Haiti’s government confirms gang boss Mathias Saintil is dead, but police and a rights group tell different stories of how he died

One of Port-au-Prince’s most powerful gang leaders is dead. Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé confirmed on Friday 6 November that Mathias Saintil, head of the Boston gang in Cité Soleil, Haiti’s largest slum, had been killed, writing on X: “One less gang leader.” He added that the gangs would not be getting any sleep.

The Haitian National Police said Saintil was hit by several bullets during a police operation in the Nòlyo area of Cité Soleil and later died in hospital in the capital.

The National Human Rights Defense Network, one of Haiti’s main rights groups, gave a different account. It said an explosive drone struck Saintil’s home and vehicle between 9pm and 10pm on Thursday (10am to 11am Friday AWST) in Nan Nélio, as he was heading to a street party. It said he suffered abdominal wounds, was taken to hospital in Canaan, and died at about 5.30pm on Friday (6.30am Saturday AWST).

Who carried it out?

That is itself contested. Haiti’s drone task force operates from the prime minister’s office alongside the police and is supported by Vectus Global, the private company founded by Erik Prince, the former Navy SEAL who founded Blackwater. Prince suggested on X that his contractors, working within the police as the task force, were responsible, posting “Nice shot.”

The rights group said at least seven kamikaze drones were used on Thursday across Tabarre, Croix-des-Missions, Santo, Cité Soleil and the Plaine du Cul-de-Sac. It reported five gang members killed outright and about 15 injured, and said a separate drone strike in Pierre-Six killed gang members and civilians. It also said five of 15 members of another gang, intercepted on their way to reinforce Saintil, were killed.

Two weeks earlier the task force bombed the home of Wilson Joseph, leader of the 400 Mawozo gang. He survived, went into hiding and has since asked the United Nations to set up peace talks.

Why are Salvadoran soldiers in Haiti?

Last month Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele sent more than 2,000 troops after four Salvadoran aviation technicians serving with the UN-authorised Gang Suppression Force went missing following an ambush on 18 October. Bukele calls the deployment a search-and-rescue mission. Most of his soldiers are not under the Gang Suppression Force’s command, and critics question how far the mission will reach.

On Wednesday Bukele posted aerial video of near-empty Port-au-Prince streets, saying the gangs “don’t want to fight” his troops.

Is anyone coordinating all this?

That is the question hanging over the capital. Five forces with overlapping missions now operate there: the national police, the drone task force, the Gang Suppression Force, Prince’s contractors and Bukele’s soldiers. The Gang Suppression Force was not part of the drone strikes and has had to work around other operations as it expands its presence in the city.

The stakes are high for civilians. Gangs have at times controlled more than 90 per cent of Port-au-Prince and have driven well over a million Haitians from their homes. Drones can reach leaders that police raids could not, but strikes in crowded neighbourhoods such as Cité Soleil carry an obvious risk to the people living there, which is why the rights group’s account of civilian deaths matters as much as the death of Saintil himself.

What happens to the Boston gang now?

No successor has been named, and it is not known whether the gang will hold together under new leadership, splinter, or be absorbed by other Viv Ansanm groups. For the people of Cité Soleil, the test is whether the violence eases, not who leads the gang.