Francisco Flores Pérez
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Francisco Guillermo Flores Pérez (17 October 1959 – 30 January 2016) was a Salvadoran politician who served as
President of El Salvador President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
from 1 June 1999 to 1 June 2004 as a member of the conservative
Nationalist Republican Alliance The Nationalist Republican Alliance (, abbreviated ARENA) is a conservative, center-right to right-wing political party of El Salvador. It was founded on 30 September 1981 by retired Salvadoran Army Major Roberto D'Aubuisson. It defines itse ...
(ARENA). He previously served as a deputy of the Legislative Assembly from 1994 to 1999, having been president of the Assembly from 1997 to 1999. Flores was born in Santa Ana. He entered politics in the
Alfredo Cristiani Alfredo Félix Cristiani Burkard (born 22 November 1947) is a Salvadoran politician who was President of El Salvador from 1989 to 1994. Life and career Born into a wealthy family in San Salvador, his father Felix Cristiani was an Italian im ...
administration, serving various positions until his election to the Legislative Assembly, of which he became president after three years. He successfully ran for president in 1999. His administration was characterized by close alignment with the
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, including the
adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, fro ...
of the U.S. dollar. After the end of his presidency, he unsuccessfully ran for
Secretary General of the Organization of American States The Secretary General of the Organization of American States is the highest position within the Organization of American States. Duties According to the Charter of the Organization of American States: Secretaries General of the OAS ...
. Flores was accused in May 2014 of pocketing US$15 million donated by
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
, intended for survivors of the
January January is the first month of the year in the Julian calendar, Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. The first day of the month is known as New Year's Day. It is, on average, the coldest month of the year within most of the No ...
and
February February is the second month of the year in the Julian calendar, Julian and Gregorian calendars. The month has 28 days in common years and 29 in leap years, with the February 29, 29th day being called the ''leap day''. February is the third a ...
2001 El Salvador earthquakes, which occurred during his presidency. He was the first former Salvadoran president to be indicted and tried on corruption charges. He was placed under house arrest, but died before he could stand trial.


Background

Flores was born on 17 October 1959, in the city of Santa Ana, the capital of Santa Ana Department. He was one of three children of Maria Leonor Pérez de Flores, an
ethnographer Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...
and
folklorist Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics, tradition studies or folk life studies in the UK) is the academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the ac ...
, and Ulises Flores, an
economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
. Flores graduated from the Escuela Americana El Salvador. He earned an associate degree in sociology from the
University of Hartford The University of Hartford (UHart) is a private university in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States. Its main campus extends into neighboring Hartford and Bloomfield. It enrolled approximately 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students as ...
's Hillyer College, then, majored in political science at
Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...
in
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, United States, and received a master's degree in philosophy at World University, California. He also studied law, philosophy and economic development at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
and history and literature at
Trinity College, Oxford Trinity College (full name: The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope (Knight)) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in E ...
. He entered politics shortly before the assassination of his father-in-law, who was chief of staff to
Alfredo Cristiani Alfredo Félix Cristiani Burkard (born 22 November 1947) is a Salvadoran politician who was President of El Salvador from 1989 to 1994. Life and career Born into a wealthy family in San Salvador, his father Felix Cristiani was an Italian im ...
.


Political career

Flores started his political career as a vice-minister for planning during Alfredo Cristiani's presidency in 1989. Later he served as a vice-minister of the Presidency, with functions as adviser of the head of state, and directed the plan of governmental action in accordance with the peace accords of January 1992 that ended fighting with the
Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (, abbreviated FMLN) is a Salvadoran political party and former guerrilla rebel group. The FMLN was formed as an umbrella group on 10 October 1980, from five leftist guerrilla organizations; ...
(FMLN) guerilla group. In the
elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...
of 20 March 1994, Flores was elected to the Legislative Assembly and the new president, Armando Calderón, made him Secretary of Information of the Presidency. In 1997, Flores was elected as the President of the Legislative Assembly. The Law of Telecommunications was signed during his presidency of the Legislative Assembly, in which the former government-owned telecommunication company ANTEL was split and sold to two private enterprises. This was supported with approval from ARENA, PCN and PDC, imitating the
neoliberal Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pej ...
system that supported the administration of governmental agencies by the private enterprise, to improve telecommunication network coverage. On 29 March 1998, ARENA announced Flores as their candidate for the presidential election of the following year. He was considered a moderate within the party. At the age of 37 (the youngest chief executive on the continent at that time), Flores became the third consecutive president from ARENA by winning an outright majority in the
elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...
in March 1999, and took office on 1 June 1999. He served his five-year term and was succeeded by another member of his political party, Elías Antonio Saca, in July 2004.


Presidency (1999–2004)

Flores's government was characterized by its close alignment with United States policies. El Salvador was one of the steadiest allies of the U.S. government in the region. Three undertakings during his term best exemplify Flores's commitment to close US-Salvadoran relations: First, Flores authorized the deployment of Salvadoran troops to
Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
in support of U.S. forces. Second, during his term a successful free-trade agreement was negotiated between the United States and the Central American region, with the late addition of the
Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...
to the roster of participating nations; this agreement was ratified recently by most of the region's countries as well as the U.S. Congress. Finally, Flores was the architect of the Salvadoran economy's migration from its historical currency, the colón, to the U.S. dollar.
Dollarization Currency substitution is the use of a foreign currency in parallel to or instead of a domestic currency. Currency substitution can be full or partial. Full currency substitution can occur after a major economic crisis, such as in Ecuador, El S ...
was an extremely controversial measure, both lauded and panned by local and foreign opinion. From the standpoint of the country's business establishment, dollarization brought about great benefits, such as reduced interest rates (which came about by eliminating currency-exchange risk among other factors), easier trade with other commercial partners and an easier integration onto the global market. His tenure was marked by an unprecedented rise in the homicide rate, which doubled between 2002 and 2006.


