Guatemalan And El Salvador Security Forces Arrive In Haiti Overcoming Armed Gangs

President of Haiti's transitional presidential council, Leslie Voltaire/PHOTO via X @leslievoltaire

JAKARTA - The contingent of security forces from Guatemala and El Salvador arrived in the Haitian capital on Friday to strengthen the long-delayed UN support mission.

These troops are tasked with restoring security amid bloody conflict with armed gangs. The new forces consisted of 75 people from Guatemala and eight Salvadorans.

Haiti's transitional presidential council president, Leslie Voltaire, together with Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime and US Ambassador Dennis Hankins, welcomed the arrival of the troops at Port-au-Prince airport.

They have come to strengthen multinational forces in the fight against gangsters and firearms in the country, the government said.

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo in September promised to send 150 military police. El Salvador in August pledged 78 troops for medical evacuation operations and three helicopters.

Helicopters are urgently needed by Haitian security forces who face mountainous areas and highways filled with gang-controlled checkpoints.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said his party would be able to "improve" Haiti. He stressed that armed gangs in Haiti must be "missed".

The mission to eliminate armed gangs led by Kenya, which deployed nearly 400 police officers by mid-2024, is far from the promised 1,000 police. The police then joined 24 Jamaican personnel and two senior officers fromTEN.

However, the mission failed to prevent gangs from taking on new territory and carrying out several massacres as violence escalated dramatically in recent months. This condition has left thousands of people from leaving their homes.

Meanwhile, Haiti's national police have fired thousands of officers in recent years.

About 10 countries have jointly pledged 3,100 troops to Haiti, but so far only a few have been deployed.