In a landmark decision, three former military officers in El Salvador were handed 15-year prison sentences for their involvement in the murder of four Dutch journalists back in 1982 during the country’s civil war. The ruling was delivered by a five-woman jury in a swift trial conducted in Chalatenango, a city in northern El Salvador. According to Oscar Pérez, the legal representative for the victims’ families, the jury found the accused guilty of murder. Prosecutors had advocated for the 15-year minimum sentences which the court upheld.
The convicted include Gen. José Guillermo García, age 91, formerly the Defense Minister, Col. Francisco Morán, 93, the previous director of the treasury police, and Col. Mario Adalberto Reyes Mena, 85, a former army commander. García and Morán are currently under guard at a healthcare facility in San Salvador, while Reyes Mena remains in the United States. Following a Supreme Court mandate earlier this year, efforts to extradite Reyes Mena back to El Salvador are underway.
In a significant addendum to the verdict, a judge directed President Nayib Bukele, as El Salvador’s Commander in Chief, to publicly apologize for the protracted justice process. The Dutch journalists, identified as Jan Kuiper, Koos Koster, Hans ter Laag, and Joop Willemson, were in the country to report from behind rebel lines when Salvadoran troops ambushed them, resulting in their deaths.
General García encountered deportation from the United States in 2016 after a judicial ruling implicated him in grave human rights abuses during the initial phases of El Salvador’s protracted conflict involving military forces and leftist insurgents. The prosecution of these crimes was revisited in 2018 after the Supreme Court nullified a blanket amnesty law enacted post-war between 1980 and 1992.
Although proceedings progressed sluggishly, the demand for justice was reignited in March 2022 by victims’ families alongside representatives from the Dutch government and the European Union. These stakeholders urged for judicial action against those implicated in the journalists’ deaths. The Dutch Foreign Minister, Caspar Veldkamp, acknowledged the verdict as a crucial stride against impunity and toward achieving justice for the journalists and their families. He expressed gratitude toward the Salvadoran authorities and those who tirelessly pursued this case.
The United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador noted there was substantial evidence suggesting the journalists were victims of a planned military ambush orchestrated by Reyes Mena, who acted upon intelligence about their presence. While additional military personnel, such as Gen. Rafael Flores Lima and Sgt. Mario Canizales Espinoza, were implicated, both passed away before facing trial. Canizales was accused of leading the military unit responsible for the slaughter.
Juan Carlos Sánchez from the organization Mesa Contra la Impunidad described the trial as a ‘momentous milestone,’ marking an end to a four-decade wait for justice by the victims’ families. During El Salvador’s civil war, in excess of 75,000 civilian lives, largely attributed to government forces backed by the U.S., were lost. Notably, the trial proceedings were conducted away from public scrutiny.