Flyers distributed outside the courthouse demand justice for the four murdered Dutch journalists. (Photo: David Ramírez / Fundación Comunicándonos)
Three former senior Salvadoran military officers were each sentenced to 15 years in prison for the 1982 murders of four Dutch journalists. The judge also condemned the Salvadoran government for its delay in obtaining justice and ordered the Commander of the Armed Forces to apologize to the victims on behalf of the government.
Former Defense Minister José Guillermo García; former director of the Treasury Police (a type of intelligence police), Francisco Antonio Morán; and former Colonel Mario A. Reyes Mena, commander of the Fourth Infantry Brigade, were found guilty of homicide.
“The fight against impunity has been a long time coming, but it has been won. The Netherlands feels empowered to continue this fight,” said Arjen van den Berg, the Netherlands’ ambassador to Costa Rica for Central America, in public statements to media waiting outside the courthouse. The ambassador expressed his joy for the journalists’ families because “they can close a difficult chapter in their lives.”
Jan Kuiper, Koos Koster, Joop Willemsen and Hans teer Laag were part of the Dutch television company IKON and had come to El Salvador to make a documentary to show the contrast between life in San Salvador and in rural areas where the conflict between the country's Armed Forces and the insurgent group FMLN was taking place.
According to the Truth Commission report, Koster, the journalist who led the team, was viewed by the country's authorities as a supporter of the FMLN guerrillas. This came after Koster reported on the country's death squads.
Oscar Pérez from Fundación Comunicándonos and lawyer Pedro Cruz speak to members of the press outside the courthouse. (Photo: David Ramírez / Fundación Comunicándonos)
For this reason, the Commission says, the team of journalists was followed by intelligence police from the moment they arrived in the country. Eventually, officers ordered an ambush by state forces, in which the four journalists were killed, along with some guerrillas who were acting as guides for the reporters while they were taken to the most conflict-ridden areas, the report concludes.
After 43 years of impunity, this is the first crime against humanity in El Salvador that’s recorded in the country’s United Nations Truth Commission report to reach the trial stage, and now sentencing, according to the Comunicándonos Foundation, which represents the families of the journalists in El Salvador along with the Salvadoran Association for Human Rights (Asdehu, for its acronym in Spanish).
"Today, truth and justice are on the side of the victims, not the perpetrators," said Oscar Antonio Pérez, foundation director.
The trial, which took place on June 3 and was closed to the public, was held at the Chalatenango Judicial Center without the presence of the three men who have now been convicted and sentenced. García and Morán have been in pretrial detention for two years, although they are serving their time in a hospital citing health problems.
Pedro Cruz, from Asdehu and trial attorney in the case, added that the conviction will trigger an extradition request for Reyes Mena, who is currently in Virginia, United States. "There is no legal obstacle or pretext for him not to be extradited," the lawyer said.
Oscar Pérez speaks to journalists outside the Judicial Center of Chalatenango. (Photo: David Ramírez / Fundación Comunicándonos)
The journalists' relatives were also absent from the trial, as it was rescheduled and they were unable to travel to El Salvador.
"It's a tremendous joy; truth and justice have prevailed in El Salvador. We are defeating impunity, the impunity of the past," Pérez said.
"Justice was served tonight here in Chalatenango," Cruz said. The lawyer explained that the sentence, which had been requested by the Prosecutor's Office and granted by the judge, was the minimum, considering the health and age of the convicted men.
In the United States, Jan Kuiper's family is also filing a civil lawsuit against Reyes Mena.
In previous statements to LJR through his attorney in the United States, Gert Kuiper, Jan's brother, said that the goal of these cases was not to secure long sentences but to set precedents.
“When the criminal case finally occurs in El Salvador, jurisprudence can be built so that 200 more murder cases related to the aforementioned war can be heard,” he said.
