Powerful Haitian gang leader writes UN seeking dialogue as clashes intensify

One of Haiti’s most pow­er­ful gang lead­ers has writ­ten the U.N. Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al and re­quest­ed that the or­ga­ni­za­tion de­ploy a del­e­ga­tion to Haiti for di­a­logue and me­di­a­tion amid fears that Sal­vado­ran troops de­ployed af­ter the dis­ap­pear­ance of avi­a­tion tech­ni­cians from that coun­try could es­ca­late vi­o­lence.

Wil­son Joseph, best known as Lan­mò San­jou and leader of the 400 Ma­wozo gang, sent the let­ter on Mon­day, and the U.N. has re­ceived it, a source who wasn’t au­tho­rized to dis­cuss the sit­u­a­tion con­firmed. The let­ter calls 400 Ma­wozo a “rebel group” and was sent from Plaine du Cul-de-Sac, where a group of four Sal­vado­ran avi­a­tion tech­ni­cians were at­tacked on Oct. 18 and re­main miss­ing.

The in­ci­dent prompt­ed El Sal­vador’s pres­i­dent, Nay­ib Bukele, to de­ploy more than 2,000 troops to Haiti.