El Salvador's intervention in Haiti is turning from a hostage rescue into a much bigger fight against the gangs that control most of the capital, and it's a high-risk bet for both countries.

• President Bukele sent thousands of troops to Haiti after gang members abducted four Salvadoran soldiers, and the deployment has grown fast instead of winding down.
• Fighting has already turned violent in gang strongholds near the capital, with reports of fighters killed and hostages freed, though the missing soldiers still haven't been found.
• A top gang leader claims the four soldiers are already dead, but that claim can't be verified and may just be a move to shift blame onto a rival gang.
• Haiti's gangs are large, deeply armed, and tied into the country's political and business elite, making this a much harder fight than Bukele's crackdown at home.
• Bukele is now talking about freeing Haiti entirely, not just rescuing his soldiers, raising the risk of a long, messy conflict similar to past failed foreign interventions in the country.

Outlook: Bukele will likely keep escalating, betting he can succeed where the US and UN have failed, but the gangs' home-turf advantage makes a quick, clean win unlikely.