News of military munition being stolen from El Goloso Headquarters, 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade base, located in Tres Cantos (near Madrid), has once again highlighted the most likely infiltration of elements from different Latino gangs between professional Spanish troops. Essentially from Latin Kings, Nyetas and the newer, born in penitentiaries inmates, Los Trinitarios.

Some sources indicate that these individuals have increasingly more power and coercion capacity among the rank and file soldiers. Needless to say, the magnitude of the problem grows more worrisome.

This trend is the outcome of a neo-imperialist defense policy carried out by the Government of Spain (GOS), in the nineties, then led by People Party (PP), following the abolition of compulsory Military Service. It consisted in recruiting professional soldiers in Latin America. This initiative was spearheaded by dreams of grandeur from then Prime Minister Mr. José Maria Aznar, and his Defense Minister, Mr. Federico Trillo. It were the years were Spanish Blue Chips tried a sort of re-colonization of Latin America.

Recruitment of Latin American continued under Socialist Administration since 2004, as successive Ministers of Defense -José Bono, José Antonio Alonso and incumbent Carme Chacón- support it.

Moreover, anyone is aware that the recruitment of foreign troops was also due to the difficulty to enrol young Spaniards to become professional soldiers. Those were years of easy money and fast credit, and a professional soldier career was not attractive enough.

As a consequence, a significant increase in recruitment of foreign soldiers happen. Certainly not all of them are of Latin American origin, but from North Africa and Sub-Sahara too. In the case of Latin America, however, a shared language and the promise of a European Union passport, and the end of the contract, were more than tempting.

At present, the Spanish Army has about 4,000 foreigners, which represents 7% of the total. However, in the so-called elite units such as the Legion and the Parachute Brigade(BRIPAC), which are more active in international missions, 30% are foreigners. Most of these are from Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, namely the Andean America.Also from Central America, Caribbean and Southern Cone.

But there is a more striking statistic: 42% of KIA suffered by the Spanish Army are foreign soldiers. This means, predictably, they are sending to the most dangerous operatives. Whether in Lebanon, in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Obviously consequences are quite worrying. Foreign soldiers, are regarded by some as mere mercenaries -that is not truly spanish-, and in the case of Latin Americans, you just have to read any pro-Army internet forum to find expressions such as sudacas, that implies a thoroughly rejection of them.

These situations can facilitate recruitment by gangs of some of these soldiers, or the formation of networks of mutual aid among these soldiers to deal with an environment that may be perceived as hostile. Such networks can later be infiltrated by gangs individuals, transnational criminal organizations and even by international terrorists.

Consequences of all this can be disastrous, and that’s why this phenomenon should be followed closely and draw the appropriate lessons.

Author : daguer
Print