Haitians welcome deployment of Salvadoran troops as gang violence rages on

November 15, 2026 Village Reporter

Haitians have welcomed the deployment of Salvadoran troops to the country to help in the fight against gang violence.

They are guarding the main stadium in the capital, Port-au-Prince after Haitian security forces regained control of it on Thursday following two years under gang control.

El Salvador president, Nayib Bukele, said it will serve as an operational base for the around 2,000 soldiers sent to Haiti.

“The gangs drove me out of my home. Since then, I’ve been wandering from one place to another. With Bukele’s arrival, I feel a certain pride at the thought of regaining my freedom,” said a displaced man.

Bukele said his soldiers will launch an offensive from the stadium and urged gang members to abandon the area.

“Those who choose to stay and fight our forces will have to face the consequences,” he added in a post on X written in Haitian Creole.

He gained attention for bringing Salvadoran gangs to heel but the authoritarian leader has been accused of human rights violations.

The Salvadoran president first ordered the deployment of troops to Haiti to rescue four of the country’s soldiers who went missing after an ambush in Port-au-Prince.

Gangs expanded their control over large swathes of the city following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

Experts say many Haitians welcome the idea of a Bukele-style hardline crackdown as conditions are so awful that people are desperate to be delivered from the gangs.

Port-au-Prince resident, Venet Demogene, said Haiti is their home and people have no other country to go to.

“We must be able to live here. We are Haitians, we’re in our own home. We are not at war with another country,” he said.

“If Bukele wishes, Jesus will speak to his heart and he will give us back our country,” he added.

The Salvadoran troops are operating outside the official framework of the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force.

In 2024, the 10,000-capacity stadium fell into the hands of gangs that control much of the country, the poorest in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The violence forced the Haitian national football team to play World Cup qualifying matches in Curacao rather than at home.