Haiti police storm back into national stadium after two years of gang rule

The Haitian National Police announced Thursday it had retaken the Sylvio Cator Stadium alongside the Task Force, a private security group working for the government. In a statement, the force said it held the venue under what it called full control, then handed security there to Salvadoran soldiers. Salvadoran state television confirmed its forces had taken up position inside the ground the same day.

The operation is part of a deployment of some 2,000 soldiers ordered by El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele. Bukele, who has drawn praise for crushing Salvadoran gangs and criticism over human rights abuses, announced last Tuesday that his men had destroyed the headquarters of 400 Mawozo, one of Haiti's most powerful gangs.

The troops were sent to find four Salvadoran soldiers who went missing after an ambush in Port-au-Prince on October 18. Those four belong to the Gang Suppression Force, a UN-backed multinational mission that has publicly distanced itself from the actions of the contingent Bukele dispatched for the rescue.

The deployment has drawn scrutiny: Amnesty International has urged El Salvador to disclose the terms of the mission. The 10,000-capacity stadium had been in gang hands since 2024, when it fell to armed groups controlling much of Haiti, the poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The violence pushed Haiti's national football team out of its own home ground — the squad played World Cup qualifying matches in Curaçao instead. The team, made up almost entirely of players based abroad, qualified for the 2026 World Cup but was eliminated in the group stage.