On Oct. 31, many residents of Haiti’s poor neighborhoods near the Sylvio Cator Stadium and Marché Salomon were killed and wounded by explosive drones.
On Oct. 31 via X, the U.S.-assembled, UN-blessed Gang Suppression Force denied reports “alleging the use of explosive devices and aerial bombardments by security forces operating in Haiti…. The GSF does not use explosive devices in its operations. This includes the Salvadoran contingent and aircraft operating under the GSF.”
If the GSF did not bomb the civilians, then it has to be either the Salvadorian troops under the command of their President Nayib Bukele, or the mostly Salvadoran mercenaries of Erik Prince’s Vectus Global soldier-of-fortune outfit, which works with the Haitian National Police (PNH).
The most likely suspect is the Vectus Global-run “Task Force” which has been carrying out deadly drone strikes since Mar. 1, 2025, as Haïti Liberté has closely covered.
However, on Jul. 21, U.S. Col. Justin Gorkowski told the Congress that his Pentagon “Tiger Team” is deployed to “observe and control critical functions” of the GSF, and that the “Task Force” is “a tremendous partner” with a liaison officer embedded directly inside the GSF’s own joint operations center.
Nonetheless, the attacks could have been carried out independently by Bukele’s forces, which began deploying into Haiti on Oct. 22 and now number 2,000.
Of the dozens of people believed to have been killed and wounded, the outlet Verite Presizyon published graphic videos of one severely wounded woman whose daughter was killed, as well as the bloody bodies of two men, one identified as a street merchant and the other unidentified.
Meanwhile, on Nov. 1, Joseph “Lanmò San Jou” Wilson, leader of the armed group which controls Croix des Bouquets, wrote an “official request for international mediation and the opening of dialogue for peace and stability in Haiti” to United Nations Secretary General Antònio Guterres.
In the two page missive on letterhead from his “400 Mawozo rebel group,” Wilson says that “since Aug. 20, 2026, the date on which I officially raised the white flag, I have expressed my commitment to a peaceful solution to the national crisis, notably through the opening of a dialogue between the international forces present in Haiti and the 400 Mawozo group.” Last month, Wilson said in a video that his group had withdrawn from the Viv Ansanm (Live Together) alliance, for reasons that he did not elucidate.
Since the Oct. 18 killing of five GSF mercenaries, including four Salvadorans, on the Cul-de-Sac Plain, “the civilian population has been exposed to an alarming situation of violence,” he continued. “Children, pregnant women, and other innocent people are among the victims. The particularly tragic case of an eight-year-old girl who was reportedly shot in the head attests to the urgency of protecting civilian populations.”
“Given the vengeful statements, expectations, and threats of Mr. Nayib Bukele, I fear that this situation will lead to an escalation of violence and a cycle of reprisals of which the Haitian population would be the first victim,” he wrote. “Our country, already deeply afflicted by insecurity and poverty, needs dialogue, justice, and reconciliation, not further loss of human life.”
Accordingly, he asked Guterres to dispatch “a United Nations delegation to Haiti to facilitate a process of dialogue and mediation between the parties concerned.”
