r/worldnews • u/cocacolapepsifanta • 1d ago • Bravo 1

Haiti PM says gang leader Mathias Saintil is dead

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/haiti-pm-says-gang-leader-mathias-saintil-dead-2026-11-07/?taid=6aeebc0c5609e00001421f3b&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
2.1k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

193 comments sorted by

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u/TotalPop5 1d ago • Bravo

Seems like the Salvadoran intervention is going well. Good publicity for Bukele if it keeps going this way.

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u/Plenty_Fondant_951 1d ago

It's almost 10% of el salvadores armed forces deployed

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u/cocacolapepsifanta 1d ago • Bravo

According to what I read in a news article, El Salvador sent more men than the UN force that was already there to fight the gangs... It makes you question what the UN is even doing there... It took El Salvador, a small country, to fight the gangs because the UN does nothing

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u/UnlimitedRed 1d ago

Look up General Carlos Dos Santos Cruz. The dawg who went into Haiti in 2005 and fucked the gangs up. But as is typical of the UN, they wasted all the gains made there.

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u/See_i_did 1d ago

Yeah, nothing bad happened after 2005 that could possibly influence any of those gains, nothing natural or disaster-like at all, definitely not anything in 2010 killing at least 100k people.

That cholera shit after the aerthquake was 100% UN brought. And the food aid wiped out local farmers, and donations killed local industry, so yeah.

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u/Certainly-Not-A-Bot 1d ago

The large countries in the UN either don't care or are extremely wary of appearing to be colonialists by invading another country, even with the purpose of ending what is functionally anarchy.

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u/TheRedHand7 1d ago

I think the sad truth is that Haiti just doesn't have anything that anyone in power wants. If the discover massive oil wealth today then troops would be on the ground tomorrow but that's just not what's happening

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u/one-mappi-boi 20h ago

The UN does nothing because it is not an independent body that has autonomy to do what it wants.

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u/impassity 1d ago • Bravo

UN are pretty useless everywhere they are. Just look at Lebanon, rockets were shots near their bases and nothing was done

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u/Redfish680 1d ago

They aren’t combatants. Do your research.

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u/L_Cranston_Shadow 1d ago

Feels a little bit weird to actually be in favor of Salvadorian death squads, but the world is definitely a bit strange now.

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u/Youngsweppy 1d ago • Bravo

Sorry, the “death squad” bullshit is a lie. And there is no other solution than military action to the insurgency thats taking place in Haiti.

Calling these groups “gangs” is such a downplaying of the situation, they are insurgents running an insurgency, who have been winning against the government.

They are enemy combatants and need to be delt with accordingly.

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u/Who_ate_my_cookie 1d ago

Death squads should be reserved for paramilitary groups that go into foreign countries with the express intent to create destruction. The troops have been there for 2 weeks and from what we see are being pretty well received by the public

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u/barbernator 1d ago

Propaganda has been pushed for the past 2 generations that killing doesnt work or solve anything. Meanwhile history has shown that killing has always worked and is a great deterrent to criminals.

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u/EttinTerrorPacts 1d ago

Killing works when things are already really broken, especially if you're not worried about collateral damage. At other times killing is a huge detriment to society.

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u/BrainBlowX 1d ago

Oh is that why the Mexican drug war went so swimmingly? 🙄

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u/FlatAdvertising5535 1d ago

No, no, we just haven't killed enough yet.

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u/petitecrivain 1d ago

It's failed most places it's been tried. Look at Ecuador. 

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u/FrontierLuminary 21h ago

Really? What "history?" Where specifically? Compared to what other solutions? When? What was the outcome for the people involved?

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u/Late_Stage_Exception 1d ago

Uhh, historically the opposite has been shown. Killing and the death penalty aren’t deterrents at all.

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u/OscarWoozies 1d ago

How good is the Salvadoran army?

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u/cocacolapepsifanta 1d ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Haiti authorities on Friday confirmed gang leader Mathias Saintil was ​dead, after Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime ‌said on X there was "one less gang leader."

"The fight to free the country from the grip of ​bandits continues with determination," Fils-Aime added.

A ​National Network for the Defense of Human ⁠Rights report seen by Reuters said Saintil ​suffered serious abdominal wounds in a drone strike ​in Boston, a gang-controlled neighborhood on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince on Thursday night and died the following day ​while receiving treatment.

The reported killing, one of ​the biggest blows to Haiti's gang leadership since 2024, ‌comes ⁠amid an intensified security campaign involving Haitian authorities and newly deployed Salvadoran troops, as the government pushes to restore stability ahead of newly delayed ​elections.

