El Salvador troops will keep searching in Haiti

Key Takeaways

The deployment	On Wednesday, Oct. 28, the foreign ministry said El Salvador would continue an operational deployment of more than 2,000 soldiers to rescue four aviation technicians.
The ambush	The four disappeared on Sunday, Oct. 18, after an attack on their armored vehicle in Croix-des-Bouquets. No gang has claimed responsibility, the BBC reported.
The bodies	President Nayib Bukele said remains handed to Salvadoran forces were "not our men," the BBC reported on Sunday, Oct. 25.
The election	Haiti's electoral council set the first round of voting for Sunday, July 18, 2027, moving it from Sunday, Dec. 13, 2026.

El Salvador's foreign ministry said on Wednesday, Oct. 28, that El Salvador troops will continue a deployment of more than 2,000 soldiers in Haiti to rescue four aviation technicians missing since Sunday, Oct. 18. President Nayib Bukele gave that message by phone to Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, Diario El Mundo's report on the ministry statement said.

Where El Salvador troops are searching

El Salvador's foreign ministry said in that Wednesday, Oct. 28 statement, posted on X and quoted by Diario El Mundo and El Salvador.com, that the country would continue an operational deployment of more than 2,000 soldiers to rescue the four Salvadoran aviation technicians. The ministry called it a large-scale operation backed by various countries and international organizations. Bukele also reaffirmed El Salvador's willingness to keep helping security work against gangs in Haiti, and he thanked Haitian residents and local security forces.

The BBC said El Salvador had deployed more than 2,000 soldiers. DPA said Bukele had sent some 2,000. Al Jazeera, citing AFP and Reuters, said El Salvador plans to send more than 2,000. The ministry's wording was that the deployment will continue. It did not say that all of them arrived on Wednesday, Oct. 28.

Earlier that day, El Salvador.com reported that the EFE news agency, citing official sources in Haitian media, had put the contingent at about 1,300 after 690 soldiers arrived on Tuesday, Oct. 27. The ministry did not say how many landed after that report, or where they are posted. On Sunday, Oct. 25, the BBC said the Haitian paper Le Nouvelliste had put the number near 450. The ministry gave no end date for the search.

Haiti's government, as quoted by Diario El Mundo, said Bukele and Fils-Aimé reaffirmed cooperation inside the Gang Suppression Force, a multinational mission backing Haitian police, and that Haiti wants cooperation that respects the authority of the Haitian state. Al Jazeera reported that it was still unclear whether the additional Salvadoran soldiers would join that force or work beside it. El Salvador.com, citing earlier EFE reporting, said the extra deployment sat outside the mandate the UN Security Council set for the force.

Four technicians missing since Oct. 18

The four men disappeared on Sunday, Oct. 18, after armed men ambushed their armored vehicle in Croix-des-Bouquets, east of Port-au-Prince, Al Jazeera and the BBC reported. They were aviation technicians with the Gang Suppression Force. The Salvadoran ministry also called them soldiers. No gang has claimed the attack, the BBC reported on Thursday, Oct. 29.

Bukele wrote on X on Wednesday, Oct. 21, in Haitian Creole, that he would destroy Haiti's gangs if they did not release the missing personnel, Al Jazeera reported. The BBC, in a report published Thursday, Oct. 22, quoted him saying the men were there to "carry out medical evacuations and save lives, not to wage war," and that if all four came back alive, "everything will go back to how it was before the kidnapping."

On Sunday, Oct. 25, the BBC reported his account of remains handed to Salvadoran forces. He said they were "not our men," including one corpse the BBC said he described as a child's and another in another country's uniform. He said one man was of "considerably greater height than that of our air technicians," and described another as someone "who was wearing part of a uniform from an army that is not ours." The BBC said the New York Times, citing people close to the mission, had earlier thought the bodies might be the missing men. Their location was still unconfirmed on Wednesday, Oct. 28, El Salvador.com reported.

Haiti's vote moves to July 2027

On the same Wednesday, Oct. 28, Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council published an updated calendar. The council's calendar sets the first round of the presidential and legislative elections, plus a vote on constitutional changes, for Sunday, July 18, 2027. A second round, including local elections, is set for Monday, Oct. 4, 2027. Final results for local offices are dated Saturday, Oct. 23, 2027.

The council's earlier notice, dated Monday, July 27, 2026, had set the first round for Sunday, Dec. 13, 2026, and the second round for Sunday, Feb. 21, 2027. The Oct. 28 notice says the new dates follow a decree of Tuesday, Oct. 6, after talks with security forces, parties, civil society, business and the government. It does not say the security situation now allows a vote.

Haiti has not held elections since 2016, the BBC and Al Jazeera reported. President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated on Wednesday, July 7, 2021. Xinhua reported that a transitional presidential council held power from April 2024 until Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, when a Council of Ministers led by Fils-Aimé took over. From Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, to Friday, Sept. 11, more than 5,700 people were killed or injured by gangs or in operations against them, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said, the BBC reported on Friday, Oct. 2. The BBC's Oct. 29 story said more than 5,700 people were killed, a narrower claim than Türk's killed-or-injured count.

It is still unknown whether any of the four are alive, whether any handed-over remains were theirs, how many soldiers arrived after Tuesday, Oct. 27, and whether they serve under the Gang Suppression Force. The ministry set no end date.