El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said on Wednesday that he had launched a military operation to rescue four Salvadoran aviation technicians kidnapped by gangs in Haiti, warning of a far more forceful response if they are not released alive and unharmed, the Associated Press reported.
Source: Associated Press
The four men have been missing since Sunday, when gang members opened fire on an armoured vehicle in the Santo area of Croix-des-Bouquets, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. The vehicle caught fire and the technicians fled it; they have not been seen since. The Associated Press described the ambush as the first major attack since an international gang suppression force began operating in Haiti.
Addressing Haitian gang leaders directly on X, Bukele demanded the men's return. "Today's attack is nothing compared to what is coming if they do not release the four hostages alive. And do not take our words as empty threats," he wrote, sharing video of armoured vehicles with shattered windows moving through smoke. He added that if the men were returned alive and unharmed, "everything will go back to the way it was before the kidnapping."
Bukele stressed that El Salvador's role in Haiti is a non-combat one: the four men are pilots and technical personnel whose work is medical evacuations, and the Salvadoran contingent consists only of such personnel, not troops sent to wage war, according to reporting on his statements.
Source: Daily Guardian Europe
Haiti's government said in a statement on Wednesday evening that the abduction of the technicians was an "absolute priority" and that a meeting at the prime minister's office had assessed the ongoing interventions and measures to strengthen operations, in close collaboration with the Gang Repression Force, AP reported. It was not immediately clear whether any further action would be carried out by Salvadoran, Haitian or international forces. Reports carried in a global news roundup said fighting during the rescue efforts had already injured four members of the international force.
The hostage crisis is the first major test of Haiti's UN-backed Gang Suppression Force, which field reports put at roughly 2,000 personnel against a planned strength of 5,500, while gangs still control much of Port-au-Prince.
Bukele drew international attention for his mass crackdown on gangs inside El Salvador. His warning raises the stakes for Haiti's gangs — and for a multinational force that has struggled to expand and contain violence in the capital.