The brother of a Dutch journalist who was killed in El Salvador during the civil war in 1982 has filed a lawsuit against a former Salvadoran military officer, Mario Adalberto Reyes Mena, who has been living in northern Virginia for years. The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages and a declaration that Reyes Mena is responsible for the killings of Jan Kuiper and three other Dutch journalists. Reyes Mena, now 85 years old, was a colonel who commanded El Salvador’s Fourth Infantry Brigade and was implicated in the journalists’ deaths by a United Nations Truth Commission.
Kuiper and his colleagues were ambushed while trying to travel to territory controlled by leftist guerillas, near a military base under Reyes Mena’s command. The killings were considered emblematic crimes of the civil war and highlighted the brutality of the Salvadoran Security Forces towards national and international journalists. Despite efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice over the years, Reyes Mena and other military officers were shielded from prosecution by an amnesty law passed shortly after the truth commission’s report. However, the law was struck down as unconstitutional in 2016, leading to arrest warrants for Reyes Mena and others involved in the killings.
Reyes Mena stopped traveling to El Salvador after the arrest warrants were issued, and it is uncertain whether he will be extradited despite Interpol’s notice seeking his arrest. The Salvadoran Embassy referred inquiries about extradition efforts to the country’s court system, while the U.S. State Department redirected questions to the Justice Department, which did not respond to requests for comment. The lawsuit against Reyes Mena was filed by the Center for Justice and Accountability on behalf of Kuiper’s brother, Gert Kuiper, a nonprofit legal group that has pursued cases against individuals accused of war crimes under U.S. laws like the Torture Victim Protection Act.
Previous cases handled by the Center for Justice and Accountability have resulted in successful outcomes, such as holding individuals accountable for torture and other atrocities committed abroad. However, there have also been instances where efforts to seek justice have been unsuccessful, like the dismissal of civil lawsuits against a Libyan military commander accused of killing civilians in the country’s civil war. Despite these challenges, the lawsuit against Reyes Mena represents a continued commitment to seeking accountability for human rights violations and war crimes committed during conflicts around the world.
