Quito\/EFE La empresa funciona en Manta, a 390 kilometros al suroeste de Quito, El propietario de la empresa es el estadounidense Jeffrey Shippy, un The Ecuadorian Minister of Government, Mauricio Gendara, The company is based in Manta, about 250 miles southeast The owner of the business is an American, Jeffery from El Diario La Prensa<\/a> This is exceedingly strange. Manta<\/a>, But who is Jeffery Shippy, and what is he up to in Manta And what, Jeffery woke up one morning and decided it The "fireman" line is kind of an “in” joke around Manta. The There are obvious gearheads, human archetypes recognizable The brass are rarely seen But why hire Colombians? And why do it in Manta Sociologists, Latin American scholars and politicians Nowadays, everybody in Colombia is armed at all times. Even babies have miniature machetes to slice off the fingers of clumsy kidnappers. People are This operation is probably based in Manta due to it’s A very strange story came over the wire this weekend, involving an American hiring Colombians in Ecuador to work in Iraq: Quito\/EFE – El ministro ecuatoriano de Gobierno, Mauricio Gendara, dijo que se investigara a EPI Security and Investigation, empresa … Continue reading ![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/\ngrinade.jpg\")
A very strange story came over the wire this weekend,
\n involving an American hiring Colombians in Ecuador to work in Iraq:<\/em><\/p>\n
\n – El ministro ecuatoriano de Gobierno, Mauricio Gendara, dijo que se
\n investigara
\n a
\n EPI Security
\n and
\n Investigation,
\n empresa
\n que tiene una oficina en el oeste de Ecuador y que recluta a colombianos
\n para tareas de seguridad en Irak.<\/p>\n
\n en la misma ciudad donde desde 1999 se encuentra un centro de operaciones
\n de Estados Unidos (FOL, por su sigla en inges) para luchar contra el
\n narcotrofico
\n en la region.<\/p>\n
\n ex bombero a quien "los 4.200 dolares que le pagaban en la FOL por su
\n trabajo
\n no le alcanzaban y por eso decidi instalar esta compa?a para enviar a
\n colombianos a Irak’, dijo su esposa, la ecuatoriana Martha Cararte.(translation
\n below)<\/p>\n
\n said that an investigation is underway of EPI Security and Investigation,
\n a company with an office in Western Ecuador and which is recruiting Colombians
\n for security work in Iraq.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n of Quito, in the same city which since 1999 has been the center of operations
\n of the United States fight against drug trafficking in the region.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n Shippy, an ex-fireman for whom "the $4,200 dollars that he was paid
\n in the FOL
\n wasn’t enough to live on, so he decided to start a company to send Colombians
\n to Iraq", said his wife, Ecuadorian Martha Cararte.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n in Spanish, translated here by the Dowbrigade <\/p>\n
\n as regular readers will note, is the picturesque Ecuadorian vacation
\n hideaway and
\n fishing port where the Dowbrigade is carefully feathering a nest for
\n our approaching retirement. For the last six years, since the Panamanians
\n gave the boot to the Southern Command, it has been the eyes and ears
\n of the US intelligence community in Latin America. It is also the fastest
\n growing city in Ecuador, the best deepwater port on the Pacific Coast
\n of South America and home to 200,000 happy souls.<\/p>\n
\n that $4,200 a month can’t provide? One of the many ways in which Manta
\n is a paradise is the comparative value of the local currency, which happens
\n to be US Dollars; a good hotel costs $15, a good bottle of wine can be
\n had for $3.00 and a dozen roses go for $1.49. The
\n Mayor<\/a><\/em> only
\n makes $3,000 a month.<\/p>\n
\n was time to grow up, quit pretending to be a "fireman" and start recruiting
\n Colombians go work security in Iraq?<\/p>\n
\n number of spooks at the base is, of course, classified, but there must
\n be hundreds of them. You see them all over town; young strapping
\n farm boys horsing around, drinking the cheap, good beer, enjoying the
\n duty, but careful, polite and always in control. The mid-range
\n officers, trim, pale, serious cowboys and southern gentlemen in their
\n 30’s and 40’s talk sports and watch everything without seeming to be
\n too interested. <\/p>\n
\n in any uniform or casual dress, geekily squinting from behind glasses,
\n and hotshot pilots bombing around town on motorcycles and nice cars,
\n and muscular marine security types. The only thing they all have in common
\n is that if you ask them what they do at the base, they invariably say,
\n "Fireman." It’s clear everybody got the memo. <\/p>\n
\n in public. They hang out at the base, a prickly forest of antennae,
\n comfortable barracks, long low buildings of indeterminate use, windowless
\n hangers and immaculately maintained runways, built over an old Ecuadorian
\n Air Force base acquired on a 99-year lease, or at an isolated private
\n club or one of a number of local walled estates which are worlds unto
\n themselves.<\/p>\n
\n rather than in Colombia? And why send them to Iraq as security? Good
\n questions all. Let’s take them one at a time.<\/p>\n
\n still argue about whether Colombians <\/a>are
\n by nature more violent than other Latin Americans. What is certain
\n is that their modern history is bloodier and far more violent than their neighbors. The recent
\n tradition of Colombian violence is ironicized by the fact that during the
\n pre-Colombian
\n period the Indians of the area were less violent than, and often dominated
\n by, their blood-thirsty brethren to the south.<\/p>\n
\n continually on the lookout for kidnappers, assassins, hidden bombs, automatic weapons,
\n knives up sleeves, suspicious packages, improvised explosive devices, organized groups of
\n people pretending they don’t know each other, irregular traffic patterns,
\n quiet ticking sounds, unnatural silence, etc. In short, they were born to security
\n work. And, as unskilled workers from an underdeveloped country,
\n they come cheap.<\/p>\n
\n proximity to spook central, and because despite "Plan
\n Colombia"<\/a> that country is
\n still a dicier place to run a business, especially if you are fronting
\n for the US military. The government in Ecuador really likes <\/em>the
\n US, which is why the base is where it is. Shippy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"