On this day in 1982, the Salvadoran army assassinated a group of Dutch journalists and FMLN soldiers in violation of international law. The murders caused international outrage, and the colonel who ordered the attack fled to the U.S.

The four journalists had arrived in El Salvador on February 24th, 1982 to report on the ongoing Salvadoran Civil War, fought between the right-wing military junta ruling the country with U.S. support, and the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).

As part of their work, the journalists visited Mariona prison in San Salvador to interview and film prisoners accused of belonging to the guerrilla forces. The videos filmed by the journalists included shots of prisoners' scars, which the prisoners said were the result of torture.

This work earned the ire of the military, and the journalists were interrogated by the Director-General of the Treasury Police on March 11th. Despite being advised to leave by Jan Pierre Lucien Schmeitz, another Dutch journalist, as well as their FMLN contacts, the group decided to stay to complete their work.

On March 17th, 1982, soldiers from the Atonal Battalion, acting on orders from Colonel Reyes Mena, assassinated the journalists while they were traveling with a group of five FMLN soldiers. All but one of the FMLN guerillas survived.

The deaths caused international outrage, including mass protests in the Netherlands. The Dutch government conducted an investigation which uncovered the fact that U.S. soldiers were present at the base the day of the massacre.

The 1993 Report of the UN Truth Commission on El Salvador concluded that the murders were a targeted assassination by the state (not an "accident", as the Salvadoran President claimed), and were in violation of international law. The report was aided by the testimony of "Martin", the lone survivor of the attack.

Salvadoran Col. Reyes Mena, whom the U.N. concluded ordered the massacre, fled to the United States after the incident. Reyes Mena was discovered in Virginia and confronted at his home by the Dutch organization ZEMBLA in 2018.