“Load your magazines, boys!” Hernán Darío López shouts. 5 of the seven college students instantly elevate theirs to the sky, seven bullets inserted at lightning pace. The opposite two jam. “Each second is valuable. If you’re a part of a safety element, you gained’t have time to suppose,” the teacher insists. Their palms tremble. They wipe the sweat from their palms on their military-patterned cargo pants and nervously readjust their earmuffs. “Oh, man. teacher López is providing you with a tough time right here, however out on the road, you’ll face an actual menace,” he presses. “Okay!” the final one in line shouts with reduction.
They know the remainder of the directions. Weapons at a 45-degree angle. Load. Purpose. And hearth at a white silhouette with earlier bullet holes coated with tape. In a matter of seconds, seven casings fall to the grass concurrently; the echo reverberates all through the mountain, and the gunpowder kills the scent of eucalyptus. Behind them, one other 25 college students apply capturing with an iron duplicate, their palms equally sweaty.
That is the second day of an intensive bodyguard course in Facatativá, a two-hour drive from Bogotá. Spending every week on the S.W.A.T. Bodyguards Academy in Colombia — the biggest personal safety college in Latin America — is, for a lot of, the best achievement of their careers. The Harvard of bodyguards. Madeleine Mendoza, from Santa Marta, goals of continuous to study in order that in the future “[Salvadorian] President Nayib Bukele will select me as his bodyguard.” Albert Fernández has been saving for a 12 months to maneuver up from guarding a warehouse in La Guajira to “one thing higher.” Saúl Vásquez and Paul Rojas got here from Mexico and Ecuador to coach with “the perfect” and thus good the safety of {the electrical} and mining services they defend of their respective international locations. “No one is aware of extra about safety than Colombians,” they each acknowledge.
The instructors — principally retired law enforcement officials or army personnel — swell with pleasure when the subject of Colombia’s repute as a “benchmark in safety” comes up. Luis Albeiro García, an teacher, former member of the now-defunct Administrative Division of Safety (DAS), and a part of the safety element for 3 former presidents — Ernesto Samper, César Gaviria, and Álvaro Uribe — praises the work of his nation’s armed forces. “For higher or worse, the 60 years of armed battle educated us like nobody else. After the People, the Colombian military is the perfect.” He provides: “The truth is, when the People have come to coach in our jungles, they get exhausted.” That’s why, he says, “they battle over Colombian bodyguards overseas.” This academy is often rented for coaching members of the Armed Forces and bodyguards from the Nationwide Safety Unit (UNP).
Many graduates of this and different extra superior programs will grow to be personal bodyguards, be a part of the UNP, or defend high-ranking officers or firms overseas. These college students, who at the moment are firing from a shifting car or studying to deploy a bulletproof vest, will swell already substantial numbers within the close to future. In Colombia, there are almost 400,000 individuals licensed by the Superintendency as personal safety guards, together with surveillance personnel, bodyguards, and safety personnel. They outnumber the police drive by two to at least one. No less than 11,500 bodyguards are contracted by the state-run UNP to guard 12,000 beneficiaries, together with high-ranking officers, threatened social leaders, and different people susceptible to safety breaches. This prices the federal government round 2.5 trillion pesos (some $705 million) yearly, based on data shared with EL PAÍS by the establishment.
Sergeant Héctor Bernal readily admits that a lot of his colleagues and college students who began as bodyguards have ended up as mercenaries in Sudan, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel, incomes between 10 and 20 million pesos, or round $2,950 to $5,900, monthly. That’s triple what they earn in Colombia. “We’re used to working like animals, one thing an English or Spanish soldier has by no means achieved of their life. And that comes at a value,” he factors out.
For the previous three years, Bernal has been sharing anecdotes on his YouTube channel (with half one million subscribers) about his three many years within the military, the witchcraft he claims the guerrillas used, fight drugs, and “paranormal experiences” within the jungle. “In lots of international locations, no one needs to choose up a rifle, however they’ve the cash to pay for it. It’s no secret that they’re seeking to Colombia. Even drug traffickers from abroad,” he explains. “There are wars, just like the one between Russia and Ukraine, which are additionally wars between Colombians on each side.”
The presence of bodyguards in Colombia has grown by 400% within the final decade, and the price range of the UNP is now equal to 25 instances that of the Ministry of the Setting. For Hugo Acero, former secretary of safety, coexistence, and justice for Bogotá, these figures are “outrageous.” “Danger assessments aren’t correctly evaluated. Why do all the town council members, senators, and representatives in Bogotá want safety particulars?” he asks. “I had bodyguards for years, and I can inform you they’re ineffective. If somebody needs to kill you, they’ll kill you. And in case you don’t consider me, look what occurred to Miguel Uribe.”
