think they will turn into some kind of fighting Taliban like force when the invasion, if and when the invasion happens. Yeah. And so I, yeah, I just think that's kind of inevitable and it's not easy. I don't care even if you're Americans. Like, I think,

I think Columbia just got decertified, right? Yeah, they're not getting any more aid, you know? So, The president of Columbia is very much in opposition, and he is now housing a guerrilla force in his country that is openly antagonistical with his forces. Right. But also now is going to be viewed as a free player. But he might need those forces because it's mind-blowing. Now the cartels have turned into allies with the government to defend the U.S. Because so many Venezuelans, it was already a problem 10 years ago when Venezuelans were fleeing Venezuela into Colombia. It was like a crisis.

Like we can't absorb these people. They did successfully. They've successfully integrated them. They had the gangs in Medellin had to do it with some violence. But everybody, they act right now, you know. If there's an actual invasion, and we're talking about like not just like a, you know, a clean assassination, a clean toppling. It's going to be, if there's a messy invasion, Colombia's going to be overrun with Venezuelans.

So that's another reason they just can't have this in their view, you know. Again, it might be as clean as getting a drone strike to Maduro because I think he posted some videos of some hiding spot he was in and just 25-year-olds in their basements figured out where he was utilizing open source, you know, shit. but it might be a direct strike although you know

I think he's going to put himself on a plane and fly to Russia and we're going to be really upset that there were no fireworks well Bashar Alasar did Bashar Alasar just got killed with poison you see that? Yeah well so Russia you're not even safe in Russia

dude Russia says here come you're safe but then say goodbye because you're getting You're getting some tea, dude. You're getting some tea. Yeah, get some tea with polonium inside of it and die from cancer from the inside out. Fuck that. No.

How funny are Russians, dude? They're cultural and everything they do. They love tea, and tea is also how. Tea is their bullet. Tea is there drowning you in acid, in an acid bath. Yeah, like, the worst, I mean, they fucking kill you with like an isotope, with a nuclear isotope, dude. Fuck.

You want to, you want to die while you're dying. fucking horrible way to kill somebody fucking russians um but i actually love russian i love russians in russian culture um you know i'm i'm rooting for the bricks and it's working they're they're stacking so much gold the chinese led by the chinese the chinese are stacking shit ton of gold but and they're and they're making it work because now they're they're creating all these like neutral vaults i don't know i don't agree with their societies at all it's wild so just think about it, would you be cool with members of bricks keeping your gold for you in a bolt? Or would you take it to London? You have to pick one. Right. Of course, London, but that's not what they're

doing. It's the central banks, the central, but it's not even safe in London, dude. I know. And it might not even be there. There's a whole thing in Mexico where we want to go see our gold. And they're like, we can't show you. They're like, dude, we're booked up until. until like 2058. Yeah. You want to set a market in the calendar. Like I always kind of talk and fuck around with you on this. Like I'm,

I'm not on any side. I'm a, I'm a anarchist, you know, I don't, but I don't trust the Russians. I don't trust the Chinese. Americans,

I can trust to be who they are. That's kind of my mindset about this. But we're now seeing possible third run. The president. here in the U.S.? You know, speaking like... That's what they're saying. What amendment?

They're like, everybody's like, what amendment? What does it really say that? Right. I don't know. But then, you know, Xi Jinping is a president for life. Putin's a president for life. Who else has a president for life?

I mean, essentially, Netanyahu. You think he's in practice? Yeah, and if, because he always leaves, unless they send him to jail, which they probably won't. He always leaves for a little bit, like Putin left for a while, but he was still pulling the strings.

Yeah, no, there's definitely, unfortunately, for a guy like me that's very, very pro-democracy, anti-government, Putin is fucking up my ideology because that country's doing better than ever. And he's just because he's the dictator. You know what I mean? But Americans just won't go for it. It's just not in our blood. Like, we'll, look what's happening to us. You reduce the buying power of our dollar and we're losing our minds.

Everybody's overdosing on drugs. People, you know, we'll start killing a lot of people and the government people too. And I don't want to see that because it's, you know, cynically, cynically, they're getting us ready for martial law in the U.S. But we already went through COVID and we're ready. Right. And people conformed and bent. We didn't get welded into our houses like they did in China, you know, but we figured some things out. You say that, like, and again, I'm not, you know, I don't know.

