Recruiting for Iraq in El Salvador

El Salvador has 380 soldiers of its armed forces on the ground in Iraq as part of the US coalition. However, La Prensa Grafica reports this week that three thousand civilians in El Salvador are currently waiting to hear if they will be hired by private military contractors to work in Iraq. Last December reports described the hiring of between 150 and 200 Salvadorans to work as security guards and in support positions in Iraq. Those workers have apparently now returned home, and a larger work force awaits the opportunity to earn the high (by Salvadoran standards) wages of working in Iraq. According to La Prensa, the military contractors are particularly focused on hiring persons with military training from the period of the Salvadoran civil war who are familiar with the use of military weaponry.