One of Haiti's most powerful gangs has offered peace talks and disarmament, even as gunfire continues around Port-au-Prince and El Salvador's 2,000-strong force presses an offensive that has raised sharp questions about who is actually in command. The 400 Mawozo gang said on Friday that it had reached out to Haiti's state disarmament agency, three weeks after the ambush of four Salvadoran technicians that triggered the largest foreign military deployment in Haiti in years — and two weeks after the men vanished.
A gang offers talks — with conditions
The 400 Mawozo gang sent a three-page statement to The Associated Press on Friday saying it had contacted Haiti's National Commission for Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration in a push for "peace, stability and national reconciliation".
"Dialogue is not a capitulation," the gang wrote, calling talks "an act of patriotic responsibility to preserve human lives".
A spokesperson for the gang, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity, said 400 Mawozo was willing to engage in peace negotiations and that disarmament was "a process". Asked what the gang sought in exchange, the spokesperson said peace and the end of what it called "international interference". The gang said it believed it would be "beneficial" if all "relevant military forces" suspended operations in certain areas while dialogue opened, and said it planned to take part in a peaceful demonstration later in November "in order to lay the groundwork for a national dialogue and peace negotiation process".
The offer came on the same day Haiti's prime minister announced that another gang leader had been killed. Alix Didier Fils-Aimé wrote on X late on Friday that one gang leader had been killed, without naming him; a source who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity confirmed it was the leader of the Nan Boston gang, known as Mathias, which operates in Cité Soleil, a gang-controlled slum in the capital. "The gangs won't be getting any sleep!" the prime minister wrote.
What is not yet known: whether the disarmament offer is genuine or a tactic to buy time. The United Nations and human rights groups have accused 400 Mawozo of rape, killing and kidnapping — accusations the gang denies. An official with the disarmament commission did not immediately respond to the AP's request for comment, and El Salvador's government declined to comment when reached by the AP on Friday night.
The ambush that brought 2,000 troops
The deployment began with an attack on October 18. Four Salvadoran aviation technicians serving with the United Nations-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF) were travelling in an armoured vehicle in the Santo area of Croix-des-Bouquets, about 12 kilometres from Port-au-Prince, when they were attacked. The men, attached to a medical unit, were returning to base. They have not been found since.
El Salvador says the men were abducted. Haiti's government describes them as missing. The leader of 400 Mawozo, Wilson Joseph — better known as Lanmò Sanjou — told the AP that the Salvadorans are dead, and accused the rival Chèn Méchan gang of carrying out the ambush. None of those accounts has been independently confirmed, and no group has officially claimed responsibility for the attack.
President Nayib Bukele announced a rescue operation on October 21, saying the aim was to recover the men alive. Salvadoran troops began arriving the next day, and by October 28 the Salvadoran government confirmed that 2,000 military personnel had been deployed — more than the roughly 1,500 troops in the GSF itself, and more than Haiti's entire army. Bukele has said El Salvador is covering 90% of the costs, and that his forces would leave the same day the four men were handed over alive.
On November 2, Salvadoran armoured columns moved into the Plaine du Cul-de-Sac, the plain north-east of the capital where the technicians disappeared, in what was described as El Salvador's first large ground operation in Haiti. The units targeted Chèn Méchan and 400 Mawozo around Santo and Croix-des-Missions, according to EFE and Latin Times. Haitian media cited by EFE reported at least ten gang members killed; Latin Times put the figure at at least a dozen. Those tolls have not been independently confirmed.
A day later, Haitian police said they had found the burned remains of the truck used by the four technicians in the Santo neighbourhood. The men themselves were still missing. Police were conducting a joint operation with the GSF and Salvadoran troops when the vehicle was found.
Who is in command?
The scale of the deployment is not the only thing that has alarmed observers — it is the question of whose orders the troops follow. The UN Security Council created the Gang Suppression Force by resolution on September 30, 2026, to support Haiti's police against the gangs. But the UN says most of the Salvadoran personnel in Haiti are operating outside that framework.
"What is important is that any security operation be done within the framework of international human rights law, of international law, and that people's rights need to be respected as you conduct security operations," said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general.
Dujarric told reporters in New York that only about 200 of the Salvadoran soldiers fell under the GSF's jurisdiction. The AP reported that, until the October 18 attack, El Salvador had not signed an agreement with the UN, had no protection agreement with Haiti's government, and had no memorandum of understanding with the Dominican Republic to evacuate injured GSF personnel. Until the attack, the primary role of the roughly 200 Salvadorans already in Haiti was to assist medically.
Haiti's prime minister has sought to reassure the public. Speaking on November 3 alongside the Salvadoran commander and Haitian and GSF commanders, Fils-Aimé said the foreign forces were operating under Haitian authority. "The international forces did not come to replace the state. They came to support it, to reinforce our capacity," he said. He declined, however, to clarify who the Salvadoran troops reported to.
Background — the Gang Suppression Force: the GSF replaced the earlier Multinational Security Support mission and is authorised by the UN Security Council, with its mandate recently extended for six months. It has struggled with manpower: only about 1,500 personnel are on the ground against a Security Council-approved strength of 5,500. Contributors include El Salvador, Chad, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mongolia and Sri Lanka. Haiti's police also work alongside Vectus Global, the private security firm founded by former US Navy SEAL and Blackwater founder Erik Prince, according to the AP.
Bukele's public campaign
Bukele has run the operation in public, posting videos and messages on X almost daily. He has shared footage of heavily armed Salvadoran soldiers patrolling streets in Port-au-Prince and being greeted by locals, and wrote: "Gather your gangs so we can go fight with them."
On November 3, he posted a video he said showed Salvadoran military helicopters opening fire on gangs attacking GSF soldiers from Chad. "The gangs no longer have the upper hand," he wrote. In another post he told Haitians: "We are right there beside you."
