By The Star Staff
Police Members Association of Puerto Rico President Lt. José J. Taboada de Jesús mourned the death last week of Lt. Col. Rubén Quiles Rivera, one of the island police force’s most experienced officers in the area of community relations and administrative performance.
“We regret to report the death of Lieutenant Colonel Rubén Quiles Rivera, who served for more than three decades in various divisions of the uniformed force, occupying in an excellent way a series of high-ranking positions in the commands of Mayagüez and Aguadilla,” Taboada de Jesús said Saturday in a written statement. “Puerto Rico has a lot to thank this Puerto Rico Police officer for who has a record of many accomplishments. Officer Quiles Rivera retired in 1992, but he still continued to volunteer his help and advice to community organizations that required his knowledge gained from years of service in the security force.”
Quiles Rivera, who died at the age of 94, received a Christian burial Saturday at the New Municipal Cemetery in Hormigueros.
Taboada called Quiles Rivera a “hero of the Puerto Rico Police” who had a highly productive service record.
“We remember that the performance, conduct and skills of Lieutenant Colonel Rubén Quiles Rivera managed to control the passions in the problems that arose in protests, marches and even riots in the towns where he served as a police officer,” Taboada de Jesús said. “We are united by a great personal and service friendship with one who was possibly the lieutenant colonel with the most friends in the uniformed force and in the community he served, and whom we all appreciate.”
Quiles Rivera is survived by his wife Rebeca, to whom he was married for some 65 years. They had five children.