Amidst Second Round Elections in El Salvador, former president Francisco Flores on the run, trial against him is imminent
Former Salvadorean president, Francisco Flores Pérez - Photo: Wikipedia
Former Salvadorean president, Francisco Flores Pérez – Photo: Wikipedia
A majority of the 84-seat unicameral legislative body, 55 deputies, voted in favor of the investigation after being presented with the Special Commission’s report that documented Flores’ alleged wrongdoing.
If the former leader does indeed eventually stand trial, this would make him the first head of state to do so in the history of El Salvador.
Flores, of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party, held the presidency of El Salvador from 1999 to 2004. During the session discussing the possible investigation into Flores’ corruption charges, his ARENA comrades walked out and refused to participate, but not before ironically claiming they are in support of “transparency” in Salvadoran politics.
Deputy Guillermo Gallegos, however, hailed the Assembly’s decision. “This is a historic day for El Salvador for we have set a precedent against corruption. This is an act of moral reparation,” said Gallegos, MP for the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA), a right-wing party that is in a strange coalition with the ruling leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).
Gallegos reiterated the decision made by the lawmakers and urged the Attorney General, Luis Antonio Martínez, to start the investigation and criminal proceedings as soon as possible.
For his part, Martínez said that he will start proceedings against Flores but not at least until the run-off round of this year’s presidential election is concluded. On March 9, Salvador Sánchez Cerén of the FMLN and Norman Quijano of ARENA, the top two vote-getters in the first round, will face off.
Quijano has actually asked that Flores, who was part of Quijano’s election committee and advisory team for the presidential campaign, be suspended from ARENA until the investigation is over.
The report filed and presented by the Special Commission entailed the details involving the six crimes Flores is accused of, including the millions of dollars he allegedly pocketed that El Salvador received from Taiwanese donators. The crimes include bribery, illicit negotiations, illicit enrichment, illicit arbitrary acts, embezzlement and money laundering.
The document listed several money exchanges that Flores was involved in, and it is thought that some $70 million dollars was illegally obtained by Flores in his five years as President.
“We hope that the United States acts diligently as part of the case, as well, because Francisco Flores committed these acts through the banks located in that country,” said Deputy Roberto Lorenzana of the FMLN.
In September of 2013, a report composed by the US State Treasury Department named the “Suspicious Transactions Report” included three checks totaling nearly $10 million made by the government of Taiwan to Flores for development projects as a “suspicious transaction.”
Current President Mauricio Funes of the FMLN filed a complaint soon after to the Legislative Assembly, who summoned Flores to a hearing on January 7 in relation to the allegations.
Flores acknowledged receiving the money and not putting it into the official state coffers, known as the General Fund, but rather used it to fight drug traffickers in the country and aid in rebuilding efforts following two earthquakes and Hurricane Mitch.
If the funds came from the Executive of Taiwan, this means that the money would have been donated to Flores by former Taiwanese President Chen Shui Bian, who served from 2000 to 2008. Notably, Chen himself was implicated in a notorious corruption and abuse of power trial in Taiwan in which he was found guilty. He is currently serving 19 years in a prison outside of Taipei, the Taiwanese capital and he, too, claimed that his trial was politically motivated.
At the end of January, Flores missed the early hearing but later arrived at the summons, saying that the investigation is politically motivated and that he did nothing wrong beside not following protocol.
Two days later, the former President missed a hearing and has not been heard from since, and was considered a “fugitive” at the Legislative Assembly’s hearing for the investigation.
No one knows where Flores is, and there have been no departure records involving him at any of El Salvador’s border checkpoints, land or maritime. There have been allegations, however, that Flores fled to Guatemala, although no evidence supports that at the moment.
“Nobody knows where he is,” Funes said. “We have no idea where he is, nor do we know whether he is in the country or not. There is no record of his leaving, but there are many illegal crossings and blind spots throughout El Salvador and we have no idea if he has decided to use one of these routes,” said the outgoing leader.
His real estate assets and financial accounts in El Salvador have all been frozen. But that has not helped local authorities find him. Former president Francisco Flores is on the run. After bitter defeat in first round elections on February 2, his old friends in ARENA do not want him around.
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