SAN SALVADOR (AFP) — El Salvador’s legislature on Wednesday approved sending a military contingent to Haiti to support a multinational mission seeking to quell gang violence.

The Central American nation’s President Nayib Bukele, who is wildly popular at home for his crackdown on gangsters, in March offered to “fix” a spiraling crisis in Haiti.

Legislative Assembly president Ernesto Castro said that the army deployment was approved by 57 votes out of 60 in congress, which is controlled by the ruling party.

Full details about the military contingent were not immediately available.

According to the director of legal affairs at the Salvadoran foreign ministry, Patricia Bran, the first contingent will only carry out medical evacuations.

On 30 September, the United Nations Security Council extended its authorization of the Kenyan-led multinational mission seeking to assist the Haitian national police for one year.

El Salvador has been under a state of emergency since March 2022 as part of Bukele’s controversial war against gangsters.

Around 83,000 suspected gang members have been detained under the measures, which allow arrests without a court order.

The crackdown has led to a sharp fall in homicides and is praised by many Salvadorans, although rights groups have criticized Bukele’s methods as ignoring people’s basic rights.