He gained notoriety for preventing the police investigators from interviewing Mexican soldiers over the kidnapping of 43 students in Iguala and defending the soldiers accused of massacring 22 suspects in Tlatlaya in 2014. In an interview with "El Universal" in June 2015, he criticized the 2014 reform by the Congress of the Union, subjecting the Army to prosecution by civilian courts for crimes and said it made the force vulnerable. After the publication of a video showing soldiers torturing a young woman in Ajuchitlán del Progreso in 2015, Salvador however apologized for the incident on 16 April 2016 unlike past instances, while urging people to report about any abuses they were aware of. He also stated that those committing such acts had no place in the armed forces.