El Salvador continues to deploy soldiers to Haiti as gangs threaten violence
By Jacqueline Charles
October 26, 2026
Flights carrying soldiers and military equipment from El Salvador continued to arrive on Monday in Haiti, where search and rescue operations for four missing Salvadoran aviation technicians remain ongoing.
The men were ambushed on Oct. 18 in a gang-controlled territory east of Port-au-Prince and remain unaccounted for. Members of the armed forces of El Salvador, they were deployed under the United Nations-authorized Gang Suppression Force in Haiti.
There have been at least a dozen flights since the Miami Herald first reported that the government of El Salvador had deployed 100 special forces troops to Haiti on Thursday to aid in the rescue operations and was planning on sending more. On Sunday, at least two flights landed at Port-au-Prince’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport. A chartered cargo flight also arrived Monday afternoon, with a second flight expected later in the evening.
Salvadoran authorities have not officially disclosed how many additional military personnel have been deployed to Haiti. But by Saturday, the number had already reached 450, with hundreds more expected as flights landed without prior notice.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele ordered the reinforcements to his contingent already in Haiti after the men went missing following the ambush. The men had been out shopping at a supermarket in Santo, part of Croix-des-Bouquets, and were returning to camp in an armored Toyota when they came heavy gang gunfire. The gunmen, belonging to the Chen Mechan gang, also used an explosive device to light the vehicle on fire. In a release confirming the attack, the Armed Forces of El Salvador said the soldiers had managed to escape the vehicle.
On Monday, Salvadoran forces deployed under the banner of the gang-fighting force, and Haitian police were carrying out a joint operation in the Bon Repos area of the capital. Bukele is reportedly seeking to deploy more troops to bolster the force and to operate independently of the mission, answering directly to his commander on the ground in Haiti.
The possibility of dueling command structures and the reinforcements are being met with mixed reactions. They also raise questions about the extent of Bukele’s involvement in Haiti as the Central American leader finds himself in an open confrontation with some of Haiti’s most powerful gangs, threatening violence while invoking nationalist sentiments.
In a video message released Sunday and directed at Bukele, gang leader Lanmò San Jou, whose name translates to Death doesn’t know what day it is coming, claimed that the four Salvadorans are dead. He described their deaths as the result of “an error” after they entered territory controlled by a neighboring gang and gunmen opened fire.
The gang, he said, had spotted an unknown vehicle in its territory and its members “took action, causing the foreigners to die.”
The claim could not be independently verified, and authorities have not confirmed the deaths of the men. On Saturday, the force received remains that gang members claimed belong to the missing Salvadorans. The gang-fighting force said it could not yet confirm if the bodies, turned over to them by a local humanitarian group, are indeed that of the missing men.
“If those guys were in my hands, you would have left El Salvador and come sit at the table with me,” the gang leader, whose real name is Wilson Joseph, said to Bukele. “I would have taken them alive.”
Although Chen Mechan is accused of firing on the Salvadoran’s vehicles, sources said its heavily armed men received backup from Joseph’s 400 Mawozo, which controls the neighboring territory. Once rivals, the groups have since joined forces.
He denied being involved in the attack and said if had encountered the Salvadorans, he would have mobilized hundreds of armed men to capture them alive, and use them as bargaining chips.
“I would have told you to remove all foreigners from Haiti,” the gang leader said. “Having foreigners here is not in our interest; they aren’t going to change anything for us here.”
The gang leader also claimed to be holding three Haitian police officers captive, and that the Haitian government had no idea they were in his possession. He later showed a video of the men, all three of whom criticized the government for the attention being given to the Salvadorans but not for their safe return.
Though a number of police officers are being held captive by gangs, the Herald could not independently verify if the men were indeed members of the Haiti National Police.
© 2026 Miami Herald
