El Salvador Sentences 3 Ex-Military Officers for 1982 Killing of Dutch Journalists

A court in El Salvador has sentenced three former high-ranking military officers for their roles in the 1982 killings of four Dutch journalists, bringing long-awaited justice more than four decades after the crime. General José Guillermo García (91), Colonel Francisco Morán (93), and Colonel Mario Adalberto Reyes Mena (85) were each sentenced to 15 years in prison for orchestrating and covering up the premeditated ambush.

The victims Jan Kuiper, Koos Koster, Hans ter Laag, and Joop Willemson were working for the Dutch broadcaster IKON and had travelled to El Salvador to document the country’s brutal civil war. On March 17, 1982, the journalists were ambushed and executed by soldiers from the U.S.-trained Atonal Battalion while attempting to interview FMLN guerrilla fighters in Chalatenango province. Reyes Mena, then a colonel, commanded the unit responsible for the operation.

A 1992 United Nations Truth Commission found the killings were deliberate and intended to intimidate the international press and prevent exposure of atrocities committed by the Salvadoran military. The case remained dormant for years under a sweeping post-war amnesty law, which was overturned by El Salvador’s Supreme Court in 2016.

In June 2025, a jury found all three men guilty. García and Morán, due to their advanced age and medical conditions, are serving their sentences under police supervision in private medical facilities. Reyes Mena, now living in the United States, has not been extradited but is subject to a formal request.

Alongside the criminal verdict, the court issued a symbolic ruling condemning the state’s decades-long delay in delivering justice and ordered President Nayib Bukele to issue a public apology to the victims’ families.

Human rights advocates praised the decision as a landmark ruling and a critical step in ending impunity for civil war-era crimes in El Salvador. The case is seen as a potential precedent for further prosecutions related to human rights abuses committed during the country’s 12-year conflict.

References –

https://nltimes.nl/2025/07/20/convicted-salvadoran-officials-appeal-sentences-1982-killings-dutch-journalists

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/4/el-salvador-convicts-army-officers-for-1982-killing-of-four-dutch-journalists

https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-dutch-journalists-civil-war-db77ab6e4af733edbf9633acc0266bfb