I don't know anything. All I know is what I get access to as far as my, you know, thousands of contacts all over the globe that deal in security and fucking. Yeah, you know something, Edwin. I know something, Edwin. but you say Russia is doing better than the United States. No, no, no, no, no, better than they've done at any point since the fall of the Soviet Union. You think they're fucking rolling in it right now? They're pretty well off.

Because they're a wartime economy, yeah, and they've made huge. But they've made deals with all the right people. And they are they poised to lead? China will lead economically. Right? China will lead the East economically and Russia will lead militarily. So I'm not saying, I just when you look at the support, the popularity that Putin had, even before the war, obviously like the killing of opponents and shit like that. It's like I don't go for that at all. But he's kept that cult.

He's integrated a bunch of Muslims successfully into that culture, integrated them, integrated them, not said you had to leave your. You're, he's not killing him, he's not imprisoning him. You can't say that about Israel, can you? No, he's integrated them, but he's kept the Russian identity. And, uh, you know, they're, they certainly have a lot more in common with the West than like, even Israel. We don't share. I mean, like, he could have already taken over Kiev, but he doesn't want to, he's being very guarded because he doesn't want his own soldiers to get killed.

And he doesn't want. to control he doesn't want to control ukraine he doesn't want to to put his foot down and control a people that are not russian he just he truly is doing this to protect people in russia or in ukraine that are ethnically russian so i i don't know i mean you know i'm a fucking pacifist what do i know i'm an idealist yeah but uh i i think if we traded with people instead of went to war against them like we could buy oil from we could buy oil from we could buy oil from Venezuela and maybe the people if they got wealthier would

then overthrow their own government. You know what I mean? Yeah. Whatever, dude. I mean, what I see, and I don't know anything, we're seeing the U.S. may be selling tomahawk missiles to the Ukrainians,

which would probably affect the ability of Russia to survive winters if that if they start targeting infrastructure of that kind deep into Russian territory, they've already done that. The Ukrainians have already done that. And they've limited the Russian capacity of energy production pretty substantially.

We've seen like sky satellite pictures of where they would park all their surplus tanks. They don't got no more surplus tanks. We've seen all these weapons platforms and systems that the Russian. would say that these are going to be fucking ending. These are European ending tools. And those things have been blown up and gone now. We see, man, the Swiss are arming. Like, everybody's fucking arming up there.

They're all fucking getting ready for some sort of conflict. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they're tooling up for sure. And we're putting maximum pressure on Russia. You know, I just, it's not, it's not, it's probably not going to have. happen. They have nukes. They have alliances. Most people in those that live in Europe don't want war and they hate their governments. So I think that's a that's a paper thin. All of this leads me

back into this whole concept of the United States now gearing itself to be a continental. Yes, exactly. So they're like, hey, Europe. Yeah, good luck with all that. Exactly. We're out. We're out. We're taking over Greenland. Canada is now, you know, ours, I guess. Somehow, it's kind of cold up there. I don't know why you want to hand up. And I think, can I tell you my prediction? I think even in the Middle East, I think APEC is on its last legs.

I think the next, if we do have elections again, I think every politician will have to swear, swear off, swear that they don't take Israeli money. Yeah. I think they will, I think the Saudis will come in and basically control, I think we're going to extricate our, ourselves from Israel and the in the next generation. And I think that will really turn all of our focus now that we've left Europe, Ukraine, and the Middle East. I think we will really direct

all of our, the power of our military into the hemisphere. Yeah. Again, my own mindset is we're heading into a continental, like full continental conflict and or, storm stability and yeah the reason why you're not seeing any moves on Venezuela as of right now i think it's because they're doing a lot of negotiation and speaking about the ukrainian situation and i think venezuela is probably a pressure point so whatever world war people are expecting in the future i think we're i think we're probably already there um yeah yeah it's just like we're not going to be lobbing nukes at each other because you know we know that never ends well um What's happening in Mexico?

Are you guys, are they pulling their own version of ice and like really, really getting aggressive and kicking out, you know, illegals? No, no. But there's, there's nothing. I've seen clips and I assumed it was propaganda. There is an immigration service in Mexico that is a joke, you know. They're completely underfunded. They're not even armed, you know. It's no.

