Ok, well I answered my own question.. I went out and took the other
door apart..

I was able to get all the screws out of the door panel after using the
other as a model..   I then just yanked the door panel out from the
inside.   The panel is the one thing that's heavy duty about this
van's body.

There is a little plastic tit on the end of a lever that apparently
applies all the force to the latch to open it, regardless of which
handle you use to open the door.    This tit fell out of the latch
when i probed it with a screwdriver.  I had to use the shank of a
drill bit to manually release the latch from inside the door.   Upon
opening the door, I found that the bottom two mounting screws were
about to rip the metal completely off the door.  Someone rear-ended
this van at some point, so I'm assuming this could have been caused
partially by the accident.   What kills me is that the metal is the
thickness of a Sapporo can.

Is there a newer part that superseded this piece of trash door latch?
Seriously, my family has owned a dodge van in one form or another for
my whole life and while the driver's doors may have sagged and been
hard to open occasionally, the latch mounts have *NEVER* ripped off
the door..  progress huh?   LOL