The gov­ern­ment of the Cen­tral Amer­i­can na­tion of El Sal­vador on Wednes­day ap­proved send­ing a mil­i­tary con­tin­gent to this French speak­ing Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM) mem­ber state to as­sist in med­ical evac­u­a­tion op­er­a­tions as part of the Kenya-led Multi­na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Sup­port Mis­sion (MMAS).

The de­ci­sion passed with 57 of 60 votes in the Con­gress, which is large­ly con­trolled by Pres­i­dent Nay­ib Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas par­ty; three op­po­si­tion deputies ab­stained from vot­ing.

Ac­cord­ing to the Di­rec­tor of Le­gal Af­fairs at the Sal­vado­ran For­eign Min­istry, Pa­tri­cia Aguil­era, the mis­sion in­volves a Sal­vado­ran Armed Forces con­tin­gent op­er­at­ing un­der the Unit­ed Na­tions’ “blue hel­met” frame­work to con­duct med­ical evac­u­a­tions.

This ini­tia­tive fol­lows an agree­ment signed be­tween El Sal­vador and Haiti with­in the Or­ga­ni­za­tion of Amer­i­can States (OAS) to safe­guard the le­gal rights of par­tic­i­pat­ing state par­ties, con­trac­tors, and per­son­nel.

Aguil­era not­ed that the ini­tial con­tin­gent’s fo­cus on med­ical evac­u­a­tions aligns with the Sal­vado­ran forces’ ex­pe­ri­ence in pri­or UN mis­sions, en­sur­ing a struc­tured and legal­ly se­cure par­tic­i­pa­tion in Haiti. —PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC)