PORT-AU-PRINCE — El Salvador has sent about 1,000 troops to Haiti after four Salvadoran members of a UN-backed security mission went missing in a gang ambush on the outskirts of the capital on October 18, a security official in Haiti told Reuters on Tuesday.
The flights in recent days dramatically expand El Salvador’s role in Haiti’s gang conflict. It remains unclear who will command the new contingent, how long it will stay or whether more forces will follow. The Haitian and Salvadoran governments did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
President Nayib Bukele last week announced a military operation to recover the missing Salvadorans, who have been unaccounted for since leaping from a burning vehicle during the ambush. He said they were air force technicians returning to base from a market and that he believed they were being held hostage. He has not said how many troops would be sent.
A US military official said the United States provided C-130 transport aircraft to help move the troops. Before the ambush, El Salvador had deployed at least 124 personnel to the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force, which has reached about 2,000 personnel, just over a third of its planned strength, CBC News reported.
No gang has claimed the attack. Wilson Joseph, leader of the 400 Mawozo gang, has released videos denying his group is holding the Salvadorans.
Pierre Espérance of Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network welcomed the deployment but warned that operations must protect residents of gang-held neighborhoods. “Not everybody living in gang-controlled areas are gangsters,” he said. Gang violence has displaced nearly 1.5 million Haitians.
Sources: CBC News / Reuters, The Straits Times / Reuters
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