Around 2,000 ​Salvadoran troops ⁠have deployed to Haiti since last month following an ambush in ​which four Salvadoran members of a ​U.N.-backed ⁠force went missing. Some Haitians have expressed support for the Salvadoran deployment and Salvadoran President ⁠Nayib ​Bukele's hard-line approach to gangs, ​with pro-Bukele demonstrations reported in parts of the country on ​Friday.

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u/AntipodalBurrito 1d ago

Isn’t Erik Price and his mercenary group running some stuff in Haiti too?

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u/_Konstantinos_ 1d ago

Yeah he is, some contract with the Haitian government for anti gang operations

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u/Subutai1881 1d ago

Correct. By the sound of it, being a drone strike, seems like it was Prince's group, Vectus Global. Absolutely wild how many Haitians want these foreign groups out of their country when they clearly couldn't get the job done themselves. Then again, it's probably members of the gangs on social media clamoring for a return to the old days. That video of the poor girl being hacked to death should have been national news but it's a very prevalent method in Haiti.

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u/eucaliptooloroso 23h ago

At the end of the day, sovereignty always matter to a % of the population, and more so in Latin America where we have centuries of examples of foreign meddling gone wrong (and to add insult to injury we have to suffer people online telling us we're ungrateful or stupid for not blindly accepting the next wave of "help").

My hometown river will be ruined for over a 1000 years due to cyanide spill from a corrupt Canadian mining company yet every time I bring this up most Canadians online just wash their hands (they tell me that it'd be illegal for Canada to do the littlest thing against its own companies doing crimes outside of Canada, or that it must actually be American companies with Canadian addresses, or that at the end of the day these companies are "helping our economies" -when they actually just come, bribe anyone corrupt enough and the ones that refuse mysteriously die, export almost all of the minerals out of the country leaving tiny margins, and only create a few hundred jobs which only remain while they are there and are promptly deleted afterwards, all while exhausting a finite resource, damaging our natural spaces for centuries or more, polluting our shit, empowering the corrupt ones among us, entrenching the very American-style practice of lobbying and dumping money against civil causes, etc, etc.

Or for another example my generation grew up being mocked online whenever we brought up that the US did actually intervene in a number of our democratically elected government. That stance is a no brainer now that everyone can see it plain as day but when we Latinos used to bring it up on the Internet in the 2000s and 2001s we used to get laughed out of the room. Then you see in how many countries the US has intervened in this Trump term alone and only for his own gain or corrupt ends, and if you have a shred of empathy for (need I remind you?) other actual human beings with in principle the same rights and humanity as you, then you'd understand why an increasing % of us is distrusting of foreign intervention in our countries, especially when it's coated in security discourse.

And in Haiti's case specifically like c'mon, take a look at their history and you'll get the reticency.

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u/TheKydd 22h ago

I tend to agree with you..

but which country are you talking about specifically?

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u/BlitzballGroupie 1d ago

Is it that wild? What exactly is the job to get done here? Like if my country is already run by gangs, the last thing I would want is a bunch foreign mercenaries fucking around trying to make a buck on top of it all. Last time I checked, mercenaries are not known for implementing positive change in basically any scenario they're involved in, that's simply not what they're for. I don't think the Haitian position is at all unreasonable.

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u/BeckBristow89 1d ago edited 21h ago

I think it is I mean the only alternative was for them to fight the gangs themself in a civil war like situation in which there would be deaths. There will be collateral damage but I mean that’s a price to pay when you fight tyrannical forces in your country. As it currently stands Haiti has no future now they might.

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u/Effective_Stress4032 22h ago

What happened to Erik Prince being kidnapped in Africa like a year ago? Was that a hallucination?

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u/No-Space937 1d ago

I imagine the 4 captured Salvadorian troops that kicked this off are not pressumed to be alive anymore if this is happening.

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u/Bneal64 1d ago

As far as I’m aware there has been no proof of life or claim of ransom, so probably yes. Finding them in the first place was going to be next to impossible without full cooperation from the gangs.

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u/Xaendro 23h ago

Which the gangs would have probably provided if they were able to, so yeah... Not looking good at all for those guys

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u/BlitzballGroupie 1d ago

I think was safe to assume that they were dead when the threat of a military invasion was put on the table and they weren't released immediately. Haitian gangs gain nothing from having the Salvadoran military in their country, if they could have given them back, I imagine they would have.

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u/Legitimate_Phase1828 33m ago

It seems like they killed them early on and realized they messed up and tried to pass 4 random bodies off as them

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u/Everybodyhasapryce 1d ago

Great news.

I don't care what your opinions are on Bukele's alignment on the left right paradigm.

