Lourdes Flores
Lourdes Flores Nano | |
---|---|
Member of Congress | |
In office July 26, 1995 – July 26, 2000 | |
Constituency | National |
Member of the Democratic Constituent Congress | |
In office November 26, 1992 – July 26, 1995 | |
Constituency | National |
Member of the Chamber of Deputies | |
In office July 28, 1990 – April 5, 1992 | |
Constituency | Lima |
President of the Christian People's Party | |
In office 18 December 2003 – 18 December 2011 | |
Preceded by | Ántero Flores Aráoz |
Succeeded by | Raúl Castro Stagnaro |
Personal details | |
Born | Lima, Peru | 7 October 1959
Political party | Partido Popular Cristiano Unidad Nacional |
Alma mater | Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (LLB) IE Business School (MA) Complutense University of Madrid (PhD) |
Profession | Lawyer |
Lourdes Celmira Rosario Flores Nano (born October 7, 1959) is a Peruvian lawyer and politician[1] who served as a councilwoman of Lima, Deputy from Lima from 1990 to 1992, Democratic Constituent Congresswoman from 1992 to 1995, Congresswoman from 1995 to 2000, and the Christian People's Party candidate for President of Peru in the 2001 and 2006 elections in which she ran under the National Unity.
Born in Jesús María, Lima, Flores graduated from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in 1983, obtaining a law degree. After working as a legal advisor in the Ministry of Justice, Flores began her professional activity independently. She was a professor of law and taught at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru Law School and the University of Lima Law School between 1984 and 1989.
Starting her political career at a young age as a member of the Christian People's Party (Partido Popular Cristiano), Flores would occupy the internal positions of national secretary of Electoral Affairs (1984–88), national secretary of Professionals (1987–89), national secretary of Politics (1989–92) and of General Collegiate secretary (1992–99), before being elected as chairwoman of the Christian People's Party in 2003 and re-elected in 2007. She was the first woman to become chairwoman of a political party in Peru.
After a failed first candidacy to the Congress of the Republic at the age of 25, Flores was elected as a councilwoman of Lima in 1986 and re-elected in 1989,
Following her second presidential run, she assumed the position of chancellor of the
Flores currently serves as the vice president of the Centrist Democrat International,[9] a Christian democratic political international, and as a member of Washington D.C. based think tank, the Inter-American Dialogue.[10]
Early life and education
Lourdes Flores was born in
Political career
Early political career
At age 18, Flores joined the Christian People's Party (PPC), a center-right branch of the Christian Democracy movement founded in 1966. She was an assistant to Enrique Elías Larosa, who became Minister of Justice.
Flores was elected Deputy from
She opposed the 1992 "
She denounced Fujimori's holding of Japanese citizenship in 1997 and opposed the activities of his security chief, Vladimiro Montesinos.[14]
2001 presidential campaign
In the year 2000, Flores founded the National Unity coalition, with a center-right tendency, in order to create a single front to run for the Peruvian presidency in the 2001 general election.[15]
Facing sexism and misogyny,[16] she led the opinion polls for several weeks,[17][18] but got the third place with 24.3% of the votes, being overtaken by Alejandro Toledo and Alan García, who would face each other in a second round in which Toledo would win. The unfortunate comment of his father, César Flores, referring to Alejandro Toledo a few weeks after the first round, would be detrimental to the candidacy of Lourdes Flores, according to analysts, as being considered pejorative and discriminatory.[19]
Despite the loss, National Unity consolidated itself as the third opposition force of the Toledo administration, winning 17 seats out of a total of 120. During the Toledo administration, both she and her coalition remained in the opposition, although supporting some the government's economic measures. National Unity was the first political group to withdraw from the National Accord in 2002, being widely criticized. Her party even supported a possible measure of vacancy of the President and Ántero Flores Aráoz obtained the presidency of Congress in 2004 thanks to the votes of the Peruvian Aprista Party.
