Against the backdrop of a drastically worsening security situation in Haiti, discussed at length at the Oct. 19 emergency UN Security Council meeting, escalation has begun with the kidnapping (and perhaps execution) of five Salvadoran technicians on Sunday Oct. 18. They were part of the UNSC-mandated Gang Suppression Force (GSF), but were technicians and helicopter pilots, not combatants. Going to a supermarket alone to shop in the notoriously gang-controlled Croix-des-Bouquets district of Port-au-Prince, in an armored vehicle identified as GSF with no military escort, was an invitation to be attacked. The New York Times today reports that this district was known to be a “no go” zone, not only for foreigners but also for most Haitians.

The incident prompted immediate threats from Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a member of Donald Trump’s hemispheric Shield of the Americas “security” apparatus, vowing to wipe out Haitian gangs just as he did to gangs in El Salvador, unless the men are returned unharmed. Bukele has now sent 100 special forces troops to Haiti, who arrived Oct. 22, and another 100 are said to be arriving soon. “This is only the beginning,” he warned.

Is this the beginning of a larger deployment? Will other Shield of the Americas members be mobilized to join Bukele? This incident is being seen as a major crisis and an embarrassment for the GSF, which was deployed in Haiti to take on the gangs and stabilize the country with new terms of engagement, with more lethal power, equipment, vehicles, etc.