From Santo Domingo, top Salvadoran head of state Nayib Bukele delivered public reassurances on Thursday that his nation’s ongoing cross-border operation in Haiti to track down four Salvadoran military service members who disappeared following a violent gang ambush does not constitute an act of invasion, pushing back against potential misperceptions of the mission’s motives. In a formal statement posted to his official X social media account, Bukele emphasized that El Salvador holds zero ambitions to subjugate the Haitian populace or seize control of the Caribbean nation’s natural resources, framing the entire deployment as a narrowly targeted humanitarian and personnel recovery effort. The president added that the full mobilization of Salvadoran service members and supporting hardware bound for the Haiti operation is nearly finalized, stressing that no element of the mission is designed to target or harm ordinary Haitian civilians. “We are not a global superpower. We harbor no desire to occupy and dominate the Haitian people, nor do we have any intention of laying claim to Haiti’s natural wealth,” Bukele stated explicitly in his social media address. The operation has received critical logistical backing from the neighboring Dominican Republic, which facilitated the transit of heavy military equipment staged for onward transport to Haitian territory. A National Airlines-operated Boeing 747-400 heavy cargo jet departed El Salvador earlier this week, touching down at Santo Domingo’s Las Américas International Airport in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Independent flight tracking and local media reports suggest the cargo flight, registered under call sign NCR880, carried a shipment of five Salvadoran Air Force MD500 and MD530 light utility helicopters when it departed San Salvador at 12:11 a.m. local time on Wednesday. At the time of reporting, neither Dominican Republic officials nor Salvadoran government representatives have issued formal public confirmation of the exact contents of the cargo shipment, nor have they verified whether the helicopters will ultimately be deployed to operational sites inside Haiti. The specific tactical function any rotary-wing aircraft may serve in the ongoing search mission also remains undisclosed to the public. The unfolding deployment highlights deepening bilateral coordination between El Salvador and the Dominican Republic as both regional states grapple with the cascading fallout of Haiti’s rapidly deteriorating nationwide security crisis, while prioritizing the urgent recovery of the four missing Salvadoran service members who were attacked by armed gangs during a prior assignment in the troubled nation. The latest developments are covered in full by DominicanScope’s ongoing regional news coverage.
Salvadoran helicopters arrive in Santo Domingo as Haiti operation expands
