El “Flaco”, as his relatives knew him, was a political prisoner during the civic-military dictatorship and leader of the Vertiente Artiguista.
Martín Ponce de León (n. 1943), one of the founders of the Broad Front – he was a signer of the agreement of February 5, 1971 – and former Undersecretary of Industry, Energy and Mining during the first government of Tabaré Vázquez, died this Wednesday, confirmed from the Artiguista Side, a sector that he founded in 1989 and was a member of until his death.
An electrical industrial engineer by profession, he was a student leader, a UTE official and a trade union delegate of the Central Batlle in AUTE.
He was a political prisoner from February 1974 to October 1979 during the civic-military dictatorship and during the period 1990 and 1995 he acted as alternate senator.
As a deputy, he held his seat from 2000 to 2010 and was a member of and chaired the Treasury Committee of the House of Representatives from 2000 to 2005.
He was part of the government team of Vázquez in the Municipality of Montevideo as director of Works (1990-92) and of Environmental Planning (1992-95) and of Mariano Arana as general director of Environmental Development (1995-96).
Professor at the Faculty of Engineering between 1970 and 1973 and in 1985 and 1990 and at the Faculty of Architecture in 1998 and 1999.
Ponce de León’s wake will be in Previsión (Dr Javier Barrios Amorín 1076) from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. at La Huella de Seregni, headquarters of the Broad Front, (Germán Barbato 1431). His funeral will be held at the Buceo Cemetery.
