Erik Prince revives mercenary empire, profiting from global chaos: WSJ
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Prince’s Vectus Global markets privatized warfare, drawing criticism for exporting extrajudicial violence and undermining sovereignty.
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A woman and a child inspect a car with blood splattered on the door after two Iraqi women were shot to death by Blackwater USA in central Karradah, Baghdad, Iraq, on Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2007 (AP)
Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater, the firm forever tied to one of the most notorious massacres of the US war on Iraq, is quietly reconstructing his mercenary empire, The Wall Street Journal revealed.
His latest venture, Vectus Global, markets privatized warfare to fragile states in Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean.
By exploiting crises and filling vacuums created by the US, Prince has found a profitable niche: governments overwhelmed by gangs, insurgencies, or political turmoil can hire ready-made private armies at a fraction of the cost of international peacekeeping.
How the new mercenary empire works
In Haiti, his contractors have already carried out drone strikes that UN monitors say killed more than 200 suspected gang members, but also civilians.
In Ecuador and El Salvador, he has courted right-wing leaders eager to display iron-fist security policies, while in Peru, mining companies have turned to him to enforce order in lawless gold regions.
For Prince, the business model is lucrative; for critics, it is dangerous. Canadian officials have condemned what they call “executions” in Haiti, and US lawmakers are investigating whether his ventures violate American law. By sidestepping international oversight, Prince is accused of exporting extrajudicial violence while commodifying state sovereignty.
His motto, “We don’t just advise, we act,” underscores his return to combat-for-profit. Opponents see the monetization of chaos as a recycling of the same playbook that left a bloody trail from Baghdad to Port-au-Prince.
Leveraging Trump ties to expand privatized warfare
Prince’s influence is magnified by his access to Donald Trump. Since Trump’s election, he has maintained a steady presence at Mar-a-Lago and the White House, ensuring the president’s national security and diplomatic staff remain aware of his projects. By framing his private military operations as aligned with US policy, he has turned political proximity into a launchpad for exporting privatized warfare.
“I’m not close to Trump. But I am close to his staff,” Prince admitted in one interview, name-checking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as a key ally.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the account draws on interviews with Prince, along with officials and business associates from the United States, Latin America, Haiti, and Europe.
He has also claimed credit for ideas that later seeped into official policy. One example: his proposal to designate parts of Salvadoran prisons as “US sovereign territory” for detaining migrants, a concept the Trump administration adopted in modified form.
After the recent assassination attempt against Trump, Prince advised Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on protective measures, including deploying special forces during the president’s travels.
Prince has not limited his ambitions to overseas ventures. On domestic defense, he openly pledged support for potential Trump appointee Pete Hegseth, declaring that his network was “ready to help… because the republic needs to be defended.”
Looking ahead, Prince has tied his private empire to the expansion of American business abroad. “As American companies do start to go abroad for energy, minerals, infrastructure projects,” he said, “I will be right there with them.”
Through these maneuvers, Prince is not only profiting from instability abroad but also entrenching a system where the boundaries between state power and mercenary enterprise are increasingly blurred.
