One of the fun aspects to writing the Brannigan’s Blackhearts series is the gun porn. It’s always been a staple of the Action/Adventure genre. I do try for a bit more authenticity than some of the older works in the genre (which will remain nameless), while at the same time avoiding the multi-page descriptions, so as not to bog down the story. Featuring a wide variety of weaponry is still cool, though, which is why I’ve been running this series of posts since the series started.
Most of the time, the Blackhearts use a common service weapon in the Area of Operations where they’re working. War to the Knife is no different. Their local contact gets them IWI Galil SARs, which have been an issue service rifle in the National Army of Colombia.
There are also a couple of the 5.56 version of the IWI Negev light machinegun.
And Flanagan gets a chance to use a Galatz sniper rifle.
The Green Shirts, the narco-communists who have taken over San Tabal, carry a mix of weapons based on many carried by the FARC. That means a mix of mostly M16s and AK-47s for rifles (mostly either captured from the Colombians or trafficked in by the Cubans and Venezuelans, or other cartels), M60 and PKM machineguns, and RPG-7s.
And finally, in a Brannigan’s Blackhearts tradition, we have at least one antagonist with a somewhat distinctive sidearm. Diego Galvez, Clemente’s right-hand man, carries an IWI Jericho 941 in 9mm.
Some might notice that there are a lot of Israeli guns in this particular volume. That’s simply because the Israelis sold a lot of weapons in Colombia. I found it slightly surprising, given the partnership that the US has had with Bogota since the days of Pablo Escobar, that the Colombians appear to use more IWI than Colt or FN.
War to the Knife is out on Kindle and Paperback May 18th.
AK-47s or AKms?
More than likely actually AKMs, but given that they are coming from FARC and ELN stocks, it’s probably a mix.
So both ’47s and ‘Ms, then. What origins are they? Soviet? Hungarian? East German? Chinese?
So where did FARC and ELN get them? Black market? Cuba? Nicaragua?
The FARC bought a lot of weapons from Russia, though the Chinese have funneled a lot of weaponry into Latin America recently, as well. But the FARC has had connections with Russia, the IRA, Venezuela (which recently bought a lot of AK-103s from Russia), and of course the black market (they ARE drug traffickers as well as revolutionaries, after all).
So the Green Shirts have AK-103s as well?
No, the Venezuelans have kept those to themselves.
Were all the Green Shirts weapons leftovers from FARC and ELN, or did they get new weapons? Who supports them? Cuba? China? North Korea? Venezuela? Nicaragua?
I’m not spelling out the whole book here.
Did the FARC/Green Shirts receive any weapons from Venezuela or the IRA, and if so what?
Could some of the M16s be leftovers from Vietnam? After all, M16s from Vietnam were quite prominent in the Central American conflicts of the 1980s.
Most of those that are seen in FARC hands are A2s, so no.
Were any Hungarian rifles even seen in FARC or ELN hands? I’m asking because they were quite present in the Central American conflicts of the ’80s-early ’90s, and I was wondering if any might have made their way to Colombia.