Acero laments that having personal safety “has grow to be a matter of standing or status.” Consultants estimate that, along with the 12,000 individuals protected by the UNP, there are round 20,000 individuals additionally hiring personal safety for 1000’s of {dollars} a month. Singers, businesspeople, actors… Amongst this prosperous class, explains the Bogotá native, “you’re no one if a person wearing black doesn’t open the door for you.” The sociologist additionally criticizes the truth that the on a regular basis presence of those safety particulars generates terror for “anybody who walks right into a restaurant and sees armed males.”
“We stay in a rustic the place politicians — who face no actual danger however have 10 bodyguards — arrive in territories the place social leaders with out escorts or safety are being murdered, and inform them they’re very involved about their security. It’s absurd,” he concludes. The UNP instructed this publication that safety for ethnic teams and guarded communities has elevated by as much as 190% within the final 4 years. Nevertheless, Colombia stays one of many world’s largest graveyards of social and environmental leaders. To date this 12 months, 57 leaders have already been murdered.
“Safety bubbles”
Outdoors Torres del Parque, one of many nation’s most iconic buildings, a dozen males in fits wait with three armored vehicles parked on the entrance. They chat calmly round 9 p.m., ready for his or her cost to complete dinner in one of many residences. Two extra males are ready exterior the hosts’ home. It should be somebody essential. These interviewed estimate that President Gustavo Petro has round 300 bodyguards and that former presidents have between 50 and 100.
This scene isn’t an exception. A threatened Indigenous chief getting into the territory in an armored Toyota, a peace signatory accompanied by two bodyguards checking the restrooms on the Juan Valdez espresso store the place she is to present an interview, a desk in a luxurious restaurant guarded by armed males… The presence of bodyguards in Colombia is a part of the panorama. They’re what Ricardo Amórtegui, a political scientist and tutorial coordinator of the safety and protection analysis group on the Nationwide College, calls “safety bubbles.” “Non-public safety is a reactive measure that, reasonably than defending, maintains multi-million greenback companies. It’s a manner of claiming ‘we’re doing one thing for safety,’ however it’s only a band-aid answer,” he argues. “There are numerous issues to criticize about Gustavo Petro’s total peace policy, however the one method to tackle the foundation causes is to not enhance the variety of individuals with bodyguards.”
The personal safety business is undoubtedly very worthwhile. Middleman firms cost greater than 10 million pesos per bodyguard, not together with the armored car. And coaching academies, like S.W.A.T. Bodyguards — with 27 places nationwide — supply month-to-month programs with a median of 100 college students. Every pupil pays between three and 6 million pesos (round $800 to $1,600), relying on the workshop. “Let’s not child ourselves. The safety enterprise is simply that: a enterprise,” Acero concludes.
5 hectares of open area, seven capturing ranges, an arsenal of a whole bunch of pistols and shotguns of various calibers, tracks for studying to carry out maneuvers with a shifting car, 4 lecture rooms, and lodging for 120 college students. Nelson Zambrano Ariza, a retired Military main and director of the academy, acknowledges that there’s a increase in enrollments for his programs after any high-profile public order incident. “Lately, no one can make sure that nothing will occur to them. We stay in a state of alert 24/7,” he says.
That fixed vigilance is what they’re studying on the college. For lots of the college students, like Paul Rojas, the escorts are a mirrored image of the motto, “Solely the individuals can save the individuals.” “I do know many individuals who not really feel protected, not even with the police. Security is one thing just one can assure,” he says in entrance of the car maneuvering monitor. Quickly will probably be his flip to learn to do a “jota,” a U-turn at full pace in a matter of seconds. The 31-year-old brushes off the mud kicked up by Yuliana Henao’s automobile — the teacher answerable for the exercise — and evaluations what she defined earlier. “Clutch, handbrake, and switch,” he whispers excitedly. At instances, the academy resembles a summer season camp the place the children wait their flip to run an impediment course.
Henao switches locations with one of many college students and tells him to be “looking out” for the cones, which simulate roundabouts, slim bridges, or individuals. “Are you able to movie me, bro?” he asks his Costa Rican classmate sitting within the center seat. Behind them, two pickup vehicles comply with in a drill on methods to evacuate a suspect from a chase. The three autos begin spinning, doing 180-degree turns, and skidding simply meters aside. Nobody needs the day to finish, however night time is starting to fall. At midnight, the adrenaline will return. They’ll have night time coaching. Subsequent to the camp, it’s simply one other Wednesday for the locals. A handful of cows graze peacefully, moms begin wrapping their youngsters up towards the chilly, and a few youngsters play soccer on the grass. Nobody is scared anymore by the sound of gunfire.
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