After dismantling some of El Salvador’s most powerful criminal organizations, President Nayib Bukele is now turning his attention to Haiti. His government has sent 2,000 troops to the Caribbean nation 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 said 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 disappearance has become a top priority for Bukele, who has warned Haitian gang leaders that El Salvador is prepared to deploy overwhelming force unless the men are returned safely.
In this still image 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 came days after four Salvadoran members of a U.N.-backed force disappeared in a gang ambush 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, or 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 remains in the Santo neighborhood of Croix-des-Bouquets. No trace of the four men was found, police said.
El Salvador maintains that the technicians were kidnapped. Haiti’s government describes them as missing, while one gang leader claims they have been killed.
In a Tuesday post on X addressed to the “Haitian people” and written in Haitian Creole, Bukele invoked the 1806 assassination of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the Haitian independence leader who declared freedom from France in 1804 and is widely viewed as a founder of the nation.
“Dessalines liberated Haiti, but some people who stood beside him betrayed 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 Satan worship. (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 pushed the attackers back with our attack helicopters.”
Bukele has received support from President Donald Trump, who confirmed during a Halloween appearance at Mar-a-Lago that he had spoken with the Salvadoran leader.
“He said that he has a big problem with Haiti,” Trump told reporters. “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 approval 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 mission. “It is here to support us.”
Fils-Aimé said Bukele “understands our fight” and “came to stand with the Haitian people.”
An armored personnel carrier belonging to Haiti’s U.N.-backed Gang Suppression Force patrols an area after El Salvador announced a mission to rescue four air force personnel who disappeared in a gang ambush in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Oct. 23, 2026. (Patrice Noel/Reuters)
The mission has drawn condemnation from human-rights organizations and gang leaders, who argue that a military escalation could inflict even greater harm on civilians. The United Nations says gang violence has killed or injured at least 5,700 people in Haiti since Jan. 1, as security forces continue to struggle to contain the crisis.
The U.N. has said El Salvador’s operation is separate from the GSF and cautioned that Salvadoran forces must comply with international law.
Among the critics is Wilson Joseph, known as “Lanmò Sanjou,” the leader of the influential 400 Mawozo gang. Joseph blamed the rival Chen Mechan gang for the ambush and told The Associated Press that the Salvadorans were dead.
Joseph also wrote to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres requesting mediation. He warned that Bukele’s “vengeful remarks, expectations, and threats … will lead to an escalation of violence and a logic of reprisals,” with Haitian civilians becoming “the first victims.”
An armed member of the G9 and Family gang stands at a roadblock in Port-au-Prince’s Delmas 6 neighborhood on March 11. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
U.S. authorities indicted Joseph in 2022 on hostage-taking charges connected to the 2021 kidnapping of 17 missionaries, including 16 Americans. A reward of up to $1 million remains available for information leading to his arrest.
Bukele rejected the appeals, accusing gang leaders of hiding behind civilians and international human-rights concerns to protect their influence and escape accountability. He has argued that negotiations have allowed the crisis to continue rather than resolve it.
El Salvador, once among the world’s most violent countries, began an unprecedented crackdown in 2022 under a state of emergency. Authorities conducted tens of thousands of arrests and eventually imprisoned more than 90,000 people suspected of gang ties.
Supporters say the campaign drove the homicide rate to historic lows and restored a sense of security. Critics, however, have accused Bukele’s administration of widespread 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 following a gang ambush in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Oct. 30, 2026. (Patrice Noel/Reuters)
The central question is whether El Salvador’s security model can work in Haiti, where gangs control broad sections of Port-au-Prince and exert influence over major roads, transport corridors and neighborhoods. Despite years of international involvement, Haiti’s security situation has continued to worsen.
The GSF has faced shortages of personnel and equipment and remains below the strength authorized by the U.N. Security Council. As a result, Haiti’s government has been unable to restore full control over much of the capital.
“We can help you defeat them, but we are not your enemies,” Bukele wrote Tuesday. “We must stand up, reclaim control of our communities and bring under our control those who have forced us to endure this pain and suffering. We are right there beside you … Haiti will be free.”