Retired Major Accused of Sending Mercenaries to Sudan: “I Have No Involvement in Sending Fighters There”

Retired Major Antonio Rodríguez, a partner of retired Colonel Álvaro Quijano, who is accused of sending 300 Colombian mercenaries to Sudan, told Colombian media that he has no connection to the recruitment of mercenaries for Sudan.

Rodríguez confirmed that he sold the company to Álvaro and his wife two years ago for 120 million Colombian pesos. He stated that they later deceived former Colombian soldiers, recruiting them to go to Sudan with the help of the Emirati company Global Security Service Group.

Despite reports of three Colombian mercenaries killed in Sudan, with their passports and personal documents published, Rodríguez maintained that recruitment by the A4SI company has not ceased. He added that recruiting 1,500 men to Sudan could generate 32 billion pesos in a year, which is the main motivator behind their involvement in the operation.

Rodríguez explained that he retired from the army in December 2013 and moved to the UAE in 2014 to help form the third battalion of the UAE's Special Forces Brigade, which included about 2,500 Colombian soldiers. He became involved in a Colombian project called “Mi Futuro Global” or “Global Qowa Al Basheira,” which partnered with the Emirati company Al-Masar to recruit retired Colombian soldiers for a foreign legion in the UAE.

In 2014, Rodríguez met Colonel Álvaro Quijano, who had joined the project in 2010 and, by 2014, had become a leader of one of the three battalions within the UAE's special forces brigade. Rodríguez described how the Colombian soldiers who joined the UAE forces were granted temporary residency and were considered civilians in military service.

Rodríguez was part of the project from 2014 to 2016 and later founded his own company, the “Academy for Security Instruction (A4SI)” in Colombia in 2017. However, due to legal issues, the company was later shut down and renamed the “International Services Agency.” Rodríguez explained that, after his departure from the company, his former partner, Colonel Quijano, and his wife Claudia Viviana Oliveros began securing contracts with Emirati companies, including Global Security Service Group (GSSG), to send mercenaries to the UAE and, later, to Sudan.

Rodríguez stated that contracts for recruiting mercenaries began in 2019 and that they sent former Colombian soldiers to work as bodyguards for VIPs, and later for the UAE Special Forces Brigade. In 2022, contracts ceased, and Rodríguez, struggling with debt, sold the company to Quijano and his wife for 120 million pesos.

After selling his shares, the change was registered in Bogotá's Chamber of Commerce, with Claudia Viviana Oliveros becoming the owner and legal representative of the company. Rodríguez added that he learned from former soldiers that new contracts were being offered with the promise of work in the UAE, but they were later deceived into being sent to Sudan.

Rodríguez also raised concerns about the financial operations of the company, claiming that while mercenaries were recruited in Colombia, payments were being managed through a bank in Panama and Antigua and Barbuda. He questioned why GSSG did not pay the mercenaries directly, as Al-Masar did with the UAE's seventh brigade project.

Following the revelation of the operation, Colombian President Gustavo Petro stated that mercenary recruitment should be banned and instructed the Foreign Ministry to find a way to repatriate former Colombian soldiers from Africa. The Foreign Ministry has not yet commented, and neither Colonel Quijano nor his wife, Claudia Viviana Oliveros, have responded to the questions sent by “Lasila” newspaper.