CENTREVILLE, Va. (AP) — The brother of a Dutch journalist slain in 1982 covering El Salvador's civil war has filed a lawsuit against a former Salvadoran military officer who has lived for decades in the northern Virginia suburbs and is accused of orchestrating the killing.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, seeks unspecified monetary damages against Mario Adalberto Reyes Mena and a declaration that he is responsible for the killings of Jan Kuiper and three other Dutch journalists.
Reyes Mena, now 85, was a colonel who commanded El Salvador’s Fourth Infantry Brigade. That unit, and Reyes Mena in particular, were declared responsible for the journalists' deaths by a United Nations Truth Commission that was established in 1992 as part of the peace agreement that ended El Salvador's civil war.
An estimated 75,000 civilians were killed during El Salvador’s civil war, mostly by U.S.-backed government security forces.
“The killing of the Dutch Journalists, which the U.N. Truth Commission highlighted as among the most emblematic crimes committed during the civil war, demonstrated the brutality with which the Salvadoran Security Forces sought to stifle national and international independent media in El Salvador,” the lawyers wrote in their complaint.
Kuiper and three other Dutch television journalists — Koos Koster, Hans ter Laag and Joop Willemsen — were ambushed as they tried to travel to territory controlled by the leftist guerilla group that was fighting the Salvadoran Security Forces. According to the truth commission, the killings occurred near the El Paraíso military base that was under the command of Reyes Mena, who ordered the ambush.
Kuiper's family and others who have sought to bring the journalists' killers to justice have been thwarted for decades. Shortly after the truth commission released its report, the Salvadoran government passed an amnesty law that shielded Reyes Mena and other military officers from prosecution.
But El Salvador's Supreme Court struck down the amnesty law as unconstitutional in 2016. In 2022, a judge ordered the arrest of Reyes Mena and others, including former defense minister Gen. José Guillermo García and Col. Francisco Antonio Morán, former director of the now-defunct treasury police, in connection with the journalists' killing.
According to the lawsuit, Reyes Mena ended his travel to El Salvador when the arrest warrants were issued. The lawsuit said there's no indication that Reyes Mena will be extradited, even though a notice seeking his arrest has been posted with Interpol.
The Salvadoran Embassy referred questions about efforts to extradite Reyes Mena to the country's court system, which said a formal public information request must be submitted. The U.S. State Department referred questions Friday to the Justice Department, which did not respond.
At Reyes Mena’s Centreville townhouse, a woman who identified herself as his wife declined to comment Thursday and said she would relay a reporter’s request for comment to their lawyer, whom she did not identify.
The Center for Justice and Accountability, a nonprofit legal group that filed the lawsuit on behalf of Kuiper's brother, Gert Kuiper, has brought multiple cases over the years against individuals accused of overseas war crimes under U.S. laws like the Torture Victim Protection Act.
In 2019, a jury at the Alexandria courthouse found a northern Virginia man who once served as a colonel in the Somali Army during the regime of dictator Siad Barre responsible for torturing a Somali man in the 1980s. The jury awarded $500,000 in damages. It also won a $21 million default judgement against a former Somali defense minister and prime minister, Mohamed Ali Samantar.
Other efforts to hold foreign officials accountable have failed. Earlier this year, a judge in Alexandria tossed out a series of civil lawsuits against a Libyan military commander, Khalifa Hifter, who used to live in Virginia and was accused of killing innocent civilians in that country’s civil war. The Hifter lawsuits were not brought by the Center for Justice and Accountability.
FILE - The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is seen, Sept. 9, 2024, in Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 12. 2018 photo, Oscar Perez, a spokesman for Gert Kuiper's legal team, holds a photograph of Koos Koster, one of four Dutch journalists - including Kuiper's brother, Jan - who were killed in 1982 in El Salvador. Calls are mounting for Mario Reyes Mena, a former Salvadoran army colonel, to be brought to justice for the killings. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File)
AURORA, Colo. (AP) — Donald Trump detoured from the battleground states Friday to visit a Colorado suburb that's been in the news over illegal immigration as he drives a message, often using false or misleading claims and dehumanizing language, that migrants are causing chaos in smaller American cities and towns.
Trump’s rally in Aurora marked the first time ahead of the November election that either presidential campaign has visited Colorado, which reliably votes Democratic statewide.
The Republican nominee has long promised to stage the largest deportation operation in U.S. history and has made immigration core to his political persona since the day he launched his first campaign in 2015. Over the last few months, Trump has pinpointed specific smaller communities that have seen large arrivals of migrants, with tensions flaring locally over resources and some longtime residents expressing distrust about sudden demographic changes.
Aurora entered the spotlight in August when a video circulated showing armed men walking through an apartment building housing Venezuelan migrants. Trump has claimed extensively that Venezuelan gangs are taking over buildings, even though authorities say that was a single block of the suburb near Denver, and the area is again safe.
