Contraband and Stolen Goods Economy

     It seems I have spent the entire month of October blogging on Paraguay.  Obviously Paraguay had, and probably still does have, many things taking place that would encourage discussion!  Aside from having disreputable and mysterious characters, gangsters, fugitives, and terrorists within its borders, Paraguay, at least back in the 1980s (I am told it really hasn't changed!), was a country that had its economy based on contraband and stolen goods!  American cigarettes cost 25 cents a pack when they were almost a dollar stateside!  A bottle of Johnny Walker Red Label scotch could be purchased for $3!  In fact, Paraguay was the second largest exporter of scotch whiskey in the world, after Scotland, of course!  After getting their contraband booze and cigarettes, much of the stuff was re-exported to Arab countries!
     In Snap Shots, in a short story called "The Gun Collector" I mention that all sorts of goods were stolen and brought into Paraguay to be sold locally or re-exported.  Aside from guns, cars were very popular stolen goods, stolen from neighboring countries like Brazil and Argentina.  Actually, the largest number of stolen cars came from Brazil, straight from the factory! The most popular stolen car was the VW bug.  The VW bug (the original, not the current imposter!) was discontinued in Germany and no longer sold in Europe or imported into the U.S. by the 1980s.  However, it is still made at the VW factory in Brazil and sold all over Latin America.
      In Paraguay, it seems there was a pipeline of stolen VWs from Brazil.  Paraguayan law permitted registration of these stolen VWs, which were issued special license plates that allowed the owner to drive it legally in Paraguay, but could not be exported to another country.  Many members of the U.S. Embassy bought these very inexpensive, but excellent VWs and used them during their time in Paraguay, mostly as their second car.  I bought one of these "legal-illegal" VW bugs from a friend who was leaving the country. 
     I bought the car for our daughter Natalie, who was a senior in high school at the time.  Our family car was an Oldsmobile, a large American car that Natalie's friends called the "Yank Tank."  The Olds was parked in the drive way and the VW bug was parked on the street in front of the house.  Since our armed guard was stationed in front of the house 24/7, theoretically the VW didn't even have to be locked, but Natalie kept it locked anyway. 
     About six months before we left Paraguay an incident occurred that deserves mention.  I alluded to this incident in an earlier blog when I mentioned that a "keystone cops" affair took place involving our guard.  By this time, I had been collecting a lot of information on suspected Arab terrorists and I did not receive any more death threats from the Chinese Triads.  However, instead I received a threatening call from someone with a Middle Eastern accent.  The call was taken by a Marine Guard who said that the callers spoke with what he though was an Arabic accent.  This was duly reported to Washington and the Embassy Security Officer put everyone on alert for possible Arab terrorist activity.
     Then one night just before midnight, the Marine Guard received a call from what sounded to him like an Arab who said "something" bad was going to happen to me.  The Marine reported it immediately to the Security Officer who was at home in bed!  Shortly after that, about 3 in the morning, the Embassy's roving patrol went by my house and as they drove up, spooked two men who were fiddling with doors on the VW bug that was parked out front but fled when the roving patrol approached.  They got out of their vehicle and searched for the guard that was supposed to be there, but he was no where to be found.  At this point they called their supervisor to report what they encountered, and the supervisor called the Embassy Security Officer, once again getting him out of bed.
     We were sound asleep in our bedroom, which was upstairs.  Our dog Brandy was in the bedroom with us, also sound asleep.  Down the hall from us, in her bedroom, Natalie was asleep.  Downstairs, in a separate unit outside the kitchen door, our maid Sunnie was also sleeping.  This was during Paraguayan summer, which is very hot, and our window air conditioners were going full blast.  If you remember the old style window air conditioners, there was no thermostat!  If you turned them on, they stayed on until you turned them off or they broke down.  The air conditioners were noisy and running full blast.  We didn't hear anything.
     The Security Officer left his house and got additional reinforcements and joined the roving patrol.  Having earlier been briefed by the Marine Guard about the threatening phone call, he naturally assumed the worst.  The fact that our guard was missing, I am sure he expected  to find a bloody massacre!  As he told me later, he actually expected to find dead bodies!  Since the roving patrol had a set of keys for my house, they proceeded to enter the house, very carefully!
     I woke up to the sound of someone calling out, over the din of the air conditioners, "Is anyone home?" "Anybody home?"  I got out of bed and went down stairs with Brandy padding along.  Brandy was no doubt thinking that I was taking her for a walk in the yard! When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I found myself facing a group of heavily armed embassy security personnel led by the Security Officer! 
     The Security Officer was obviously relieved to see that I was alive!  He asked if everyone else was OK and I said that as far as I knew, everyone was fine.  I went back upstairs and checked in on Natalie, who was asleep, then both Jo and I checked on our maid Sunnie, who was also fine.  Just about then, our guard reappeared.  When asked why he wasn't at his post, he admitted that he went to pay a call on his girl friend.  He also said that he knew that a couple of men were trying to steal the VW, but he didn't stop them.  Instead he said he hid and watched them, then when they left, he took off too - to visit his girl friend!  I couldn't quite follow the reasoning in his explanation, but next day asked that he be removed from guarding my house.  In fact, I asked that no guard be posted, since it was obvious that an armed guard served no purpose, except to be a pain in the neck.
     Paraguay, what a country!  Jo and I often reminisce about Paraguay and the improbable things that happened while we were there, and Natalie still remembers fondly her first car, that "legal-illegal" VW bug!