I can speak enough Spanish to get by, and due to that, I was the only person on my team at my former job who got assignments in Central and South America.
Something that bums me out about Americans, is that they don't grasp that in most of the third world, people live behind brick walls with razor wire on top. Even in the wealthiest neighborhoods in Mexico, it's VERY uncommon to see homes that AREN'T built like fortresses.
The "American dream" of having a lawn, and people can just walk up and ring your doorbell? That just doesn't EXIST in huge chunks of the world.
A friend of mine spent years having a house built in Mexico. He kept telling me about how great it was, how affordable it was, etc. Posting pics of him walking on the beach, which was just a few blocks from his home. His home cost about 5% as you'd spend for (near) beachfront property in SoCal, but it was just an hour away from SoCal.
Like a cheat mode for "living by the beach," right?
Then one day he quietly stopped going, and got a new place.
To this day, he won't provide any details. But I get the impression that someone probably just showed up at his doorstep and told him to pay taxes to some gangsters, or maybe they just took the house entirely. (The house that he had built, it was a single family home, not much different than what you'd see in San Diego. His new place is in a condo with a big security corridor, a guard gated entrance to the property itself AND the building. It's got more security than you'd see at a bank in the U.S.) If you go on YouTube, you can find endless firsthand accounts of gringos who bought a house in Mexico, then someone just showed up with some guys with guns and told the homeowner it was time to pack their stuff. People thought John McAffee was a loon, with all of his prostitutes and his money and his guns in Belize. But realistically? If you're some white dude in Belize and some local gangsters figure out you're loaded, there's a good chance they're going to show up and ask you for money, or maybe even tell you to abandon your house.
All of this shit is happening in a country that we share a border with, and Libs are like "it'll be fine."