Writing in Creole, Nayib Bukele accuses some Haitians of betraying Dessalines' legacy by arming and funding gangs

El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele posted a long message written in Haitian Creole on X on Tuesday, November 3, accusing some Haitians of being accomplices of the armed gangs. "Trèt sa yo toujou egziste ann Ayiti" ("These traitors still exist in Haiti"), he wrote, according to the text published by the Dominican newspaper El Día. "Genyen ki manm gang, gen lòt ki finanse gang yo oswa ki ba yo zam" ("Some are gang members, others fund the gangs or give them weapons"), he added.

Nayib Bukele compares these people to those who betrayed and murdered Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the father of independence, killed in 1806. He acknowledges that "many foreigners plundered Haiti," but says Haitians did the same by collaborating with them, selling their drugs and controlling territory on their behalf, according to El Día.

"We are not invaders"

"Nou kapab ede nou bat yo, men nou pa anvayisè" ("We can help you defeat them, but we are not invaders"), the Salvadoran president writes, calling on Haitians to "take back control" of their communities. "We are on the same side as you. We will help you take back the country from the hands of the traitors who betray the legacy of Dessalines, and finally, Haiti will be free," he concluded, according to El Universo, citing the EFE news agency.

The message was posted on the same day as another one, in which Nayib Bukele said Salvadoran helicopters had repelled a gang attack on Chadian soldiers of the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) in Croix-des-Bouquets. El Salvador has deployed more than 2,000 troops to Haiti since four Salvadoran aviation technicians of the GSF went missing in an ambush in Croix-des-Bouquets on October 18, both newspapers note.

Port-au-Prince responds

Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé thanked Nayib Bukele for understanding the battle Haiti is fighting, according to El Universo. He also said that "it is the Haitian State that is responsible for the political and strategic direction of the fight against insecurity," a response to critics who say the Salvadoran troops are acting on their own. "Our objective is clear: to end the grip of the gangs and restore the authority of the State," he said.