René Emilio Ponce

Brigadier General René Emilio Ponce
Birth name	René Emilio Ponce Torres
Born	27 April 1947 Sensuntepeque, El Salvador
Died	2 May 2011(2011-05-02) (aged 64) San Salvador, El Salvador
Allegiance	El Salvador
Service/branch	Salvadoran Army
Years of service	1966–1993
Rank	Brigadier General
Battles/wars	Salvadoran Civil War


21st Minister of National Defense
In office August 1990 – June 1993
Preceded by	Rafael Humberto Larios López
Succeeded by	Humberto Corado Figueroa

Personal details
Nationality	Salvadoran
Alma mater	Captain General Gerardo Barrios Military School
Occupation	Military officer

René Emilio Ponce Torres (27 April 1947 – 2 May 2011) was a senior military officer in the Salvadoran Army during the nation's civil war, and minister of defense from 1990 to 1993. He was a member of La Tandona, the class of 1966 at the Captain General Gerardo Barrios Military School. As head of the army's joint chiefs of staff he was linked, according to a report published by a Truth Commission, to the 1989 murders of Jesuits in El Salvador, although no judicial authority has rendered a decision finding him guilty. It is worth to note that the 1992 Peace Accords, which ended the armed conflict, explicitly deprived, the Truth Commission's Report, of any value as trial evidence. Ponce died on 2 May 2011 at a military hospital in San Salvador, due to complications arising from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.^[1]^[2] Ponce's signature can be seen at the end of the document containing the 1992 Peace Accords, which ended El Salvador's civil war.

References

^ René Emilio Ponce, El Salvador General Linked to Priests’ Murders, Dies at 64
^ "Rene Emilio Ponce dies at 64". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2017-02-11.