Kaibiles
Encyclopedia
The Kaibiles are a special operations
force of the Military of Guatemala
. They specialize in jungle warfare tactics and counter-insurgency
operations.
The corps' soldiers are distinguished from regular troops by maroon beret
s with patches bearing a blazing sword. Its motto
, inspired by Henri de la Rochejaquelein
, is: "If I advance, follow me. If I stop, urge me on. If I retreat, kill me."
's military government created its Commando School (Escuela de Comandos). Three months later, on 5 March 1975, it renamed it the Kaibil Special Operations Training Centre (Centro de Adiestramiento y Operaciones Especiales Kaibil). The name "Kaibil" is derived from Kayb'il B'alam
(Kaibil Balam), a Mam
indigenous leader who evaded capture by the Spanish conquistador
s under Pedro de Alvarado
.
Initially, the Kaibil Centre was located on two estates, El Infierno ("Hell") and La Pólvora ("Gunpowder") in the municipality of Melchor de Mencos
, Petén
department
. On 12 January 1989, it was moved to the former headquarters of Military Zone 23, in Poptún
, Petén.
, the Kaibil Centre's mission is to train and develop elite commando
forces: "To select, by means of arduous, difficult training under physical and mental pressure, members of the army capable of engaging in commando operations."
The Kaibiles are infamous for their reputed practice of forcing recruits to bite the heads off live chickens. They also must drink river water out of a recently fired artillery shell, with the burnt residue still inside.
Kaibiles are known for doing field medical work on themselves in the line of fire. For example, most Kaibiles, when injured by a gunshot, pull their knife out, cut an X on the wound, and pull the bullet out (after ascertaining that the bullet is safe to remove).
Recruitment is voluntary. However, several physical and psychological tests are required before entering. The training is given twice a year and lasts 60 days. Only 64 participants are allowed per training period, not older than 28 years of age. No more than 10 have ever graduated on a single period. Members of foreign military forces are sometimes selected to participate in training, which is considered a privilege and an honour.
The commandos are trained in guerrilla warfare, counter-guerrilla operations, military behaviour, map reading, psychological preparation, military intelligence and counter-intelligence. Their technical preparation includes a special hand-to-hand combat system known as Temv-K'a (which means "Hands of Storm"), communications, survival techniques, obstacle courses, military hiking, special weapons, demolitions and emergency medical training. This includes aerial operations, day and night navigation, camp setup and security, evasion, escape, interventions and ambushes.
Even though in the past they were meant to be an anti-guerrilla unit, today they are oriented towards anti-terrorism, anti-kidnapping and anti-narcotics efforts, in line with current needs.
The first part of training involves the removal of any medal, patch or decoration that the soldier may carry on his/her uniform. This degradation is a major cause for immediate desertion.
During training, every soldier has a cuaz (which in Q'eqchi' means: "Brother") assigned for the rest of their training. They become partners: they sleep, eat, and work together all the time. If one makes a mistake, they both suffer the consequences.
Training is relentless. Actions take place during daytime and nighttime. Sleep is permitted for no longer than three hours a day, if the right to it is earned. They are trained to eat "anything that moves".
auspices by the 1996 Peace Accords that brought an end to the country's 35-year-long Civil War
, called attention to the brutalising nature of the training conducted by the Kaibil Centre in its final report, Guatemala: Memoria del silencio ("Guatemala: Memory of Silence"):
The Commission's report documented examples of massacres of civilians by the Kaibiles, most notably the December 1982 Dos Erres massacre.
In December 1996, shortly before the signing of the Peace Accords, President
Álvaro Arzú
spoke of his intention to preserve the Kaibiles in peacetime but to rededicate them to another war: the war on narcotics and crime. Addressing a Kaibil graduation ceremony in Poptún, he said: "Now this new army of peace will face an enemy that perhaps is much more powerful than the one we faced for many years. We are talking of drug traffickers and criminals who want to corrode the country; they are better armed, equipped, and trained than the enemies we had to face in the past." However, under the terms of the Peace Accords, the army was to have been restricted to defence from external attack, which would preclude involvement in the sort of domestic police actions proposed by President Arzú.
The Kaibiles' record and reputation led the Roman Catholic Church
's Interdiocese Project for the Recovery of Historical Memory (Proyecto Interdiocesano de Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica, REMHI) to recommend that the group be disbanded in its April 1998 report, "Guatemala: Never Again" (Guatemala: Nunca Más).
