Police and soldiers from Guatemala, El Salvador arrive for Haiti mission

The first fighting contingents of soldiers and military policemen from Latin America arrived in Port-au-Prince on Friday to join the armed international security mission in Haiti’s fight against terrorizing gangs.

The 83 security personnel included an advance team of eight soldiers from El Salvador and the first 75 of 150 military police officers from Guatemala.

While the Salvadorans will be providing casualty and medical evacuations in support of the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission, the Guatemalans will be joining operations to take down Haiti’s gangs.

Their presence adds a much requested beefed up military presence to the fight, which until now has been mainly police-led.

The group was greeted at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport by Haitian authorities.

In preparation for the additional boots on the ground, the Biden administration has flown at least 22 flights into Haiti in the past month with much needed equipment for the Haitian police and the Kenyan mission including armored vehicles.

The group’s arrival has been long awaited and comes at a critical moment for Haiti, which is seeing an alarming rise in armed attacks in the metropolitan area.