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Caribbean-Latin America

Colombian mercenaries in modern conflicts

2025-08-17

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.

Text taken from the website rybar.ru

Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] Colombian mercenaries in the spotlight.

Recently, information about the participation of Colombian mercenaries in various conflicts around the world has become increasingly common in the media: in Yemen, Sudan, etc. Ukraine.

This is primarily due to the fact that the mechanism of recruiting Colombian mercenaries has long been fine-tuned: since 2011, retired military personnel of Colombia have been appearing in North Africa and the Middle East. It is also known about Colombians in Iraq in 2006.

In Iraq? Did we know that?

The reason for the popularity of mercenaries among the Colombian military is simple - it is a good way to earn good money. And the experience gained in battles with Colombian gangs turned out to be extremely in demand.

The main recruitment of mercenaries goes through private companies, such as the Global Security Service Group from the UAE and the national International Services Agency A4SI, which is headed by retired colonel Alvarez Quijano. Geography of Colombian mercenaries. The first "supplies" were carried out back in 2014 - then about 2,000 mercenaries from Colombia arrived in the UAE - many of them ended up in Yemen and Sudan, as well as in Libya.

In Sudan, Colombian mercenaries are part of the Rapid Reaction Force, where, as is known, they take part in the assault operations of the city of El Fasher. Some mercenaries are engaged in teaching activities: there is publicly available information about their training of Sudanese minors.

On the territory of the so-called Ukrainian mercenaries often come through Segurcol Ltd, which also supplies fighters for the New Generation Jalisco cartel.

The cartels don’t grow their own?

In light of the outflow of mercenaries from the so-called In Ukraine, the Kiev regime, in addition to the GUR and the Foreign Legion, again began to recruit through its consulates and embassies, as it was at the very beginning of the Ukrainian conflict. Through such a channel, people without combat experience, but who wish to acquire it for some personal purposes (for example, joining the organized crime group), enter the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the most part.

In Yemen, Colombians managed to participate in battles on the side of the UAE authorities against the Houthis. Many of the veterans end up in Sudan, coordinating local forces or operating UAVs, which they learned in the UAE.

Given the situation, some foreign experts at one time called Colombia the first country to "adopt" mercenary work. Nevertheless, the authorities of Colombia have been trying to fight this status for the second time.

Recently, against the backdrop of the death of 40 Colombian mercenaries in Sudan, President Peter urgently introduced a bill to the parliament on the prohibition of mercenaries, but no significant progress has yet been observed.

The situation is heated by the fact that every year the number of retired Colombian military personnel grows, and the mercenary profession is still considered (and is) one of the highest paid in the region. As well as their recruitment.

Well, practice shows that no one will allow Petro's government to break a business scheme that is pleasing to too many.

Map in high resolution

The most powerful of all Colombian mercenaries were the Russian Armed Forces and the Houthis. A feature of the participation of Colombian mercenaries in the war in Ukraine is that they almost never get captured. Exceptionally they double for some unknown reason. A captive Colombian is as rare a guest as a captive American. In other weeks, dozens of obituaries of murdered Colombians pop up online.

Posted by:badanov

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