Luis Abinader Joins Forces With Nayib Bukele to Hunt Haiti's Gangs — and Warns Them: "If They Come Near the Border, They Will Pay"
Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader has thrown his country's weight behind El Salvador's military operation in Haiti, confirming on Saturday that he spoke directly with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele about logistical and intelligence support to find four Salvadoran soldiers kidnapped by armed gangs.
"Conversé con el presidente de El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, sobre la colaboración logística y de inteligencia para las operaciones contra las bandas criminales en Haití," Abinader wrote on X, announcing a coordination that puts the two Caribbean neighbours on the same side of the most dangerous manhunt in the region.
The four soldiers, aviation technicians attached to the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF), were ambushed last Sunday in the Santo area of Croix-des-Bouquets, in metropolitan Port-au-Prince, when armed men attacked their armoured vehicle. Bukele ordered a military rescue operation in the middle of the week and has since sent around 450 additional troops to Haiti to bring them back alive.
"We are prepared — planes, armoured vehicles and drones"
Abinader said the two governments are in "un seguimiento permanente a lo que ocurre en el vecino país" — permanent monitoring of what happens in the neighbouring country — and stressed that his responsibility "es asegurar nuestra frontera y proteger a nuestra gente."
The Dominican president confirmed his government is in direct communication with the GSF and has reinforced the border with Haiti, especially the southern stretch closest to gang-controlled territory, with more personnel, armoured vehicles and equipment.
"Nosotros estamos preparados, tenemos aviones sobrevolando la frontera, tenemos blindados cerca y tenemos también drones," Abinader told reporters.
The warning to the gangs was blunt. The Dominican Republic was the first country to formally declare Haiti's armed gangs terrorist organisations, and Abinader said his security forces will treat them as such if they approach the border: "esos terroristas saben que si se acercan la van a pasar muy mal."
Abinader added that, so far, authorities have detected no sign of a wave of Haitian citizens trying to cross the border because of the crisis.
A disputed set of bodies — and a growing international force
The coordination comes as Bukele publicly rejected claims that four bodies delivered in Haiti belonged to his missing soldiers, contradicting a New York Times report that suggested the badly burned remains found on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince were likely the technicians.
Bukele said the remains included those of a child, a man considerably taller than his aviation technicians, and a person wearing part of a uniform from an army that is not El Salvador's. Identification cards and military uniforms from other countries were also found among the remains, including a national identity card from Chad. He backed the claim with two photographs: one of a GSF member's card with a non-Hispanic name, and one of a Chadian citizen's identity document.
The GSF, authorised a year ago by the UN Security Council to fight Haiti's armed gangs, has more than 1,000 soldiers from El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Chad, commanded by Mongolian Major General Edernebat Batsuuri. Its mandate was renewed for six months on September 29.
The Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, where gangs control much of Port-au-Prince and the security crisis has made it impossible to hold elections. Abinader's move turns a bilateral rescue mission into a regional one — with Santo Domingo now providing the logistics and intelligence backbone from the other side of the border.
Reporting based on EFE, El Día, N Digital, Diario Libre and AlMomento.