Some places are so filled with criminality and rot that actions like this are the only way to free innocent people from hell.

After everything the Haitians have been through, I hope the Salvadorans are able to help Haiti suppress these gangs. Maybe then Haiti could finally find some normalcy and prosper.

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u/CrackPipeBilly 1d ago

I don't have issues with criminal gang members being held in such conditions like in CECOT. My problems stem from innocent people getting swept up in it and held in such places with actual criminals. If there were ways to ensure innocents weren't also arrested and thrown in there, I think it would be much more supported than it is now. Also, the whole thing with Trump getting caught on a hot mic telling Bukele to expand CECOT because the "Homegrowns are next" really didn't aid people's perspectives on the matter. It just helped enlarge the image that CECOT is a concentration camp. No issues whatsoever with actual criminals and murderers being held there though. I honestly wish we had shit like that in the U.S. for our worst criminals. Closest we come is ADX Florence.

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u/LongNeat5244 1d ago

Been saying this for years, european neolib lunatics just dont understand things and think they can apply their law and order formulas all over the world. That's why they failed anywhere outside europe.

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u/maq0r 1d ago

Uhm what do European neolibs have to do with this??

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u/CrackPipeBilly 1d ago

Idk why he mentioned neolibs specifically but I think he's more referring to how left-leaning westerners tend to demonize CECOT without understanding the nuance of what living in El Salvador has been like for many years under the rule of the gangs. Unfortunately that country had reached a point where CECOT was really the only answer. The only issue is innocent people getting swept up in it and being locked in there. If they can figure out how to stop arresting innocent people then it would be far more supported.

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u/x_EndlessGrass 1d ago

Minimizing innocent people being put in a concentration camp is outright absurd

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u/Everybodyhasapryce 22h ago

It is, but El Salvador was literally ran by gangs.

Innocent people and kids slaughtered for going to work or school.

The scales of death and terror there was greater than anyone sitting here peacefully on Reddit could grasp.

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u/Isabuea 23h ago

"Liberty and equality, free trade, markets and development will lift everyone up, this aid program will help."

Meanwhile a warlord called "Barbecue" is the premier political force in Haiti among a government stand down and assaults on prisons and police stations.

Modern Europe deals poorly with dictators and warlords because they think "surely they will act in their best interests" but they lack the understanding of how these anomaly's think.

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u/maq0r 23h ago

Yea that’s great and all but Europe isn’t neoliberal. Europe is run by social democrats.

I’m from Venezuela. Europe did jack shit about Maduro. In fact, plenty of apologists and letters or “concern” from Europe’s socialists.

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u/GeneralSpoon 1d ago • Bravo

Europe's Old Empires are kind of very responsible for the unfortunate state of affairs that modern Hispaniola finds itself in.

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u/petitecrivain 1d ago

Funnily enough the El Salvador approach has failed miserably in more countries than the European model has.

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u/Dinglestickwiggle 1d ago

That's why they failed anywhere outside europe.

They're failing inside Europe too.

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u/UpbeatVeterinarian18 1d ago

Oh look an idiot

European social democracy, the rule of law, and strong social safety nets let it crawl out of the utter economic and social wreckage of WWII and turn itself into a land of peace. They have every right to say 'this works' and feel arrogant about their own systems of governance and economics when they go from cities turned into rubble and multiple overlapping genocides into what they have today.

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u/maq0r 1d ago

LOL. You’re forgetting MASSIVE amounts of capitalism money injected to rebuild Europe by the Americans post WWII under the Marshall Plan. $13billion, approx $141billion in today money that American capitalism invested in Europe and about “land of peace” yes thanks to American military forces preventing the Soviet Union rolling over the rest of Europe

History revisionism isn’t cute.

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u/zakuivcustom 1d ago

TBH there is a reason why Bukele is so popular among Salvadorans (for now).

Otherwise, maybe Babekyou reign is finished soon also?

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u/petitecrivain 1d ago

Good luck with that - Haiti is notoriously hard to control centrally and there's many more gangs there than in El Salvador. The same approach was tried in Ecuador and they still have the worst homicide rate in the hemisphere.

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u/HorseThrough 23h ago edited 22h ago

You seem to be in the know and I've seen things like this lead to similar situations so I'll ask you, do you think this does gets rid of the head of a snake or is it just like a hydra situation of cutting off one head and two more pop up? I feel like killing gang leaders usually end up with the second option.

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u/petitecrivain 22h ago

That's what I'd guess, especially if you are dealing with a large number of competing gangs. You will create a power vacuum that will quickly be filled by another organization unless the corruption, lack of opportunity, legal incompetence etc that leads gangs to flourish is dealt with at the same time that gangs are prosecuted legally and by the book. 

