El Salvador president says bodies found in Haiti are not those of hostages

Four bodies handed over to special forces on a mission to Haiti to recover Salvadoran hostages are "not our men", El Salvador's president has remarked.

Key points

• Haiti has been ravaged by gang violence for years, but the situation has worsened in the political vacuum that followed the assassination of its president in 2021.
• The hostages had been part of the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF).
• Bukele previously remarked the Salvadoran military operation in Haiti had the sole purpose of returning the four men alive.
• He posted pictures showing the ID card of a GSF member and a corresponding national ID card from Chad in Africa.
• He had dispatched a military contingent, reportedly of hundreds of soldiers, on Thursday after the four men vanished after being ambushed by "heavily armed criminal groups".

Nayib Bukele remarked a nongovernmental organisation delivered the human remains to one of Haiti's airports claiming they were four El Salvadoran air technicians, but that one of the corpses was a child's and another was wearing a different country's army uniform.

For context, the hostages had been part of the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF). It is tasked with tackling worsening gang violence in Haiti.

In practice, the men had been travelling back to their camp in an armoured vehicle when they were attacked in an area of the Caribbean island nation controlled by armed groups called Croix-des-Bouquets. No gang has so far asserted responsibility.

Bukele previously remarked the Salvadoran military operation in Haiti had the sole purpose of returning the four men alive. Approximately 450 soldiers had so far been deployed, according to Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste.

Bukele remarked the bodies the mission had received included one of a man of "considerably greater height than that of our air technicians", a person "who was wearing part of a uniform from an army that is not ours", and that among the remains were identification cards and uniforms from other countries.

Bukele's comments poured skepticism on an earlier report in the New York Times, citing individuals close to the Salvadoran mission, that the bodies identified on the outskirts of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, on Saturday were thought to belong to the missing men.

For context, the newspaper documented that the bodies delivered to the military contingent had been badly burned, meaning a medical examination would be required to identify them.

It cited one unnamed source briefed on the situation as saying the ID posted by Bukele in fact belonged to a soldier who had lost it when he had been injured.

In practice, the multinational force dispatched to quell the violence and push back the armed gangs has struggled to penetrate areas where they hold sway.

More than 5, 700 individuals have been killed or injured by gangs or during operations against them between 1 January and 11 September this year, the UN stated at the start of October.

Bukele remarked the four GSF members had primarily been there to "carry out medical evacuations and save lives, not to wage war".

When they were abducted, helicopters were deployed and multiple attempts were created to reach the location, but these efforts were hampered by fighting in the area, the Salvadoran armed forces stated.

In short, el Salvador president says bodies found in Haiti are not those of is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.