Sigifredo Ochoa Pérez (2 April 1942 – 6 January 2023) was a Salvadoran military officer and politician.

Biography

Sigifredo Ochoa Pérez was born in El Salvador on 2 April 1942. He was a colonel in the

Salvadoran Army The Salvadoran Army (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Ejército Salvadoreño'') is the land branch and largest of the Armed Forces of El Salvador. Conflicts The Football War The Football War (also called The Soccer War or 100-hours War) was a ...

during the

Salvadoran Civil War The Salvadoran Civil War ( es, guerra civil de El Salvador) was a twelve year period of civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition or ...

. According to declassified documents from the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

(CIA), Ochoa allegedly was a commanding officer of the

El Calabozo massacre The El Calabozo massacre was an incident during the Salvadoran Civil War on 21–22 August 1982, in which more than two hundred people, including children and elderly, were reportedly killed at El Calabozo by the Atlácatl Battalion of the Salvad ...

which killed over 200 people in 1982. As a member of the right-wing

Nationalist Republican Alliance The Nationalist Republican Alliance ( es, Alianza Republicana Nacionalista, ARENA) is a conservative, right-wing political party of El Salvador. It was founded on 30 September 1981 by retired Salvadoran Army Major Roberto D'Aubuisson. It defines ...

(ARENA), Ochoa served as El Salvador's ambassador to Honduras under President

Antonio Saca Elías Antonio "Tony" Saca González (born 9 March 1965) is a El Salvador, Salvadoran politician who was President of El Salvador from 1 June 2004 to 1 June 2009. He is currently serving a minimum 10-year prison sentence on corruption charges. ...

from 2005 to 2009. Ochoa was dismissed from his position by President

Mauricio Funes Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena (born 18 October 1959) is a Salvadoran politician and former journalist who served as President of El Salvador from 2009 to 2014. Funes won the 2009 Salvadoran presidential election, 2009 presidential election as ...

after he accepted an award from the Honduran government which deposed President

Manuel Zelaya José Manuel Zelaya Rosales (born 20 September 1952)Encyclopædia BritannicaManuel Zelaya/ref> is a Honduran politician who was President of Honduras from 27 January 2006 until 28 June 2009, and who since January 2022 serves as the first Fir ...

, which Funes' government did not recognize at the time. He later served as a deputy of the Legislative Assembly from 2012 to 2015. He later left the party and joined

Salvadoran Democracy Salvadoran Democracy ( es, Democracia Salvadoreña, abbreviated DS) is a Salvadoran political party. History Salvadoran Democracy was registered with the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) on 13 September 2013, making it eligible to participate ...

(DS). In June 2022, he was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment for misappropriating USD$41,040 while being an ambassador. Ochoa died in a traffic accident in San Juan Opico on 6 January 2023, at the age of 80.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ochoa, Sigifredo 1942 births 2023 deaths Nationalist Republican Alliance politicians