Salvadoran troops to continue in Iraq

Salvadoran president Tony Saca announced that his country will send a new contingency of troops to Iraq. The 11^th Cuscatlán Battalion will be deployed to Iraq in order to replace nearly 300 troops “involved in humanitarian activities and reconstruction work” said Saca in a radio address on Sunday.

Thus, El Salvador will continue to be the lone Latin American country with troops currently in Iraq. Opposition in the country his increased to pull the troops out permanently and five Salvadoran troops have been killed in Iraq thus far. Yet El Salvador’s legislature gave Saca permission to continue deployments until the end of this year and Saca has pledged to keep troops stationed there.

Meanwhile, a group of thirty Salvadorans will soon go to the U.S. to train to become mercenaries in the Middle East. According to a local press report, each person will be paid between $1020 and $1500 to train at the Blackwater-run base with an additional bonus for those that pass and work as private security abroad.

As we noted in 2006, the high pay attracts Latin Americans from countries like El Salvador and Peru though the firms have been criticized for unfair pay and exploitation.

Image- PBS (“In San Salvador on Wednesday, March 29, 2006, El Salvador's President Tony Saca decorated soldiers of contingent five of the Cuscatlán Battalion, who recently returned from Iraq.”)

Sources (English)- PRESS TV, The Latin Americanist, SignOnSanDiego.com, jpost.com

Sources (Spanish)- elsalvador.com, La Prensa Grafica