El Salvador sends more than 2,000 troops to Haiti to find four missing technicians, matching the whole UN-backed force

El Salvador has sent more than 2,000 soldiers to Haiti to look for four air force technicians who vanished after a gang ambush 12 days ago, a force about as large as the entire UN-backed security mission already in the country. The foreign ministry announced the operation on Wednesday, October 28, after a call between President Nayib Bukele and Haiti's interim Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé.

A security official said around 2,000 soldiers were on the ground by Wednesday night. Finding the four men is the stated priority, but the ministry said the troops will also continue operations against the armed gangs that control large parts of Haiti.

An ambush in Croix-des-Bouquets and a dispute over four bodies

The four are non-combat aviation technicians assigned to the Gang Suppression Force (GSF). On October 18, armed men attacked their armoured vehicle with explosives and set it on fire in the Santo area of Croix-des-Bouquets, east of the capital, Port-au-Prince. They fled on foot and have not been seen since. No gang has claimed responsibility, and the Haitian government says the men were abducted.

Local officials later presented four bodies. Salvadoran authorities questioned that identification after finding discrepancies involving identities and uniforms, and the search began again.

How the surge compares with the mission already there

Force	Personnel
Salvadoran deployment announced October 28	More than 2,000
Gang Suppression Force, current strength	About 2,000
Gang Suppression Force, planned strength	5,550
El Salvador's contribution before the ambush	About 124

The GSF replaced an earlier Kenyan-led mission and has contingents from countries including Kenya, Chad and Jamaica, which the ministry says are supporting this operation. Haiti says it will coordinate with El Salvador within the GSF framework. The Salvadoran announcement itself did not mention the force.

The questions Bukele has not answered

Who commands these troops, how long they will stay and what rules govern their use of force have all gone unstated. Even the legal footing is unclear: according to reports, a bilateral agreement with Haiti was approved on Wednesday, while security analysts in El Salvador have said the mission went ahead without a formal agreement. The White House has also approved of the surge, according to reports, though no public statement has set out its position.

Romain Le Cour, who heads the Haiti Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said a force bigger than the GSF raises questions about the UN mission's authority and coherence. He also questioned how the troops would coordinate with Haitian police and with Vectus Global, a private security firm already working in the country.

For Bukele, the operation exports a brand built at home. His state of exception and mass arrests broke the power of El Salvador's gangs and made him one of the most popular leaders in the Americas, while human rights groups have accused his government of serious abuses. Whether that model transfers to Haiti, where gangs operate as armed territorial powers in a country with almost no working state, is far from certain.

What the fighting is doing to civilians in Port-au-Prince

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has reported a new "explosion of violence" in urban areas, describing widespread gunfire, roadblocks and drones. Davina Hayles, its head of mission in Haiti, called the situation shocking, citing a steady arrival of injured civilians, many of them women and children.

The group has temporarily suspended mobile clinics and treated-water distribution in some of the most crowded parts of the capital. It says blocked roads are leaving wounded people waiting hours for treatment in a country where much of the hospital system has collapsed, and it warns that more foreign contingents could mean further escalation.

Haiti's electoral council, meanwhile, is preparing for its first presidential vote since 2016, now set for next year, a timetable that depends on the security forces regaining ground.