The armed conflict that Colombia has endured for more than six decades and the nearly unchanging conditions of insecurity the country faces have gone hand in hand with the emergence of professionals specialized in security and weapons handling who are highly sought after around the world. Some, unfortunately, enlist as mercenaries in the armies of different nations, while others are recruited as bodyguards to protect all kinds of personalities.
Others have dedicated themselves to teaching the experience and knowledge they accumulated throughout significant military careers in which they learned everything about the hazardous world of weapons. In this way, they train highly prepared professionals capable of confronting dangerous real-life situations with discipline, strategy, and effectiveness. The knowledge and training provided by these professionals have made the human talent trained in Colombia as bodyguards highly sought after in other parts of the world.
“60 years of armed conflict trained us like no one else”
One of the most recognized bodyguard academies is the SWAT International Bodyguard Center, which adopted for its name the famous SWAT acronym (Special Weapons And Tactics), used generically in the United States since the 1960s to designate police tactical units whose members are trained and equipped for special police situations, although the term has also been used by other countries.
Located in the municipality of Facatativa, west of Bogota, two hours away by car, this academy is described as “the largest private security school in Latin America” by Spain’s El Pais newspaper. “For many, it is the greatest achievement of their careers. The Harvard of bodyguards.”
Its courses are aimed at bodyguards, heads of security, managers, dignitaries, politicians, police officers, military personnel, and, in general, people interested in improving their abilities and skills, according to the academy’s website.
“Fortunately or unfortunately, the 60 years of armed conflict trained us like no one else. After the American army, the Colombian Army is the best,” instructor Luis Albeiro Garcia, a former member of the now-defunct Administrative Department of Security (DAS) and part of the security detail of former presidents Ernesto Samper, Cesar Gaviria, and Alvaro Uribe, told the Spanish outlet. “When Americans have come to train in our jungles, they get exhausted,” he warns, and assures that, because of that, “they fight over Colombian bodyguards abroad.”
Private security guards outnumber police officers two to one
The nickname ‘The Harvard of bodyguards’ also has to do with the size of its facilities and equipment. It has SUVs, armored vehicles, and motorcycles for defensive and evasive driving courses, classrooms and a conference hall, lodging for 120 students, a restaurant and cafeteria, a shooting laboratory with 12 lanes in one place, specialized firing ranges (metal targets, live fire, long and short weapons), a vehicle firing range and shooting house, and more than 10 hectares of land for tactical training. Plus 27 branches throughout the country.
The director of this academy, retired Army major Nelson Zambrano Ariza, told the same outlet that after any widely publicized public order incident in the country, a “boom” in enrollments for its courses occurs.
“Nowadays no one can trust that nothing will happen to them. We live in a state of alarm 24/7.” To confirm that this is true, one only needs to review newspaper headlines. On June 7, it will be one year since the attack that cost presidential pre-candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay his life two months later.
Another piece of information pointing in the same direction as Zambrano Ariza was provided by the academy itself: in Colombia there are nearly 400,000 people certified by the Superintendency as private security guards, including surveillance personnel, bodyguards, and guards. They outnumber police officers two to one.
At least 11,500 bodyguards are hired by the state-run National Protection Unit (UNP) to protect 12,000 beneficiaries, including high-ranking officials, threatened social leaders, and other people facing security risks. This costs the State around 2.5 trillion pesos (707 billion dollars).