Security forces from Guatemala and El Salvador arrived in Haiti on Friday to bolster a long-delayed United Nations-backed mission aimed at restoring order amid escalating gang violence.
The deployment includes 75 Guatemalan military police and eight Salvadoran personnel, according to a communications officer for the Multinational Security Support Force.
Haiti’s transitional presidential council president, Leslie Voltaire, Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, and U.S. Ambassador Dennis Hankins welcomed the troops at Port-au-Prince’s airport, Haiti’s interim government announced via social media.
“They have come to reinforce the Multinational Force in the fight against gangsters and guns in the country,” the government stated.
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo had pledged in September to send 150 military police, fulfilling a commitment made to the U.N. three months earlier. El Salvador, which promised 78 soldiers for medical evacuation operations and three helicopters in August, has now begun its deployment.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, known for his controversial crackdown on organized crime and the construction of a massive “mega-prison,” has said he could “fix” Haiti’s security crisis and that gangs must be “obliterated.”
The mission is led by Kenya, which deployed nearly 400 police officers in mid-2024, falling short of its pledge of 1,000 personnel. Additional support includes 24 Jamaican officers and two senior officials from Belize.
Despite these deployments, the mission has struggled to curb the escalating violence. Armed gangs have expanded their control, claiming new territories and committing massacres. Violence surged in late 2024, displacing thousands more Haitians.
Haiti’s national police force, already weakened by the loss of thousands of officers in recent years, continues to grapple with significant challenges.
While approximately 10 nations have collectively pledged over 3,100 troops for the mission, only a fraction have been deployed so far.
