Bukele announces operation to rescue four Salvadoran technicians missing in Haiti

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said on Wednesday, 21 October, that his country had launched a military operation in Haiti to rescue four Salvadoran aviation technicians who went missing after an attack near Port-au-Prince. Haiti’s government called securing their release an “absolute priority”; it was not immediately clear whether the men were alive.

Bukele said the four were members of the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force, according to Reuters. He said the Salvadoran contingent consisted of pilots and technical personnel whose main work was medical evacuation, rather than combat. His announcement did not identify a gang holding the men or explain what the new operation would involve.

How the technicians went missing near Port-au-Prince

No group had claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the Associated Press. Bukele warned of a stronger response if the men were not returned alive and unharmed, but did not specify what that response would be. His description of them as hostages has not been accompanied by public confirmation of their location or condition.

El Salvador’s military and the Gang Suppression Force had already announced efforts to recover the men earlier in the week. Intense fighting had limited access to the area, Reuters reported. Bukele’s Wednesday statement announced a military rescue operation, rather than the first search for the missing personnel.

Haiti’s response and the force’s role

Haiti’s government said officials met at the prime minister’s office to assess the interventions under way and determine measures to strengthen operations in coordination with the international force. It described the men’s release as an absolute priority, according to the Associated Press and Euronews.

The force continued fighting gangs in the community where the attack occurred and warned residents to remain indoors, the Associated Press reported. A force spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for details, according to the Associated Press and Euronews.

The Gang Suppression Force is mandated to help Haitian police confront armed gangs. Several countries, including Chad and Sri Lanka, have deployed personnel, but the mission has reached only just over a third of its planned size a year into its mandate, Reuters reported. Its struggle to gain access after the ambush shows the difficulty facing efforts to recover the Salvadorans.

Euronews reported that El Salvador passed a law in early October extending its participation in the force for a year and allowing civilian and military personnel to serve according to the mission’s broader needs. The missing technicians’ medical evacuation role places the attack within that international deployment.