Bukele's gang offensive goes abroad as El Salvador rushes troops to Haiti
Oct 29 - El Salvador's deployment of thousands of troops to Haiti, days after four Salvadoran members of a UN-backed force went missing in a gang ambush, is the first major overseas test of President Nayib Bukele's anti-gang tactics.
asserted
went → go → tactics
Around 2,000 Salvadoran soldiers were in Haiti as of Wednesday night, a security official told Reuters.
asserted
official → tell → Reuters
Two sources with knowledge of the matter said these would for now be capped at 2,500.
asserted
these → say → 2,500
Yet authorities have not clarified the troops' command, or rules of engagement, fueling concerns of more risks to civilians in a country with a long history of harmful foreign interventions.
asserted
authorities → clarify → interventions
Bukele billed the deployments as a rescue mission for four aircraft technicians who were part of the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force in Haiti.
asserted
who → bill → Haiti
They have been missing since they jumped from a burning vehicle during the ambush in a gang-controlled area on the outskirts of the capital Port-au-Prince.
asserted
they → miss → capital
Haitian and Salvadoran authorities have said the troops' main mission is to rescue the missing technicians.
asserted
mission → say → technicians
But the deployment's size - matching in 10 days what the UN-backed force struggled to deploy over more than a year - has prompted questions over whether the soldiers could be part of a broader and longer-term operation.
uncertain
soldiers → match → operation
On Thursday, Bukele said the deployments were nearly finished and his government was covering 90% of the costs.
asserted
government → say → costs
Bukele, in office since 2019, won huge popularity at home with tough-on-crime policies, including a gang crackdown that relied heavily on mass incarceration.
asserted
that → win → incarceration
Other governments have sought to replicate his approach, despite rights activists' warnings over due process and innocent deaths.
asserted
governments → seek → process
Bukele would, however, likely encounter a profoundly different security environment in Haiti, analysts warned, as institutions have been whittled down by corruption and faltering funds, prisons are vastly overcrowded, the judiciary paralyzed and many gang recruits are underage.
asserted
recruits → encounter → corruption
"This could help increase support for Bukele if this helps his narrative of being an anti-gang force in the region and delivering results," said Maria Fernanda Arocha, an analyst at conflict monitoring group ACLED.
uncertain
Arocha → help → ACLED
"We don't know if this will bring the results he is expecting."
asserted
he → know → results
A CID Gallup poll on Wednesday showed 86% of Salvadorans approved of the Haiti mission, though 82% also expressed concern for their countrymen.
asserted
% → show → countrymen
In El Salvador, security analysts said they were cautious of a risky mission without a formal agreement, UN backing, or support from the Shield of the Americas - a US-led anti-crime coalition the Trump administration launched earlier this year.
asserted
administration → say → Americas
POINTS TO ESCALATION
Haiti's unelected leaders have since 2022 called for international forces to help fight heavily-armed gangs that have expanded their influence beyond the capital and are responsible for massacres, gang rapes and widespread extortion.
asserted
that → call → massacres
But successive UN-backed missions were slow to deploy, leaving a fractured security response.
asserted
missions → back → response
Haiti hired a private military company run by Blackwater founder Erik Prince to fight the gangs, which nonetheless continued to make gains.
asserted
which → hire → gains
Sam Vigersky, a policy expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said he believed the UN-backed mission - renewed for just six months in September - was under pressure to produce results but the Salvadorans' arrival signaled more chaos.
asserted
arrival → say → chaos
"The overall security picture is not pointing towards one of stabilization, it's pointing towards one of escalation," he said.
asserted
he → point → escalation
A security official said operations there were largely run by Haitian police.
asserted
operations → say → police
Romain Le Cour Grandmaison, a security expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said residents were skeptical of yet another foreign intervention and had reported heavy gunfire, drone strikes and possible civilian deaths.
asserted
residents → say → gunfire
He said he was not aware of humanitarian corridors to help people escape: "The gang leaders do not want people to leave the area because they probably want to use them as shields and make sure the population actually slows operations against them."
asserted
population → say → them
Washington has not publicly supported the mission but a US military official said Pentagon C-130s helped it deploy.
Irwin Stotzky, a rights expert at the University of Miami, said the US administration, which ended immigration protections for about 350,000 Haitians, has reasons to be invested.
asserted
which → support → reasons
"We've got to make it appear as if it's safe to send 350,000 people back to Haiti, when they actually are in great fear of their lives," he said.
asserted
he → get → lives
The Aporia
