image copyrightNayib Bukele /
President Nayib Bukele published this Thursday images of the mission sent to Haiti to recover four Salvadoran soldiers who disappeared in the Caribbean country almost two weeks ago and teach "the gangs a lesson."
He did so hours after El Salvador's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the president had already reported a "robust deployment" to Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime earlier in the week.
The mission amounts to 2,000 troops, who will reinforce the soldiers' search and rescue operations.
Members of a UN-backed multinational body whose mission is to combat crime and help restore order in Haiti, they were lost on October 18 in an area controlled by gangs.
Attached to a message in Creole addressed to the "Haitian people," Bukele shared this Thursday on X a video in which soldiers are seen boarding flights and combat vehicles and helicopters ready to be transported.
"We have almost finished deploying our soldiers and equipment on Haitian soil. This is not an operation against the Haitian people, nor an invasion of the country of Haiti. We are not a great power. We have no interest in dominating the Haitian people, nor in appropriating the wealth of Haiti," he wrote on the social network.
The president assured that it is El Salvador that is assuming the majority of the cost of the deployment, although it has logistical help from other nations. "It is with our own modest funds that we are covering 90% of the expenses," he stressed.
He also remembered the time in which El Salvador lived under the yoke of gangs.
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"We went through the same suffering that Haiti is going through today. (...) We know what that means: living in fear, not trusting politicians, not believing in anyone who promises to help you. Because no one came to help us, and those who came did not have good intentions," he said.
For this reason, he asked Haitians to "trust" him. "We didn't come to Haiti to make money, because no one is paying us to do it. We came to Haiti to fight evil people," he added.
"Robust deployment"
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The four Gang Suppression Force (GSF) soldiers were returning to their base in an armored vehicle on October 18 when they were ambushed in the gang-controlled Santo neighborhood of Croix-des-Bouquets, a town north of the capital Port-au-Prince.
According to the Armed Forces of El Salvador, they managed to escape from the burning vehicle after being attacked, but then their trace was lost.
The search and rescue operation launched since then has not been successful, and his whereabouts and condition are currently unknown.
Bukele, who claimed that the military was taken hostage by criminal groups, issued them an ultimatum last week.
"I want you, the gang leaders, to understand one thing very clearly: the attack is nothing compared to what is coming if we do not recover the four hostages alive," Bukele warned them with a message in X.
"We already put an end to the gangs in El Salvador, and we can end them too."
Now, the 2,000 soldiers sent by Bukele arrive to reinforce the search tasks.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador stated that the "large-scale deployment" had the support of several countries and international organizations.
In an article published on Saturday afternoon, The New York Times reported that some charred remains found on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince could be those of the Salvadoran military.
Although the American media added that, due to their poor condition, they would have to undergo tests to determine their identities.
The report cited four sources, including the humanitarian aid group Hero Client Rescue, which had been "hired to recover the bodies."
However, President Bukele denied that they were Salvadoran soldiers. "The remains correspond to a child, a man considerably taller than our airmen, and a person wearing part of an army uniform that is not ours. Identification cards and military uniforms from other countries were also found among the remains," he added.
The GSF, meanwhile, preferred not to draw conclusions yet and said that it is not "in a position to confirm that said remains correspond to missing personnel."
He also added that he remains "firm and determined" in his mission, and that he will offer more information "through official channels once there is verified data."
image source, Reuters
The Gang Suppression Force (GSF) was created by the United Nations Security Council in October 2025.
It was born to replace the Multinational Security Support Mission (MMAS), led by Kenya, which failed in its attempt to quell violence in the Caribbean nation.
The GSF has faced difficulties in achieving full deployment. Conceived as a force of 5,500 troops, it currently barely reaches 2,000, originating from countries such as Mongolia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Sri Lanka and Chad.
Haiti has been mired in a serious crisis for years that worsened after the assassination in 2021 of its then president, Jovenel Moïse.
Since then, the gangs have expanded their territorial domain. They now control more than 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and have left most of the State institutions inoperative.
Violence by armed gangs has displaced a record 1.5 million people in recent years, in addition to leaving more than 5,700 dead and injured from January to mid-September, and more than 230 people kidnapped, according to the United Nations.
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