Former Salvadoran president Paco Flores dies at the age of 56

Former Salvadoran president Francisco Flores passed away yesterday at the age of 56. Flores had been having medical difficulties for the last few months. However, it was difficult not to be skeptical as it always looked like he was using his health to delay or avoid trial on charges of embezzlement and illicit enrichment. His wife even blamed his medical difficulties and eventual death on "unjust political attacks that violated his fundamental rights."

Flores had a meteoric rise to the presidency, but once there gained a reputation for being arrogant and distant from his people. He became El Salvador’s first president to be charged and put on trial for acts of corruption during his time in office.

“The people will remember him for the terrible dollarization, for the Firm Hand (to combat crime) and as corrupt,” said Angelica Rivas, who works with a nonprofit organization promoting women’s rights.

Jeannette Aguilar, of the University Institute of Public Opinion at the Central American University Jose Simeon Canas, said that various studies showed Flores’ presidency to be among the worst based on public opinion.

“He was a leader with an arrogant style, a lot of hubris, not close to the people, who responded to the interests of the economic elite who at that time dominated Arena,” Aguilar said.

His presidency ended over a decade ago. Therefore, most Salvadorans are probably going to remember him as the president who allegedly embezzled millions of dollars in assistance that was supposed to help the country recover from two 2001 earthquakes that had killed more than 1,000 and left 200,000 homeless. This scandal has been in the news the last few years because of the legal proceedings against him and his controversial appointment as campaign advisor for Norman Quijano.

Flores' period in office was also a time where the Salvadoran Right. Left and people agreed that the neoliberal model had been exhausted and was rather incapable of meeting the needs of the vast majority of the people. The same could be said for the political, economic, and judicial system's approach to postwar crime.

Instead of recognizing an opportunity to recommit the country to the Peace Accords which had been signed ten years earlier, the parties intensified political and ideological attacks against each other. Some studies have shown that this is the period where political polarization really kicked in. The politicized adoption of mano dura and the 2004 presidential election between Tony Saca and Schafik Handal made that process nearly irreversible.