After leading a sweeping crackdown on criminal gangs in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele has turned his focus to Haiti. He has sent 2,000 troops there following the disappearance of four Salvadoran military aviation technicians after an ambush near Port-au-Prince on Oct. 18.
“We have already finished with the gangs in El Salvador, and we can finish with you too,” Bukele wrote on X, addressing Haiti’s criminal groups. He said the mission was not an invasion or an effort to occupy the country long term. Its goal, he said, was to bring the four Salvadorans home alive.
Their disappearance has become a priority for Bukele, who has warned Haitian gang leaders that El Salvador is ready to use overwhelming force if the men are not returned alive.
The technicians were serving with a medical unit attached to the U.N.-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF) when their armored vehicle was attacked in Croix-des-Bouquets. Haiti’s National Police said Tuesday that, more than two weeks after the ambush, officers had found the vehicle’s burned-out remains in the Santo neighborhood. They said there was no sign of the men.
El Salvador says the technicians were abducted. Haiti’s government has described them as missing, while one gang leader claims they were killed.
In another post on X on Tuesday, written in Haitian Creole and addressed to the Haitian people, Bukele referred to the 1806 assassination of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who declared Haiti’s independence from France in 1804 and is widely regarded as one of the country’s founders.
“Dessalines liberated Haiti, but some people who were by his side betrayed him and killed him,” Bukele wrote. “Those traitors still exist in Haiti.”
Bukele also shared video of a helicopter operation in Croix-des-Bouquets, saying Salvadoran forces had responded to an attack on GSF soldiers from Chad.
“We arrived quickly and repelled the attackers with our attack helicopters,” he wrote.
President Donald Trump has voiced support for Bukele. Speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Halloween, Trump confirmed he had spoken with the Salvadoran leader.
“He said that he has a big problem with Haiti,” Trump said. “They killed some of his people. I said, ‘You’re running your country. You have to do what you have to do.’”
Haiti’s transitional government has backed the deployment. Prime Minister Didier Fils-Aimé, speaking about it for the first time on Tuesday, said the international force was there to support the Haitian state, not replace it. He added that Bukele “understands our fight” and had come to stand with the Haitian people.
The operation has drawn criticism from human-rights advocates and gang leaders, who warn that a military escalation could deepen civilian suffering. The U.N. says at least 5,700 people have been killed or injured in gang violence in Haiti since Jan. 1, as security forces struggle to contain it.
The U.N. has said El Salvador’s deployment is separate from the GSF and stressed that Salvadoran forces must comply with applicable international law.
Wilson Joseph, known as “Lanmò Sanjou” and leader of the powerful 400 Mawozo gang, blamed rival gang Chen Mechan for the ambush. He also told The Associated Press that the Salvadorans were dead.
Joseph wrote to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres seeking mediation. He warned that Bukele’s “vengeful remarks, expectations, and threats” could fuel further violence and reprisals, with Haitians bearing the greatest cost.
Joseph was indicted in the United States in 2022 on hostage-taking charges connected to the 2021 kidnapping of 17 missionaries, 16 of them Americans. A reward of up to $1 million remains available for information leading to his arrest.
Bukele has rejected appeals from gang leaders, accusing them of using civilians and international human-rights concerns as cover to hold on to power and escape accountability. He has argued that negotiations have only prolonged Haiti’s crisis.
El Salvador launched a major crackdown in 2022, after years of extreme violence and gang control, including by groups such as MS-13. Under a state of emergency, authorities made tens of thousands of arrests and eventually detained more than 90,000 people suspected of gang membership.
Supporters say the campaign brought homicide rates to historic lows and made communities safer. Critics, meanwhile, accuse Bukele’s government of human-rights violations, arbitrary arrests and weakening due-process protections.
Whether that approach can work in Haiti remains uncertain. Gangs control large parts of Port-au-Prince and hold sway over important roads and neighborhoods. Despite years of foreign intervention, the security situation has continued to worsen.
The GSF has faced staffing shortages and operational constraints. It remains below the force level approved by the U.N. Security Council, while Haiti’s government has struggled to regain control of much of the capital.
“We can help you defeat them, but we are not your enemies,” Bukele wrote Tuesday. “We must stand up, take back control of our communities, and put under our control those who are making us endure all this pain, all this suffering. We are right there beside you… Haiti will be free.”
