The final phase of the trial against a former Defense Minister of El Salvador and two colonels for their alleged responsibility in the murder of four Dutch journalists in 1982 will begin on April 23, as reported this Monday by two NGOs. Journalists Jan Cornelius Kuiper Joop, Koos Jacobus Andries Koster, Hans Lodewijk ter Laag, and Johannes Jan Willemsen were killed exactly 43 years ago, on March 17, 1982, in a military ambush in Chalatenango (north), while filming a documentary about the Salvadoran civil war (1980-1992).
The decisive stage of this “historic trial,” which could last a week, was “scheduled for Wednesday, April 23, 2025,” according to a statement from the Salvadoran Association for Human Rights, plaintiff in the case, and the Comunicándonos Foundation, which also assists relatives of the victims. Two of the accused remain under arrest in a private hospital in the Salvadoran capital: 91-year-old General José Guillermo García, former Defense Minister, and the former director of the dissolved Treasury Police, Colonel Francisco Antonio Morán (93).
The third defendant is the former commander of the Fourth Infantry Brigade, based in Chalatenango, Mario Reyes Mena, 85, who lives in the United States. The Salvadoran Supreme Court approved the request for his extradition a week ago. Lawyer Pedro Cruz, who represents the families of the victims, explained that in this final hearing of a process that began in 2018, the court must evaluate the evidence and issue its ruling.
The hearing, which can be held without the presence of Colonel Reyes, is in charge of the Court of First Instance of Dulce Nombre de María, 78 km north of San Salvador. The three accused former military chiefs are retired. In 1993, a Truth Commission, created by the UN, concluded that the death of the Dutch journalists “was the consequence of a previously planned ambush” by Colonel Reyes with “the knowledge of other officers.”
