Justice at Last: El Salvador Convicts Former Military Officers for 1982 Murder of Dutch Journalists
June 4 , 2025
More than four decades after the brutal slaying of four Dutch journalists during El Salvador’s civil war, a jury has delivered long-awaited justice. Three retired military officers have been found guilty of orchestrating the deadly ambush that silenced the journalists in 1982 — a dark chapter that marked the dangerous intersection of war and press freedom.
Convictions Mark a Major Step in Accountability
In a historic ruling delivered in the northern city of Chalatenango, a Salvadoran jury found three high-ranking former officers guilty of murder:
- Colonel Jose Guillermo García (91) – former Minister of National Defence
- Colonel Francisco Moran (93) – former police commander
- Colonel Mario Adalberto Reyes Mena (85) – ex-infantry brigade commander
Each has been sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison, according to Diario El Salvador. The men did not appear in court, with Moran and García currently under police watch in a private hospital in San Salvador due to advanced age and health conditions. Reyes Mena, meanwhile, remains in the United States, and an extradition request approved by El Salvador’s Supreme Court in March has yet to be fulfilled.
Journalists Targeted While Documenting the War
The four victims — Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper, Hans ter Laag, and Joop Willemsen — were working on a documentary about El Salvador’s bloody civil war when they were killed in an ambush. Having joined leftist guerrilla fighters behind enemy lines, the journalists aimed to expose the reality of the conflict, which ultimately claimed over 75,000 civilian lives from 1980 to 1992 — most of them at the hands of U.S.-backed government forces.
Armed Salvadoran troops, reportedly equipped with machine guns and automatic rifles, ambushed the group. According to Oscar Pérez, legal representative from the Comunicándonos Foundation, the killings were not random acts of violence but premeditated murders authorized at the highest military levels.
“We have clearly demonstrated the responsibility of the accused,” Pérez said. “This was a deliberate action orchestrated by a structured political-military apparatus.”
A Truth Buried, Then Unearthed
A 1993 United Nations-backed Truth Commission concluded that the killings were planned by Colonel Reyes Mena, with the full knowledge of other top commanders. Despite this finding, justice was delayed for decades due to a controversial amnesty law passed after the civil war ended in 1992.
It wasn’t until 2018, when El Salvador’s Supreme Court declared the amnesty unconstitutional, that the case was reopened. Progress remained slow, but mounting international pressure — particularly from the Dutch government and the European Union — reignited momentum in 2022, with victims' families demanding accountability.
The U.S. Connection and Delayed Justice
Colonel García was deported from the U.S. in 2016 after a federal immigration judge determined he was responsible for gross human rights violations during the early war years. Yet, Colonel Reyes, who still resides in the United States, has managed to avoid extradition — a sore point for justice advocates and international observers.
With this recent conviction, El Salvador joins a growing list of countries in Latin America revisiting the crimes of their military past, bringing long overdue justice to victims of state violence.
Why This Story Still Matters in 2025
This verdict not only honors the memory of the journalists but also sends a powerful message: press freedom cannot be extinguished by violence, and perpetrators — no matter how long it takes — can and will be held accountable.
In a time when journalists continue to face threats around the world, the outcome in El Salvador serves as both a warning to violators and a symbol of hope to those still fighting for justice.