With Trump back in office: Erik Prince is cashing in
With active contracts in Haiti and Ecuador, and pitches on the table in Mexico. The US's most infamous grifter warlord is living through halcyon days in LATAM
Erik Prince was born to money. He was the heir to an auto supply company’s fortune. He used that fortune to build a private mercenary and logistical empire whose primary clients have always been somewhat gullible right-wing politicians.
Now with longtime ally Donald Trump back in the White House, Prince has emerged from political exile to re-engage in a long and storied career pitching ideas that allow his various companies to devour large piles of state money, particularly in the Americas.
Shortly after Trump assumed office in January, Prince announced on his podcast that the time had come for the United States to “put the Imperial hat back on”, and exert economic and military influence in Africa and South America. He didn’t waste much time putting that rhetoric into action.
In just a few short months, Prince managed to secure contracts advising Haiti on targeted assassinations of gang leaders, Ecuadorian paychecks for “training services” of state troops to fight organized crime, and pitched ideas about transporting and housing migrants detained as part of Trump’s massive immigrant round-ups.
And he seems to be planning to expand that footprint however he can.
A checkered career built on currying favor and chasing government money
Of Prince’s many ventures, Blackwater, which has also operated under many names over the years, has been by far the most famous. In 2003, Prince used his contacts in right-wing circles to talk the administration of then-president George W. Bush into giving Blackwater a contract with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
As part of the Iraq War, which began that same year, the role played by private mercenary forces and private military contractors was greatly expanded. As their role expanded, the Pentagon doled out hundreds of billions of dollars, and Erik Prince was one of many allies of the administration hoovering up the money.
But in 2007, operators for Blackwater committed a notorious massacre. The company was blacklisted, and four employees were convicted for their roles in the killings of civilians.
In 2012, Blackwater was charged with illegal firearms trafficking. The company settled for $49.5 million. During the time Blackwater was active, including while working with Saudi Arabia and Russia, Prince used his international contacts to funnel money into the private equity group he leads, Frontier Services Group Ltd — a Chinese-backed firm that invests in oil and mineral markets, principally in the Middle East and Africa.
In 2016, after donating $250,000 to Trump’s presidential campaign and more to PACs that supported the candidate, Prince became a sort of shadow advisor to the president and resumed attempting to sell private security schemes to another Republican administration.
In 2019, despite previously pitching ideas to the Trump administration to use a private mercenary force to invade and topple the Venezuelan government, he traveled to Caracas to meet with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. He was investigated for possible violations of economic sanctions against the Venezuelan government. But the Trump government declined to press charges.
Nonetheless, Prince managed to remain an ally of Donald Trump. The Blackwater employees convicted of killing civilians in Iraq were pardoned by Trump in 2020
In 2021, Prince was accused by multiple journalism outlets of working with James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas to conduct espionage and surveillance activities on critics of Donald Trump. Prince denies any illegal conduct as part of the contract, which he never officially denies existed.
Halcyon days are back, and according to Prince, so are interventions in LATAM
Details of Prince’s contract with the Haitian transitional government were revealed this week by the New York Times. As part of those efforts, Prince is trying to recruit U.S. Veterans with Haitian backgrounds.
He has also explored sending private mercenaries from El Salvador to participate in drone-supported attacks on Haitian gang leaders. Prince’s contract also reportedly includes security at ports in the country.
Prince met with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele last year. Few details have been publicly released about their talks, other than the two discussed “internal security issues.”
In Ecuador, his role is more nebulous. In early April, the Ecuadorian Defense Ministry published a video that featured a series of raids in Guayaquil.
Prince also said in a video posted by Ecuador’s Defense Ministry that he was in the country “providing the law enforcement and the military the tools and the tactics to effectively combat the narco-gangs.”
The aim, Prince continued, is to “put the narcos on their back heels and make them truly afraid of being caught.”
Ecuador’s right-wing President Daniel Noboa has described Prince’s contract as “providing training” and acting as a private consultant as part of Ecuador’s “war” on organized crime.
