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Francisco Guillermo Flores Perez (October 17, 1959 - January 30, 2016) was a political scientist who served as President of the Republic of El Salvador from June 1, 1999 to June 1,
Beginnings in politics edit
He was born in Santa Ana, on October 17, 1959, into a wealthy conservative mestizo family. He studied at the American School of El Salvador and then philosophy at Amherst College in Massachusetts, United States, and political science at World University. In addition to studies of eastern philosophy in India with the thought of Hinduism.
He entered the political world after the assassination of his father-in-law José Antonio Rodríguez Porth, the Private Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic in the government of Alfredo Cristiani (1989-1994).
He successfully began his political career in the ARENA political party as Minister of Planning. Later as Vice Minister of the Presidency of the Republic with functions as advisor to the Head of State, he directed the Government Action Plan to execute the Peace Accords of January 16 of 1992 that ended the armed struggle between the FMLN and the Government of El Salvador.
In the general elections of March 20, 1994 for President of the Republic, deputies and members of municipal councils, Flores was elected Deputy for the Legislative Assembly and the then president Armando Calderón Sol, elected him Secretary of Information of the Presidency of the Republic.
Judicial process edit
Research edit
At the end of the year 2013, the Attorney General's Office of the Republic of El Salvador began an investigation to reveal whether there were links between Francisco Flores and a case of alleged embezzlement and illicit negotiations involving the company company ENEL and the Hydroelectric Executive Commission of the Lempa River (CEL), for which a file was opened for him, and bank traces were carried out and although no payments were found from the ENEL company, transfers were found that the Embassy of Taiwan in El Salvador had been carried out in a US bank, in addition, the existence of a Suspicious Operation Report from the International Bank of Miami is reported.
With this information, in early September of 2013, the Attorney General detailed in a report that Francisco Flores received three checks (for 4, 5 and 1 million dollars ), the Suspicious Operation Report was made by the International Bank of Miami because the justification for the operation was the financing of his political campaign, a fact that raised suspicions since in El Salvador there is no presidential re-election, in addition to the destination of the money it was to a bank in Bahamas, a recognized tax haven.
The Financial Investigation Unit of the El Salvador Attorney General made a request to the United States Department of State, in which they requested that a property in North Miami Beach, Florida, owned by the family of former President Flores, as well as information on the “América Libre Institute”, a composite think tank founded by Francisco Flores and whose board of directors is made up of multiple Salvadoran politicians and businessmen such as Juan José Daboub, José Ángel Quirós, Miguel Ángel Simán, Rafael Barraza and Arnoldo Jiménez.
The case gained notoriety when, in November 2013, Mauricio Funes, president of El Salvador at the time, made public on his radio program that he had a copy of the document investigating Francisco Flores, a fact that was pointed out by numerous members of the ARENA as a political persecution, Flores was subsequently summoned by the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador to answer a series of questions in this regard, Francisco Flores agreed to attend the first two appearances, but he refused to attend the third, so the Assembly decided to summon him out of urgency and asked the National Civil Police of El Salvador to locate the former president. Flores justified his absence by accusing the commission of charging him with crimes when it is not one of his powers,
Accusation edit
On Thursday May 1 of 2014, the Attorney General's Office of the Republic of El Salvador formally charged him with the crimes of embezzlement, illicit enrichment and disobedience to authority; In addition, he requested the arrest warrant against the former official
INTERPOL Red Notice edit
On Friday morning May 9 2014, the INTERPOL posted on its website the red notice of former President Flores, to proceed with his capture in the 190 countries associated with this organization.
House arrest edit
Francisco Flores appeared voluntarily on the morning of Friday September 5 2014 at the courts of San Salvador in the company of his lawyers.
After the special hearing was held, Judge Levis Italmir Orellana ordered house arrest while the investigations continued, a decision that was harshly criticized by some Salvadoran officials.
Detention edit
Finally, on Friday September 19 of 2014, a notorious day in the history of El Salvador, Francisco Flores was transferred to bartolinas of the Anti-Narcotics Division of the National Civil Police (DAN) after the 1st Criminal Chamber revoked the house arrest against the former president.