Salvadoran special forces land in Haiti after gang ambush leaves four soldiers missing

Four days after gunmen trapped an armored vehicle of the Gang Suppression Force in Croix-des-Bouquets, El Salvador has sent its own special forces to Haiti to find the four soldiers who disappeared in the attack. The UN-backed force, known as the GSF, said on Oct. 22 that the Salvadoran contingent had landed to reinforce search and security operations in the Plaine du Cul-de-Sac, the farming plain that stretches northeast of Port-au-Prince.

The ambush took place on Sunday, Oct. 18, in Santo, a neighborhood of Croix-des-Bouquets. According to The Haitian Times, the attackers opened fire on the vehicle and then used explosives that left it in flames. Authorities said the four men managed to get out before all contact with them was lost. Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said hundreds of rounds were fired at the vehicle and that officials believed the soldiers had survived, AFP reported. According to an official statement quoted by The Haitian Times on Oct. 19, the helicopters sent in to support the patrol also came under fire.

The missing men are not infantry. President Nayib Bukele has described them as aviation technicians whose job in Haiti is to fly medical evacuations. CiberCuba identifies their unit as Task Force Libertad II, the Salvadoran detachment inside the GSF. The accounts of their last errand differ slightly: Bukele says they were driving back from buying food at a supermarket, while Waltz spoke of a market outside the capital. One of the four has been named by his family: Edimar Rosales, 23, from Ahuachapán in western El Salvador, who had served in the armed forces for four years and in Haiti for seven months. Relatives told Univision, as reported by El Diario de Hoy, that he sent them audio and video messages while the attack was under way.

The area is contested ground. Two gangs operate there, Chen Mechan and 400 Mawozo, and neither has claimed the attack nor said whether it holds the soldiers. Wilson Joseph, the 400 Mawozo leader known as “Lanmò San Jou,” appeared in a video showing off weapons and ammunition in a challenge to Bukele, according to the Dominican daily El Día. The Haitian Times reports that he and Christ-Roi “Krisla” Chery warned that Salvadoran troops would meet resistance if they came in on foot instead of relying on drones and helicopters.

For people who live there, the search has meant more shooting. Residents of Clercine and Marin, two neighborhoods of the wider Croix-des-Bouquets area, told The Haitian Times they still heard gunfire on Wednesday evening, and some families had already left. The GSF asked residents of Santo and nearby communities to keep away from areas where its units were working alongside the Haitian National Police.

The special forces deployment followed an ultimatum. On Oct. 21, Bukele announced a military operation and addressed the gang leaders directly on X. “Return our four compatriots alive and unharmed, and everything will return to the way it was before the kidnapping,” he wrote, warning that the attack would be “nothing compared to what is coming” if the four were not handed back alive.

Analysts see the ambush as a turning point for the mission. “Haiti's gangs have escalated their violence as they are increasingly willing and able to confront international forces directly,” María Fernanda Arocha, who covers the region for the conflict-monitoring group ACLED, told The Haitian Times.

Haiti's government has called the soldiers' release a priority and says it is working with the GSF. The force, led by Mongolian Maj. Gen. Erdenebat Batsuuri, has not said how the Salvadoran newcomers will fit into its operations. It currently counts about 2,000 personnel from six countries, against a planned strength of 5,500, according to AFP.