The Kaibiles (1974 AD – Present)
Nearly every major country has its own breed of special forces these days—the Navy SEALs and Army Rangers are two examples of elite U.S. groups. Guatemala, on the other hand, has the Kaibiles. Their motto is “If I advance, follow me. If I stop, urge me on. If I retreat, kill me.” What’s not to like about such an enthusiastic group of paramilitary professionals you ask? Well, for starters, how about being convicted of human rights violations for torturing and murdering over 200 noncombatants during an internal armed conflict in the early 1980s?
Anyone brave insane enough to join up with this group of Central American commandos is in for a wild and potentially life-threatening ride. Kaibil candidates receive lessons in counterinsurgency operations over the duration of a two-month-long course that most experts consider an “intense training program.” Much of the standard commando-type stuff is covered here, including weapons handling, infiltration techniques, and hand-to-hand combat. Not to be outdone by other programs, Kaibil training offers some truly disturbing events like “raising puppies and killing them after bonding with them, biting off chicken heads and drinking water out of a fired artillery shell.”
Unlike nearly every other entry making this list, Kaibil training is completely voluntary. Predictably, only about twenty-percent of recruits make it to graduation day. Despite the incentives not to join this group of nutters, nearly 7,000 men have graduated from the course (as of 2011) with more signing-up every cycle. This is especially alarming when one considers that international watchdogs have, in addition to the aforementioned human rights atrocities, charged the Kaibiles with all sorts of criminal transgressions. Alleged wrongdoings include the violent eviction of local peasant communities and several questionable connections with Mexican drug cartels.
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
The Grand Valley Journal of History: “Krypteia: A Form of Ancient Guerrilla Warfare.”
Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus: De re militari.
BBC History: Vikings Weapons and Warfare.
The Vikings of Bjornstad: Old Norse Dictionary.
Australian Museum: The Meaning of Tā Moko – Māori Tattooing.
Mesut Uyar and E. J. Erickson: A Military History of the Ottomans: From Osman to Atatürk.
Encyclopedia.com: Impressment.
War History Online: How the Royal Navy kept order, Through Caning, Flogging, and Hanging.
Journal of Southern African Studies: “Zulu Masculinities, Warrior Culture and Stick Fighting: Reassessing Male Violence and Virtue in South Africa.”