El Salvador Says It Will Send More Than 2,000 Troops to Haiti, While Aid Groups and Analysts Question the Plan
Breitbart reports Nayib Bukele told Haiti's prime minister the force is coming to back the U.N.-backed gang mission and search for four missing Salvadoran technicians. Haiti set elections for July 18.
El Salvador is sharply widening its military role in Haiti, Breitbart reports. This follows our earlier story on the first rescue operation.
The pledge. El Salvador's foreign ministry said Wednesday that more than 2,000 troops will go to Haiti to support U.N.-backed anti-gang operations and look for four Salvadoran aircraft technicians who vanished Oct. 18 after their vehicle was ambushed near a gang stronghold. The report says they appear to have left the armored vehicle after explosives damaged it and have not been heard from since. Several hundred special forces troops were already sent. President Nayib Bukele spoke by phone with Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, whose office confirmed the call and raised no immediate objection, though it said it would prefer "bilateral coordination and operational cooperation" within the Gang Suppression Force.
The warning. Bukele told gang leaders: "We have already finished with the gangs in El Salvador, and we can finish with you too." He said that if the four men are not returned alive, today's attack "is nothing compared to what is coming."
The force. The Gang Suppression Force is the U.N.-authorized mission meant to reach about 5,500 foreign officers and replace a few hundred Kenyan police who began deploying in 2024. Breitbart says it struggled to reach half strength until El Salvador sent soldiers. The foreign ministry said the operation would be "supported by various countries and international organizations" but named none.
The elections. Haiti's provisional government said Thursday that elections will be held July 18, with a second round next October and a candidate list set by mid-January. They would be the first in over a decade. A December 13 vote was postponed because of gang violence.
The doubts. Romain Le Cour of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime told the Associated Press the deployment's details "remain opaque," including its chain of command, and that the U.S. role in backing it "deserves scrutiny." Doctors Without Borders' Haiti head, Davina Hayles, said roads and bridges are blocked and travel is extremely risky.
Note for readers: the troop figure comes from El Salvador's government, and the outcome for the four missing men is not known from this report.