Lourdes Flores Nano

Lourdes Celmira Rosario Flores Nano (Lima, October 7, 1959) is a Peruvian lawyer and politician. She was a congressman of the republic from 1995 to 2000, a constituent congressman from 1993 to 1995, a deputy of the republic from 1990 to 1992 and councilor of Lima for 2 periods (1987-1989; 1989-1990). Flores was a candidate for the presidency of Peru in the 2001 and 2006 elections for the Popular Christian Party, which she presided over for 8 years.

Born in Jesús María, Lima, Flores graduated from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in 1983, earning a law degree. After working as a legal adviser at the Ministry of Justice, Flores began her professional activity independently, developing it until today. In the second half of the eighties, she was a professor at the Law School of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and at the Law School of the University of Lima.

Involved in the activities of the Popular Christian Party since her youth, Flores ran for the first time in 1985 for the Congress of the Republic without success. As councilor of Lima, years later, she achieved national notoriety in 1987 during the mobilizations against the nationalization of the banks promoted by President Alan García. After an unsuccessful run as deputy mayor of Lima in 1989, she became a deputy of the Republic by Lima a year later. After Alberto Fujimori's self-coup, Flores joined the Democratic Constituent Congress in 1992, achieving her congressional re-election in 1995, which positioned her as one of the leaders of the parliamentary opposition to the Fujimori government.

After the fall of the Fujimori regime, Flores ran for president in 2001 and 2006, occupying third place in the voting on both occasions and being displaced from the ballot by a narrow margin at the hands of Alan García. In 2010, led one of the two main candidacies for mayor of Lima, being surpassed by 0.84% by her leftist rival Susana Villarán, who years later would avoid her revocation from office thanks to the support of Flores during the final stage of the campaign.

In 2016, Flores was Garcia's running mate in a controversial electoral alliance that ranked fifth in the vote with just over 5%. Following the 2021 presidential election, she legally represented candidate Keiko Fujimori in many lawsuits filed in order to resolve the records processed due to certain irregularities and discredited accusations about the existence of a "fraud at the table" in favor of Pedro Castillo, participating in public rallies together with ultra-conservative political figures Her activities as a lawyer for Fuerza Popular brought Flores back to media scrutiny after a prolonged political absence.

Biography

Lourdes Flores Nano was born in Jesús María on October 7, 1959. The only daughter of César Flores Cosío (1928-2012), an agricultural engineer from Moquegua, and Ada Nano Soulignac (1936-1999), from Huánuco and housewife.

In 1977, Flores entered the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, where he studied law. During his time at the university, he became involved in university politics, opting for Social Christianity. The university movement was circumscribed then to the ideological confrontations between young Apristas and leftists. She was a class representative, a member of the Student Third of the Faculty of Law, and a student representative before the PUCP University Assembly. She graduated in 1983.

He has a PhD in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid and a Master's in Business Legal Advice from the Instituto de Empresa (IE) in the same city. He followed a master's degree in Constitutional Law at the University of Castilla-La Mancha and one in Jurisdictional Policy at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

She worked as a university professor at the Law Schools of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and the University of Lima between 1984 and 1989.

He has practiced law independently since his professional beginnings as the owner of his own law firm, where he is dedicated to civil and commercial areas.

She was rector of the San Ignacio de Loyola University from 2006 to 2009.

Flores serves as vice president of the Centrist Democrat International, an international Christian Democratic political network, and as a member of the Washington D.C.-based think tank, Inter-American Dialogue.

Political life

He was a member of the Popular Christian Party since he was eighteen years old. Her commitment to Social Christian ideals and the profile of a young leader led her to become General Secretary of the PPC in 1993. She also held the internal positions of National Secretary for Electoral Affairs (1984-88), National Secretary for Professionals (1987-89), National Secretary for Politics (1989-92) and Collegiate General Secretary (1992-99), before being elected as president of the PPC in 2003 and re-elected in 2007. She was the first woman to become president of a political party in Peru.

After Enrique Elías Laroza, one of her university professors, was appointed by former president Fernando Belaúnde Terry as Minister of Justice in the early 1980s, Flores would be summoned by Elías for the position of ministerial adviser in 1982.

