La guerra oculta de Latinoamérica en Irak

Y no sólo mercenarios estadounidenses y de europa central pelean en Irak, sino también chilenos, peruanos, colombianos, nicaragüenses, salvadoreños, hondureños son parte de ese genocidio en nombre de la "libertad y democracia". El capitalismo más barbárico y retrógrada en acción.

Media stories about private security firms (PMFS) such as Blackwater have highlighted the important—and controversial—role that private security contractors play in supporting U.S. military forces in Iraq. What few people have discussed is just how many of these contractors come not from the United States, but, increasingly, from Latin America.

The reliance on Latin American security contractors has worrisome implications for both the United States and Latin American countries. Uneven vetting procedures by some PMFs that recruit in the region contradict and potentially undermine official U.S. policies to promote respect for human rights by Latin American military and police forces. Moreover, lack of effective regulation of the private security industry has led to abusive labor practices by some PMFs; it has also encouraged corruption in some Latin American militaries eager to benefit from the recruitment of former soldiers—a development that undercuts efforts to achieve civilian control of militaries in the region’s new democracies. A look at how the current recourse to Latin American contractors came about helps to understand the scope of these implications.

Of the estimated 30,000 contractors employed by private military firms (PMFs) in Iraq, about 10,000 come from countries other than the United States and Britain. No less than 1,200 Chileans, 1,000 Peruvians, 700 Salvadorans, and hundreds each from countries like Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua have taken up security work in Iraq. Indeed, when the security firm Triple Canopy landed a U.S. government contract in 2005 to provide security in the Green Zone, it recruited security personnel almost exclusively from Latin America.

Why so many contractors from Latin America? First, the region offers a skilled security-trained hiring base. In the last two decades, militaries in the region have experienced significant downsizing as a result of changing global security conditions and the return of civilian governments, many of which sought to cut military personnel and budgets for political and economic reasons. And although some countries have moved to all-volunteer forces, most still have some form of obligatory military service. As a result, Latin America offers both highly skilled ex-soldiers (thanks to downsizing) and trained ex-conscripts (thanks to obligatory service)—a hiring base able to serve a range of contracting needs.