According to Jane's Intelligence Review
"The army has refused to disband the Special Forces Training and Operations Centre, housed at El Infierno, in the vicinity of Poptún, Petén." In December 1998, Jane's reported that there were three groups of Kaibiles, one consisting of instructors, and two consisting of 162 commando
s apiece. Each group was divided into four 38-men platoons, further subdivided into squads of 9 soldiers.
Currently there are Kaibiles stationed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
as part of the United Nations
MONUSCO peacekeeping
force. On 23 January 2006, eight Kaibiles were killed and five others were wounded during an ambush by guerrillas in Congo's Garamba National Park
. They were on a botched secret mission to try to capture or kill Vincent Otti
, the deputy commander of Uganda's notorious Lord's Resistance Army
(LRA).
More recently, it has been alleged, that some former members of the Kaibiles have formed relationships with the Los Zetas
mercenary group. Los Zetas are a group of elite Mexican paratroopers and intelligence operatives who deserted their Special Air Mobile Force Group
in 1999 and have since been hired as "enforcers" by the drugs traffickers of the Gulf Cartel
. However, Los Zetas
now operates as an independent organization since its rupture from the Gulf Cartel
in early 2010. On another note, Otto Pérez Molina mentioned that in 2012 he will send the Kaibiles to fight the drug cartels in Guatemala
.
Special operations
Special operations are military operations that are considered "special" .Special operations are typically performed independently or in conjunction with conventional military operations. The primary goal is to achieve a political or military objective where a conventional force requirement does...
force of the Military of Guatemala
Military of Guatemala
The Military of Guatemala consists of National Army of Guatemala , the Guatemalan Navy and the Guatemalan Air Force ....
. They specialize in jungle warfare tactics and counter-insurgency
Counter-insurgency
A counter-insurgency or counterinsurgency involves actions taken by the recognized government of a nation to contain or quell an insurgency taken up against it...
operations.
The corps' soldiers are distinguished from regular troops by maroon beret
Maroon beret
The maroon beret is a military beret and has been an international symbol of elite airborne forces since it was chosen for British airborne forces in World War II. This distinctive head dress was officially introduced in 1942, at the direction of General Frederick Browning, commander of the British...
s with patches bearing a blazing sword. Its motto
Motto
A motto is a phrase meant to formally summarize the general motivation or intention of a social group or organization. A motto may be in any language, but Latin is the most used. The local language is usual in the mottoes of governments...
, inspired by Henri de la Rochejaquelein
Henri de la Rochejaquelein
Henri du Vergier, comte de la Rochejaquelein was the youngest general of the Royalist Vendéan insurrection during the French Revolution.-Early activities:...
, is: "If I advance, follow me. If I stop, urge me on. If I retreat, kill me."
History
On 5 December 1974, GuatemalaGuatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
's military government created its Commando School (Escuela de Comandos). Three months later, on 5 March 1975, it renamed it the Kaibil Special Operations Training Centre (Centro de Adiestramiento y Operaciones Especiales Kaibil). The name "Kaibil" is derived from Kayb'il B'alam
Kayb'il B'alam
Kayb'il B'alam was a 16th-century leader of the Mam people Maya kingdom in the western highlands of Guatemala. During the time of the Spanish invasion, the Mam population was mainly situated in Xinabahul...
(Kaibil Balam), a Mam
Mam language
Mam is a Mayan language with almost 480,000 speakers as of 2002, spoken in the Mexican state of Chiapas and the Guatemalan departments of Quetzaltenango, Huehuetenango and San Marcos....
indigenous leader who evaded capture by the Spanish conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
s under Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado y Contreras was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the conquest of Mexico led by Hernan Cortes...
.
Initially, the Kaibil Centre was located on two estates, El Infierno ("Hell") and La Pólvora ("Gunpowder") in the municipality of Melchor de Mencos
Melchor de Mencos
Melchor de Mencos is a municipality in the Petén department of Guatemala with population 23,813. It is situated on the western border with Belize,a and is the only major border crossing from Guatemala to Belize....
, Petén
Petén (department)
Petén is a department of the nation of Guatemala. It is geographically the northernmost department of Guatemala, as well as the largest in size — at it accounts for about one third of Guatemala's area. The capital is Flores...
department
Departments of Guatemala
||Guatemala is divided into 22 departments :#Alta Verapaz#Baja Verapaz#Chimaltenango#Chiquimula#Petén#El Progreso#El Quiché#Escuintla#Guatemala#Huehuetenango#Izabal#Jalapa#Jutiapa#Quetzaltenango#Retalhuleu#Sacatepéquez...