After completing her postgraduate studies in Spain, Flores would return to Peru determined to resume her political career. In the general elections of 1985, at the age of twenty-five, she ran for the first time as a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies for the Democratic Convergence, a coalition made up of the Popular Christian Party, the Movimiento de Bases Hayistas and a sector of independents, which led Luis Bedoya Reyes as presidential candidate. She did not manage to be elected that time, however, the election helped her to emerge as one of the young leaders within her party.

Councillor of Lima (1987-1989)

In the 1986 municipal elections, she was elected metropolitan councilor of Lima by the Popular Christian Party for the 1987-1989 municipal term. In these elections, the PPC had Luis Bedoya Reyes as its candidate and his opponents were Alfonso Barrantes of Izquierda Unida (then acting mayor of Lima), and Jorge del Castillo of APRA (then acting mayor of Barranco). Del Castillo would win the electoral contest, leaving Barrantes and Bedoya out of the race.

From that position, he maintained an active public image, which increased notoriously with his participation in the campaign against the nationalization of banks in 1987, a position defended by former President Alan García and the majority in Congress.

Candidate for deputy mayor of Lima in 1989

In 1988, a political coalition called Fredemo would be formed between the Movimiento Libertad of the writer Mario Vargas Llosa, the Popular Christian Party and Acción Popular with a view to the general elections of 1990, in addition to establishing a space of opposition to the government of Alan Garcia different from that of the Peruvian left.

The first electoral contest in which Fredemo would participate would be in the municipal elections of 1989, after initial tensions between the groups that made up the coalition. In the case of the mayoralty of Lima, it was decided to nominate former minister Juan Incháustegui of Acción Popular for the position of mayor. For her part, Lourdes Flores would be chosen by the Popular Christian Party to integrate the formula in the position of deputy mayor.

The results would give the winner to the OBRAS Independent Civic Movement, led by television presenter Ricardo Belmont. Fredemo would be second, and more relegated, Henry Pease for Izquierda Unida and Mercedes Cabanillas, for APRA, in third and fourth place, respectively. Flores, being included in the Fredemo list, would be elected for a new term as councilor of the Lima commune, a position that she would resign the following year after her election as deputy of the Republic.

Deputy (1990-1992)

In the 1990 general elections, she was elected deputy of the republic for Fredemo, with 84,874 votes, for the 1990-1995 parliamentary period.

During her parliamentary work, she was President of the Energy and Mines Commission. She would obtain an important role when she was incorporated, together with Pedro Cateriano, Fausto Alvarado and Jorge del Castillo, as a member of the Investigative Commission to the first government of former President Alan García, chaired by the then deputy Fernando Olivera.

On April 2, 1992, his parliamentary position was interrupted after the self-coup decreed by former President Alberto Fujimori. During the coup, Flores summoned the opposition deputies to discuss the political situation. In an attempt to overthrow Fujimori, the sessions of the Chamber of Deputies were held in his own house. By then, Fredemo had already been dissolved and the Popular Christian Party had no alliances.

Constituent congressman (1993-1995)

After the coup, Fujimori called constituent elections in 1992 for the creation of a new constitution and Flores Nano together with Luis Bedoya Reyes wanted the PPC to integrate said group.

The party was immediately divided between those who said that the PPC could not participate in Congress because it was a coup attempt and those who said that the PPC should preserve democracy in said body. The result was the resignation of Alberto Andrade and Alberto Borea Odría when it was announced that the Popular Christian Party would go to the Democratic Constituent Congress at the request of Flores Nano, backed by Luis Bedoya Reyes.

After the elections, she was elected constituent congresswoman for the Popular Christian Party, with the second highest vote (264,846 votes), for the 1992-1995 parliamentary term.

During his work in the Democratic Constituent Congress, Flores was part of the Constitutional Commission chaired by Carlos Torres and Torres Lara (1992-1995). Said commission elaborated the Project for what would be the Constitution of 1993.

Congressman (1995-2000)

In the 1995 general elections, she was elected congresswoman of the republic for the Popular Christian Party, with 66,170 votes, for the 1995-2000 parliamentary period.

