September 20, 2005 -- Mercenary scandal in Chile. Chile's newspapers are exposing a mercenary-for-hire scandal involving a Chicago-based company called "Your Solutions, Inc." It was discovered that Chilean mercenaries bound for duty in Iraq were being secretly trained in the town of Lepaterique in the province of Francisco Morazan in Chile. Some 120 Chileans arrived in Honduras from Chile on September 8 to be trained alongside 50 Hondurans. The Chileans illegally entered Honduras on tourist visas. The training concluded on September 17. The mercenary firm has appealed to the Honduran government not to expel and deport back to Chile some 105 Chileans who received military training in Honduras.
The news of the presence of the Chileans in Honduras broke just prior to their being sent to Iraq. As a requirement for their Iraq duty, the Chileans were required to have prior military or security police training. The Chileans were offered three salary tiers, the two highest salary levels requiring knowledge of English. Your Solutions, Inc. was apparently linked to another mercenary firm operating in Chile.
Although the Pentagon will not admit it, part of its "exit strategy" from the country is to turn over more military responsibilities to private military contractors (PMCs), the Defense Department's "Newspeak" for the "dogs of war," i.e., mercenaries. At least 40 different PMCs are now operating in Iraq and they draw a hodgepodge of former military and security personnel from the United States, South Africa, Chile, El Salvador, Britain, Israel, Nepal, Fiji, Ukraine, Canada, Colombia, and other nations.