El Salvador's government deploys 450 soldiers to Haiti to search for missing military personnel

The first contingents of Salvadoran special forces arrived at the Toussaint Louverture airport in Port-au-Prince. REUTERS/Ralph Tedy Erol The Government of El Salvador deployed 450 soldiers to Haiti to locate and rescue four Salvadoran soldiers missing after an ambush by criminal gangs, in an emergency operation that could lead to offensives against those armed groups. The contingent was ready to act in Port-au-Prince, according to Haiti Libre and the outlet Le Nouvelliste. The first group, made up of about 100 special forces members, arrived on Thursday, October 22, at the Toussaint Louverture airport. One day later, another 100 military personnel arrived aboard a Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules, provided by the United States government. Haiti Libre also reported that the aircraft, identified as flight C30J in tracking records, took off from El Salvador International Airport at 9:40 and landed in Port-au-Prince at 14:07. A contingent prepared for operations against armed gangs The Salvadoran Special Operations Group is a commando unit specialized in counterinsurgency and asymmetric warfare. Its members received training to operate in hostile urban and semi-urban environments, with rapid deployment capability, technological reconnaissance, and intensive use of covering fire, reports Haiti Libre. Armored personnel carriers of the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF) in Haiti patrol an area after heavily armed gangs ambushed members of the force, attacking their armored vehicle with explosives, setting it on fire, and leaving four Salvadoran soldiers missing as they fled their burning vehicle, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on October 19, 2026. REUTERS/Patrice Noel The deployment included flight HVY601, operated by a company specialized in cargo transport. That aircraft moved heavy infrastructure to support the troops, including ammunition, light vehicles, tactical drones, encrypted communications equipment, and medical supplies, according to the Haitian outlet. There is no official list of the contents of that cargo, nor confirmation that the material transported included specific weaponry. The Haitian outlet's publication noted that in previous operations, these forces used light drones to identify areas under gang control and detect possible ambushes. The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, responded on Friday, October 23, to questions about a possible Salvadoran defeat at the hands of the Haitian gangs. In a message posted on X, he listed the arguments of those who believe the mission will face resistance greater than what his country fought. "Many messages, analyses, and comments claim that the gangs in Haiti are not like those in El Salvador; that they are bloodthirsty, that they are heavily armed, that no one has been able to defeat them, that all missions have failed, that we are falling into a trap, that we don't know what we are facing, that this will be our ruin, that we are heading toward our Waterloo," Bukele wrote. The Government of El Salvador deployed 450 soldiers to Haiti to rescue four soldiers missing after an ambush. (Archive photo, courtesy of FAES) The president argued that a victory would change those assessments: "But when God grants us victory, those same people will change their minds. They will say it was always easy, that anyone could have done it, that the gangs in Haiti were not as dangerous as we thought. In short, we never paid attention to them and we are not going to start now." Bukele also linked the operation to his religious beliefs. "All those who have enlisted are believers, and we have entrusted this mission to God, while the gangs in Haiti are satanic. God will grant us victory. The Creator of the Universe is with us. Deuteronomy 28:7: The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated; they will come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways," he stated.