Mercenaries act with a purpose, it is not always clear what reward they expect, and it could just be power. The most identified are those who are considered professionals for war between states, or for armed factions within the country, but there are also those for other backgrounds.

In recent days, the advance of mercenaries identified as the “Wagner Group” (+-) 25,000 fighters, most of whom are former special forces soldiers, towards Russia, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, for years very close to President Putin and the main provider of food services for government entities, which Russia used to invade Ukraine and occupy part of its territory, assuming that they form a professional army.

Disagreements between the Russian military command and Prigozhin motivated his reaction. Within a few hours, on Friday June 23, 2023, they entered Russian territory and occupied Rostov-on-Don, one of the largest cities in Russia, in terms of population and economic importance, and began their march towards Moscow, reaching their outposts to about 200 km from the Russian capital, a city where all activities have been suspended. Prigogine’s warning to the Russian soldiers to let them advance was that they would be destroyed otherwise they would be destroyed, blaming the Russian command for their possible death to order the young conscripts to fight the war professionals who are their mercenaries.

The Russian people could not forget that 82 years earlier, during the Second World War, Germany attacked the Soviet Union – USSR – on June 22, 1941, the year in which German troops advanced to the outskirts of Moscow. The predecessor of that invasion was the unfulfilled Non-Aggression Agreement between Germany and the USSR, the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, dated August 23, 1939, which indeed served to divide Poland, invade Germany in August of that year, and Russia in September.

In order to stop the advance of the mercenaries towards Moscow, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko negotiated with Prigozhin “in agreement” with President Putin and gave him “security guarantees” for the fighters of the “Wagner Group”. Putin thanked Lukashenko for the “job done”.

Are there honest mercenaries? I do not think so. Whoever acknowledges them can use them, but at some point they could be the ones who condition. And it may be that the violence they offer, under the hypothesis of safety, is attractive, but will it have limits?

The difference between mercenaries for a cause that is not always defined and assassins who act for money exists, but it is very fine.

In Ecuador, it could be that there are mercenaries who are arming themselves, or who assume that they are, or who act like that.

Undoubtedly, it seems that there are mercenaries in political action and in the areas of power. They were perceived in the Assembly, which was dissolved by President Laso, as well as in a kind of commercialization of sponsorships in the pre-election campaign for the elections on August 20, 2023 and in other areas. (OR)