Ignoring those denials from local authorities, Trump painted a picture of apartment complexes overrun by “barbaric thugs" and streets unsafe to travel, blaming President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's Democratic rival.
“They're ruining your state,” Trump said of the Democrats in the White House.
“No person who has inflicted the violence and terror that Kamala Harris has inflicted on this community can ever be allowed to become the president of the United States,” Trump added.
Trump often used dehumanizing language, referring to his political rivals as “scum” who are destroying “the fabric of your culture” and to migrants as “ animals " who have “invaded and conquered” Aurora. The town is “infected by Venezuela,” he said.
“We have to clean out our country,” Trump said. And he reprised the first controversy of his career in politics, when he launched his 2016 campaign by saying migrants are rapists and bring drugs and crime.
“I took a lot of heat for saying it, but I was right," Trump said Friday, repeating the false claim that other countries are emptying their prisons and mental institutions and dumping their worst criminals in the United States.
To thunderous applause, he called for the death penalty "for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer.”
Trump announced that as president he'd launch “Operation Aurora” to focus on deporting members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, or TDA. The violent gang traces its origins more than a decade to an infamously lawless prison with hardened criminals.
Trump also repeated his pledge to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law that allows the president to deport any noncitizen who is from a country that the U.S. is at war with.
In July, the Biden administration issued a sanction against the gang and offered $12 million in rewards for the arrest of three leaders.
Aurora resident Jodie Powell, a 54-year-old Republican, rejected Trump’s claims that Venezuelan gangs had taken over the city.
“That’s not the case,” said Powell, her bangs poking out below a white cap stamped with “Make America Great Again.” Still, Powell said, she’s seen an increase in crime she associates with newcomers, citing a police chase that ended at a store where she was shopping.
“It takes a small amount of people to make a big difference in the community,” said Powell, who ranks immigration as her top concern alongside the economy. “It’s scary, it’s a scary thing.”
At the venue where he appeared on Friday, posters displayed mug shots of people in prison-orange with descriptions including “Illegal immigrant gang members from Venezuela.”
“Look at all these photos around me," Stephen Miller, a former top aide who is expected to take a senior role in the White House if Trump wins, told the crowd before Trump spoke. “Are these the kids you grew up with? Are these the neighbors you were raised with? Are these the neighbors that you want in your city?” The crowd roared ”no" in reply.
Some of Colorado’s Democratic leaders accused Trump and other Republicans of overstating problems in Aurora.
“What is occurring is minimal and isolated. And to be clear, it’s never acceptable, right? We never say any level is acceptable,” said Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo. “But it’s not a surge. It’s not a change. There is no takeover of any part of this city, of any apartment complex. It has not happened. It is a lie.”
Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, also have spread falsehoods about a community in Springfield, Ohio, where they said Haitian immigrants were accused of stealing and eating pets.
While Ohio and Colorado are not competitive in the presidential race, the Republican message on immigration is intended for states that are. Vance campaigned recently in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, a city of 70,000 that has resettled refugees from Africa and Asia, and touted Trump's plan to ramp up deportations. He argues smaller communities have been “overrun” by immigrants taxing local resources.
Trump has vowed to deport not only “criminals,” a promise he shares with Harris, but also Haitians living legally in Springfield and even people he has denigrated as “pro-Hamas radicals” protesting on college campuses. Trump has said he would revoke the temporary protected status that allows Haitians to stay in the U.S. because of widespread poverty and violence in their home nation.
Harris has tacked to the right on immigration, presenting herself as a candidate who can be tough on policing the border, which is perceived as one of her biggest vulnerabilities.
She wrapped up a three-day western swing with a campaign event Friday in Scottsdale, Arizona, where Harris said she would create a bipartisan council of advisers to provide feedback on her policy initiatives if she makes it to the White House.
“I love good ideas wherever they come from,” said Harris, who is making a push to get Republicans with doubts about Trump to support her.
She also accused Trump of letting Iran “off the hook” while he was in office and made her case that she would be a greater champion for Israel’s security than the Republican nominee.
“Make no mistake, as president, I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend American forces and interests from Iran and Iran-backed terrorists,” Harris said in a call with Jewish supporters ahead of Yom Kippur. “And I will never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. Diplomacy is my preferred path to that end. But all options are on the table.”
Harris charged that Trump “did nothing” after Iranian-backed militias attacked U.S. bases and American troops.
But Trump in fact during his time in office had ordered strikes against Iranian backed militias as well as a January 2020 operation that killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force.
Harris participated virtually in a White House briefing with President Biden on the recovery effort from hurricanes Milton and Helene. She sought to reassure those who endured losses from the hurricane that they would get help from the government.
Gomez reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed.
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks as an attendee looks on at a campaign event Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she boards Air Force Two, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, en route to Washington. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump salutes at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump talks backstage before he speaks at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Supporters of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump check their mobile devices before Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Supporters wait to enter to see Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speak at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump departs a meeting of the Detroit Economic Club, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Supporters queue up to attend a rally with Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
