After dismantling powerful criminal gangs in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele has shifted his focus to Haiti, sending 2,000 troops after four Salvadoran military aviation technicians vanished following an Oct. 18 ambush near Port-au-Prince.
“We have already finished with the gangs in El Salvador, and we can finish with you too,” Bukele wrote on X in a message aimed at Haiti’s criminal groups. He emphasized that the mission was not intended as an invasion or a prolonged occupation, but as an effort to bring the four missing Salvadorans home alive.
The men’s disappearance has become a top priority for Bukele, who has warned Haitian gang leaders that El Salvador is prepared to deploy overwhelming force if the technicians are not returned alive.
In this image taken from a video released Oct. 29, 2026, soldiers cross an airport tarmac to board an aircraft after El Salvador sent thousands of troops to Haiti. The deployment followed the disappearance of four Salvadoran members of a U.N.-backed force in a gang ambush. The scene was filmed in Comalapa, El Salvador. (Handout via Reuters)
The aviation technicians were serving with a medical unit attached to the United Nations-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF) when their armored vehicle came under attack in Croix-des-Bouquets. Haiti’s National Police said Tuesday—more than two weeks after the ambush—that officers had located the vehicle’s burned-out remains in the Santo neighborhood of Croix-des-Bouquets. Police reported finding no trace of the four men.
El Salvador maintains that the technicians were kidnapped. Haiti’s government has described them as missing, while a gang leader has claimed they were killed.
In a Tuesday post on X addressed to the “Haitian people” and written in Haitian Creole, Bukele referred to the 1806 assassination of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who declared Haiti independent from France in 1804 and is widely regarded as one of the nation’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.”
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele attended the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., where he warned that violent gang members in his country have a documented history of worshiping Satan. (Alex Pena/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Bukele also shared video showing a helicopter operation in Croix-des-Bouquets.
“Gangs were attacking GSF soldiers from Chad,” he wrote. “We arrived quickly and drove the attackers back with our attack helicopters.”
Bukele’s operation has received support from President Donald Trump, who confirmed he had spoken with the Salvadoran leader when questioned by reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Halloween.
“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.’”
Unlike earlier foreign interventions, the Salvadoran deployment has the support of Haiti’s transitional government.
“The international force is not here to replace the state,” Haitian Prime Minister Didier Fils-Aimé said Tuesday in his first public comments on the deployment. “They’re here to support us.”
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Fils-Aimé said Bukele “understands our fight” and “came to stand on the side of the Haitian people.”
An armored personnel carrier from Haiti’s U.N.-backed Gang Suppression Force patrols an area after El Salvador announced a mission to find four air force personnel assigned to the GSF. The Salvadorans disappeared after a gang ambush in Port-au-Prince on Oct. 23, 2026. (Patrice Noel/Reuters)
The mission has faced opposition from human-rights advocates and gang leaders, who warn that a military escalation could deepen the suffering of civilians. The United Nations says gang violence has killed or injured at least 5,700 people in Haiti since Jan. 1, as security forces struggle to contain the crisis.
The U.N. has said El Salvador’s deployment operates separately from the GSF and cautioned that Salvadoran forces must comply with applicable international law.
Among the critics is Wilson Joseph, known as “Lanmò Sanjou,” the leader of the powerful 400 Mawozo gang. Joseph accused rival gang Chen Mechan of carrying out the ambush and told The Associated Press that the Salvadorans were dead.
Joseph also wrote to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres seeking U.N. mediation. He warned that Bukele’s “vengeful remarks, expectations, and threats … will lead to an escalation of violence and a logic of reprisals, of which the Haitian people would be the first victims.”
An armed member of the G9 and Family gang stands guard at a roadblock in Port-au-Prince’s Delmas 6 neighborhood on March 11. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
The United States indicted Joseph in 2022 on hostage-taking charges tied to the 2021 kidnapping of 17 missionaries, including 16 Americans. He remains the subject of a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to his arrest.
Bukele rejected such appeals, accusing gang leaders of exploiting civilians and international human-rights concerns to protect their power and evade accountability. He has argued that negotiations have only extended the crisis that has devastated Haiti for years.
El Salvador, once among the world’s most violent countries and home to powerful gangs including MS-13, launched an unprecedented crackdown in 2022 under a state of emergency. Authorities made tens of thousands of arrests and eventually detained more than 90,000 people suspected of gang involvement.
Supporters say the campaign pushed homicide rates to historic lows and restored public safety. Critics, however, accuse Bukele’s government of human-rights violations, arbitrary arrests and weakening due-process protections.
Salvadoran soldiers return to a base after El Salvador sent thousands of troops to Haiti in response to the disappearance of four Salvadoran members of a U.N.-backed force during a gang ambush in Port-au-Prince on Oct. 30, 2026. (Patrice Noel/Reuters)
The central question now is whether El Salvador’s approach can be replicated in Haiti, where gangs control broad sections of Port-au-Prince and exert influence over major transportation corridors and neighborhoods. Despite years of international intervention, the security situation has continued to worsen.
The GSF has faced shortages of personnel and significant operational constraints. It remains below the strength approved by the U.N. Security Council, leaving Haiti’s government unable to regain full control of large parts 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 bring under our control those who are making us endure all this pain and suffering. We are right there beside you … Haiti will be free.”