. On 12 January 1989, it was moved to the former headquarters of Military Zone 23, in Poptún
Poptún
Poptún is a municipality in the El Petén department of Guatemala. It contains 30,386 people. It is some 385 km from Guatemala City.Since 1989, Military Zone 23 in Poptún has been the home of the Guatemalan Army's élite Kaibiles special operations force....
, Petén.
Training
According to the Ministry of DefenceMinistry of Defence of Guatemala
The Ministry of National Defence is the agency of the Guatemalan government responsible for the budget, training and policy of the military of Guatemala. Based in Guatemala City, the Defence Ministry is highly guarded, and the President of Guatemala frequently visits...
, the Kaibil Centre's mission is to train and develop elite commando
Commando
In English, the term commando means a specific kind of individual soldier or military unit. In contemporary usage, commando usually means elite light infantry and/or special operations forces units, specializing in amphibious landings, parachuting, rappelling and similar techniques, to conduct and...
forces: "To select, by means of arduous, difficult training under physical and mental pressure, members of the army capable of engaging in commando operations."
The Kaibiles are infamous for their reputed practice of forcing recruits to bite the heads off live chickens. They also must drink river water out of a recently fired artillery shell, with the burnt residue still inside.
Kaibiles are known for doing field medical work on themselves in the line of fire. For example, most Kaibiles, when injured by a gunshot, pull their knife out, cut an X on the wound, and pull the bullet out (after ascertaining that the bullet is safe to remove).
Recruitment is voluntary. However, several physical and psychological tests are required before entering. The training is given twice a year and lasts 60 days. Only 64 participants are allowed per training period, not older than 28 years of age. No more than 10 have ever graduated on a single period. Members of foreign military forces are sometimes selected to participate in training, which is considered a privilege and an honour.
The commandos are trained in guerrilla warfare, counter-guerrilla operations, military behaviour, map reading, psychological preparation, military intelligence and counter-intelligence. Their technical preparation includes a special hand-to-hand combat system known as Temv-K'a (which means "Hands of Storm"), communications, survival techniques, obstacle courses, military hiking, special weapons, demolitions and emergency medical training. This includes aerial operations, day and night navigation, camp setup and security, evasion, escape, interventions and ambushes.
Even though in the past they were meant to be an anti-guerrilla unit, today they are oriented towards anti-terrorism, anti-kidnapping and anti-narcotics efforts, in line with current needs.
The first part of training involves the removal of any medal, patch or decoration that the soldier may carry on his/her uniform. This degradation is a major cause for immediate desertion.
During training, every soldier has a cuaz (which in Q'eqchi' means: "Brother") assigned for the rest of their training. They become partners: they sleep, eat, and work together all the time. If one makes a mistake, they both suffer the consequences.
Training is relentless. Actions take place during daytime and nighttime. Sleep is permitted for no longer than three hours a day, if the right to it is earned. They are trained to eat "anything that moves".
Human rights issues
In February 1999, the Commission for Historical Clarification (Comisión para el Esclaracimiento Histórico, CEH), the truth and reconciliation body established under United NationsUnited Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
auspices by the 1996 Peace Accords that brought an end to the country's 35-year-long Civil War
Guatemalan Civil War
The Guatemalan Civil War ran from 1960-1996. The thirty-six-year civil war began as a grassroots, popular response to the rightist and military usurpation of civil government , and the President's disrespect for the human and civil rights of the majority of the population...
, called attention to the brutalising nature of the training conducted by the Kaibil Centre in its final report, Guatemala: Memoria del silencio ("Guatemala: Memory of Silence"):
The substantiation of the degrading contents of the training of the Army's special counter insurgency force, known as Kaibiles, has drawn the particular attention of the CEH. This training included killing animals and then eating them raw and drinking their blood in order to demonstrate courage. The extreme cruelty of these training methods, according to testimony available to the CEH, was then put into practice in a range of operations carried out by these troops, confirming one point of their decalogue: "The Kaibil is a killing machine." (CEH, §42)
The Commission's report documented examples of massacres of civilians by the Kaibiles, most notably the December 1982 Dos Erres massacre.
In December 1996, shortly before the signing of the Peace Accords, President
President of Guatemala
The title of President of Guatemala has been the usual title of the leader of Guatemala since 1839, when that title was assumed by Mariano Rivera Paz...
