The foreign ministry of El Salvador said on Wednesday that over 2,000 troops will be dispatched to Haiti to support ongoing U.N. anti-gang operations and rescue four missing Salvadoran aircraft technicians.
The four technicians were reported missing on October 18 after their vehicle was ambushed near a gang stronghold. The soldiers apparently escaped from their armored vehicle after it was damaged by explosives, but have not been heard from since.
Haiti has been overrun by heavily armed gangs ever since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. The area where the Salvadoran technicians disappeared had been the scene of a pitched battle between Haitian police, private security contractors, and gang members for several days.
Several burned bodies were recovered Saturday, but they could not easily be identified. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said they were not the bodies of his missing men and sent several hundred special forces troops to Haiti to attempt a rescue.
Bukele warned the Haitian gangs there would be severe repercussions if they harmed the missing technicians or interfered with the mission to rescue them.
“I want you, the gang leaders, to understand one thing very clearly: today’s attack is nothing compared to what is coming if we do not get all four hostages back alive,” Bukele said.
“And do not take our words for empty threats. We have already finished with the gangs in El Salvador, and we can finish with you too,” he added.
The Salvadoran foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Bukele spoke to Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime by telephone and told him over 2,000 more Salvadoran troops were coming.
Fils-Aime’s office confirmed the call and raised no immediate objections to the new troop deployment, although it did indicate a preference for “bilateral coordination and operational cooperation in the framework of the Gang Suppression Force.”
The Gang Suppression Force (GSF) is the U.N.-authorized multinational security mission to reduce gang violence in Haiti and restore the authority of the national government. The U.N. envisioned a force of about 5,500 foreign police officers to augment the Haitian National Police (HNP), replacing the anemic deployment of several hundred Kenyan police that began in 2024, but until El Salvador sent its soldiers, the GSF struggled to reach half its optimum number.
The foreign ministry of El Salvador said the “large-scale operation” it was launching in Haiti would be “supported by various countries and international organizations,” but did not name them.
On Thursday, the provisional government of Haiti announced a round of elections will be held on July 18, followed by a second round next October. The candidate list is supposed to be finalized by mid-January.
If they take place, these would be the first elections Haiti has held in over a decade. Elections were scheduled for December 13, but postponed due to gang violence.
Romain Le Cour, who leads the Haiti Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, told the Associated Press (AP) on Thursday that details of the Salvadoran military deployment “remain opaque,” including its chain of command.
“Are we witnessing yet another model of deployment, parallel to the multilateral framework? The role of the United States, which supported and facilitated this deployment, also deserves scrutiny,” he said.
Humanitarian groups expressed concerns that if the Salvadoran troops do not closely coordinate with the GNF and HNP before engaging the gangs, the risk of collateral damage to civilians could be high.
“Roads and bridges are blocked, and any travel is extremely risky. In a capital city where the health care system has collapsed and many facilities are closed, it is essential to ensure there is access to functioning health care facilities like ours,” said Doctors Without Borders’ head of mission for Haiti, Davina Hayles.