In that year, Lourdes Flores rejected the April 14 strike called by the General Confederation of Workers of Peru, which had the support of APRA leader Alan García.
2006 presidential campaign
Lourdes Flores ran again as the National Unity nominee for President in the
In 2005, when she made his candidacy official, she already obtained the first place in the polls. In August 2005, Ollanta Humala began an unexpected rise in the polls. The polls throughout the campaign projected her as the most possible successor to Alejandro Toledo.[20]
As of February 2006, Flores Nano began an advertising campaign with the slogan "Peru in firm hands". The voice-over of their advertisements was that of Güido Lombardi, a well-known journalist and TV political host. Her coalition, National Unity, was the only one who did not advertise with his candidates for Congress, since they only presented the presidential candidate.
She was disqualified by her opponents,[21][22] referring to Flores as the "candidate of the rich and the wealthy", a phrase coined by Alan García and his supporters against her, while members of the National Unity denounced a dirty war orchestrated by the Aprista Party and by Unión por el Perú to damage directly to Lourdes Flores. The surveys of April 2006 showed an increase in Ollanta Humala, a decrease in Flores Nano and a slight increase in Alan García, which could be said to be a "technical draw".[23]
At 100% of the computed votes, it was announced that Ollanta Humala and Alan García would contest the presidency in a run-off, obtaining 30.6% and 24.3% respectively. Lourdes Flores took the third place with 23.8% of the votes, around 65,000 fewer votes than García. As in 2001, former President Garcia edged her out by a slim margin (0.5%) for the second run-off spot.[24] Garcia was then elected as President.
Recognizing the results that left her out of the race, Lourdes Flores affirmed that she believed she had lost "at the table", suggesting possible fraud in counting the votes at the polling tables.
2010 Lima municipal election campaign
In 2010, Flores narrowly lost the election for Mayor of Lima to Susana Villarán of the Social Force Decentralization Party (Partido Descentralista Fuerza Social).[25]
References
- ^ "Lourdes Flores Nano Abogados". www.lfnabogados.com.pe. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ Politics, iKNOW (2007-10-09). "Lourdes Flores Nano". International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
- ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ "A woman's touch". The Economist. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ "Peru's 2006 presidential candidates". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2022-12-11. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ "Flores Nano, Lourdes (1959–) | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ "Peru's small political parties scramble to survive". Perú Reports. 2016-03-31. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ "Organización - idc-cdi". idc-cdi (in European Spanish). Archived from the original on 2018-09-03. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ "Lourdes Flores Nano – The Dialogue". www.thedialogue.org. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ "Comparación de candidatos: LOURDES CELMIRA ROSARIO FLORES NANO, SUSANA MARIA DEL CARMEN VILLARAN DE LA PUENTE", Jurado Nacional de Elecciones 2010, Archived September 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
- ^ Politics Matter: A dialogue of women political leaders (PDF). IADB, WLCA. 2001. p. 86.
- La República, December 21, 2008 (in Spanish)
- ^ Sims, Calvin. "Documents in Peru Cast Doubt on Fujimori's Right to Rule". Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ "Peru's Top Prize". edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ "Flores offers 'girl power' in Peru elections". ARN. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ "Is She Poised For A Runoff?". tribunedigital-sunsentinel. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ De Castro, Juan E. (2010). Vargas Llosa and Latin American Politics. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 45.
- ^ "Our Campaigns - Candidate - Lourdes Flores Nano". www.ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ "Peru's Lourdes Flores Challenging Neopopulist Trends - FPIF". Foreign Policy In Focus. 2006-03-14. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ "Peru at a Turning Point: Populism or Pragmatism? - Knowledge@Wharton". Knowledge@Wharton. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ "Peruvians Find Great Divide in Election". NPR.org. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ "Women to the fore: feminising Latin politics". Centre for International Governance Innovation. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ^ "Lourdes Flores aceptó su derrota electoral a la Alcaldía de Lima y reconoció triunfo de Susana Villarán", El Comercio, October 26, 2010 (in Spanish)