Paceño in Baghdad

The life of Victor Hugo Rodríguez Guarache is a story of hope. He was born 31 years ago in La Paz, and he fights in Iraq under a flag that is not yet his own, but it will be in February, when he returns home. He escaped poverty when he was 19 years old with only $20 en his pocket, he crossed 10 countries during a five-month voyage, in which he traversed the Darién Gap, the tropical zone infested with guns and narco-traffickers. He unloaded trucks in exchange for transportation, washed dishes for food, and walked into Texas without papers in October 1997. Now, he patrols the Adhamiya neighborhood in Baghdad every day. "A couple of boys from our base were killed two days ago. It gets you. You think that all the guns and protection that we carry are useless. Here, the danger is the snipers."

From La Razón (in Spanish).