Bukele Says Bodies Handed Over in Haiti Are "Not Our Men"
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele has said that four bodies handed over to Salvadoran special forces in Haiti are "not our men," according to BBC News. He made the statement in a post on X, and he said the remains had been delivered by a non-governmental organisation, which had told officials they belonged to four Salvadoran air technicians.
The four missing men were air technicians serving with the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force, a force operating in Haiti. According to Bukele, they were in the country mainly to carry out medical evacuations and save lives, not to wage war. They were travelling back to their camp in an armoured vehicle when they were attacked in Croix-des-Bouquets, and Reuters reported that the four had leapt from the burning vehicle during the ambush. They then vanished.
Bukele said he had launched a military operation to rescue the four men, whom he described as kidnapped by gangs. The Associated Press reported his announcement on Wednesday. He later dispatched a Salvadoran military contingent to Haiti on Thursday. He said the sole purpose of the operation was to bring the four men back alive.
The trail of the search turned grim over the weekend. The New York Times, citing people close to the Salvadoran mission, reported that bodies found on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince on Saturday were thought to belong to the missing men. Bukele's account then diverged from that expectation. He said the remains delivered to an airport in Haiti included a child, and he said another body was wearing part of a uniform from an army that is not El Salvador's.
Bukele also said the delivered remains included identification cards and uniforms from other countries. He posted pictures of a Gang Suppression Force identification card and a national identity card issued by Chad, and he said one of the bodies belonged to a man of considerably greater height than the Salvadoran technicians.
The bodies and their identities remain the subject of Bukele's statements. The four men's whereabouts have not been established.
