Salvador Cienfuegos

Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda (born 14 June 1948) is a retired Mexican Army officer.

Cienfuegos was born on 14 June 1948 in Mexico City to a seamstress mother and a father who was a lieutenant colonel in the Mexican Army.

His father died of a heart attack when he was two years old.

Cienfuegos enrolled at the Williams College in Mixcoac during the second year of his primary schooling.

Due to the tuition fees being high, he pursued a federal scholarship which he struggled to maintain due to his average grades.

After finishing schooling, Cienfuegos was admitted into the Heroic Military College on 23 January 1964, at the young age of fifteen, due to a special exemption granted to him by the college authorities.

He was also enlisted in the Mexican Army at the same time.

He graduated from the college in 1967 and became a second lieutenant-in-arms.

As a military officer, Cienfuegos experienced the actions of the Mexican Army during the students' movement and the Mexican Dirty War.

From 1 November 1967 to 15 December 1967, he served in the 6th Infantry Battalion in the state of Michoacán and was the Section Commander.

Later he served in the 3rd Infantry Battalion in Mexico City from 16 December 1967 to 31 August 1975 and was the commander of Company and Section departments.

He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on 1 November 1969, second captain on 20 November 1973 and first captain on 20 November 1976.

He completed his bachelor's degree in military administration from the Higher School of War in 1978 and graduated as an officer of the General Staff of the Mexican Army.

From 16 August 1978 to 15 August 1980, he served in the 27th Military Zone in the state of Guerrero and was the head of the First Section of the General Staff.

On 20 November 1979, Cienfuegos was promoted to the rank of major.

He was appointed as the head of the Plans Subsection of the 4th Section of the General Staff of National Defense on 16 August 1980, serving in the position till 28 February 1982.

He was appointed as an associate professor of the Logistics and Services section at his alma mater of Higher School of War on 16 June 1983, serving in that position till 31 August.

From 1 September 1983 to 31 December 1984, he was a professor in the Tactics and Engineering section.

He was also promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel on 20 November 1983.

On 1 January 1984, Cienfuegos was appointed as the professor of the General Staff section at the Higher School of War and stayed there till 31 August.

On 1 August, he was made a professor of the subject of Logistics and Services and also the head of the Group of the Pedagogical Area of Logistics and Services, in the Superior Course of Weapons and Services.

He remained in those positions till 30 June 1985.

He was also the head of the Technical Section of Research and Development from 1 March to 30 June 1985.

He was transferred as the head of the Pedagogical Section of the Heroic Military College on 1 July 1985, staying in the position till 15 January 1986.

From 16 January 1986 to 31 October 1988, he was the head of the 3rd Section (Operations) of the General Staff of National Defense.

He was appointed as the representative of the Secretariat of National Defense to the Advisory Council of the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards and the titular representative to the Planning Committee for the Development of the Federal District.

In March 1987, he attended a military conference of various nations at Fort Benning in the United States.

Cienfuegos addressed the topic of the role of the Mexican Army and the Air Force against drug trafficking.

He was promoted to the rank of colonel on 20 November 1987.

He was deployed as a military and air attaché to the Mexican embassies of Japan and South Korea from 1 November 1988 to 31 October 1990, while being based in Tokyo.

Later he served as the commander of the 14th Infantry Battalion, headquartered in the state of Jalisco, from 16 January to 30 September 1991.

On 1 October 1991, Cienfuegos became the commander of the Cadet Corps of the Heroic Military College, retaining that position till 15 July 1994.

On 20 November 1993, he achieved the rank of general brigadier.

A cadet enrolled at Heroic Military College during Cienfuegos' tenure as commander of the Cadet Corps, told Reporte Indigo that he had defended seniors who murdered a younger cadet in September 1993.

Although he regretted the killing, he stated that the behavior of the parents of the victim in initiating legal proceedings over it was not manly, but that of snitches, and asked other cadets to not talk about it to anyone.

The former cadet also told the outlet that Cienfuegos participated in drug-fueled parties on the campus, despite exhorting others about discipline.

Cienfuegos earned a master's degree in Military Administration for Homeland Security and Defense from the College of National Defense in 1995.

From 1 August 1995 to 30 August 1996, he was the Deputy Director General of the Federal Register of Firearms and Explosives Control, and later the director of the Center for Mexican Army and Air Force Studies from 1 September 1996 to 15 November 1997.

He was promoted to the rank of brigade general in 1997, and upon receiving it was also appointed as the director of his alma mater Heroic Military College, remaining in the position till the year 2000.

He served as the Secretary of National Defense in the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto from 2012 to 2018.