December 28, 2005
Wilder Gutierrez Rubio, 38, died a few hours after arriving
in Lima, Peru on December 6. Days before, he had been diagnosed
with severe leukemia at Ibn Sina Hospital in Baghdad and immediately
flown back to his home country.
Gutierrez was part of a 200-man Peruvian contingent sent to
Iraq in early October to provide security for Baghdad’s Green
Zone, home to the US and British embassies, the US Central Command
and Iraqi government ministries.
It is widely suspected in Peru that Gutierrez’s leukemia
was the result of exposure to high levels of uranium in Iraq.
Weeks before, another Peruvian, Martin Jara Hichard, 40, was
killed in Kabul, Afghanistan. To this day it remains unclear how
he died. Like Gutierrez, he had signed on with a US recruiting
firm to guard US installations.
Gutierrez and Jara are two of more than 1,000 Latin Americans
recruited by US private security contractors to work as mercenaries
performing dangerous jobs in the countries under US military occupation.
Their deaths underscore the emergence of a cheap labor market
for mercenaries that has thrived in recent months.
Since the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, about 20,000
mercenaries have been hired to work as private security contractors.
This figure represents one mercenary for every seven uniformed
American soldiers in these regions. With $30 billion spent by
the US Government on private security contractors in 2004—its
largest expenditure in Iraq after oil and construction—the
contractors have found a gold mine in the Latin American market.
War is big money and, like any other business today, security
contractors are scouring the globe looking for the cheapest labor
so as to maximize their war profiteering.
Unemployed young men from Peru—most of them former soldiers—are
paid only $1,000 a month—less than a tenth the salary paid
to American mercenaries. For $5.75 an hour—a figure that
is roughly equivalent to the US minimum wage—the recruits
put themselves "in the line of fire" protecting US and
British interests in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Forbes magazine reports that the US Government "pays
private firms between $500 and $1,500 a day for the experienced
military personnel they supply in Iraq. That works out to mercenaries
who often earn between $150,000 and $250,000 a year."
Not so for the vast majority of mercenaries recruited from
Latin America. And while US mercenaries are rotated in and out
of Iraq on 90-day tours, the Latin Americans are committed to
remaining in the country for a year, without any relief.
Gutierrez and Jara would qualify as "experienced military
personnel," having served in the Peruvian Air Force and Army
respectively. In addition, Gutierrez had received special jungle
survival training.
Other Latin American mercenaries have been recruited in Chile,
Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Like Peru, all
of these countries were the scenes of "dirty wars" carried
out by US-backed forces against their own people. It is significant
that training in militaries that produced death squads, "disappearances,"
massacres and torture is viewed as essential preparation for aiding
Washington’s "democratizing" mission in Iraq.
Martin Jara Hichard, the Peruvian mercenary who died in Kabul,
signed a contract with the US firm MVM Inc. Peruvians are recruited
for Afghanistan by 3D Global Solutions, another American firm.
Wackenhut del Peru represents 3D Global Solutions in Peru and
is responsible for the security of the US Embassy in Lima.
Virginia-based MVM Inc. is one of the firms reaping the greatest
profits from US imperialist aggression. It is dedicated to recruiting
and training, and identifying personnel who have specialized training
in security. Since its founding in 1979 by three former members
of the US Secret Service, MVM has built a strong business partnership
with the US government. Its largest client is the US State Department,
which has contracted the firm to provide security for 80 American
embassies. In 2003 it was awarded a $100 million contract by the
US Department of Health and Human Services to guard American hospitals.
MVM was responsible for the protection of American officials in
Haiti during the overthrow of the democratically elected president,
Jean Bertrand Aristide.
Besides protecting US facilities in Baghdad, the firm’s
lucrative business in Iraq includes training the Iraqi police.
As a result of US wars and occupations, MVM has seen its revenues
multiply more than six-fold, from $30 million in 1997 to $190
million in 2004.
Wilder Gutierrez Rubio was hired in October by the private
security contractor Triple Canopy Operations, a firm established
by three former members of the US Army’s elite Delta Force.
It is represented in Peru by Defion International SAC, which is
responsible for hiring mercenaries for Iraq.
Peruvian authorities have accused Triple Canopy, 3D Global
Solutions and MVM of compelling those they hire to sign contracts
that lack normal legal protections required by the country’s
labor laws. The Peruvian press reported, for example, that the
Triple Canopy contract "exempts the government of the United
States, the hiring company and its subsidiaries from all responsibility
for each of the claims, losses, damages and injuries that may
occur" to the signatory. The contracts run for one year and
are renewable.
While the Latin American mercenaries hired by these firms receive
some of their military training upon arrival in Iraq or Afghanistan,
the contractors have quickly moved to take "cost-saving"
measures by covertly contracting the services of the Peruvian
Army and setting up a clandestine training camp in Honduras. In
his article "For a Fistful of Dollars," progresosemanal.com
correspondent Emilio Paz wrote:
"The Peruvian newspaper El Comercio in late October
revealed that the Peruvian Army was actively involved in furnishing
trained mercenaries to the United States. A contract between the
Army and Triple Canopy, signed September 23, stated that the Army
would set up four training courses at its base in Huachipa, the
newspaper said.
"The first course trained 218 'civilian volunteers,’
for which the Army was paid 104,640 soles by Triple Canopy—the
equivalent of US$30,657; the second trained another 218, but the
Army charged more: 156,960 soles, or US$45,985. The third course
trained 120 men for 86,400 soles, or US$25,313, and the fourth,
122 men for 87,840 soles, or US$25,734. The total number of mercenaries
trained was 678.
