More than 10,000 kilometers away from his home, Alejandro Guerrero decided to trade television sets for the stage of war. The Colombian actor revealed, in a conversation with W Radio, that he traveled to Ukraine to become a mercenary.
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As he explained, due to economic difficulties, he chose to seek out foreign volunteer groups to join the troops fighting against Russia in a conflict that has not ceased since February 2022.
Colombian actor Alejandro Guerrero traveled to Ukraine to join the troops fighting against Russia.
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“I am an actor. I am 50 years old. Many years ago I was in the Army. I came here out of necessity because, it is no secret, for us artists it is very difficult to get ahead in Colombia,” Guerrero assured, who has been part of television productions like La Ley del Corazón and Tu Voz Estéreo.
The Colombian signed a three-year contract to join the Ukrainian units, but once he entered Eastern Europe and witnessed the harshness of war, his perspective changed: “Mutilations are an everyday occurrence. (…) The people who die, die. Here, no one retrieves bodies because this is a serious issue here.”
He also qualified the economic promise as “a deception” given the situations they have to deal with.
Alejandro Guerrero, Colombian actor.
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“You receive a basic of $500, which I have received twice. Here you come to find out that you receive $3,000 only if you reach the designated position. In my case, we have not been able to achieve that. (…) If you get sick, you have to buy your own medicine,” he clarified on the radio station.
In that sense, he offered a recommendation: “Don’t come because the administrative, operational, technological, or economic conditions are not reasonable enough to say that you will be reasonably safe.”
Alejandro Guerrero, Colombian actor.
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Remembering that he has a daughter for whom to care, he cried during the interview with W Radio: “I thought that if something were to happen to me, there would be a monetary compensation, thinking of my daughter, but it turns out that is almost impossible to happen.”
Finally, he faced the criticism arising from his decision to become a mercenary. “No one can judge the path traveled if they have not walked in their same shoes. No one knows the thirst that another lives with,” he concluded.
‘The profession of mercenary is miserable’: Ambassador Roy Barreras
There are no concrete figures on how many troops have died in the war between Ukraine and Russia. The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky stated, in February 2024, that they estimated 31,000 casualties, although estimates from the United States suggest a higher number.
“Not 300,000, nor 150,000, nor everything that Putin and his circle of liars have said. However, each of these losses is a great sacrifice for us,” he said.
In contrast, analyses from international media BBC and Mediazona counted 50,000 Russian soldiers killed since February 2022.
Ukrainian troops during a training session in Kharkiv.
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From the aforementioned numbers, the Colombian ambassador to the United Kingdom, Roy Barreras, revealed to EL TIEMPO that 51 Colombians had died, while about 200 are in combat.
“They are hired by transnational companies that have that mercenary business. The call is not to fall into that trap and not to give your life in that bitter profession,” he commented in June 2024. “It implies a tragedy and a poor decision because it is very unfortunate that someone decides to rent themselves to kill for money in a foreign war. The profession of mercenary is miserable and is a death trap. What they pay you doesn’t even cover the repatriation of your bodies. So they are being used as cannon fodder.”
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