Criticism

Flores's tenure was not without its critics. His actions to further align El Salvador with the United States were widely criticized by his political opponents. In the same manner, he was faulted for an autocratic style of governance, which allowed for very little compromise or consultation with the opposition. The lack of flexibility exemplified by his government resulted in a number of crippling strikes, most notably one led by the medical professionals in an attempt to forestall threatened privatization of the country's public health facilities. Critics of Flores's dollarization efforts accused him of doing so without popular consensus, except exclusively with bankers. Even though the replacement of Colones with dollars proved to reduce interest rates, it also caused huge long-term inflation as prices were rounded upwards. Flores also had to deal with reconstruction efforts after two powerful earthquakes struck the country on 13 January 2001. Delivery of international aid was inefficient and was criticized by reporters, especially
Mauricio Funes Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena (18 October 1959 – 21 January 2025) was a Salvadoran politician and journalist who served as the 79th president of El Salvador from 2009 to 2014. Funes won the 2009 presidential election as the candidate of t ...
(who later became President of El Salvador) from the local channel TV12, an affiliate of the Mexican company
TV Azteca Televisión Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V., commonly known as TV Azteca, is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate owned by Grupo Salinas. It is the second-largest mass media company in Mexico after Televisa. It primarily competes with Televisa as well as so ...
. Some of Flores's opponents also contended that escalating violence and increasing poverty occurred during his term, but statistics from the World Bank show that poverty did, in fact, decrease during the Flores administration. Another occurrence was the Summit of the Americas where Flores called
Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...
a "dictator" and accused him of being responsible for thousands of deaths which have occurred in El Salvador.


Candidacy for OAS Secretary General

Even before he left office, Flores had expressed his interest in running for the office of
Secretary General of the Organization of American States The Secretary General of the Organization of American States is the highest position within the Organization of American States. Duties According to the Charter of the Organization of American States: Secretaries General of the OAS ...
, a post which was won in late 2004 by Miguel Ángel Rodríguez an ex-president from Costa Rica. Later, Rodríguez had to resign from this post when he was indicted in his country for alleged acts of corruption during his tenure as president, a situation which called for an extraordinary election for his successor. Flores once again expressed his intentions of seeking the post, but after much campaigning, had to withdraw due to lack of support from other member states (even though he counted the United States as his chief backer). This situation could be explained because some of his policies were seen as being to closely aligned to US interests at a time when most Latin American governments were highly critical of the positions adopted by the United States. He was the first US-backed candidate not elected to this post since the establishment of the organization.


Corruption charges

At the time of his death, Flores was, along with several other key actors in the deal, being investigated by the Salvadoran Attorney General on corruption and disobedience charges. These recommendations now face scrutiny and debate in the Legislative Assembly. Attorney General Luis Martínez was to have taken up the case against the late former president despite his own prior history of having worked in the previous ARENA administration of Tony Saca and having been Flores's partner in several businesses. Judge Marta Rosales asked Interpol for help in arresting Flores. He had been charged with stealing $15 million that was donated in 2003 by Taiwan's government during his presidency. A further charge of disobedience accused Flores of failing to show up for a meeting with a congressional commission investigating what happened to the money Taiwan donated. On 6 September 2014, it was announced that Flores had voluntarily surrendered to the local authorities after months in hiding. He had been living under house arrest in El Salvador since November 2014. On 3 December 2015, Judge Miguel Angel Garcia ordered Flores to stand trial. In October 2021, his name was mentioned in the
Pandora Papers The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published beginning on 3 October 2021. The leak exposed the secret offshore accounts of 35 ...
. He was the beneficiary of several companies created in
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in 2005 and in the
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in 2006.


Death

In early January 2016, Flores suffered a
cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its ventricles, or into both. An ICH is a type of bleeding within the skull and one kind of stro ...
. On 30 January 2016, Flores died, aged 56, in a private hospital in
San Salvador San Salvador () is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its San Salvador Department, eponymous department. It is the country's largest agglomeration, serving as the country's political, cultural, educational and fin ...
while in a coma after undergoing emergency surgery and suffering irreversible neurological damage.


Personal life

Flores met his wife, Lourdes Rodríguez de Flores, in high school in San Salvador. They had two children, Juan Marcos and Gabriela.


Honours


Foreign honours

* : Grand Cross of the Order of Grimaldi (20 July 2001).


References


External links


Biography and tenure, by CIDOB Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flores Perez, Francisco 1959 births 2016 deaths People from Santa Ana, El Salvador 20th-century presidents of El Salvador 21st-century presidents of El Salvador Presidents of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador Members of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador Amherst College alumni Harvard University alumni University of Hartford alumni Nationalist Republican Alliance politicians Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Grimaldi Salvadoran politicians convicted of crimes People named in the Pandora Papers 20th-century Salvadoran politicians 21st-century Salvadoran politicians