Bukele says El Salvador launched military operation in Haiti to rescue four kidnapped Salvadorans

As of 6:11 p.m. ET, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026

El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said Wednesday that El Salvador had launched a military operation in Haiti to rescue four Salvadorans he said were being held hostage by gangs, and he warned gang leaders that worse was coming if the four were not returned alive.

"Today we launched a military operation to rescue them," Bukele said in a post on X at 2:58 p.m. ET, addressed to "the gang leaders and gang members who are holding our four compatriots hostage in Haiti." He said El Salvador had "a single objective: to bring our four compatriots home alive, without any harm." The post was written in Haitian Creole; quotations from it are GROKsiNEWS.com translations.

Who Bukele says the four are

Bukele said the four "are not combatants." He described them as "aviation technicians who are part of our mission in Haiti, within the framework of an international mission," and said El Salvador's mission there "has only pilots and technical staff, whose main job is to carry out medical evacuations and save lives, not make war."

He said the four were kidnapped "in a cowardly way" while they were returning after buying food at a supermarket in the area.

Warning to gang leaders

"Today's attack is nothing compared to what is coming if you do not return all four hostages alive," Bukele said. "And do not take our words as empty threats. We already finished with the gangs in El Salvador, and we can finish with you too."

He said there was "still time to avoid this," and that if the four were returned "alive, without any harm ... everything will go back to the way it was before the kidnapping." "The decision is in your hands," he said.

Bukele did not say where in Haiti the operation was taking place, which forces were involved or which gang he believed was holding the four. The post included a one-minute video.

Earlier reports

The Associated Press reported on Oct. 19 that gangs in Haiti had opened fire on an armored vehicle over the weekend, "leaving four soldiers from El Salvador unaccounted for in the first major attack since an international gang suppression force began operations" in the country. AP reported that the armed forces of El Salvador said in a statement that the four aviation technicians were returning to camp when their armored vehicle was attacked with explosives and set on fire, and that, according to the military, the four managed to flee the burning vehicle.

AP's report described the four as soldiers who were unaccounted for after the attack. Bukele's post on Wednesday described them as kidnapped hostages and "not combatants."

What is not known

As of 6:11 p.m. ET, it was not known whether the operation had freed any of the four, whether anyone had been killed or wounded in it, or what Bukele meant by "today's attack." Bukele did not name the four.

It was not known what role, if any, the U.N.-backed Gang Suppression Force or other international forces in Haiti played in the operation, or what Haiti's government position on it was. Details of the operation had not been independently confirmed by news agencies or other officials.