In January 1997, the Popular Christian Party denounced the dismissal of 3 Constitutional Court magistrates by then-President Alberto Fujimori, which prevented his new candidacy in 2000. Along with congresswoman Anel Townsend, he proposed a referendum to debate the candidacy of Alberto Fujimori, and even his daughter Keiko Fujimori signed one of the forms that would be sent to the ONPE to proceed with the popular consultation. Despite having obtained the necessary signatures, the project did not prosper in the Congress of the Republic of Peru.

In July of that same year, together with the reporter Cecilia Valenzuela, he denounced the dual nationality of Alberto Fujimori, but with Fujimori's overwhelming majority in Congress (74 congressmen) he left no room for debate in plenary. She was also one of the first parliamentarians to publicly denounce Vladimiro Montesinos.

He supported the work of the guarantor countries of the Rio de Janeiro Protocol of 1942. The guarantors of the protocol ratify the border with Ecuador, but symbolically handed over a square kilometer in Tiwinza as private property to Ecuador. For this fact, during the 2006 presidential campaign, her opponents pejoratively called her Miss Tiwinza.

Presidential candidate in 2001

After the fall of the dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori in November 2000, general elections were called for 2001 and Flores founded the center-right National Unity Electoral Alliance, in order to create a single front to to run for the presidency of the Republic in said elections that would include the following political groups: Popular Christian Party (led by Lourdes Flores), National Renewal (led by Rafael Rey), National Solidarity (led by Luis Castañeda Lossio) and Radical Change (led by José Barba Caballero).

He would lead opinion polls for several weeks, but came in 3.er with 24.3% of the votes, being surpassed by Alejandro Toledo from Perú Posible and Alan García from APRA, who would face each other in a second round in which Toledo would win.

The unfortunate comment by her father, César Flores, in reference to Toledo a few weeks before the first round, would be detrimental to the candidacy of Lourdes Flores, according to analysts, as it is considered pejorative and discriminatory.

During the government of Alejandro Toledo, both she and her group, Unidad Nacional, remained in opposition, although they supported the government's economic measures. It was the first party to renounce the National Agreement in 2002, being widely criticized.

National Unity consolidated itself as the third opposition force of the Toledo government, obtaining seventeen seats out of a total of one hundred and twenty. His party even supported a possible vacancy measure and Ántero Flores-Aráoz won the presidency of Congress in 2004 thanks to APRA votes.

In that year, Lourdes Flores rejected the April 14 strike called by the General Confederation of Workers of Peru, which had the support of Aprista leader Alan García.

Presidential candidate in 2006

Flores celebrates his 46th birthday at a rally held in Villa El Salvador, as a candidate for the presidency of the republic. 8 October 2005.

For the 2006 general elections, Lourdes Flores once again participated in the presidency of the republic for National Unity.

At the end of 2005, Congressman José Barba Caballero withdrew his Cambio Radical party, after a fraud involving false signatures was discovered by a provincial committee. Immediately, José Barba Caballero made it official that his party would be removed from the National Election Jury and would withdraw from the Alianza Unidad Nacional.

In the same year, when he made his presidential candidacy official, he already obtained first place in the polls. In August 2005, Ollanta Humala of Unión por el Perú began an unexpected rise in the polls. The polls throughout the campaign projected her as the most possible successor to Alejandro Toledo.

The surveys of April 2006 showed an increase in Humala, a decrease in Flores Nano and a slight increase in Alan García, so it could be said that there was a technical tie.

Starting in February 2006, Flores Nano began an advertising campaign, using the slogan "Peru in firm hands" as its logo. The voice in off of his advertisements was that of Güido Lombardi.

His alliance, Unidad Nacional, was the only one that did not make publicity spots with its candidates for the Congress of the Republic, since they only featured the presidential candidate. She was disqualified by her opponents, referring to Flores as the "candidate of the rich", a phrase coined by Alan García and his supporters against her, while members of the National Unity denounced a dirty war orchestrated by APRA and the Union for Peru to directly harm to Flowers.