There are, you know, there are uproars and anger valves that the government uses every now and then. You know, hey, they're pretty upset with the fact that the Mexico government did nothing to support all these hurricane victims on the Gulf of America side of Mexico. And the new generation cartel is like, fucking handing bags of supplies to everybody. let's do immigration is the issue let's fucking just put some news up there of this right so a lot of the stuff you're seeing in in uh in Mexico right now specifically in some of the news agencies i mean Mexico's gone we're we're deep into that path into the socialism path um there there is such if i say something bad of in a meme about the president of no Mexico I can get some time or any If I make a mean

a meme or comment with a gift or something like that somewhere, it could be construed as political violence or violence against women and I'm fucked. You know, that's like one end of the spectrum of where we are. But what about that piece of ass, that fucking

straight up milf that I see in every clip who's calling out the narco-politicus in government? You know what I'm talking about? Bad bitch. Yeah, she's bad, dude, man. She's horrible.

No, no, no, fine as fuck. I mean, bad, like, good. She's a traitor, right? I'm not sure if we're talking about the same one. Are you talking about Lili Deges? Is that what you're talking about? The one that's like... Ed, the hottest female, a chick that you look at and be like, okay, are you a politician or do you work at Hong Kong?

Okay, yeah. She's light skin. She's from Sonora. Yeah, she's probably Leiteyes. I think, I don't know. Maybe she is or maybe she's not. But she's talking big shit. Yeah.

But she's not being taken to, she's not being taken to, she's not being charged. She's not being charged. That are very prevalent in the United States and repeating them. Right. So it's a grift. I mean, I think, I don't know if we talked about this last time I was on, but we saw a bunch of pictures being outed of members of the former president's family being in like luxury vacations all over the world and stuff like that. And it's all these Jason-born level, to-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-which, you know,

the CIA is the one that usually does stuff like that. And you see this flooding all over social media. You've seen these massive data breaches across the country that are, like, pretty embarrassing to members of the government or members of people around the government. So I don't know. Like, it's, Mexico has a dictatorship as far as the, political party behind everything right now is a majority and there's no competition. I think,

but whatever competition is going to come is probably kind of come from within it. So I'm just looking at whoever within that political party turns out to be the golden boy for the US, you know, like hey, you're it. So let's. Right. So because what's happening is basically they're coming at, it's, it's a paradox because they're at least on the surface, they're bending to our pressure and they're coming super hard after cartel targets. And I see, oh, we just busted a whole bunch of Petro, you know, whole bunch of whatchicol. They're busting that. Which confirms corruption at the highest levels and it confirms that the past president was all in on it.

That's a good point. That's a good point. But at the same time, the Moreno Party shame bombs approval ratings, like 80%. Yeah, yeah, yeah, geez, she's it. That's why you have, you know, even though you guys hate, hate gringoes, or excuse me, you hate gringos, but I don't know, it's, it's all. So there's, there's, there's, there's Mexico in general doesn't trust the U.S. Doesn't trust its foreign political ability to come in and solve anything and it views it with a lot of suspicion in one hand. But on the other hand, it doesn't like having a woman president, really.

Like, not most Mexicans that I know. And, like, some of them, some of them don't. I'm not cool about that because, you know, my cheese more and all that. And she's Jewish. And that is an element, which she hasn't, it hasn't really been an issue because she's very woke. And she's been very outspoken about Israel. And she refuses to, I don't know, she's, I don't know, she gets a pass on that, I guess. by most Mexicans.

But she's censorship is big. Lokenism is big. A lot of things that people are just not happy with are being passed as laws. You know, gun rights are going completely out of the way. They were pretty minimal and they're even made more minimalistic. Right. A big effort on gender and politics is like being pushed for it. a lot of things that Mexicans do not like about her. But in the end, she seems to come out as an

opposition figure and as a strong figure against foreign or outside intervention, EA, the U.S. So that's what gives her some popularity. Right. And also economically, economically, she's like pushing these social Democrat things forward, like, you know, in the way that it all starts like in the early 2000s in Venezuela. Here's, you know, free money. Free money, essentially that. And, you know, but look, we've had this in the United States for a long time. And not to get off on a tangent, but this is the inevitable tract of any society with fiat currency, is that you, you grow, you become industrialized like Mexico, and now people can't afford shit. Yeah. Because the power of, you've printed so much, and the government's been involved,

in the economy and now sure everybody has jobs but nobody can afford to live in tj nobody can afford to live in mexico city so you have to start giving more free shit out and what will happen is in 20 years just like us now and certainly venezuela is you will that you will have a financial crisis and the peso will it will it the problems we're having mexico you're starting to have rich people problems yeah yeah in a weird way. But unfortunately, there's still a lot of poverty there because you don't have the advantage

of having the dollars. And also systemic corruption and money just going missing and nobody keeping track of anything and laws not being respected and just a bunch of, and also being a giant highway for drugs up into the U.S.

