{"id":9250,"date":"2025-07-18T11:36:30","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/?p=9250"},"modified":"2025-10-14T17:38:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T00:38:49","slug":"uwchr-provides-historical-documentation-of-1982-killings-of-dutch-journalists-in-el-salvador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2025\/07\/18\/uwchr-provides-historical-documentation-of-1982-killings-of-dutch-journalists-in-el-salvador\/","title":{"rendered":"UWCHR Provides Historical Documentation of 1982 Killings of Dutch Journalists in El Salvador"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On June 3, 2025, a court in rural El Salvador read the text of its historic verdict, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/06\/04\/world\/americas\/el-salvador-killings-dutch-journalists-1982.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">for the first time holding high-ranking former military men accountable for the violence against civilians<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that characterized the country\u2019s long and bloody armed conflict.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The case involved the March 1982 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.comunicandonos.org.sv\/especial-la-emboscada\/english.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">killings of Dutch journalists Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper, Hans ter Laag and Joop Willemsen, alongside four others presumed to be Salvadoran guerrillas<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, though their identities remain unknown. The court found that the men were killed in an ambush planned by Colonel Mario Adalberto Reyes Mena with knowledge of other military leaders, and sentenced retired Minister of Defense Colonel Jos\u00e9 Guillermo Garc\u00eda, retired Colonel Francisco Mor\u00e1n, and retired Colonel Mario Adalberto Reyes Mena, to 15 years in prison. Further, the court ordered President Nayib Bukele, in his role as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, to issue a public apology to the victims\u2019 families for the state\u2019s role in delaying justice for decades.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This groundbreaking verdict comes in the midst of new and urgent concerns about violations of human rights in El Salvador, including widespread acts of repression against human rights defenders, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/sspas.org.sv\/sspas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Informe-de-agresiones-contra-personas-defensoras-y-periodistas-Formato-digital.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">including journalists.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Several leaders have been arrested in recent months and are currently held as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/latest\/press-release\/2025\/07\/el-salvador-amnistia-internacional-declara-presos-de-conciencia\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">prisoners of conscience in El Salvador\u2019s notorious prison system<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2014the same system to which the United States government expelled hundreds of men, mostly Venezuelan nationals, in March 2025.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The violation of rights in El Salvador\u2014then and now\u2014is also inextricably linked to the role of the United States. During the war, the U.S. government served as a principal source of funding, training, and support for the Salvadoran military, which committed these crimes in the context of its counterinsurgency war against the FMLN guerrillas. Former Minister of Defense Guillermo Garc\u00eda, in fact, based his assertion of innocence in the Dutch journalists case largely on the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.laprensagrafica.com\/elsalvador\/General-Guillermo-Garcia-sostiene-su-inocencia-tras-ser-condenado-por-asesinato-de-periodistas-holandeses-20250702-0052.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">unequivocal support he claims to have received from the United States.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> However, UWCHR Director Angelina Godoy\u2019s analysis of U.S. documents about the killings, and about Garc\u00eda\u2019s communications with U.S. officials throughout the conflict, was actually part of the evidence cited by the court in convicting him under the doctrine of command responsibility. In fact, the historical documents paint a dramatically different picture than what Garc\u00eda claims: they show that Garc\u00eda was repeatedly reprimanded by U.S. officials for atrocities committed by troops under his command, some of which he admitted; and yet, he took no discernible action to seriously investigate past crimes or prevent their repetition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>For this reason, UWCHR is proud to share the extracts from Dr. Godoy\u2019s testimony, which draws on our Center\u2019s fifteen years of engagement with historical documents pertaining to the conflict in El Salvador. <\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/unfinishedsentences.org\/reports\/killings-of-dutch-journalists\/\">Continue reading here \u2192<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On June 3, 2025, a court in rural El Salvador read the text of its historic verdict, for the first time holding high-ranking former military men accountable for the violence against civilians that characterized the country\u2019s long and bloody armed conflict. The case involved the March 1982 killings of Dutch journalists Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper,<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2025\/07\/18\/uwchr-provides-historical-documentation-of-1982-killings-of-dutch-journalists-in-el-salvador\/\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":675,"featured_media":9251,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,15,24],"tags":[456,80,84,157],"class_list":["post-9250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2024-2025","category-news","category-unfinished-sentences","tag-dutch-journalists","tag-el-salvador","tag-foia","tag-unfinished-sentences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UWCHR Provides Historical Documentation of 1982 Killings of Dutch Journalists in El Salvador - Center for Human Rights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2025\/07\/18\/uwchr-provides-historical-documentation-of-1982-killings-of-dutch-journalists-in-el-salvador\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UWCHR Provides Historical Documentation of 1982 Killings of Dutch Journalists in El Salvador - Center for Human Rights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On June 3, 2025, a court in rural El Salvador read the text of its historic verdict, for the first time holding high-ranking former military men accountable for the violence against civilians that characterized the country\u2019s long and bloody armed conflict. The case involved the March 1982 killings of Dutch journalists Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2025\/07\/18\/uwchr-provides-historical-documentation-of-1982-killings-of-dutch-journalists-in-el-salvador\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Center for Human Rights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uwchr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-18T18:36:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-15T00:38:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2025\/07\/dutch-journos-text-750x500.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1050\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andrea Marcos\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uwchr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@uwchr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andrea Marcos\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2025\/07\/18\/uwchr-provides-historical-documentation-of-1982-killings-of-dutch-journalists-in-el-salvador\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2025\/07\/18\/uwchr-provides-historical-documentation-of-1982-killings-of-dutch-journalists-in-el-salvador\/\",\"name\":\"UWCHR Provides Historical Documentation of 1982 Killings of Dutch Journalists in El Salvador - Center for Human Rights\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2025\/07\/18\/uwchr-provides-historical-documentation-of-1982-killings-of-dutch-journalists-in-el-salvador\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2025\/07\/18\/uwchr-provides-historical-documentation-of-1982-killings-of-dutch-journalists-in-el-salvador\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2025\/07\/dutch-journos-text-750x500.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-18T18:36:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-15T00:38:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/#\/schema\/person\/709faaefbbdc883d7b3b0fdab91a470f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2025\/07\/18\/uwchr-provides-historical-documentation-of-1982-killings-of-dutch-journalists-in-el-salvador\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2025\/07\/18\/uwchr-provides-historical-documentation-of-1982-killings-of-dutch-journalists-in-el-salvador\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2025\/07\/18\/uwchr-provides-historical-documentation-of-1982-killings-of-dutch-journalists-in-el-salvador\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2025\/07\/dutch-journos-text-750x500.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2025\/07\/dutch-journos-text-750x500.jpg\",\"width\":1050,\"height\":700,\"caption\":\"Black and white photo of four Dutch journalists who were killed in 1982 in El Salvador, overlaid with an old type-written excerpt from a document received by UWCHR through FOIA saying \\\"4. 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