Colombia’s elite ‘sky troopers’ educated in cartel jungle so brutal warfare is relaxation

A military base deep in the Colombian jungle is surrounded by rebel territory. It serves to train up the nation’s top soldiers to take down deadly cartels and militant groups.

Tolemaida military base houses Colombia’s special forces, who train for top secret, high-stakes missions like saving hostages from the nation’s many merciless criminal groups.

All special forces sent at least 42 days at the base each year, undergoing gruelling training as they prepare for their deadly missions.

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Soldiers say keeping their missions stop secret is vital to staying alive, as the cartels and rebel groups are prepared to kill.

They go on between 25 and 40 missions a year, with some lasting up to three weeks. They come to the military base to learn how to launch weapons, undergo jungle assignments and learn the specialist techniques required to carry out their operations.

In a Business Insider video shared on YouTube, soldier Eduardo, not his real name, said: “There a saying here that the training has to be so brutal that the war will feel like a rest.”

Eduardo is one of the soldiers who managed to complete the brutal physical, psychological and medical exams to get into the special forces. He was one of 120 soldiers who tried to get in, only 17 made the cut.

In one exercise the troops climb a 50ft structure designed to replicate the conditions of jumping out of a helicopter of scaling down as building.

Carrying all their supplies on them, including M16 rifles and anti-venom, soldiers use ropes to practice ways of climbing down the structure, including walking face down.

Known as ‘Lanceros training’, this prepares them for landing in tight spots in the jungle or scale down a sky scraper – the special forces main method of infiltration.

Fighters who complete it are called sky soldiers. Military man Luis, also not his real name said: “Not everyone jumps, only the special forces do this.

In another exercise, known as a “stress course”, soldiers navigate a course marked out with red and blue dot indicating danger areas as they learn to, run carrying explosives, launch weapons and throw grenades.

Eduardo: “We are training ourselves with live bullets. And it doesn’t matter how experienced you are or show much training you have, there is a saying in Colombia that even doctors die.”

A third training exercise takes the men into the jungle to march miles and practice on makeshift targets under the sweltering heat and in inhospitable terrain.

Here, soldiers learn to aim for the chest, to injure but not kill, and to move together in silence. They also prepare for when things go wrong, and for this, they use safe words.

Eduardo said: “I believe we all have the fear. Maybe its not the fear of dying. There’s this uncertainty, this sadness of not being able to talk to your family again. I think that’s what I fear the most.”

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