Everybody in America old enough recalls the tragic case of Natalee Holloway, the 18-year-old girl from Alabama who disappeared during a vacation in Aruba in 2005. For months, cable news covered the story. Fox News (Greta van Susteren) interviewed the editor of the Aruban newspaper, Diaro, Jossy Mansur, on a nightly basis. Aside from being a newspaper editor, historian, and expert on the history of Papiamentu, the language of Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire, Mansur was a prominent figure in Aruba and was as well placed as anyone to find out information.
A few years prior to the Holloway case, I interviewed Mansur in Aruba while researching my book on Papiamentu. (The Story of Papiamentu- A Study in Slavery and Language.) Mansur also published a Papiamentu-English dictionary. He died in 2016.
In spite of everything, Natalee's body was never found, and it is assumed she was murdered. Suspicion quickly fell on Joran van der Sloot, a young Dutchman and petty criminal, who was the last person to see her alive. The case was not only a sensation in the US and Aruba, but in the Netherlands as well. At one point, van der Sloot, back in his home country, was surreptitiously tape-recorded by famed investigative journalist Peter R. de Vries as he (Van der Sloot) made incriminating admissions to de Vries about the disappearance. (In 2021, de Vries was shot and killed, allegedly by the Moroccan Maffia in Amsterdam.)
Ultimately, Van der Sloot escaped justice-at least until 2010 when he murdered a young woman in his hotel room in Peru. For that crime, he is serving 28 years in prison.
Now Peru has agreed to temporarily hand him over to US authorities in order to try him for extortion and fraud against the mother of Natalee, Beth Holloway. Van der Sloot allegedly promised Beth where her daughter's body could be found. Obviously, he never fulfilled that promise.
So now the story comes back to haunt Aruba. I was wondering how they are reporting this story on that island. Thus, I have translated the below article from today's Diario, which is a Papiamentu-language newspaper.
Joran van der Sloot will be extradited to America from Peru
May 12, 2023
The government of Peru lending Joran to America to try his crimes
Peru: Joran van der Sloot is the last person who saw the young 18-year-old American, Natalee Holloway, here in Aruba in 2005 before her disappearance.
Currently, Joran is locked up in prison in Peru where he was condemned to a sentence of 28 years (to June 10, 2038) for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores Ramirez, whom he met in a casino, and then took to his hotel room to steal from her, and killed her, for which he decided to flee to Chile, the country from where he was expelled and sent back to Peru.
In relation to this crime, as soon as he completes his sentence in the prison of Challapalca, Joran must be expelled from Peru. In addition, he must pay 200,000 soles to the family of the young woman.
But now, he must be delivered to America in relation to the crimes of extortion and fraud against Elizabeth Ann Holloway (known in Aruba as Beth Holloway), mother of Natalee, in exchange for revealing where the body of Natalee could be found.
After Joran got what he wanted, he sent back an email in which he denied everything.
The Peruvian government has now agreed to deliver Joran temporarily in response to a request from America for purposes of trying him for the aforementioned crimes against Beth Holloway.
This decision was made by the Cabinet Council of Peru last Wednesday.
Natalee Holloway was seen for the last (time) in the early morning hours of 30 May 2005 when she was leaving a nightclub with Joran van der Sloot and two other men. Till now, no person has been prosecuted for her disappearance.
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