SAN SALVADOR.- El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele on Saturday denied a Haitian group's claim that Salvadoran troops bombed civilian neighborhoods in Haiti, saying his mission does not even have bombs and that its attack helicopters had not yet arrived on the dates cited in the complaint.
The accusation came in a letter dated October 28 from the United Nations Association-Haiti (UNA-Haiti), a diaspora advocacy group led by Harvey Dupiton, addressed to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. The letter alleged that, starting on October 22, Salvadoran forces attacked civilian areas in Croix-des-Bouquets and nearby Canaan, near Port-au-Prince, with airstrikes, armed helicopters and heavy weapons.
Bukele answered on X on November 1, posting a screenshot of the letter and rejecting it point by point. "Bombs? Our mission doesn't even have bombs at its disposal. Airstrikes? Armed helicopter attacks? Our attack helicopters did not arrive in Haiti until October 29," he wrote, adding that their arrival was widely covered by media, with numerous videos and social media posts documenting it, and that, as of Saturday, they had "not flown a single mission."
The mission behind the dispute
More than 2,000 Salvadoran troops are in Port-au-Prince as part of the United Nations-backed Gang Suppression Force, searching for four Salvadoran soldiers who disappeared on October 18 after armed gangs ambushed the armored vehicle in which they were returning to their base outside the Haitian capital. On Friday, Salvadoran troops carried out their first patrols through the streets of Port-au-Prince in that search operation.
Bukele also attacked the credibility of the groups behind the complaint, calling them "lobbying firms for criminals and cartels, disguised as humanitarian organizations" that "lie with total impunity" while wielding considerable influence over international bodies. UNA-Haiti is a diaspora advocacy group and does not formally belong to the United Nations, a distinction noted in the coverage of the dispute.
The claims and the denial remain unverified by an independent investigation: the letter alleges civilian attacks, Bukele denies them and points to the timeline of his helicopters' arrival, and no authority cited in the reports published on November 1 had confirmed either version with on-the-ground evidence. Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders warned of rising violence in Port-au-Prince, with women and children among the wounded arriving at its hospitals, and clashes intensified after the soldiers' disappearance, with drone explosions reported in the northeast of the city.
Sources: Noticias SIN, November 1, 2026; El Seis, November 1, 2026; Tiempo, November 1, 2026; El Diario del Sur, November 1, 2026.