Latin American hired guns shrug off Iraq war risks for payday

[Judi Lynn]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

Latin American hired guns shrug off Iraq war risks for payday
Tyler Bridges



August 5, 2007 3:11 AM

MCT NEWSFEATURES

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

LIMA, Peru - Tired of subsisting by selling cigarettes on the street, Gregorio Calixto jumped at the chance last fall to earn $1,000 a month working for a U.S.-based security company in Iraq.

The former Peruvian army sergeant is only one of many Latin Americans who have gone to work for security firms in Iraq - most of them U.S. based - that now employ 6,000 to 10,000 men from around the world, according to news accounts.

The Latin Americans typically served in the military back home - many fought leftist guerrillas in places like El Salvador and Colombia - and were taught by U.S. instructors, making it easier for them to use U.S. weapons and work under American security procedures.

But after leaving their armed forces, these soldiers found themselves in low-paying jobs. So they agreed to risk injury or death in Iraq for $1,000 to $1,500 a month - $5 to $7 per hour - a good wage for them but far below the $10,000 to $15,000 monthly pay for American contract employees.

Peruvians guard the outer perimeter of a U.S. installation in Basra. Chileans protect the Green Zone in Baghdad. Hondurans have provided security within the terminal at Baghdad International Airport. Salvadorans once protected the Green Zone in Baghdad, but they and some Ecuadoreans reportedly have left the jobs after media in their home countries labeled them ''mercenaries.''
(snip)

''A lot of people believe that this is one way of masking the true extent of the Iraq operation,'' Rep. David Price, D-N.C, said by telephone from Washington. ''It's an opaque situation.''


Read more: http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=565063940889247832

[rodeodance]

1. Chileans protect the Green Zone in Baghdad.

[subsuelo]

2. Halliburton also employs central americans

pays big time too