Some critics of Prince’s actions in both Ecuador and Haiti have suggested that governments in the Americas hoping for closer ties may be offering contracts to the Trump ally in hopes of currying favor with Trump himself.
Noboa in recent months has called for U.S. troops to be deployed in Ecuador to battle organized crime groups. He has also publicly pleaded for Trump to declare Ecuadorian gangs and organized crime groups “terrorist organizations”, as Trump has done with MS-13, the Tren de Aragua, and some Mexican cartels.
Since Trump assumed office in January, Prince has also advocated for military strikes within Mexico, calling for drone strikes against cartel leaders and “non-conventional warfare” against the groups themselves.
He has also pitched his services handling the logistics of mass-deportation plans currently underway in the U.S., as well as forming “a small army of private citizens” to support and work with ICE and Homeland Security in detaining undocumented migrants.
There is no evidence that Trump has so far agreed to implement his plans.
In addition to seeking lucrative state contracts in Latin America, Prince has also raised funds as part of private sector schemes that some have described as “scams.”
Last year, Prince endorsed a website and publicity campaign called “Ya Casi Venezuela.” The site purported to be an effort to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power, without offering any specific details.
Prince urged Venezuelan “patriots” to “vote with your money” and donate to the website, which accepts payments in various currencies as well as crypto. The website featured a countdown, promising to reveal more details about the plans of the project once it was completed.
The timer reached zero months ago, and continues now in negative numbers, with no details about what “Ya Casi” was meant to accomplish — other than generating money. But the donations page still functions.
With Trump back in the Whitehouse, however, Prince seems to have left crowdfunding schemes that netted millions in the past. After all, halcyon times have returned. Why settle for millions when billions of international taxpayer money is on the table?
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The Big Headlines in LATAM
Mexico holds its first-ever judicial elections today (Sunday). Judges of all levels are participating, including the country’s Supreme Court. Half of all judicial posts in the country will be decided by voters, with the remaining posts being filled in a second election in 2027.
Advocates of electoral and judicial reform say the measure is a long-needed democratization of an opaque appointment process that was previously the domain of politicians. Critics, however, fear that the process, in which thousands of judges are running, could be manipulated by special interests and criminal groups.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro tried to kick off a general strike this week in support of a labor reform referendum. Participation, however, was largely limited to a few large unions. Marches in Bogotá and Medellín were underwhelming. Non-unionized workers and student activist groups largely sat out the process, which was carried out in favor of the country’s ruling party.
The reform bill has been stalled, watered down, and largely dismantled by opposition parties in Congress. Petro’s political party calls the current version “regressive” and has asked for a popular vote on the issue instead. But efforts to call a “general strike” have so far fallen flat.
Panama on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in Bocas del Toro, the same region where the U.S. banana giant laid off thousands of workers last week.
What we’re writing
We are insanely busy with freelance work at the moment. Joshua has been talking to Colombian soldiers convicted of war crimes during the country’s civil war, but who now do community building in the very communities they once oppressed.
Daniela and Joshua may also soon be headed to Catatumbo to observe “peace camps” where FARC dissident fighters plan to demobilize and disarm as part of a new peace deal with the government.
And finally, Joshua may be headed back to the Darien Gap. Migration through the gap has reversed in recent months, with many migrants returning from Central America amidst regional crackdowns on migration.
This week’s Ship’s Log, for which paid subscribers get early access, is also now open to all readers. If you haven’t read it, we recommend you do. “You’ve been lied to about borders your entire life.”
You’ve been lied to about borders your whole life
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Spanish Word of the Week
Éramos muchos y parió la abuela - “We were already a lot, but then grandma gave birth”
This is a slang phrase that one might use when, already overwhelmed by a host of problems, a new and unexpected one arrives. For us at PWS, covering the news on our beat has been a lot like this lately.
Nuestra cobertura ya era mucho, y luego parió la abuela - Our coverage was already a lot, but then grandma gave birth.
Hasta pronto, piratas!
Heir, not air!