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04-21-2004, 02:31 PM
Chile guards in Iraq, a thorn for goverment at home
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N20289332.htm
By Fiona Ortiz
SANTIAGO, Chile, April 20 (*******) - Former Chilean soldiers jumped at the chance to earn big money as private security guards in Iraq, and now their government that opposed the war may face an awkward problem if they are killed or taken hostage and has tried to stop them going.
Chile, a member of the U.N. Security Council that does not support the war, is analyzing contingency plans for the region in case their citizens are killed, wounded or captured, government officials said. Chile has no consular presence in Iraq.
Despite their government's efforts to keep them out of Iraq, the veterans of one of Latin America's best-trained armed forces joined a subcontractor for U.S.-based Blackwater Security Consulting to earn $3,000 a month, ten times the amount a security guard could earn in Chile. Four of Blackwater's U.S. security workers were killed and mutilated in Falluja in March.
"This has been something unexpected. But once it happened the only thing we can do is observe and see how it develops. This is part of the new international reality, the private dimension of what used to be wars waged by governments," said a government official who asked not to be named.
Publicly the government has said the 120 Chileans who went to Iraq in February and March for six-months guarding U.S. engineers in four cities are free to sign private contracts.
But Jose Miguel Pizarro, the 35-year-old Chilean-American veteran of both the U.S. and Chilean armed forces, who recruited for Blackwater in Chile said the government has tried to stop him.
MERCENARIES OR CONTRACTORS
"It is 110 percent legal. We are bullet proof. They can do nothing to stop us," Pizarro said. To avoid breaking Chilean law against hiring guards for work abroad, he said he incorporated his company in Uruguay.
The military justice department investigated Pizarro's recruiting activities for several months and passed the case on to Santiago's 17th Criminal Court where a judge is now looking into whether Pizarro violated any laws, Deputy War Secretary Gabriel Gaspar said recently.
The private security business has boomed as the U.S. army has increased its use of civilian contractors, sparking debates over the definition of mercenary and over whether contractors' deaths are official casualties.
Chile has been governed for 14 years by a center-left coalition that maintained high military training standards though cutting back the armed forces after the notorious human rights abuses under the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship from 1973-1990.
"For Chile it's more than uncomfortable. It's awkward that citizens who served in our armed forces are doing this kind of work in Iraq. If any of them are kidnapped Chile as a government will not be able to ignore the situation," said Raul Sohr, an analyst and commentator on military affairs in Chile.
"These are people carrying weapons of war in a conflict situation, serving one of the sides in exchange for money. They are mercenaries," Sohr said.
Contractors have long played an important role in conflict zones and supported U.S. troops in Vietnam and in the last Gulf War but the scope and danger of the work has expanded greatly in Iraq. At the end of the Gulf War the ratio was about one contractor to 100 soldiers, now it is about one contractor for every 10 soldiers.
U.S. contractors often earn at least double what the Chilean security guards are getting, which has been cause for grumbling among some of the Chileans.
Pizarro said five of his recruits -- whom he said were gung-ho when they trained in Blackwater's center in North Carolina -- found Iraq a nightmare and are coming home.
"They did not adjust to the war scenario," he said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N20289332.htm
By Fiona Ortiz
SANTIAGO, Chile, April 20 (*******) - Former Chilean soldiers jumped at the chance to earn big money as private security guards in Iraq, and now their government that opposed the war may face an awkward problem if they are killed or taken hostage and has tried to stop them going.
Chile, a member of the U.N. Security Council that does not support the war, is analyzing contingency plans for the region in case their citizens are killed, wounded or captured, government officials said. Chile has no consular presence in Iraq.
Despite their government's efforts to keep them out of Iraq, the veterans of one of Latin America's best-trained armed forces joined a subcontractor for U.S.-based Blackwater Security Consulting to earn $3,000 a month, ten times the amount a security guard could earn in Chile. Four of Blackwater's U.S. security workers were killed and mutilated in Falluja in March.
"This has been something unexpected. But once it happened the only thing we can do is observe and see how it develops. This is part of the new international reality, the private dimension of what used to be wars waged by governments," said a government official who asked not to be named.
Publicly the government has said the 120 Chileans who went to Iraq in February and March for six-months guarding U.S. engineers in four cities are free to sign private contracts.
But Jose Miguel Pizarro, the 35-year-old Chilean-American veteran of both the U.S. and Chilean armed forces, who recruited for Blackwater in Chile said the government has tried to stop him.
MERCENARIES OR CONTRACTORS
"It is 110 percent legal. We are bullet proof. They can do nothing to stop us," Pizarro said. To avoid breaking Chilean law against hiring guards for work abroad, he said he incorporated his company in Uruguay.
The military justice department investigated Pizarro's recruiting activities for several months and passed the case on to Santiago's 17th Criminal Court where a judge is now looking into whether Pizarro violated any laws, Deputy War Secretary Gabriel Gaspar said recently.
The private security business has boomed as the U.S. army has increased its use of civilian contractors, sparking debates over the definition of mercenary and over whether contractors' deaths are official casualties.
Chile has been governed for 14 years by a center-left coalition that maintained high military training standards though cutting back the armed forces after the notorious human rights abuses under the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship from 1973-1990.
"For Chile it's more than uncomfortable. It's awkward that citizens who served in our armed forces are doing this kind of work in Iraq. If any of them are kidnapped Chile as a government will not be able to ignore the situation," said Raul Sohr, an analyst and commentator on military affairs in Chile.
"These are people carrying weapons of war in a conflict situation, serving one of the sides in exchange for money. They are mercenaries," Sohr said.
Contractors have long played an important role in conflict zones and supported U.S. troops in Vietnam and in the last Gulf War but the scope and danger of the work has expanded greatly in Iraq. At the end of the Gulf War the ratio was about one contractor to 100 soldiers, now it is about one contractor for every 10 soldiers.
U.S. contractors often earn at least double what the Chilean security guards are getting, which has been cause for grumbling among some of the Chileans.
Pizarro said five of his recruits -- whom he said were gung-ho when they trained in Blackwater's center in North Carolina -- found Iraq a nightmare and are coming home.
"They did not adjust to the war scenario," he said.