On October 27, 2026, Wilson Joseph, better known by his alias “Lanmo Sanjou” and the publicly identified leader of Haiti’s notorious 400 Mawozo armed terrorist coalition, released a verified video statement addressing the high-profile disappearance of four Salvadoran military personnel weeks after the unit went missing during a cross-border deployment operation in Haiti’s Chen Mechan district. The United States government has previously issued a $1 million USD reward for information leading directly to Joseph’s arrest, citing his leadership of a group responsible for mass kidnappings, targeted violence, and widespread destabilization across Haitian urban and rural communities.
In the newly released footage, Joseph explicitly confirmed that the four missing Salvadoran soldiers were killed during unplanned clashes in the Chen Mechan territory under his group’s nominal control. He explained that his fighters mobilized immediately after detecting unauthorized armed personnel and incoming gunfire in their operational zone, leading to a chaotic, unscripted confrontation that resulted in the service members’ deaths. Joseph went on to note that his original, pre-planned objective upon encountering the Salvadoran unit would have been to seize all four men alive, transport them to the 400 Mawozo’s fortified hidden base, and hold them as high-value hostages to open direct negotiation channels with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. The core demand of those planned talks, he stated, would have been the full, immediate withdrawal of all foreign military and security forces currently deployed on Haitian soil.
The confirmation of the soldiers’ deaths comes in the wake of multiple fast-moving developments in the bilateral security situation, including a large-scale Salvadoran military operation launched in Haiti to locate the missing unit, public statements from President Bukele directly threatening Haitian armed groups over the incident, and widespread regional concern over the growing ability of non-state armed coalitions to undermine state authority across Haiti.