By: Staff Writer
November 10, 2026
One of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders confirmed to The Associated Press last week that he wrote the U.N. Secretary General and requested that the organization send a delegation to Haiti for dialogue and mediation amid fears that Salvadoran troops deployed after the disappearance of four aviation technicians from that country could escalate violence.
Wilson Joseph, the leader of the gang known as 400 Mawozo, asked UN Secretary-General António Guterres to send a delegation for dialogue and mediation. The UN confirmed receiving the unusual letter, stressing that receipt implied neither recognition nor endorsement. The missive warns that President Nayib Bukele’s “vengeful remarks, expectations, and threats” could lead to “a logic of reprisals, of which the Haitian people would be the first victims.” The gang had issued a similar appeal in August, and an earlier truce reportedly lasted only days.
Gangs control most of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and have terrorized Haitians for years as they fight over territory and resources.
The UN Security Council -backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF) was set up to take on the gangs, protect vital infrastructure and get humanitarian aid moving.
The four Salvadoran soldiers, who were serving with the force, disappeared during an attack by armed groups on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince on 18 October.
Media reports said the 2,000 troops El Salvador sent at the end of October are on a mission to rescue them.
Vanda Felbab-Brown, a Haiti security expert from the Brookings Institution in Washington, said: “Right now, the conditions in Haiti are so awfulthat there’s a huge craving for a strongman who [can] deliver Haiti from the gangs.People are desperate and they want whoever will stop the desperation.”
In recent days a large number of pro-Bukele allies and boosters with huge social media followings have gone online to hail his Haiti intervention.
“He’s single-handedly going to clean up the entire Caribbean. I wish more political leaders had balls like this,” claimed one cheerleader, alongside images of rifle-toting Salvadoran soldiers on the streets of Port-au-Prince.
Others posted footage of crowds of Haitians celebrating the troops’ arrival, although there have been reports of protests against the deployment.
There are also widespread concerns over Bukele’s foreign foray – the first the region has seen in many years, outside a UN mission – with mystery shrouding its true objectives. There are fears it could fuel the already devastating levels of bloodshed and aggravate a humanitarian crisis in which more than 1.5 million citizens have been forced to flee their homes.