A group of security forces from Guatemala and El Salvador arrived in Haiti on Friday to reinforce a multinational mission tasked with tackling the country’s rampant gang violence, the Haitian National Police announced.
The 75 Guatemalan and eight Salvadoran troops were greeted on the tarmac of the international airport in the capital, Port-au-Prince, by a host of high-ranking officials, video released by the police shows.
The officials included the leader of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council Leslie Voltaire, Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, and the United States Ambassador to Haiti Dennis Hankins.
The troops will join the foreign police force known as the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission — a US and United Nations-backed initiative working with the Haitian police to restore security on the island amid an ongoing battle with the violent gangs.
In a statement, Normil Rameau, the acting director general of the National Police, said a “marriage” of the police with the people of Haiti remains “the most effective way to facilitate the total restoration of security and the establishment of lasting peace.”
Haiti has been ravaged by intensifying gang violence, which the government has struggled to contain in the aftermath of President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination in 2021. The island nation has also grappled with natural disasters and a worsening hunger crisis.
The UN Security Council approved the launch of the MSS in 2023 after repeated pleas for international support from Haiti’s government. The mission received the support of the United States, which offered to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and resources.
However, the mission has not been without trouble. It is helmed by hundreds of Kenyan police officers, but their deployment was repeatedly delayed before eventually arriving in June last year. The officers then did not receive pay for months after their arrival.
Violence has continued to plague the country despite the mission’s presence. In November, the US civil aviation regulator grounded all flights to Haiti for weeks, after three jets from US-based airlines were struck by bullets while flying over Port-au-Prince. In a separate incident in October, gangs targeted US Embassy vehicles with gunfire, later prompting the evacuation of 20 embassy staffers.
Godfrey Otunge, the commander of the Kenyan troops in the MSS, welcomed the Guatemalan and Salvadorian soldiers on Friday while praising their partnership with the Haitian government.
“We don’t take it for granted. We have a prime minister who is also our friend,” Otunge said, according to the police video.