and also being a giant market for guns and bullets coming down. Right. You know, the whole, you know, Mexico, far from God, but close to the United States thing just keeps popping up a lot. And again,

And Claudia seems to have come out of the gate swinging versus his predecessor. Harfouche, the guy that's behind his security policy, seems to be the up-and-coming star. If there's anybody that I would want to bet on as far as him being the next personality out of Mexico, I think that's going to be him. Maybe the next president of Mexico, that's probably going to be. Yeah, no, for sure. And he doesn't seem corrupted, right? Well, we don't know. We don't know.

Brazier things have happened. Yeah. I mean, my... Imagine my surprise when I saw Luna being fucking guarded off by the FBI. Yes. So, I don't know. I'd say, you know, he's... You've heard mentions of him being involved in the disappearance of those students in central Mexico.

Are you serious? You hear mentions of that problem being the case and his name being involved in some of that. Again, he's not in prison and nothing's come out. So like, who knows? He had this weird assassination attempt on him in Mexico City where the new generation cartel made this armored vehicle thing and they shot him up and they couldn't kill him. So he survived that. It was a weird, it was a weird attempt. I don't know.

I don't know the whole details about it, but I don't know. There's something about it that is just not, you know? Yeah. And but on the other end of that, he's been very active in not only modernizing elements of the federal police that were completely gutted, but also adding onto this existing framework like some professionalism. I've gotten to talk to some of the new guys who are working there, and they seem to have their head in the right place. They're targeting local governments. They're raiding municipal offices and realizing that the mayor is basically running small-time cartel in some of the cities that they're operating and they're taking

Mount Police forces. And I mean, the work is there. You can see that there's an effort and it's not just fucking for show. Right. But also it's too, it's not enough, you know? It's not enough. you hear Trump on one end saying, Claudia has all my respect,

strong president, amazing, but the cartels run everything in the United States. They run everything in Mexico and they're compromised and everybody's afraid to govern there. So he's not letting go of that. So I think it's a, it's not going to be loud or in your face.

I don't think it's going to be the invasion of Afghanistan or Iraq, but it's probably going to be, you know, we're going to wake up to it, you know. And I think it's already yet. I have a sneaking suspicion that this, this handling of the cartel infrastructure is already happening underneath our noses right now quietly, but it's happening already. And there's already boots on the ground. Ready or not, summer is coming. And Wayfair's Memorial Day clearance is on now.

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Wayfair, every style, every home. Yeah, so the worst case scenario is we have hot war in Venezuela and in Colombia, because that will spill over to Colombia, bombings, American troops, you know, like Vietnam, right, battling guerrilla forces. And then in Mexico, you have this. And then in Mexico, a wave of migration that will rival anything in these past decade as far as, like, people, caribans. Like, none of that shit is going to pale in comparison to that, that wave of people that are going to be displaced. It's going to be completely, that's why I don't know.

You know, I don't know if that's what the U.S. wants to do. So, I don't know. Yeah. Last thing, have you seen, have you heard of the, do you know DEA? Are you like friends with any DEA on this side? I hate cops. I'm not friends with any police. All of them are horrible.

But yeah, I talk to people. Yeah, I talk to people. I want to figure out, has the, and this is what I try to impress on my listeners, you know, and just the public when you hear about. about like we're stopping drugs by blowing up boats with people we don't even know. Has the price of cocaine in Mexico or in the United States gone up? Not in any dramatic or not noteworthy way. You'll see it in people going nuts and you'll see it in people fighting over shit.

