Outsourced.

Juan Carlos Lopez is packing his bags for Iraq. The young Honduran, drawn to an attractive pay offer, will join 600 of his countrymen in the Middle East, all of them working for private security companies. The monthly pay for standing guard at civilian installations is between seven and nine times the US$150 a month he might earn in his own country. "Everything in life is risk. Before, it was less complicated to go to the United States and find something to do, but now it's easier to go to Iraq," he says.

The main source of work in Honduras is at assembly plants known as maquiladoras, which generate 130,000 jobs in a population of 7 million. Seventy percent of Hondurans live in poverty. Faced with few job options, and over the objections of their families, young people like Lopez are deciding to take on the challenge of leaving for a war zone. "We are forced to do this by our circumstances, and we should support our husbands," says Lopez's wife, Vivian. "The children don't want him to go, period."

According to Your Solutions, the company behind the opportunity, demand is increasing in a good business. Contracts last six months to a year. The selection process is rigorous: Applicants need military experience or previous work in security or as police officers. Labor Minister German Leitzelar says security work in Iraq is dangerous, but that the government should not impede its citizens in their decisions. "It's up to each individual and, above all, a very personal choice," Leitzelar says.