After crushing powerful criminal gangs in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele has turned his attention to the Caribbean nation of Haiti, deploying 2,000 troops after four Salvadoran military aviation technicians disappeared 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 in a message on X directed at Haiti's criminal groups. Bukele stressed that the operation's objective was not to invade Haiti or conduct a long-term occupation, but to recover the four missing Salvadorans alive.
The disappearance has become a national priority for Bukele, who has warned Haitian gang leaders that El Salvador is prepared to use overwhelming force if the men are not returned alive. FLORIDA JURY CONVICTS 4 MEN WHO PLOTTED ASSASSINATION OF HAITI'S PRESIDENT FROM SOUTH FLORIDA HUB The aviation technicians were assigned to a medical unit as part of the United Nations-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF) in Haiti when their armored vehicle was attacked in Croix-des-Bouquets. Haiti’s National Police announced Tuesday, more than two weeks after the attack, that it had found the charred remains of the vehicle in the Santo neighborhood of Croix-des-Bouquets.
Police said, however, they found no sign of the missing men. El Salvador says the men were abducted, the Haitian government says the soldiers are missing, and one gang leader says they are dead. In a post on X Tuesday, directed at the "Haitian people" and written in Haitian creole, Bukele recalled the 1806 assassination of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who proclaimed Haiti’s independence from France in 1804 and who many regard as the founder of Haiti.
"Dessalines liberated Haiti, but some people who were by his side betrayed him and killed him," Bukele said. "Those traitors still exist in Haiti." SUSPECTS IN HAITIAN PRESIDENT'S ASSASSINATION TRANSFERRED TO MIAMI, ACCUSED OF FUNDING PLOT WITH COVID FRAUD Bukele also reposted video of a helicopter engagement in Croix-des-Bouquets. "Gangs were attacking GSF soldiers from Chad," he wrote.
"We arrived quickly and repelled the attackers with our attack helicopters." Bukele has the backing of President Donald Trump, who, when asked by reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Halloween, confirmed speaking with the Salvadoran president. "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 previous foreign interventions, Bukele's deployment has the backing 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 remarks about the deployment.
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