PERU-IRAQ:
A Year in Hell for 1,000
Dollars a Month
By Ángel Páez
LIMA, (IPS) -
Former Peruvian
noncommissioned army
officer Norman Alfonso
Solano is happy because
he has once again been
recruited to work as a
private security guard
in one of the most
dangerous places in the
world: Iraq.
Although he saw fellow
security guards killed
by the Iraqi resistance
when he was working in
the southern Iraqi city
of Basra, Solano
clenched his teeth and
told himself, "I need
the money." This time he
is heading to Baghdad.
The robust 46-year-old
1.80-metre tall Solano
forms part of a new
contingent of former
members of the Peruvian
armed forces and police
who will guard U.S.
installations in Iraq
for a year in exchange
for a hefty paycheck, by
Peruvian standards:
1,000 dollars a month.
"I earn 200 dollars a
month here, and that’s
when I manage to find
work," said Solano, a
veteran of the 1980-2000
counterinsurgency war
against the Maoist
Sendero Luminoso
(Shining Path)
guerrillas.
"I have four kids. I'm
an expert in weapons and
am trained for war.
That's why I have to go
where there is war," he
told IPS.
The U.S. private
military company Triple
Canopy, which has drawn
criticism for taking
advantage of the high
unemployment and low
wages in Peru to recruit
workers, has been hiring
former members of Peru’s
security forces to work
in Iraq for the past
several years. It also
hires workers from
Chile, Colombia and El
Salvador.
The firm was founded in
2003 by former members
of the U.S. army's elite
Delta Force. Thanks to
contacts in the George
W. Bush administration,
it quickly won lucrative
contracts with the State
Department.
Like other private
security firms, Triple
Canopy provides
bodyguard and site
security services to
U.S. infrastructure and
personnel in Iraq, which
has been occupied by the
United States since
March 2003.
In Peru, the
availability of poor,
well-trained potential
applicants with combat
experience is so broad
that Triple Canopy has
opened an office in
Lima: TCLA Internacional,
run by U.S. citizens Jay
Franklin Bryant, Armand
Leon Gadoury and Herbert
Terrence Williams.
Hiring here was
previously carried out
by another firm, Defion
Internacional. But
Triple Canopy decided to
do the recruiting in its
own name, TCLA general
manager Hugo Cobos told
IPS.
"We no longer have any
links with Defion. This
is a completely new
company," said Cobos.
But he declined to
provide further details
of TCLA’s activities.
"It is company policy to
only give out
information in response
to an official request.
You send us a letter
with the doubts that you
would like us to clear
up, we will send it on
to corporate
headquarters in the
United States, and they
will respond. It'll take
a week for you to
receive a response, at
the most," he said.
But although IPS
followed these
instructions, no
response was ever
received.
Authorities in Peru
estimate that at least
1,600 Peruvians have
been hired by U.S.
companies to work in
Iraq and Afghanistan
since 2005. However,
that figure is only
approximate, because the
firms are under no
obligation to report on
their activities.
"In the Ministry of
Foreign Relations, we
have no list of names of
Peruvians who have left
the country to work in
security in Iraq or any
other conflict zone,"
Enrique Bustamante, head
of the Secretariat of
Peruvian Communities
Abroad, told IPS.
"In order for us to keep
records, the companies
that hire them or the
hired security guards
themselves would have to
voluntarily provide us
with information. There
is no statute or law
requiring them to do
so," he said.
Solano worked in Basra
from Dec. 5, 2005 to
Jan. 18, 2006. "This was
the agreement: they paid
me 100 dollars directly
and sent the remaining
900 dollars to my
family," he explained.
"There were many really
tense days, very
dangerous. I witnessed
mortar attacks by the
Iraqi resistance and saw
fellow employees from
other countries shot
dead and Peruvian
colleagues seriously
injured," he said.
