Dominican president says he backs Bukele and Salvadoran troops in Haiti

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The president of the Dominican Republic said Tuesday that his government is collaborating with El Salvador’s president and providing him with logistics and intelligence as some 2,500 troops from the Central American country battle violent gangs in Haiti.

Dominican President Luis Abinader spoke as the operations of the recently deployed Salvadoran troops to Haiti draw scrutiny because they are largely operating outside the framework of a U.N.-backed, multinational gang suppression force.

Abinader called on the gang suppression force to coordinate its actions with El Salvador’s troops to “decisively support the Salvadoran military and the attitude of President Bukele.”

Igor Rugwiza, spokesperson for the gang suppression force, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that it is coordinating closely with Haitian authorities and relevant international partners “in support of shared security objectives.”

“The (force) considers effective coordination and deconfliction among all security actors operating in Haiti to be essential to achieving sustainable security outcomes,” he said in a statement.

Rugwiza added that any activity undertaken by the force “is conducted in accordance with its mandate, established command and control arrangements, the rules of engagement, and applicable human rights law obligations.”

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele recently celebrated an attack carried out by Haitian police and Salvadoran troops that destroyed the home of Wilson Joseph, best known as Lanmò San Jou and leader of the 400 Mawozo gang. He was not killed in Sunday’s attack.

“We kept our promise,” Bukele wrote on X Tuesday, referring to the attack on the home and the gang’s headquarters. “Most of them ran away without even trying to fight. What cowards!”

Abinader pledged to keep helping Bukele and noted that El Salvador’s defense minister speaks almost daily with his counterpart in the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile, Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé is scheduled to 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 spokesperson for Abinader declined to provide details on the type of assistance that the Dominican Republic has provided to El Salvador.

The Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Abinader has pledged to keep monitoring the shared border via drones, soldiers and armored vehicles and respond to any actions that might threaten the stability of his country.

El Salvador deployed the troops after four aviation technicians were attacked Oct. 18 deep in gang-controlled territory. They remain missing.

Sophie Rutenbar, senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said Tuesday during a virtual conference that Haiti is “extremely crowded” with security forces.

“We don’t know very much about the coordination mechanisms right now,” she said. “It’s not a great situation.”

Haitian police and soldiers are fighting gangs alongside the gang suppression force and the private security firm founded by former U.S. Navy SEAL and Blackwater founder Erik Prince. The Salvadoran troops are now on the ground as well.

“These security forces are coming from such different points of view,” she said. “It’s extremely complex.”

She said that Haitian sentiment is “largely positive” toward Salvadoran troops in Haiti.

“It’s very appealing to have someone come in and save you after things have been bad for so long,” she said.

But experts note that civilians have been killed in attacks targeting gangs and question how long El Salvador can keep up its current pace.

“What they’re doing is a very expensive proposition,” she said, noting that if El Salvador's troops were to work with the gang suppression force, they would benefit from additional resources.

“Bukele is being hailed as a savior right now,” she said. “Reality will probably hit at some point. It’s a challenging thing what they’re doing.”

Wolf Pamphile, founder and CEO of Haiti Policy House, a U.S.-based think tank, said during Tuesday’s conference that 400 Mawozo remains the biggest challenge to Haiti’s government and the gang suppression force.

He said that as promising as El Salvador’s actions in Haiti seem to be, he believes the Central American troops may have to work with the gang suppression force in the long term.

“It would have been better if the Haitian government steered Salvadoran soldiers within a structure that already exists,” he said. “It’s hard to pull that back.”

Associated Press reporter Martín Adames in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, contributed.