Marc Caputo
State Department officials have quietly raised objections to El Salvador’s gang-fighting efforts in Haiti — even as President Trump has offered his full support, according to diplomatic notes and informed sources.
On Monday, El Salvador issued a formal rebuke that questioned the “credibility” of the top U.S. diplomat in Haiti.
Why it matters: The controversy exposes the tension between Trump’s MAGA foreign policy objectives and the professional diplomatic establishment in the State Department.
“There is a class of bureaucrats who don’t want to see the change in the Western Hemisphere that POTUS wants,” a U.S. official told Axios.
Zoom in: Haiti is a failed state racked by extreme corruption and gang violence despite years of international efforts, including the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF) that El Salvador and other nations have backed.
Four Salvadoran aviation technicians supporting medical evacuations were captured Oct. 18 by gangs that refused to heed the entreaties of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele to return the men or their bodies.
Bukele responded by surging special forces units to Haiti after receiving the blessing of Trump, an ally, on Oct. 27, Axios first reported.
“You have to do what you have to do,” Trump told Bukele, who proceeded to launch military operations that resulted in firefights with gangs in the streets of Port-Au-Prince.
Friction point: Tensions between State Department officials and El Salvador erupted after an Oct. 31 gang attack on a Salvadoran convoy of five armored personnel carriers near the U.S. embassy, which was struck by gunfire.
On Nov. 3, Salvadoran attack helicopters repelled gangs attacking GSF soldiers from Chad, Bukele posted on X.
The next day, U.S. Chargé d’Affaires David Howell complained in a text message to Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé that El Salvador wasn’t “coordinating” with the GSF.
“They took at least three casualties.
They don’t have a medical plan.
They nearly killed GSF troops as I understand it,” according to a copy of the text message shared with Axios.
Howell asked the prime minister to tell El Salvador’s defense ministry to stop operations “as soon as possible … until they coordinate.
They are going to kill [GSF] troops or civilians and or get themselves killed.”
El Salvador later accused Howell of spreading misinformation.
On Nov. 5, the U.S. embassy in San Salvador sent a formal protest in a diplomatic note to Bukele’s government, saying that the U.S. “strongly opposes this lack of coordination by Salvadoran military personnel,” the document shown to Axios says.
The note said El Salvador’s “failure to coordinate” endangered the GSF and that “Salvadoran small arms fire” struck the U.S. embassy, “nearly hitting U.S. personnel.”
Behind the scenes: Bukele was infuriated by the so-called “dipnote,” a source said.
“His attitude was, ‘What the f*ck?
I checked with Trump.
He said do what we have to do, and some bureaucrat is fighting this?’ ” said a source who spoke with Bukele.
State Department officials said it was unclear who authorized the diplomatic note and didn’t comment about Howell’s correspondence to Haiti’s prime minister.
On Monday, Bukele’s government fired back at Howell and the State Department officials. El Salvador’s diplomatic note provided a point-by-point rebuttal with 4 “clarifications:”
Regarding the gunfire that hit the embassy, El Salvador’s ministry of foreign affairs wrote that its troops essentially had their backs to the building and were firing away from it.
“It is ruled out that the fire from the Salvadoran personnel struck the facilities of the American Embassy,” El Salvador wrote.
1. During the attack on troops from Chad, El Salvador wrote, “Salvadoran personnel repelled the attack.
It is ruled out that the fire of the Salvadoran elements was directed toward the position of Chad.”
1. El Salvador also said that since Oct. 26, its armed forces repeatedly have coordinated “air assets” with the GSF and Haitian officials.
2. In its most caustic reply, El Salvador said it “categorically denies” Howell’s claim that three of its soldiers were casualties.
“The fact that false information has been disseminated on a matter of such gravity, without providing any evidence to support it, generates serious doubts about the credibility of the rest of the assertions contained in the aforementioned report, which likewise lack any type of evidence that would allow their accuracy to be verified,” the note said.
What they’re saying: An official spokesperson for El Salvador couldn’t be reached.
Haiti’s prime minister didn’t return messages seeking comment.
A State Department official insisted that “three Salvadorans were injured … one of which was serious enough to have been medevaced outside the country for additional treatment.”
A source close to El Salvador’s government showed Axios a picture of the smiling soldier with a leg brace on and said he was flown out of Haiti because there were no adequate medical facilities, not because the injury was serious.
The State Department, echoing comments from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday, said it appreciates El Salvador’s efforts, “but the Trump administration has also been clear on the need to deconflict anti-gang operations to ensure seamless implementation of President Trump’s policy to support efforts to free Haiti from gangs.”