Nayib Bukele pledges support to help Haiti regain control from armed gangs

El Salvador, (EFE).- Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele pledged to help Haiti regain control of its territory from armed gangs, accusing gang members, their financiers and weapons suppliers of betraying the legacy of independence leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines.

In a message posted Tuesday on X, Bukele expressed support for Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, whose government has vowed to dismantle criminal organizations with assistance from El Salvador and other international partners.

Bukele also reported that Salvadoran military helicopters intervened after gangs attacked Chadian soldiers serving with the Gang Suppression Force (GSF), helping repel the assault. He declared that armed groups no longer have the upper hand in the fight.

The statements come as El Salvador has deployed more than 2,000 soldiers to Haiti, initially to help locate four Salvadoran military personnel who disappeared on October 18 after an armed attack in Croix-des-Bouquets, near Port-au-Prince. The four were part of the UN-backed GSF and were reportedly kidnapped after their vehicle was attacked.

Fils-Aimé thanked Bukele for his support and emphasized that the Haitian government retains political and strategic control of security operations. He said the Haitian National Police, Armed Forces and GSF are working under a common strategy to dismantle gangs and restore state authority.

The Salvadoran deployment marks an expansion of Bukele’s country’s involvement in Haiti’s security crisis. The Dominican Republic has provided logistical assistance for the movement of personnel and equipment, as well as medical evacuations, although President Luis Abinader has ruled out direct Dominican military participation in combat operations.