Haiti's police recover the burned vehicle of the four missing Salvadoran aviation technicians
Summary
The Haitian National Police (PNH) said on November 3 that it recovered the burned vehicle in which the four Salvadoran aviation technicians missing since October 18 were traveling, as reported by elsalvador.com, Infobae and the EFE agency in El Nacional. The find came on Monday, November 2, during a joint operation by the PNH, the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) and Salvadoran soldiers in the Santo area of the Croix-des-Bouquets commune. According to the PNH, the vehicle was set on fire by criminal groups. The forces met no armed resistance, although they removed barricades. The four Salvadorans are still missing, and the PNH did not say whether anything was found inside the vehicle.
Sources
More coverage
Related
Bukele says the headquarters of the Haitian gang 400 Mawozo was destroyed
President Nayib Bukele posted on X on Tuesday, in Haitian Creole and with a video of the strike, that the house of Wilson Joseph, alias Lanmò San Jou, and the headquarters of the 400 Mawozo gang had been destroyed. "We kept our promise" (our translation), he wrote, adding that most of the gang members fled without fighting. According to the Miami Herald, as cited by elsalvador.com and DW, the operation took place on Sunday, November 8, was carried out by the Haitian National Police with support from Salvadoran troops and helicopters, and Joseph was not at the house. Bukele's post gave no date or figures for deaths or arrests, and outlets differ on casualties, so we leave them out. The Press Secretariat said the government "reaffirms its commitment to the success of the military and rescue operation" (our translation) for the four Salvadoran soldiers missing since October 18.
Ulloa: there is no trace of the four soldiers missing in Haiti to know whether they are alive
Vice President Félix Ulloa said in an interview with journalist Elena Berberana that the authorities have no information that would show whether the four Salvadoran soldiers missing in Haiti are still alive. "There is no trace of them to be able to determine whether they are alive or not alive" (our translation), he said, according to elsalvador.com. Ulloa said President Bukele keeps their rescue as his priority and that the Salvadoran mission will remain in Haiti as long as their whereabouts are unknown. The soldiers went missing on October 18 after an ambush by armed groups in Croix-des-Bouquets, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.
Amnesty International asks El Salvador and Haiti to publish the agreement behind the military deployment
Amnesty International on Monday, November 9, urged the governments of El Salvador and Haiti to ensure that the operations of Salvadoran forces in Haiti respect international human rights law. Its Americas director, Ana Piquer, asked both governments to make public the agreement covering the deployment and to explain how they supervise the troops, what rules govern the use of force and to whom they are accountable. The statement came after Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, clarified that the vast majority of the Salvadoran military personnel deployed are not part of the Gang Suppression Force authorized by the Security Council. Amnesty also asked for clarity on the fate of the four Salvadoran soldiers missing since October 18.
Marco Rubio calls for coordination between Salvadoran troops and the anti-gang force in Haiti
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday, November 8, that there are two separate operations in Haiti: the Gang Suppression Force (GSF), linked to the United Nations and backed by Washington, and a bilateral mission by El Salvador with the Haitian authorities. According to ContraPunto, Rubio warned: "What cannot happen is that the gang suppression force runs into Salvadoran soldiers and they shoot at each other because they think the other side are gang members" (our translation). Rubio made clear that the United States is not directly involved in the Salvadoran operation, whose goal is to act against the groups that kidnapped four Salvadoran aviation technicians missing since October 18. He also called for a defined chain of command and a coordination mechanism and, according to elsalvador.com, said his remark was not meant as criticism.
APES denounces a smear campaign against journalist Juan Martínez d'Aubuisson over his work on Haiti
The Association of Journalists of El Salvador (APES) denounced a smear campaign against journalist and anthropologist Juan Martínez d'Aubuisson, driven, according to the association, by state media and accounts aligned with the government, Diario Co Latino and the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) reported. The complaint follows the spread of interview clips in which a man presenting himself as the brother of Haiti's prime minister claims the journalist lived for about two years in Haiti in a house allegedly stolen by gangs; according to APES, Canal 10's Noticiero El Salvador broadcast those claims. Martínez d'Aubuisson told the APES Monitoring Center that he visited Haiti only once, for five weeks between February and April 2025, that he stayed in a private hotel in Pétion-Ville and that he had no contact with criminal leaders. APES says it verified the travel dates and that the accusations are false, and asked state media, particularly Canal 10, to stop the claims and retract them. IPYS joined in rejecting the attacks.