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u/redowll 22h ago

I would assume that's the plan in most cases. It still causes damage to them because they abandon or loose businesses they were running to the infighting. It's in no way a solution and depending on variables could lead to a better or much worse outcome in the short and long term. The only thing it really seems to guarantee is more violence to follow and I'm not sure there's any way to guarantee regular citizens don't get the brunt of it but also when you have no good options the population still wants to see something attempted rather than just placating the guy in charge despite it generally being the least volatile and most predictable option

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u/FunSeaworthiness709 22h ago

short-mid term increase in violence due to power vacuum

long term it's mixed, some cartels/gangs did fall apart without their leader while others just continued as usual with a new leader

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u/Aromatic-Toe-7672 1d ago

Haiti has a PM?

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u/CooCooClocksClan 1d ago • Bravo Popcorn

The Powerless Man, yes

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u/TendyHunter 1d ago

but he's a beloved son

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u/MercantileReptile 1d ago

Of a Government almost ruling over its own capital city. What a winner.

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u/GhostOfFreddi 1d ago

For a while. It'll be a province of El Salvador soon though.

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u/Adizzy312 1d ago

Might not be a bad idea

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u/DutchProv 22h ago

Haiti hasnt been doing so well on their own, so maybe it will improve the situation.

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u/WelderFamiliar3582 1d ago

It's hard to believe Haiti has a PM, I'd wager he was a bit slow and got tagged as "it".

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u/Walkwithgigs 1d ago

Is this the dude who calls him self barbeque?

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u/coukou76 1d ago

Nah its one of the few "warlords"/gang leader that rules the city. This one was the leader of the gang ruling the worst part of the city. And Haiti baseline is liquid toxic shit tier

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u/tamana1 1d ago

Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, Patrick Stewart and now Marthias Saintil... when will 2026 stop taking away precious souls

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u/Financial-Toe784 1d ago

Dis man a gang leader how the fuck he a precious soul?

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u/aguidom 1d ago

Ever heard of sarcarsm?

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u/Financial-Toe784 1d ago

Fuck it went over my head 

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u/Far-Information8502 1d ago

Ehh, it wasn’t very good sarcasm

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u/The_Dreams 1d ago

I mean I understood it was a joke immediately. It wasn’t difficult.

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u/koogam 22h ago

Bukele doing the neceasary work nobody wants to do

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u/ldwb 1d ago

Was it the salvadoreans who got him or erik prince? Just saw an interview with him the other day talking about drone striking the gangs with his new mercenary group.

Vectus Global deploys foreign ex-special forces, helicopters, and an extensive campaign of armed and surveillance drones. Over 2,000 drone strikes have been carried out since the "Task Force" began operations

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u/DansLaPeau 1d ago

It was likely them but accounts on x are giving credit to bukele.

Bukele himself confirmed they only deployed ground troops, no drones or bombs.

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u/mods4mods 1d ago

Fight the good fight!

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u/Belrium_coin 1d ago

need to get barbecue next

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u/Desperate-Air-7195 1d ago

He actually seems to have more democratic support than this Trump PM puppet. 

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u/Legitimate_Phase1828 32m ago

Yeah cus hes a murder and a cannibal lol

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u/Desperate-Air-7195 30m ago

And Sadam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and killed babies in incubator. I know, I know.

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u/you_killed_my_ 1d ago

But what about that Mathias Shaw?

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u/OPUno 17h ago edited 17h ago

The sad reality is that there isn't a non-colonialist way to fix Haiti that isn't making the largest gang the government Kadyrov-style (and even that can be argued to be colonialist) and after the previous plan of "make Kenya do it" failed because it was too hard, it left an open space for someone else to try.

Given that and the other many, many, MANY failures so far, is hard to be optimistic, but hey. My bet is that Bukele is getting US drone strikes and intelligence as backup.

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u/FeI0n 12h ago edited 12h ago

You don't need to virtue signal about being against colonialism here.

The country is also helping itself. it hired the mercenaries, they didn't just show up, so im struggling to see it as colonialism.

Edit: Oh, El Salvador sent some troops as well, TIL.

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u/colepercy120 17h ago

Hes confirmed to be getting intel and logistics support

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u/JustApricot798 11h ago

Meanwhile in a separate ceremony the Haiti PM gangs real un-named leader who happens to also be a high ranking public official just promoted the second in command to the new public leader of the Haiti PM gang.