"But the money I saved
up has run out," he went
on. "So I applied, and
they told me to get my
documents ready because
they’re putting together
another contingent to be
sent over."
"Yeah, I'm going to work
for Triple Canopy again,
like the first time. I
can't complain; things
went really well for
me."
Norman’s brother is
midfielder Norberto
Solano, who has made a
name for himself in
English football and
forms part of Peru’s
national team.
"My brother’s a
millionaire, and he
likes football. I'm not
a millionaire, I'm a
soldier, I like war and
I need money," he said.
The Triple Canopy
recruiters did not
hesitate to hire him as
soon as he applied: he
served in the army from
1978 to 1986, and has
ample combat experience.
He took part in the
brief 1995 border
skirmish with Ecuador,
and in counterinsurgency
operations against
Sendero Luminoso in the
1980s.
"I left the army because
I had a family to
support and the pay was
bad. I worked in
different security
companies for years. I
was a supervisor and
instructor, but when the
war against terrorism
ended, there wasn't much
work available, and I
found myself unemployed
until I heard from some
friends that they were
recruiting people for
Iraq," he said.
"My family begged me not
to take the risk. The
news coming from over
there was really
alarming. But it was a
chance I couldn't pass
up. It was worth risking
my neck."
Several Peruvian
security guards who have
come back with injuries
have protested over the
lack of medical
insurance and
compensation. According
to a copy of a contract
to which IPS had access,
the employee agrees that
any claim to reparations
must be filed at the
Fairfax district court
in the U.S. state of
Virginia, where Triple
Canopy is based.
The question is, how
many Peruvians could
make the trip to the
United States, or afford
a U.S. lawyer?
"What we are suggesting
is that the recruits
register with us
voluntarily, for us to
have an idea of how many
have gone abroad and how
we can contact them, and
for us to keep a list of
their relatives here,
instead of waiting for a
tragedy to happen before
we take action," said
Bustamante.
The government is
unaware of how many
Peruvians have been
shipped overseas to take
part in foreign wars,
and it is even less
aware of how many have
been injured or have
received compensation,
insurance or medical
care, because the
contracts contain a
confidentiality clause.
In January, members of a
mission from the United
Nations working group on
the use of mercenaries,
headed by chairperson-rapporteur
Amada Benavides de Pérez,
told IPS that they had
received reports that
the Peruvian recruits
were going beyond the
work of mere security
guards and received
training in firing
weapons and at times had
used their guns.
Bustamante was careful
not to refer to the
Peruvian recruits as
"mercenaries", "because
they are hired as
security guards. It is a
bit bold to use that
term to describe people
who are going over to
guard institutions. Do
we call people who work
here in security
‘mercenaries’ just
because they carry
weapons and use armoured
vehicles?"
Nor would it be possible
to keep these firms from
recruiting here, or to
prevent Peruvians from
working in war zones.
"We as a state cannot
make that decision.
Individuals are free to
take the jobs they
choose and assume their
own risks, and the state
cannot adopt measures
that go against their
free will," he said.
"During my stay in
Basra, we were the
targets of around 450
attacks with
explosives," said
Solano. "We carried M4
and AKM assault rifles
and M240 machine guns.
We generally only fired
warning shots. There was
a lot of tension,
especially when the
enemy was firing
mortars. We had a nasty
sensation of being
trapped or shut in. Fear
was just something you
lived with all the
time."
One of the worst cases
of injuries was that of
Richard Misarayme, 24.
"We prayed for him
because it looked like
he was going to die. But
he made it through,"
Solano recalled.
What did he do with the
12,000 dollars he earned
in Basra? Asked IPS.
"I built a house for my
family and paid for my
children’s schooling,"
he said. "It was a
veritable fortune, and
it’s not every day that
a chance comes along to
earn that kind of money.
It would have taken me
years to save up here.
That's why I'm going
back to Iraq. I make my
living off of war, and
as long as there’s war,
I'll keep doing so." |
