Bukele Announces Destruction of Haiti Gang Leader's House After Asking X for Its Address

El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, announced on X on Tuesday that forces backed by his troops had destroyed the house of Wilson Joseph, the leader of Haiti's 400 Mawozo gang, and what he called the gang's headquarters in Croix-des-Bouquets, near Port-au-Prince. Bukele posted a short video of helicopters firing and wrote, in Haitian Creole, that the promise had been kept and that most of the fighters had run off without fighting.

What the reporting confirms

The strike itself happened early on Sunday, Nov. 8, two days before Bukele's announcement. A Haitian police drone task force backed by Salvadoran soldiers destroyed a house used by Joseph, who is known as Lanmo San Jou, the Miami Herald reported. The task force used explosive drones flown by Haitian police officers with help from private security contractors, and it struck at about 2:30 a.m. while four helicopters gave air support, two of them flown by Salvadoran troops, the Herald reported. Joseph was not home. Damian Merlo, a lobbyist for El Salvador's government, confirmed the operation to the Associated Press, which noted that Haitian gang leaders move regularly between several houses.

A target named in public on X

The house became a target in public. On Nov. 5, an X user posted a photograph said to show Joseph's home. Bukele answered on the platform, asked for the exact address and promised to destroy it, the Associated Press reported. Users replied with coordinates. On the same day as Bukele's answer, 400 Mawozo contacted Haiti's National Commission for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration to seek dialogue, and it asked for Joseph's home to be treated as protected civilian property, the AP reported. The commission answered that any dialogue had to follow the government's roadmap.

Why Salvadoran troops are in Haiti

Bukele sent the troops after Oct. 18, when four Salvadoran aviation technicians serving with the United Nations backed Gang Suppression Force were ambushed in Croix-des-Bouquets and went missing. About 2,500 Salvadoran soldiers are now in Haiti, and most of them operate outside the Gang Suppression Force's command. Joseph has told the AP that the four technicians are dead. El Salvador maintains that they are alive. Haiti's prime minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aime, praised the raid and will travel to El Salvador next week to discuss the future of the deployment, the AP reported.

What is not confirmed

The accounts part company after the strike itself. Bukele said a headquarters was destroyed. The AP account describes a gang leader's home. The Miami Herald reported that as many as 20 of Joseph's gunmen were killed, citing unnamed sources, and no official toll has been published. The Gang Suppression Force has said no explosives were used, which sits against the Herald's reporting of explosive drones. Accounts of the damage in Haitian outlets diverged, and the Haitian Times reported that the competing versions could not be independently verified. No independent source has verified Bukele's video. Amnesty International has urged El Salvador and Haiti to publish the agreement behind the deployment and to state the rules that govern the use of force.