Some Haitians have cheered on El Salvadorian troops deployed to fight gangs which have almost taken control of the Haitian capital. El Salvador’s Bukele promised to wipe out the gangs after four of its citizens were kidnapped.
Published On 8 Nov 20268 Nov 2026
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El Salvador troops to support rescue mission to find four UN-backed soldiers who disappeared after ambush.
Published On 29 Oct 202629 Oct 2026
El Salvador plans to send more than 2,000 soldiers to Haiti to search for four missing Salvadoran aviation technicians and fight armed gangs, as the Caribbean country postpones its elections again.
El Salvador‘s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the deployment on Wednesday, the same day Haiti’s electoral authorities moved the first round of presidential and parliamentary elections from December 13 to July 18, 2027.
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The delay is another setback to restoring elected government in a country where gang violence has made preparations for voting dangerous.
The four Salvadorans disappeared on October 18 after armed men ambushed their vehicle in Croix-des-Bouquets, east of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
They were serving with an international security mission supporting Haitian police.
President Nayib Bukele has already sent troops to help find them.
In an October 21 post on X, written in Haitian Creole, he threatened to destroy Haiti’s gangs if they did not release the missing personnel.
Bukele spoke by telephone with Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime on Wednesday.
Fils-Aime’s office said they had agreed to strengthen cooperation on rescue efforts and security operations.
It remains unclear whether the additional Salvadoran troops will join the United Nations-backed Gang Suppression Force, a multinational mission assisting Haitian police against gangs, or operate separately.
Foreign troops have served in Haiti under UN-backed security arrangements since 2024, partly to create safer conditions for elections.
Haiti’s nine-member Provisional Electoral Council, which organises elections, also scheduled a second round of voting and local polls for October 4, 2027.
It extended deadlines for candidates to register and introduced online voter registration.
Fewer than 900,000 people had registered by Wednesday, the Miami Herald reported, out of 6.5 million Haitians holding the identification cards needed to enrol.
Gang-controlled roads make it difficult to reach registration centres, while violence has forced many people from their homes.
Haiti has held no elections since 2016 and its last president, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated in 2021. Successive transitional authorities have delayed a return to voting, citing insecurity.
An international food security assessment released on Wednesday found that 5.94 million Haitians face acute hunger, including 1.8 million in emergency conditions, as violence disrupts farming and food deliveries.
The number facing acute hunger is projected to rise to 6.35 million by mid-2027.
President Laura Fernandez inaugurated the $35m mega-prison built to house up to 5,100 inmates near San Jose.
Published On 28 Oct 202628 Oct 2026
A newly opened maximum-security mega-prison in Costa Rica has received its first batch of inmates. The prison was built with the help of the Salvadoran government on the outskirts of the capital, San Jose, the country’s Justice Ministry announced.
The Costa Rican Justice Ministry shared images on Tuesday of 123 inmates dressed in orange, seated with their heads shaved and bowed and their hands behind their necks.
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“Costa Rica is writing a new chapter in its penitentiary history,” Justice Minister Gabriel Aguilar said in a statement.
The new prison is called the High-Containment Center Against Organized Crime (CACCO) and constitutes a symbol of a new “tough on crime” approach championed by President Laura Fernandez’s administration. It has a capacity for 5,100 inmates.
The CACCO was built with the help of the Salvadoran government on the outskirts of Costa Rica’s capital, San Jose, at a cost of $35m. Fernandez inaugurated it on October 15.
“CACCO is a monument to national security, a forceful response to organized crime, and a guarantee that the state will exercise its authority without hesitation,” the statement added.
The new facility has a capacity equivalent to 20 percent of the country’s prison population and “will also help reduce overcrowding in the prison system”, according to Aguilar.
Costa Rica, long regarded as one of the safest countries in Latin America, has in recent years experienced a sharp rise in violence linked to drug trafficking and organised crime. It witnessed a record-setting 905 homicides in 2023, followed by 876 in 2024 and 873 in 2025.
Authorities attribute most killings to disputes between criminal groups over drug trafficking routes and markets.
Right-wing leaders in other Latin American countries have also sought to replicate the mega-prison model.