Former Salvadoran president in a coma
One of the main illicit enrichment cases to follow in El Salvador in 2016 is that of former president Francisco Flores of the ARENA party. Flores was the young darling of the party when he was elected in 1999 against Facundo Guardado of the FMLN. His selection was evidence that ARENA could tap into youth who had not been connected to the party's dirty Cold War history. Facundo's selection, on the other hand, was evidence of dysfunction within the opposition FMLN, the former rebel group turned political party that had a difficult time incorporating young non-militants who had not demonstrated their loyalty in war into the upper ranks of the party.
Facundo was dismissed from the FMLN for a variety of reasons, including his trip to Spain with members of the Flores administration to raise funds following the January and February 2001 earthquakes. The FMLN had agreed not to send any delegates, but Facundo went anyway. He also supported the country's move towards replacing its currency with the US dollar (¿Por qué la dolarización frenó el crecimiento en El Salvador?).
Today, Flores is on trial for embezzling millions of dollars in funds that his government received following the earthquakes. The alleged funds that he siphoned off came from money that Taiwan donated to help victims of the earthquake. Mauricio Funes made some of that evidence public when he was president (another case to watch). His sharing of that information hurt relations with the US as the evidence was supposed to remain confidential at that time. I get the feeling that his release of that information not only hurt relations with the US but it also set back a deeper investigation into wrongdoing by Flores and other ARENA officials. Who knows how high their investigation would have gone. On the positive side for the FMLN, the allegations against Flores no doubt hurt the ARENA party in 2014 when they ran Norman Quijano for president. Funes and the FMLN might have traded long-term gain for short-term benefits, a pretty big benefit nonetheless.
That's just some background to last night's news that Flores was hospitalized after suffering a stroke. The initial news on Twitter last night was that he had fainted. However, his condition now looks more serious. The latest news is that the former president is in a coma. His daughter found him unconscious and he was rushed to a private hospital.
As a result of his condition, it's unlikely that the corruption case will move forward against Flores anytime soon. That case was supposed to be an important signal to the Salvadoran people and to the international community about the health of the country's judicial system.
Facundo was dismissed from the FMLN for a variety of reasons, including his trip to Spain with members of the Flores administration to raise funds following the January and February 2001 earthquakes. The FMLN had agreed not to send any delegates, but Facundo went anyway. He also supported the country's move towards replacing its currency with the US dollar (¿Por qué la dolarización frenó el crecimiento en El Salvador?).
Today, Flores is on trial for embezzling millions of dollars in funds that his government received following the earthquakes. The alleged funds that he siphoned off came from money that Taiwan donated to help victims of the earthquake. Mauricio Funes made some of that evidence public when he was president (another case to watch). His sharing of that information hurt relations with the US as the evidence was supposed to remain confidential at that time. I get the feeling that his release of that information not only hurt relations with the US but it also set back a deeper investigation into wrongdoing by Flores and other ARENA officials. Who knows how high their investigation would have gone. On the positive side for the FMLN, the allegations against Flores no doubt hurt the ARENA party in 2014 when they ran Norman Quijano for president. Funes and the FMLN might have traded long-term gain for short-term benefits, a pretty big benefit nonetheless.
That's just some background to last night's news that Flores was hospitalized after suffering a stroke. The initial news on Twitter last night was that he had fainted. However, his condition now looks more serious. The latest news is that the former president is in a coma. His daughter found him unconscious and he was rushed to a private hospital.
As a result of his condition, it's unlikely that the corruption case will move forward against Flores anytime soon. That case was supposed to be an important signal to the Salvadoran people and to the international community about the health of the country's judicial system.
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