Bukele says Haiti rescue deployment is nearly complete
President Nayib Bukele says El Salvador is close to completing its troop and equipment deployment to Haiti to search for four missing aviation technicians. More than two thousand troops have been mobilised after the technicians disappeared in an October 18 ambush near Port-au-Prince. Bukele rejected allegations of an invasion and said his government was paying almost all the costs.
Geopolitics··Evening
Search for four missing technicians
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said on October 29 that his country’s deployment of soldiers and equipment to Haiti was almost complete. He described the purpose as bringing home four Salvadoran aviation technicians who disappeared after an ambush near Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, on October 18. The four were serving in the international mission against armed gangs.[1], [2]
El Salvador was already contributing to the Gang Suppression Force, the United Nations-backed security mission in Haiti, before the ambush. The additional deployment followed the disappearance of its personnel. Bukele denied that the operation was an invasion, saying it was not intended to dominate Haitians or take control of the country’s resources.[1], [2]
More than 2,000 troops mobilised
More than two thousand Salvadoran troops have been mobilised, including special forces. El Salvador’s foreign ministry had announced the planned deployment on October 28. The contingent is the largest sent by one country to Haiti since the end of the United Nations stabilisation mission, which operated in the country from 2004 until 2017.[1], [2]
Bukele said El Salvador was meeting almost all the operation’s expenses and was receiving some logistical assistance from other countries. He did not disclose a total cost. He also said his country was not being paid to take part. The president presented the deployment as an operation against gangs and said the troops would return when their mission ended.[1], [2]
Telephone talks with Haiti’s prime minister
According to El Salvador’s foreign ministry, Bukele spoke by telephone with Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé on October 28. They discussed the search for the missing personnel and the Salvadoran presence in Haiti. Bukele reaffirmed support for security operations against gangs. Haiti’s government had not publicly commented on the Salvadoran rescue operation in EFE’s account.[1], [2]
Reports had circulated the previous Saturday that human remains might belong to the missing military personnel, a possibility Bukele rejected. The four technicians’ whereabouts remained unknown. The command arrangements and rules of engagement for the additional contingent had not been publicly clarified, nor had authorities explained its operational relationship with the existing United Nations-backed mission.[1], [2]
