page_title: Francisco Flores Pérez
section_title: Candidacy for the Organization of American States
hierarchical_section_title: Francisco Flores Pérez / Candidacy for the Organization of American States
caption_attribution_description: Francisco Flores, 2012
context_page_description: Francisco Guillermo Flores Pérez was a Salvadoran politician who served as President of El Salvador from June 1, 1999 to June 1, 2004 as a member of the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance. He was the first former Salvadoran president to be indicted and tried on corruption charges. He was placed under house arrest during the latter days of his life.
  During his tenure as President, he oversaw the replacement of the Salvadoran colón with the US dollar as El Salvador's official currency. Flores was accused in May 2014 of pocketing US$15million donated by Taiwan, intended for survivors of the 2001 El Salvador earthquakes.
context_section_description: Even before he left office, Flores had expressed his interest in running for the office of Secretary General of the Organization of American States, 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.
caption: Flores in May 2012
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