El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said Saturday that human remains handed over by a nongovernmental organization in Haiti did not belong to four Salvadoran military aviation technicians missing after a gang ambush, contradicting reports by The New York Times.
“They are not our men,” Bukele wrote on the US social media platform X. He said the remains included a child, a man considerably taller than the missing technicians and a person wearing part of a foreign military uniform. He added that identification cards and military uniforms from other countries were also found.
The New York Times reported Saturday that four bodies believed to be those of the missing Salvadorans had been recovered on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, citing two people familiar with the international security mission. Another source, however, said the bodies were badly burned and required autopsies to confirm their identities.
Scott Reece, a former US State Department security official whose humanitarian organization, Hero Client Rescue, retrieved the remains, said they were transported to the international airport for handover to a Salvadoran military team.
“We were called as a neutral humanitarian medical team to go pick up the remains,” said Reece.
Search for missing technicians intensifies
The four technicians disappeared Oct. 18 after gunmen ambushed their armored vehicle in Croix-des-Bouquets, a gang-controlled area northeast of Port-au-Prince. Media reports attributed the attack to the Chen Mechan and 400 Mawozo gangs, although the circumstances of the disappearance remain unclear.
El Salvador deployed hundreds of additional personnel to support the search, while the US provided logistical assistance through a C-130 military aircraft, according to El Salvador.com.
The missing personnel served with the Gang Suppression Force (GSF), an international security mission backed by the UN Security Council. Their duties included transportation and medical evacuations.
Regional cooperation amid gang violence
Haiti’s gangs have killed thousands of people and forced more than 1.5 million from their homes. The GSF, which arrived in April, has struggled to reach its planned deployment of 5,500 personnel.
Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader said on X that he had discussed logistical and intelligence cooperation with Bukele regarding operations against criminal gangs in Haiti.
Abinader said his priority was securing the Dominican Republic’s border and protecting its citizens, adding that authorities had strengthened surveillance with additional military personnel, armored vehicles, drones and aircraft.
“My responsibility is to secure our border. We have reinforced surveillance with more military personnel, armored vehicles, drones and aircraft. We are prepared to respond firmly to any threat,” Abinader wrote on X.
He said criminal gangs had not approached the Dominican Republic’s border and that authorities had not observed a trend suggesting they were moving toward it.
“We maintain constant monitoring of the situation in Haiti to protect our territory and our people,” he added.
The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, has been closely monitoring the security situation as gang violence continues to destabilize its neighbor.
As of Saturday, the identities of the recovered remains had not been independently confirmed, and the whereabouts of the four Salvadoran technicians remained unknown.