Álvaro Arzú
Álvaro Arzú
Álvaro Enrique Arzú Yrigoyen was the 32nd President of Guatemala from January 14, 1996 until January 14, 2000...
spoke of his intention to preserve the Kaibiles in peacetime but to rededicate them to another war: the war on narcotics and crime. Addressing a Kaibil graduation ceremony in Poptún, he said: "Now this new army of peace will face an enemy that perhaps is much more powerful than the one we faced for many years. We are talking of drug traffickers and criminals who want to corrode the country; they are better armed, equipped, and trained than the enemies we had to face in the past." However, under the terms of the Peace Accords, the army was to have been restricted to defence from external attack, which would preclude involvement in the sort of domestic police actions proposed by President Arzú.
The Kaibiles' record and reputation led the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
's Interdiocese Project for the Recovery of Historical Memory (Proyecto Interdiocesano de Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica, REMHI) to recommend that the group be disbanded in its April 1998 report, "Guatemala: Never Again" (Guatemala: Nunca Más).
According to Jane's Intelligence Review
Jane's Information Group
Jane's Information Group is a publishing company specializing in transportation and military topics.-History:It was founded by Fred T...
"The army has refused to disband the Special Forces Training and Operations Centre, housed at El Infierno, in the vicinity of Poptún, Petén." In December 1998, Jane's reported that there were three groups of Kaibiles, one consisting of instructors, and two consisting of 162 commando
Commando
In English, the term commando means a specific kind of individual soldier or military unit. In contemporary usage, commando usually means elite light infantry and/or special operations forces units, specializing in amphibious landings, parachuting, rappelling and similar techniques, to conduct and...
s apiece. Each group was divided into four 38-men platoons, further subdivided into squads of 9 soldiers.
Recent history
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
as part of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
MONUSCO peacekeeping
Peacekeeping
Peacekeeping is an activity that aims to create the conditions for lasting peace. It is distinguished from both peacebuilding and peacemaking....
force. On 23 January 2006, eight Kaibiles were killed and five others were wounded during an ambush by guerrillas in Congo's Garamba National Park
Garamba National Park
Garamba National Park, located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa, was established in 1938. One of Africa's oldest National parks, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980. Garamba is the home to the world's last known wild population of Northern White Rhinoceros...
. They were on a botched secret mission to try to capture or kill Vincent Otti
Vincent Otti
Vincent Otti was deputy-leader of the Lord's Resistance Army , a rebel guerrilla army operating mainly in northern Uganda and southern Sudan. He was one of the five persons for whom the International Criminal Court issued its first arrest warrants on 8 July 2005...
, the deputy commander of Uganda's notorious Lord's Resistance Army
Lord's Resistance Army
The Lord's Resistance Army insurgency is an ongoing guerrilla campaign waged since 1987 by the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group, operating mainly in northern Uganda, but also in South Sudan and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo...
(LRA).
More recently, it has been alleged, that some former members of the Kaibiles have formed relationships with the Los Zetas
Los Zetas
Los Zetas is the second most powerful drug cartel in Mexico and considered by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as the most violent drug cartel and paramilitary enforcement group in Mexico...
mercenary group. Los Zetas are a group of elite Mexican paratroopers and intelligence operatives who deserted their Special Air Mobile Force Group
Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales
The Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales or more commonly known as Fuerzas Especiales/Special Forces is a special forces unit of the Mexican Army's Special Forces Corps, trained by the world's special forces. There are a total of nine battalions, one High Command GAFE unit and one other group...
in 1999 and have since been hired as "enforcers" by the drugs traffickers of the Gulf Cartel
Gulf Cartel
The Gulf Cartel is one of the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico, and perhaps the oldest organized crime group in the country...
. However, Los Zetas
Los Zetas
Los Zetas is the second most powerful drug cartel in Mexico and considered by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as the most violent drug cartel and paramilitary enforcement group in Mexico...
now operates as an independent organization since its rupture from the Gulf Cartel
Gulf Cartel
The Gulf Cartel is one of the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico, and perhaps the oldest organized crime group in the country...
in early 2010. On another note, Otto Pérez Molina mentioned that in 2012 he will send the Kaibiles to fight the drug cartels in Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
.
External links
NarcoNews Bulletin Official webpage Unofficial webpage Unofficial webpage- Ads seek ex-soldiers for smuggling jobs ReutersReutersReuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
April 25, 2008