The American Wall Street Journal reported that former Blackwater founder Erik Prince now owns a new company providing military and security services abroad that the White House does not want to handle. The company is currently active in several countries in Latin America and Africa. Prince is currently sought to establish law and order in the gold-rich mountains of the Puno region in Peru. Edwin Ajawana, a gold mine owner in the high Andes, traveled 23 hours by land to meet Prince, hoping to protect his workers and property. Prince, who sold Blackwater in 2010, launched his new company ‘Victus Global’ as a global brand for a network of companies operating in Ecuador, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Haiti. The company is at the forefront of an emerging industry benefiting from Trump’s cuts to foreign aid.

Prince has shown drone footage of his mercenaries in Haiti helping to hunt and kill alleged gang members under a government contract worth at least $10 million annually, paid by the government or a coalition of private interests. Prince claims he can do the same in Peru’s gold state by deploying a team to disrupt criminal networks extorting and killing miners. He believes his mercenaries can compensate for the lack of international security jobs that the Trump administration prefers not to fund. Prince maintains close ties with Trump’s administration and has visited the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort, keeping Trump’s national security and diplomatic teams informed of his projects in Africa and Latin America. The Canadian government has expressed concern about reports of extrajudicial executions in Haiti, and some Democratic senators have requested details about Prince’s operations.

In December 2023, Congo’s president appointed Prince to protect tax collectors responsible for up to 40 mines, including vital minerals for the US automotive and electronics industries such as cobalt. Prince’s company also aims to stop mineral smuggling and secure Congo’s borders. Despite controversy, Prince attempts to fill the security void left by Trump’s selective ‘America First’ policy in Latin America and Africa.