MIAMI (AP) — A former Central American general says he did not commit or order any acts of torture or extrajudicial killings during El Salvador's brutal civil war.

Jose Guillermo Garcia testified in his own defense during a deportation hearing in Miami on Tuesday.

The ex-defense minister said it was public knowledge that members of the military had committed abuses against civilians. He said he took action to prevent them by inviting the Red Cross to access military quarters and making soldiers aware of their obligations to the civilian population.

He said there were investigations into reports of massacres but that they were limited by the available information.

El Salvador's civil war from 1979 to 1992 left 75,000 people dead and thousands more missing.