Daily Archives: September 18, 2026

The pitch was simple and, in its way, honest. A foreign war was hiring. Contracts ran through cutouts and shell logistics firms that made the money look like consulting fees. Men like Aurelio — former soldiers, former guerrilla fighters, men whose only marketable skill was violence performed competently — were worth more on a battlefield eight thousand kilometers away than they were guarding a coca lab in Cauca. “You go, you learn something nobody in this hemisphere knows yet,” the man said. “You come back a different kind of asset.” Continue reading →