With 100% of the tally sheets computed, it was announced that Ollanta Humala from Unión por el Perú and Alan García from APRA, would compete for the Presidency of the Republic in a second electoral round, obtaining 30.6% and 24.3% respectively. Lourdes Flores ranked 3rder place with 23.8% of the vote, around 65,000 votes less than Garcia.

Recognizing the results that left her out of the race, Lourdes Flores stated that she believed she had lost "at the table", suggesting a possible fraud in the counting of the votes at the polling stations.

Flores was the first woman with a serious chance of becoming the first female president of Peru.

Candidate for mayor of Lima in 2010

After Salvador Heresi was strongly promoted as the Popular Christian Party's candidate for mayor of Lima, the party finally insistently proposed the candidacy of Lourdes Flores for mayor; she would reply that she would accept the party's final decision.

In the party congress at the beginning of 2010, the delegates and militants, after a long and heated debate in which the position that Flores run for mayor of Lima prevailed over the option of running for president in the general elections of 2011, the majority voted for the first option, thus confirming the candidacy of Lourdes Flores for mayor of Lima.

For much of the campaign, he ranked first in voting intention polls. Initially the campaign would be polarized between Flores and Alex Kouri, who had resigned from the Presidency of Callao to participate in the contest. Later, Flores would be displaced from 1.er place in recent weeks for Susana Villarán, candidate of the Fuerza Social Decentralist Party.

He had great support and approval among the Lima population, however, the rise in the polls of his main contender began to hinder his candidacy, a situation that occurred as a result of the reproach of his main rival, Alex Kouri; his relationship with the businessman César Cataño, accused of drug trafficking; and the dissemination of illegally obtained audios by the journalist Jaime Bayly, known as the potoaudios, in which, in a fit of anger, he despises the elections and the position he is holding. she postulates, and in which her friend and adviser Xavier Barrón proposes an appointment with Alfredo Torres, in charge of a pollster, with the supposed purpose of "moving the figures" of the polls that disadvantaged her. On October 26 of 2010, 23 days after the election, Flores recognized, after severely questioning it, the victory of the candidate Susana Villarán.

Two weeks before her defeat for the mayoralty of Lima, Lourdes Flores expressed in an interview that, if she did not win the municipal elections, she would retire from active politics. However, in another television interview days before the election, she would affirm that she would evaluate him for not knowing it well.

Later political presence

Flores Nano would hand over the PPC presidency in November 2011 to Raúl Castro Stagnaro, former congressman from Lima, after two terms at the head of the party. He would continue in a second line as one of the main leaders of the opposition to both the executive management of the Mayor's Office of Lima and the Government of Ollanta Humala.

For the legislative and municipal elections of March 2012 in El Salvador, Lourdes Flores led the OAS team made up of 22 observers from 13 countries, to supervise the electoral process. In September 2012, she would be re-elected as vice president of the International Christian Democrats, an international organization that brings together seventy-five Christian Social parties.

Together with a majority of the Popular Christian Party, he supported the "No" campaign against the revocation of mayoress Susana Villarán, in the popular referendum for recall in March 2013. Looking to the future, Flores did not rule out re-apply for the presidency of the Republic in an upcoming election, although he denied that he would do so in 2016.

Vice Presidential Candidacy in 2016

After his actions against the recall, the image of Flores was strengthened in public opinion, to the point that, faced with the panorama that was taking shape around the 2016 presidential elections, opinion leaders publicly requested that he reconsider his initial position of not running for the presidency again, encouraging her to a third presidential candidacy. However, Flores's refusal and the internal struggles within the PPC made it more likely the formation of an alliance with a figure outside the PPC.

In December 2015, he announced his candidacy for the first Vice-Presidency of the Republic in the presidential formula of Alan García for the Popular Alliance, a coalition formed between the Popular Christian Party and APRA for the 2016 general elections.

Passing the elections, the candidacy was in fifth place of preferences after the victory of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

Disputes

Cesar Cataño case

In August 2009, it was revealed that Flores was a lawyer for César Cataño, a businessman under investigation for drug trafficking, and president of Cataño-owned Peruvian Airlines. Flores acknowledged receiving US$328,551 in fees, ruling out that Cataño's resources had ties to drug trafficking, and assuring that it was a case of self-improvement and popular entrepreneurship. Flores would be harshly questioned for her defense of Cataño in the 2010 Lima mayoral elections.

