Salvadoran Colonel Mario Adalberto Reyes Mena has been a fugitive from Salvadoran justice for two years and all you have to do is search on the internet to know where to find him. In Centerville, Virginia, a town located on the east coast of the United States. However, the retired soldier, accused of the murder of four Dutch journalists during the civil war in El Salvador (1980-1992), has managed to evade authority to this day. This Thursday, a group of human rights organizations filed a civil complaint against him before the Eastern District Court of that state.
Reyes Mena has been wanted since October 12, 2022 by a Salvadoran court and wanted by Interpol since at least April 2023 after being identified as the main person responsible for the massacre of journalists Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper, Joop Willemse and Hans ter. Laag, from the IKON network, murdered by soldiers on March 17, 1982. According to the accusation, the events occurred while journalists were documenting human rights violations by the Salvadoran Armed Forces during the armed conflict. The case has gone unpunished for more than 40 years.
The recent accusation, of which EL PAÍS has a copy, has been presented in a personal capacity by Gert Kuiper, brother of Jan, one of the massacred journalists. According to the lawsuit, in addition to the journalists, four guerrillas who served as guides were murdered in the ambush, including a 12-year-old boy.
The journalists Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper, Joop Willemse and Hans ter Laag, murdered by soldiers on March 17, 1982.Communicating Foundation
The complaint filed in Virginia is a civil lawsuit that seeks financial compensation in favor of Kuiper; However, according to the lawyers who presented it, this also seeks to legitimize the case before the United States so that he can be deported and face justice in El Salvador for the four victims.
According to Claret Vargas, principal attorney at the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), one of the organizations that supports the lawsuit in the United States, although Reyes Mena has a red notice from Interpol, it is not possible. capture, because the laws of that country protect him. “The United States does not consider that a red notice alone constitutes a sufficient basis for the detention of a person, since it does not meet the requirements established in the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution,” can be read on the Department of Justice website. Washington Justice.
In 1982, at the time of the events, Reyes Mena was commander of the Fourth Infantry Brigade, where the ambush was planned and where the battalion that committed the massacre came from. Along with him, four other soldiers are also accused. These are General José Guillermo García, former Minister of Defense, Colonel Francisco Antonio Morán, former director of the Treasury Police, Sergeant Mario Canizales Espinoza (who led the patrol that carried out the ambush) and General Rafael Flores Lima, former head of the General Staff of El Salvador. Of these, the first two have been imprisoned since 2022 in a hospital in the Salvadoran capital alleging health problems and the last two have already died.
With this lawsuit, there are three investigations against Reyes Mena since he is also being investigated in Holland. According to the accusation presented this Thursday, the retired soldier lives in Virginia, where he was located six years ago thanks to a report made by the Dutch television program Zembla. The report, in addition to confronting the accused with the documents that support his accusation, revealed that American advisors were involved in the case. The role of the United States in the Salvadoran civil war was key and consisted not only of financing but also of military training and advice.
Former Minister of Defense José Guillermo García, another of those accused of the murder.Communicating Foundation
After the end of the war in January 1992, the case of the murder of the Dutch journalists was documented by the UN Truth Commission in the report From Madness to Hope, published in 1993. The report documented at least 160 massacres most committed during the Salvadoran civil war, most at the hands of the Army. The document identifies Reyes Mena as one of the main people responsible for the deaths of the journalists.
Following the publication of the UN report, the Salvadoran Parliament approved a general amnesty law that protected and prevented investigations against the perpetrators. However, that law was abolished by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice in 2016. Starting that year, the Salvadoran Prosecutor’s Office opened several criminal cases for crimes against humanity. In 2018, the relatives of the four journalists filed a lawsuit with the Salvadoran authorities and in 2022 a court ordered the arrest of the accused.
Impunity for victims of war in El Salvador
Since the Salvadoran justice system repealed the General Amnesty Law in 2016, the Prosecutor’s Office has opened several investigations into emblematic massacres committed during the civil war, and even created a specialized unit for it. Among the massacres that have been brought to court is the largest committed in America to date, the El Mozote massacre, which occurred on December 11, 1981, in which soldiers killed almost a thousand people, most of them women and children. However, no case has led to a conviction.
In the case of El Mozote, one of the biggest impediments to reaching justice has been that all governments, including two from the FMLN, the ex-guerrilla, have refused to open military archives in which there may be relevant information.
With the arrival of President Nayib Bukele to power in 2019, the president offered the victims to open the military archives in their entirety. “We are for the truth to be known in its entire spectrum: from A to Z. What’s more, if the judge asks us from A to F, we are going to do up to Z,” said the popular president five months ago. then take possession. However, a year after his words, like his predecessors, he denied the judge access to the General Staff compound, alleging a plot and without presenting any evidence. And the following year, in 2021, he dismissed the judge who had handled the case for years, entrusting it to a new judge who has paralyzed the process.
The Interpol search image of Mario Adalberto Reyes Mena.
The only case that has prospered until reaching trial was opened on January 11, 2023 against four former guerrillas accused of killing a woman in the context of war. The case, however, has generated a lot of controversy in El Salvador since the four accused were community leaders who fought against metal mining. In this case, the victims will face a trial this Thursday.
