Bukele Deploys 200 Troops to Haiti as Gang Hostage Crisis Escalates

El Salvador has deployed around 200 special forces soldiers to Haiti to rescue four military technicians kidnapped by armed gangs, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, 23 October.

The reinforcements arrived in two groups of around 100 on Thursday and overnight, joining a search-and-rescue operation launched after Haitian armed gangs ambushed the technicians' vehicle on Sunday, 18 October, in Croix-des-Bouquets, northeast of Port-au-Prince, the capital of the Caribbean nation.

The Salvadorans were returning from buying food when gunmen fired on their armoured vehicle and tried to blow it up. All four escaped the burning vehicle but disappeared in an area controlled by gangs. Salvadoran and US officials believe they survived, although their whereabouts remain unknown.