Odebrecht case

When the corruption and bribery network of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht falls globally, effective collaborators in Peru and Brazil indicated that they received money from the company for the campaigns of Flores for the presidency in 2006 and for mayor of Lima in 2010, among whom is Horacio Cánepa, an arbitrator and former collaborator of his. Flores is being investigated by the Special Team of the National Prosecutor's Office.

It was the lawyer Horacio Cánepa, a former member of the Popular Christian Party, who affirmed that Lourdes Flores Nano, the leader of that party, would have received money from Odebrecht to finance her electoral campaigns in 2006 (presidential) and 2010 (municipal). Until then, Cánepa had been Lourdes Flores' trusted man.

This occurred as a result of Cánepa becoming involved in the Odebrecht case, when his name appeared in one of the Andorran bank accounts used by the Brazilian company to pay bribes; Later it was learned that it was the payment for the awards that he had rendered in favor of said company to the detriment of the Peruvian State, when he served as an arbitrator for the Chamber of Commerce of Lima. Finding himself cornered, Cánepa wanted to negotiate with the prosecution and become an effective collaborator, revealing the handling of the other arbitrators; however, the prosecution considered that this type of denunciation only qualified for a sincere confession. To apply for effective collaboration, he had to reveal about those at levels above him.

It was then that Cánepa, in his desperation, proposed to make a more prominent denunciation: according to his version, Lourdes Flores, as leader of the PPC, asked the construction company Odebrecht for money to finance his electoral campaigns, which he was granted. Cánepa himself acted as intermediary. First it would have happened in the campaign for the presidency of 2006, in which he received an amount of 500,000 dollars; then in the 2010 campaign for mayor of Lima, in which he received $200,000.

However, in a previous interrogation to which Jorge Barata was subjected, he had denied that money had been given to Lourdes in 2006, since at that time, Odebrecht's favorite was Alan García. It is known that Cánepa has presented audios that would verify his version (these would be conversations between him and Lourdes, in which he would admit to having received money from Odebrecht).

On February 22, 2019, in the framework of the interrogation by the Team of Prosecutors of the Lava Jato Case of the former directors of the Odebrecht company in Brazil, Raymundo Trindade Serra, former manager of institutional relations for Odebrecht, said that the Brazilian company contributed USD 200,000 to the campaign of Lourdes Flores for mayor of Lima in 2010, through Horacio Cánepa; and USD 50,000 to her electoral campaign for the presidency of the Republic in 2006. And that Lourdes Flores was aware that the money came from Odebrecht.

For her part, Lourdes Flores stated that she only found out in 2017 that Odebrecht contributed to her 2010 campaign, through Cánepa himself, who made that confession to her by telephone after being involved in the Andorra accounts. She categorically denied that she asked Odebrecht for money, as Cánepa claimed. She also said that she was not afraid of going to prison because nothing she had done was a crime.

On March 5, 2019, Lourdes Flores attended an interrogation before the Money Laundering Prosecutor's Office, as a witness. She declined to answer questions regarding her contributions to her electoral campaigns. Prosecutor José Domingo Pérez then requested that a preliminary investigation be opened, as there were indications that he had received illicit money. The person in charge of the investigation will be the prosecutor of the Special Team Carlos Puma Quispe, in the month of August, it passed into the hands of the new Prosecutor of the special team, Carol Cuba.

In September, prosecutor Carol Cuba Peralta included in the preliminary investigation the former president of the Lima 2019 Pan American Games Organizing Committee, Carlos Neuhaus Tudela; the former congressman of the Unidad Nacional-PPC alliance, Hildebrando Tapia and Teresa Cánova Sarango, the adviser to the former party leader, Lourdes Flores. This after the revelation of an effective collaborator who mentioned Neuhaus and Tapia having met with Odebrecht executives to support the Lourdes Flores campaign. At the same time, it was discovered that the current president of the PPC, Alberto Beingolea, knew about Odebrecht's contributions to the campaigns and that Odebrecht even financed a survey to find out the favoritism that Beingolea had for the 2016 elections.

