El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, says his country’s forces have struck a property in Haiti that he identified as the home of a gang leader and the headquarters of the 400 Mawozo armed group.
Bukele made the claim on 10 November alongside a video showing helicopters firing on a property. The footage also shows people fleeing the area. It does not establish who those people were, and the identity of the site and the full extent of the damage have not been independently confirmed.
The property has been identified as being in Croix-des-Bouquets, east of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, where 400 Mawozo operates. Bukele did not give a date for the strike in his announcement or provide a casualty figure. No death toll has been independently established, and it is not known from his statement whether anyone was killed or injured.
A major gang and a wider security crisis
The president named the alleged target as the home of Wilson Joseph, also known as Lanmò San Jou. The United Nations Security Council identifies Joseph as the leader of 400 Mawozo and added him to its Haiti sanctions list in December 2023.
In its explanation of the listing, the council described the group as active in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, particularly Croix-des-Bouquets. It said the gang was involved in arms and ammunition trafficking and linked Joseph to serious abuses. Those statements are the council’s basis for its sanctions; they do not establish the outcome of a criminal trial.
The UN summary also says Joseph was implicated in the kidnapping of 17 foreign missionaries and family members in Haiti in 2021. The abducted group included children. The earlier case is separate from the latest reported strike.
Haiti has endured years of severe gang violence, with armed groups controlling large parts of the capital. The UN reported that more than 5,700 people were killed or injured between January and mid-September this year amid gang violence and operations against the groups.
Why Salvadoran troops are in Haiti
El Salvador sent more than 2,000 military personnel to Haiti after four Salvadoran aviation technicians disappeared during an armed attack on 18 October. The UN said the four had been serving with the internationally backed Gang Suppression Force. Their fate remains unclear.
The additional deployment is not the same thing as the UN-backed force. A UN spokesperson said the vast majority of the recently deployed Salvadoran personnel were not serving under that force. This distinction matters because it affects which mandate and monitoring arrangements apply to their operations.
Haiti’s prime minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, has welcomed the Salvadoran forces’ commitment to fighting gangs. He has said Haiti, El Salvador and the international force are working together.
Before the strike was announced, the UN confirmed receiving a letter signed by Joseph asking for dialogue with international forces. A spokesperson said receipt of the letter did not amount to an endorsement of its contents or recognition of its author.
Calls for transparency and civilian protection
Amnesty International has urged Haiti and El Salvador to make public the agreement governing the deployment. It has also called on the governments to explain how the forces are supervised, which rules govern their use of force and how people can report possible violations without fear of reprisals.
The organisation has called for operations to comply with international human rights law and for allegations of violations to be investigated promptly, independently and impartially. It has stressed the need to protect civilians, prevent forced displacement and preserve access to food and medical care.
Those appeals address the wider deployment and should not be taken as a finding that a violation occurred in this particular strike. The president’s announcement leaves important questions about the operation and its effects unanswered.