"When questioned about this by [the Peruvian] Congress,
Defense Minister Marciano Rengifo acknowledged that the Peruvian
Army had agreed to train the 'civilians’ for a total
payment of 435,840 soles, or US$127,690."
The Peruvian training camp is not the only one. In September,
the Honduran Government ordered the expulsion of 105 Chilean mercenaries,
who had entered the country as tourists or businessmen. Hired
by the recruiting firm Your Solutions—another Triple Canopy
subsidiary—the Chileans were attending a training camp led
by US and Chilean personnel in Lepaterique, 16 miles northwest
of the capital of Tegucigalpa.
The facilities being used, apparently without the knowledge
of the Honduran government, were set up by the US Central Intelligence
Agency in the 1980s. There, a combination of CIA personnel and
members of Argentina’s military intelligence trained both
the "contra" mercenaries attacking Nicaragua and Honduran
security forces. They were taught the methods of torture, "disappearance"
and political repression developed under the Argentine dictatorship.
Lepaterique became the headquarters of the infamous Battalion
316, which unleashed a wave of political killings, torture and
imprisonment against opponents of the US-backed government of
Honduras.
Oscar Aspe, a former officer of the Chilean army, recently
told the Honduran newspaper La Tribuna that he and the
other mercenaries were being trained to "guard dignitaries,
buildings, ports and other facilities," including embassies.
Aspe added, "We are fulfilling a mission for the US government,"
identifying the Bush administration as his client.
The Honduran newspaper reported that in just one day in November,
Your Solutions shipped 108 Hondurans, 88 Chileans and 16 Nicaraguans
to Iraq. It is estimated that there are about 700 Peruvians, 250
Chileans and 320 Hondurans working in Baghdad’s Green Zone.
La Tribuna also confirmed that the monthly pay was $1,000,
with an additional $500 for English-speaking men.
While private security contractors describe the job as a non-combatant
position, dismissing the term "mercenaries," this is
contradicted by the heavy military training with "combat"
weapons that use 5.56 millimeter and 9 millimeter ammunition.
A recruit in the Honduras camp told the AFP news agency that the
instructor "explained to us that where we were going everyone
would be our enemy, and we’d have to look at them that way,
because they would want to kill us and the gringos too... So we’d
have to be heartless when it was up to us to kill someone, even
it was a child."
Foreign mercenaries face the same dangers as US military personnel
in Iraq and are essentially being recruited as cheaper—and
less politically sensitive—cannon fodder. According to CNN.com,
in 2004 "the attacks that used to target the military are
now directed at civilian contractors and their private security
forces... At one point there were about 150 attacks per day."
The Iraq Coalition Casualties web site, icasualties.org, has posted
a "partial list" of 293 contractor fatalities as of
December 27, a figure that is proportionate to the casualty rate
for US soldiers deployed in Iraq.
Another indication that those taking these "security"
jobs face the risks of occupation troops is the dismemberment
insurance offered to the mercenaries. According to a Triple Canopy
contract obtained by a Lima TV station, the insurance payments
are $243,000 for the loss of an arm; $225,000 for a leg; $190,000
for a hand; $160,000 for a foot; $125,000 for an eye; $58,000
for a finger, and $12,500 for a toe. The amount for loss of life
was not reported.
Most of the Latin American mercenaries had served in their
countries’ armed forces and found themselves unemployed after
leaving the military.
Wilder Gutierrez left his low-paying job as a supermarket supervisor.
He signed up for Iraq in an attempt to save money for his wife
and young daughter. Gutierrez lived in Marcavilca, a shanty town
(pueblo joven) located in the old working class district of Chorrillos
in Lima. His friends remember him as a healthy man who was the
best goal scorer on the neighborhood soccer team. "He never
got tired, we would have noticed if he was sick," said a
friend. From Iraq, "Wilfred talked to his family every week
and never complained of any illness," said a niece.
Gutierrez’s widow, Maria Gutierrez Amaya, told CPN radio
in Lima, Peru that her husband was not the only case of leukemia
in Baghdad due to high levels of uranium in Iraq.
Mrs. Gutierrez also complained that communications were supervised.
"They are instructed to ask questions about how things are
going in Peru, and when we ask about their situation, the call
is cut off," she said.
Triple Canopy’s legal advisor showed a copy of the health
certificate issued by the Municipal Director of Health of the
city of Lima that said that at the time of his departure to Iraq
on October 11, Gutierrez showed "no signs of disease."
When he arrived in Lima on December 5, he had lost seven kilos,
his body showed bruises and his hemoglobin level was 5.7. At his
departure he had a level of 12.8. Wilfred Gutierrez died shortly
after midnight December 6 of an internal hemorrhage.
Aside from the fate of those Latin American being shipped off
to Iraq as mercenaries, the implications within the region itself
are ominous. In both Peru and Honduras, the recruitment and training
of these elements involves secret deals between the private contractors
and the military—undoubtedly with the participation of the
CIA—apparently conducted behind the backs of the elected
governments of both countries. Similar arrangements were worked
out in Chile, where the contractors were allowed to recruit from
active-duty Chilean military personnel.
To service the illegal US war and occupation of Iraq—and
feed the profit drive of the contracting firms—political
relations and networks are being cultivated that threaten to revive
and strengthen the same forces that produced the string of military
coups and dictatorships that swept through the continent three
decades ago.