Legal defense of Fuerza Popular

Following the 2021 presidential elections, Flores legally represented candidate Keiko Fujimori in many lawsuits filed to reverse the election results, making false and discredited accusations of "mesa fraud." » in favor of Pedro Castillo and participating in public rallies together with ultra-conservative political figures. Her activities as a lawyer for Fuerza Popular have returned Flores to media scrutiny after a prolonged political absence.

Books and publications

In July 2000, Lourdes Flores published The Gospel and the Earth, a two-volume book in which she narrates the experiences and lessons she lived through each of the 194 provinces of Peru, as well as to review the actions of Christian humanism in the politics of Peru in the XX century and to recount part of his personal memories about the electoral processes in which she participated as a militant, leader and candidate of the Popular Christian Party.

Books Written

• The gospel and the earth (2000).
• Business law tests (2004).
• The social market economy: past, present and future (2015).
• Christian People's Party: half a century of life and the duty to persevere (2017).

Forewords to books

• Politics Matter: A dialogue of women political leaders. Inter-American Development Bank, Inter-American Dialogue, Women’s Leadership Conference of the Americas. Washington DC, 2000.
• Legacy of founders. César Madrid Isla. Lima, 2003.
• Social programs, health and education in Peru: A balance of social policies. Fritz Du Bois. KAS-IPESM. Lima, 2004.
• Corporate Manual. Doctrine, Legislation, Jurisprudence ". Echaiz Moreno, Daniel. Lima, Grijley Law Editor, 2012.

Awards and distinctions

Flores was included in 1992 by the World Economic Forum as one of the 200 young leaders from around the world. In 1999, Time magazine chose her as one of the 100 Ibero-American leaders of the XX century. In July 2009, she received a doctorate honoris causa from the National University of San Agustín, in the city of Arequipa. In July 2011, she was awarded the Medal of Honor of the Congress of the Republic in the degree of Gran Cruz, in recognition of her parliamentary and political career. In October 2011, the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú recognized Flores as a distinguished alumnus of the house of studies in question. In May 2013, the Municipality of San Borja, on the occasion of the anniversary of the district, decorated her "in merit of her political and intellectual career, as well as her fight for democracy and the economic development of the country." In December 2013, she received an honorary doctorate. cause by the Women's University of the Sacred Heart, in the city of Lima.

Electoral history

Municipal candidacy

Electoral process	Political party		Coalition	Charge to which he postulated	Outcome				Ref.
					Votes	% Valid votes	Post	Outcome
Lima City Elections 1986		Popular Christian Party		Rigid				Elect
Lima City Elections 1989		Popular Christian Party	Democratic Front	Lieutenant Mayor	592 857	26.79 %	2.	Don't choose
Lima City Elections 2010		Popular Christian Party	National Electoral Unit	Mayor	1 705 170	37.55 %	2.	Don't choose

Congressional candidacy

Electoral process	Political party		Coalition	Electoral transcript	Charge to which he postulated	Outcome		Ref.
						Votes	Outcome
General Elections of Peru 1985		Popular Christian Party	Democratic convergence (CODE)	Lima	Representative	2 361	Don't choose
General Elections of Peru 1990		Popular Christian Party	Democratic Front	Lima	Representative	84 874	Elect
1992 Constituent elections of Peru		Popular Christian Party		unique	Member of the Democratic Constituent Congress	264 846	Elect
General Elections of Peru 1995		Popular Christian Party		Lima	Congressman	67 273	Elect

Presidential candidacy

Electoral process	Political party		Coalition	Charge to which he postulated	Outcome					Ref.
					Votes	% Votes issued	% Valid votes	Post	Outcome
General Elections of Peru 2001		Popular Christian Party	National Electoral Unit	President of Peru	2 576 653	21.01 %	24.30 %	3.o	Don't choose
General Elections of Peru 2006		Popular Christian Party	National Electoral Unit	President of Peru	2 923 280	19.98 %	23.81 %	3.o	Don't choose
General Elections of Peru of 2016		Popular Christian Party	Popular Alliance	Vice-President of Peru	894 278	4.77 %	5.83 %	5.o	Don't choose