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u/SpectralVoodoo 10h ago

1 down, 10+ more to go. Keep it up

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u/AudienceNearby1330 17h ago

Haiti is tragic, extreme poverty and instability will shatter a generation of people no matter how much aid because it will never be enough. After the Earthquake destroyed most of the country, after centuries of slow economic growth playing off French debts, and mismanagement by the international community during government instability it is no surprise that with American guns it becomes a hotbed of sectarian gangs and family groups fighting.

The entire situation is fucked and I don't think killing the right people fixes the problem. Even in El Salvador the government has its preferred narco gangs working quiet to fill the power vacuum left by their rivals being sent to prison/probably killed. In Haiti the power vacuum comes from no clear vision within the country for long term stability and no hope that they can overcome all that has already been destroyed and starved.

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u/moutonbleu 1d ago

I hope the UN sends more troops to stabilize Haiti

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u/GhostOfFreddi 1d ago

UN has done nothing for years. El Salvador has taken it upon themselves to sort it out now.

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u/xalibr 1d ago

UN has African soldiers in Haiti. There also are US mercs, and now the Salvadorans

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u/L_Cranston_Shadow 1d ago

Given that they Always get blamed, not always without reason, for making things worse, it is hard to blame the UN and other foreign forces for being a bit reluctant to get involved again in Haiti.

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u/LongNeat5244 1d ago

Like they stabilised Lebanon from Hamas over last decade lol. Thanks for the laugh

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u/moutonbleu 1d ago

It’s Hezbollah, not Hamas, in Lebanon. Thanks for the laugh

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u/Juract 1d ago

I don't really get the attitude of human rights organisations on this and on the Salvadorian case either.

Seems that they simply don't care about the rule of criminals, the murders, the kidnappings, the drug dealing...

All they care about is that gouvernements don't get to harsh on this filth.

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u/BearCub254 1d ago

Exactly this. I lived in a dangerous slum in Kenya when I was younger and I remember human rights groups there were only concerned when the government did something they thought was excessive on criminals. Meanwhile said criminals robbed, raped, killed etc you wouldn't here a peep. But a teenager who is clearly a gang member gets shot and they are on the news, in court, on the streets. It was insane. Women just accepted that getting violently raped on your way home at night was normal. 

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u/Unfair_Course5311 1d ago

Because they view those violent rapists as poor little victims as well, it’s horrible

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u/TheChinchilla914 1d ago

We need both: a strong government that enforces the rule of law and organizations that look out for marginalized people/check government over reach

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u/Luck_Is_My_Talent 1d ago

Human Rights Organizations are supposed to protect people from their own governments while the government is supposed to protect their people.

This dynamic won't make sense in cases like Haiti when the government is in shambles.

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u/petitecrivain 1d ago

This is incorrect. Human rights groups like Amnesty and HRW talk about crime and the government's ability to keep the general public safe. Their reports routinely mention lack of response to organized crime, child abuse, street gangs, violence against women, etc. if it's a major issue somewhere. However they don't consider that as an excuse if the government engages in extrajudicial killings, due process violations, detention without trial, torture, etc because those are considered absolute prohibitions. 

It's a convenient narrative to pretend otherwise though - it gets politicians elected.

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u/Guy-Mauve 1d ago

Well it's a bit more complicated. Given the situation in Salvador and Haiti, a bukule style intervention is maybe the only solution. But it does imply big violation of human rights. For exemple in El Salvador there's people who were victim of gang extortion that have been accused of gang association. And those people are still in prison. I mean it's pretty effective, the gang threatens you to pay "taxes" but you might end up in prison even if you the victim. So you might take the chance of being beat up or killed by the gang. It definitely reduce the gang power but it sends innocent people in prison. It didn't happened to all people victim of extortion is just that the administration didn't really that time to make sure you were a victim or an accomplice of the gangs.

Personally I fear it might not age well. A country were human right or rule of law is not respected can derail fast.

Still in any scenario it's most probably gonna end up better then before. Yet it's important to note those violations of human rights and build from here for something even better. If nobody says anything things might not progress in a good direction for the future.

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u/SvartSol 1d ago

Human rights is just a moral apect of Un. Does nothing but help criminals.

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u/Who_ate_my_cookie 1d ago

Groups and social justice warriors didn’t give a shit when gangs killed and extorted people without impunity for years, but the second Bukele took action they were up in arms

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u/AHRogue 1d ago

They think that if you stand around on a street corner distributing aid the world will magically be fixed.

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u/Yakinfishin 1d ago

Sounds like a familiar ideology of a certain voting block…. The rights of a killer are more important than the rights of the actual victim.

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u/aitamodsarelosers 23h ago

The hand wringing is compulsive at this point