Haiti: Salvadoran troops, drones and gangs after the ambush

Three weeks after the ambush, Haiti is no longer the same.

Drones in the sky, Salvadoran soldiers in the streets and a gang calling for peace.

Here’s what has changed since then and how things are going.

Today, El Salvador has about 2,500 soldiers in Haiti.

The UN force has about 1,500. On October 30, their first patrols set out and they establish their base near the U.S. embassy.

On November 2, they enter the Cul- de- Sac plain in armored vehicles, where the ambush took place.

At least 12 gang members are killed. That same day, the UN warns: most of those soldiers are acting outside their mission.

Haiti’s prime minister responds that they’re not here to replace the state and announces a joint strategy: police, army, UN force, and Salvadoran troops.

On November 5, in Cité Soleil, Mathias Antil, leader of the Boston gang, falls, in a joint operation using drones.

He is the first gang leader killed in a military operation since 2024.

Though the police and the press don't tell the same story about how he died.

The prime minister celebrates it. Now, he says, the gangs won't be able to sleep.

The next day, 400 Mawozo, one of the most powerful gangs, gets in touch with the government's Disarmament Commission.

It says it's willing to negotiate and hand over its weapons if the foreign intervention ends.

Bukele replies on social media: Give them the exact address of their leader's house and they'll destroy it.

In the early hours of Sunday the 8th, police drones, with Salvadoran support, destroy that house.

According to sources at the Miami Herald, as many as twenty armed men were killed.

Their leader, Wilson Joseph, was not inside.

And human rights defenders in Haiti are already warning of the risk drones pose to civilians.

Outside Haiti, the operation is also shifting the balance.

The Dominican Republic is sending ten thousand soldiers to its border to protect its territory, its government says.

Donald Trump tells Bukele to do whatever he has to do, but Marco Rubio asks him to coordinate with the UN force to avoid friendly fire.

And in El Salvador, nearly nine out of ten people support the mission, according to polls.

Meanwhile, the UN force remains below a third of its intended size, with a mandate only until March.

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will begin sending troops in October.

And the elections are postponed again, this time until July 2027.

And the four technicians? They still haven't been found.

The four bodies they handed over days later weren't them.

Bukele is keeping his promise: if they're returned, his troops will leave immediately.

What's next? On November 16, Haiti's prime minister travels to El Salvador to decide those soldiers' future.

In three weeks, the board changed. A leader taken out, a gang asking to negotiate and a foreign army no one knows when will leave.

Should the Salvadoran soldiers stay in Haiti even if the four technicians are found?

I'll read your comments.