You'll see it in strength of substances all of a sudden, like not being there. And it's very apparent. The first time I hear about any of that is usually from the medical or emergency services, not the DEA. Right. Good point. Yeah. So I usually hear about that through medical services, Kuroha, or like stuff like that. And then, you know, the people that are in that lifestyle, if I can gain access to them by a friend or somebody that knows anybody, those people.

and, you know, online. You'll hear conversations. You'll hear comments. You'll see comments and stuff like that. And I have not seen the needle move an inch. So no. Yeah. I haven't seen those effects directly now.

Like, I haven't seen them. I mean, they're sending so much Coke out of South America. Like orders of magnitude more than in the days of the big Pablo and the Medici. volume. They're just dedicated to volume. They're just throwing volume at it. And if 30% of it goes through, it's enough, you know. I don't really see the prices.

I mean, look, I certainly, anecdotally, you know, I don't see a lot of people. I don't see a lot of people Coke heads, people that do Coke saying, damn, I just can't find any. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Everybody seems to have like a skipping their step on their way to work, you know. Damn, dude, well, damn, I love Mexico. It's just going through it.

I feel bad, you know. But yeah, well, it is what it is. Eventually it will all become one big thing, you'll see. That's what I'm betting on. That we're all just going to become one America. North America with a taco shell underneath it. We'll just be North America. It'll just be North America and that's

It'll just be the continent of America Where everything's awesome And everything that sucks is going to be You know, separated from an ocean From everything that sucks That's probably what we're going to be doing You know Oh my God, that's crazy

I hope I don't live to see that Yeah But that's when the Bitcoin That's when Bitcoin will be the base layer That might be actually better Because then people won't have to migrate You know what freaks me out I know it freaks you out

But I'm saying like Ultimately there has to be there has to be a total we're not going to live to see any of this shit it's pointless yeah I'm Mike's I'm gonna live to 100 well you're Mexican you're gonna live long I'm Mexican and I have a kid so I have to like

worry a bit more further out right right right also you know again you talk about cryptocurrencies and stuff like that they're great you know I have I've invested in that myself but some of the people that are all into it right now and the government freak me out

what do they know trust me I've taken my foot off the gas a little bit when I see, you know, when I see Baron Trump buying $30 million of Bitcoin, I'm like, I want to buy what he's buying because they do know something. That's kind of how I think of it. But I also buy a lot of gold, too,

you know, for the getaway. But, okay, so where do you move? Last question. Where are we going to move? Me and you and the crew. Where are we going to move if shit really hits the fan? I like Uruguay.

It's completely out of the way. It's irrelevant. I like Uruguay. Where you go? Whatever the U.S. is about to do to Venezuela, it's probably going to eliminate a lot of the bullshit. You know, they have going on there probably? Or maybe exacerbated. But I think it's going to be like, so I'd say French Guiana.

Like, I'm looking at some property in French Guiana. Dog, have you seen the movie? It's with Steve McQueen, Parillon. Papillon. Papillon. Watch that movie. It's about when the French really controlled French Guiana. And it's about like they would say.

send all their convicts to the French Guiana's prisons. But it's a beautiful, and it's, again, completely irrelevant. Yeah. But you know what I mean? That sounds good to me. Whenever war visits, cheap land, opportunity. You know, people don't want to go to the vacation somewhere where somebody was their head were cut off.

So that's when you, you know, that's when you take all of your, your horrible sense of normalcy, which is, but pretty low on my end. I'm like, hmm, I could live here. I can be happy here in French Guiana. Yeah. Well, too bad Jared Kushner already got to Gaza or else we could scoop up some shit there, you know. Yeah, you can't get deported.

I can say whatever I want. You're not fully... I don't know who that is. I'm not well-versed in the political individuals in their names. I'm learning. I don't know of English. I'm a person very pendej.

I'm a guy, born, bono. You know, I don't know... I don't know about the religion, and those Jews are my friends. those Muslims. Like all of it. I'm friends with everybody. I don't take sides.

All right, you guys. Ed, fascinating, chilling, and interesting as usual. Go watch Manifest Radio, the podcast, for God's sakes. Go over there. This guy's already a millionaire. Go watch the podcast, too. And go on my Instagram and buy some of my stuff that I sell. Yeah, yeah.

Best swag. Send me some of that shit, dude. I'll plug it on here. One of these knives. are great. Fucking awesome, the knife barren. All right, you guys, the one and only

Ed Cowell. That own, we will see you on the rebound. Peace. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website to marketing,

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