“There are a substantial number of people who worked in the (Colombian) armed forces, the police … that got a ‘second life’ when they retired,” said Jorge Restrepo, Director of CERAC, a security and conflict think tank. Colombian military and police officers are in high demand, according to Restrepo, because Colombians have faced decades of internal conflict. They’re seasoned. And they’ve got U.S. training. In the last 15 years, an estimated $8 billion in U.S. aid has gone to Columbia, in large part to fund a ferocious U.S.-backed security initiative for military and police-related training.
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