Forces operating outside a formal multinational framework can fall into a gap in accountability, and that is precisely the space in which Piquer warns abuses can occur.
Amnesty International has called on the governments of El Salvador and Haiti to publish the agreement governing the deployment of some 2,000 Salvadoran troops in Haiti, according to a France 24 report. The rights group's Americas director, Ana Piquer, said both governments must explain how the deployed forces are overseen, what rules govern the use of force, to whom they are accountable, and how people can report possible violations without fear of reprisals.
The scale of the deployment is unusual. According to the report, the troops were sent by El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, after four Salvadoran personnel disappeared in mid-October. Bukele initially framed the mission as an effort to bring the missing personnel home, but has since hinted at a broader aim of dismantling Haiti's powerful gangs, drawing on the campaign he pursued at home, which has itself raised allegations of rights abuses.
The central concern is legal rather than numerical. The report states that the vast majority of the Salvadoran soldiers are not participating in the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force, which leaves their rules of engagement unclear. Forces operating outside a formal multinational framework can fall into a gap in accountability, and that is precisely the space in which Piquer warns abuses can occur. She urged Bukele and Haiti's prime minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aime, to ensure that all operations by Salvadoran forces comply with international human rights law, and called for prompt, independent and impartial investigations into any allegations of violations.
Amnesty's intervention also carries a warning drawn from Haiti's own history. Piquer said the response to gang violence must not replicate the abuses and impunity that have characterised previous interventions in the country. That argument places the deployment within a longer record of external missions whose conduct has been contested, and it suggests that the manner of this operation may matter as much as its stated purpose.
Much remains unconfirmed. The text of the bilateral agreement has not been made public, and the precise legal status of the Salvadoran contingent, its chain of command and its relationship to the UN-backed force are not set out in the report. Nor is it known how many of the 2,000 troops operate under which arrangement, or what oversight mechanisms, if any, are already in place. The fate of the four missing personnel is likewise not described.
For both governments, the pressure is now procedural. Publishing the terms and naming the lines of accountability would not settle the dispute over the mission's scope, but it would establish the basis on which conduct can be judged. Until then, the deployment proceeds with its mandate only partly visible.
