El Salvador has been quietly deploying soldiers to Haiti for more than a week, and the scale of the operation became public only days later: more than 2,000 Salvadoran military personnel are being sent to the Caribbean nation, though their mission and mandate remain unclear. The deployment adds an unpredictable element to Port-au-Prince, a densely populated city of hills where front lines shift constantly among dozens of gangs and the groups fighting them, including foreign forces, community surveillance groups and mercenaries.
The 2,000 troops are a significant force. The contingent is larger than Haiti’s entire army and roughly a quarter of the urban strength of the Haitian National Police, according to the report. It is similar in size to the current UN-backed GSF contingent and far larger than the private military contractors in the Haitian government’s secretive “task force.” But it is still unclear how the Salvadorans fit into Haiti’s fragmented security landscape, who is paying for the deployment and what exactly their mission is. A source close to the matter said the command structure has not yet been defined.
Statements issued simultaneously by El Salvador and Haiti on Wednesday night offered few details. Both countries referred to a phone call between President Nayib Bukele and interim Haitian leader Alix Didier Fils-Aimé about the overall security situation and the case of four Salvadoran aeronautical technicians who are missing. The technicians disappeared earlier this month after an alleged gang ambush; Salvadoran authorities said they had been working with the GSF in non-combat roles. Soon afterward, 100 members of El Salvador’s special forces were sent to Haiti to help in search-and-rescue operations, a prelude to the larger force now there.
Ten days later, local sources indicated it was unlikely the four missing technicians would be found. If the Salvadoran forces fail to achieve that objective, they may pursue other goals — possibly joining an existing security force to launch a prolonged offensive against gangs as retaliation. A possible clue to their plans may lie in their location: at the time of the report, the Salvadorans were not housed at the main GSF base.
Bukele has said he has unique credentials to address the crisis. His government’s hardline policy against gangs at home restored peace in what was once the most violent nation in the Western Hemisphere, though critics cite mass arrests and allegations of widespread abuses. In a message on X last week, he addressed gangs in Haitian Creole: “There is still time to avoid this. Return our four compatriots alive and unharmed, and everything will return to how it was before the kidnapping.”
Most Port-au-Prince residents want radical change after years of brutal gang violence that forced more than one million people to leave their homes. The city is terrorized by frequent kidnappings, rapes and arson carried out by gangs, acts often publicized on social media. On Thursday, Haitians across the country were reminded again of how insecurity has paralyzed civilian life when they learned that long-delayed presidential elections had been postponed once more, to next year.
Experts warn of the dangers of adding new actors to an already saturated urban conflict. Bill O’Neill, the UN human rights expert for Haiti, said the situation is volatile and could become even more violent, causing harm to innocent people. Romain Le Coeur, a Haiti expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said Haiti’s security response is no longer based on a single strategy but on a juxtaposition of multilateral, national and private actors each operating under its own rules. He warned that until it is clear who makes decisions and who is held accountable, any operation risks adding to confusion rather than improving security.
Sources: CNN Brasil.