Haitian leader to visit El Salvador to discuss future of Salvadoran troops' offensive in Haiti

Haiti's prime minister will meet with El Salvador's government next week in a visit to the Central American nation to discuss the future of Salvadoran troops in Haiti, a Salvadoran government official confirmed to The Associated Press on Monday.

The source spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. It was not clear if Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé would meet directly with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.

The visit comes as Bukele has ramped up his offensive against Haiti's gangs with at least 2,500 Salvadoran forces now operating in Haiti.

The offensive began in October after four Salvadoran aviation technicians went missing in an attack by gangs. Since, Bukele has sought to project an image as a crusader on crime coming to vanquish Haitian gangs, which control whole parts of Haiti’s territory and are deeply entwined with the country’s political elite.

On Sunday night, Haitian police and Salvadoran soldiers destroyed a home of Wilson Joseph, the leader of 400 Mawozo, one of Haiti’s most powerful gangs. The operation was first reported by the Miami Herald and confirmed by Damian Merlo, a lobbyist working for El Salvador's government. The offensive did not kill the leader, better known as Lanmò San Jou, and Haitian gang leaders regularly cycle between a number of houses.

Last Friday, two days before the operation, Bukele posted on the social media platform X asking for the location of Joseph’s house in Haitian Creole.

“Give us the exact address, and we’ll destroy it,” he wrote. A number of accounts responded with what appear to be direct coordinates.

Joseph previously told the AP that the four Salvadorans are dead and were attacked in the territory of another gang, Chen Mechan. The Salvadoran government has maintained they are alive.

Salvadoran troops are operating in Haiti under an agreement signed between the two governments, Merlo said.

He would not provide details on exactly what rights were granted to Salvadoran forces in Haiti. But he said the troops were operating under either a status of forces agreement, which establishes the legal rights and responsibilities of a foreign military working in another country, or a memorandum of understanding, which establishes military cooperation more broadly.

Haiti’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

So far, details of operations by Salvadoran forces in Haiti have been murky, fueling concerns over the legality of Salvadoran operations in Haiti, how long the offensive will last and if the move by Bukele could escalate violence in the Caribbean nation.

Fils-Aimé responded to mounting scrutiny last week, saying Salvadoran forces were with the government in Haiti to support the fight against the gangs.

Bukele gained international fame for his contentious war on El Salvador’s gangs, which sharply decreased homicide rates, but fueled allegations of mass human rights abuses.

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Janetsky reported from Mexico City. Associated Press journalist Evens Sanon contributed to this report from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

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This story corrects the spelling of Haitian gang. The correct spelling is 400 Mawozo, not 400 Mawoza.