MIAMI — Officials at the U.S. State Department have raised objections to El Salvador’s military operations in Haiti, according to a report published Tuesday by Axios. However, the administration in Washington says the objections are not official government policy and it remains unclear who authorized a diplomatic note sent to the Bukele government criticizing El Salvador’s military actions in Haiti in recent days.

According to Axios, the friction centers on whether El Salvador is coordinating its troops with the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF), the multinational mission operating in Haiti.

The outlet reported that David Howell, the U.S. chargé d’affaires in Haiti, sent a text message to Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé complaining that Salvadoran forces were not coordinating with the GSF and suggesting that GSF soldiers had nearly been harmed.

Axios also reported that the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador delivered a formal diplomatic note on November 5. The note reportedly said El Salvador’s failure to coordinate endangered the GSF and that Salvadoran small-arms fire struck the U.S. Embassy compound in Port-au-Prince, coming close to endangering diplomatic personnel.

Axios also report that State Department officials said it was unclear who authorized the diplomatic note, and that they did not comment on Howell’s message to the Haitian prime minister. A department official did maintain that three Salvadorans had been injured, one of whom needed to be evacuated from Haiti for medical care.

El Salvador Pushes Back

Bukele’s government responded on Monday t0 the Axios report and rejected the allegations. Salvadoran officials wrote that it is “ruled out” that fire from Salvadoran personnel struck the U.S. Embassy facilities, and said their forces repelled an attack on GSF troops from Chad.

Bukele had said on X on November 3 that Salvadoran attack helicopters repelled gangs attacking the Chadian soldiers. El Salvador also “categorically denied” the claim that three of its soldiers were casualties.

Axios cited a source who said Bukele reacted angrily to the note and pointed to his conversations with Trump, saying he had been authorized to act in Haiti by Washington’s executive branch.

Trump’s public support for El Salvador’s role is the background that makes the reported State Department objections notable. Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed the deployment on November 8 in Homestead, Florida. He said Washington supports the UN force logistically but does not participate “actively” in the Salvadoran deployment, thanked Bukele, and stressed the need for clear communication between contingents to prevent accidental incidents.

The dispute turns on structural ambiguity. El Salvador sent more than 2,000 troops after four Salvadoran aviation technicians attached to medical evacuation work went missing on October 18 in an ambush in Haiti’s Cul-de-Sac plain. El Salvador believes the four are alive, while Haitian officials say they were abducted.

AP has put the Salvadoran presence at no fewer than 2,500 personnel, larger than the roughly 1,500-member GSF already deployed.

The UN has also confirmed that the vast majority of the additional Salvadoran troops are not deployed under the GSF and fall outside the UN Support Office’s mandate and reporting.

Haitian officials have welcomed the deployment as cooperation “within the framework” of the GSF, but Salvadoran command arrangements remain unclear. A lobbyist for the Salvadoran government, Damian Merlo, has said the forces coordinate closely with the GSF and the prime minister’s office, but he declined to say who the troops report to.

Fils-Aimé is scheduled to travel to El Salvador on November 16 and 17 for an international conference on democracy, where Salvadoran Vice President Félix Ulloa has said the future of the troops in Haiti will be discussed.

Whether Washington’s reported concerns are raised publicly, resolved quietly, or are even endorsed by the U.S. State Department will likely become clearer after that visit.

Several questions remain open however: who authorized the diplomatic note, whether Salvadoran fire reached the Embassy compound, how many Salvadoran personnel were wounded, and to whom the non-GSF troops answer.