The tone sharpened on Friday. After 400 Mawozo said in its letter that it was worried about social media posts "targeting" the home of its leader Joseph — including comments attributed to Bukele — the Salvadoran president responded to a post in which he was tagged and which allegedly showed Joseph's home. "Where is that house? Give us the exact address, and we'll destroy it," Bukele wrote on X.
Bukele has repeatedly said the mission is not an invasion and not a long-term occupation. "This is not an operation against the Haitian people nor an invasion of Haiti… Our only goal is to bring our four aviation technicians back home," he wrote in Haitian Creole in late October. He has also warned the gangs directly: "We have already finished with the gangs in El Salvador, and we can finish with you too."
A country already in crisis
The offensive lands in a country where the state has been losing ground for years. Haiti has had no elected government since 2021, when its last elected president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated. Gangs now control about 70% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and have expanded looting, kidnapping and sexual violence into the countryside, according to the AP.
The UN says more than 5,700 people were killed or wounded in Haiti from January to mid-September 2026. The violence has interrupted food and aid deliveries, leaving some 5.94 million Haitians facing acute hunger, according to an international food security assessment released last month. Doctors Without Borders said last week that 30 people, including women and children, had been injured in the eight days after the Salvadorans disappeared, by heavy gunfire and drone explosions, and warned that the arrival of more international forces was expected to make the situation worse.
"We fear that this armed conflict will claim even more victims, and displace even more people in the coming days, particularly with the arrival of additional international security forces," said Davina Hayles, the group's head of mission in Haiti.
Elections, already delayed for years, have been pushed back again. Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council announced last month that the first round of general elections would move from December 13, 2026 to July 18, 2027, with a second round on October 4, 2027. Fewer than one million people have registered to vote, out of some 6.5 million Haitians holding identity cards that would make them eligible; gang-controlled roads have made it difficult for officials to reach registration centres.
Timeline
| Date | Development |
|---|---|
| Sep 29, 2026 | El Salvador's Legislative Assembly extends the country's GSF involvement through October 2027. |
| Sep 30, 2026 | UN Security Council creates the Gang Suppression Force (Resolution 2793). |
| Oct 18, 2026 | Four Salvadoran GSF aviation technicians are attacked in Croix-des-Bouquets and go missing. |
| Oct 21, 2026 | Bukele announces a rescue operation to recover the four men alive. |
| Oct 22–28, 2026 | Salvadoran troops arrive in Haiti; the government confirms 2,000 personnel deployed by Oct 28. |
| Nov 1, 2026 | 400 Mawozo leader Wilson Joseph writes to the UN secretary-general asking for dialogue and mediation. |
| Nov 2, 2026 | Salvadoran armoured columns launch the first large ground offensive in the Plaine du Cul-de-Sac. |
| Nov 3, 2026 | Haitian police find the burned remains of the technicians' vehicle in Santo; PM Fils-Aimé says foreign forces operate under Haitian authority. |
| Nov 5, 2026 | UN says only about 200 Salvadoran soldiers fall under GSF jurisdiction; most operate outside it. |
| Nov 6, 2026 | 400 Mawozo offers peace talks and disarmament to the AP; PM announces a gang leader killed; Bukele threatens to destroy Joseph's home. |
Frequently asked questions
What we know
How many Salvadoran troops are in Haiti? More than 2,000, according to the Salvadoran government — a deployment that began on October 22 and was confirmed complete by October 28. It is larger than the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force's roughly 1,500 personnel.
What happened to the four technicians? They were attacked on October 18 while serving with the GSF's medical unit in Croix-des-Bouquets. Their burned vehicle was found on November 3. The men themselves have not been found.
Is the deployment part of the UN force? Mostly not, according to the UN. Only about 200 Salvadoran soldiers fall under the GSF's jurisdiction; the rest operate under a separate arrangement with Haiti's government, whose exact terms have not been made public.
What we don't know yet
Are the four technicians alive? El Salvador says they were abducted; Haiti's government says they are missing; the 400 Mawozo leader says they are dead. None of these accounts has been independently confirmed.
Is the gang's peace offer genuine? 400 Mawozo says it wants dialogue and disarmament in exchange for an end to "international interference". The disarmament commission has not responded publicly, and the offer comes as fighting continues — its sincerity will be tested by whether operations pause and talks begin.
Who commands the Salvadoran force? Haiti's prime minister says the force operates under Haitian authority but has declined to say who it reports to. No agreement with the UN was in place before the October 18 attack.
Key takeaways
- El Salvador has deployed more than 2,000 troops to Haiti after four of its GSF technicians went missing in an October 18 ambush — a force larger than the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force itself.
- 400 Mawozo, one of Haiti's most powerful gangs, has offered peace talks and disarmament, asking for an end to "international interference" — but fighting continues and the offer is untested.
- The UN says most Salvadoran troops operate outside the GSF framework, raising unresolved questions about command, accountability and international law.
- The four technicians remain missing; El Salvador says they were abducted, Haiti's government says they are missing, and a gang leader says they are dead — none of it confirmed.
- The crisis continues to deepen for civilians: 5,700 people killed or wounded this year, nearly 6 million facing acute hunger, and elections pushed back to July 2027.
What to watch next
Three things will decide where this goes. First, whether Haiti's disarmament commission responds to 400 Mawozo's offer — and whether the gang's promised demonstration later this month materialises. Second, whether Salvadoran operations pause or escalate in the Plaine du Cul-de-Sac, and whether the four missing technicians are found. And third, whether the UN, Haiti's government or El Salvador clarifies the legal basis for a force that, by the UN's own account, mostly operates outside the mission it was sent to support. Until then, the offensive and the peace offer are running in parallel — and only one of them can win.
