Having flown into these countries and seeing how the controllers don't seem to understand the basics of ATC I finally after several events insisted on staying above the clouds in visual conditions before initiating the approach to minimize my exposure to a conflict. One of my last ones was being put in holding 100 ft above the clouds at 10,000 feet to notice my TCAS showed another aircraft approaching my holding fix at the same altitude. When I questioned the controller I heard a lot of Spanish back and forth and he climbed to 10,500 and I was told he was at 11,000 in english. The next turn in holding he was back at 10,000 and 2 miles in front of me so I disengaged the autopilot and made an evasive maneuver asking why was he there. His answer was to clear me for the approach and spoke in spanish to the other plane to hold. My 757 crew if we had collided I am sure would have been blamed for the conflict. This is not rocket science. Why do they not understand the basics of ATC?