Bukele Sends 1000 Troops to Haiti, Four Soldiers Remain Missing

El Salvador has sent roughly 1,000 soldiers to Haiti to find four of its troops after they went missing in a gang ambush outside Port-au-Prince. The four men were air force technicians serving with the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF). They went missing on October 18 when they reportedly leapt from a burning vehicle during the attack. 

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced last week that his government would launch a military operation to recover the missing personnel. The four men remain missing. 

No gang has claimed the attack. Wilson Joseph, leader of the 400 Mawozo gang, has released videos that deny he is holding the Salvadorans or bears any responsibility.

Before the ambush, El Salvador had at least 124 troops with the GSF, according to a UN report. Bukele said those were pilots and technicians sent to evacuate injured soldiers, not to fight.

The GSF itself has reached only about 2,000 troops, just over a third of its planned size a year into its mandate, with limited impact on security. Haiti has been grappling with expanding gang control, widespread displacement of nearly 1.5 million Haitians, and institutional instability. Meanwhile, successive transitional governments have postponed elections amid continuing violence.

The United States provided C-130 military transport aircraft to help bring some of the new troops to Haiti, a US military official told Reuters.