ARENA Campaign Advisor under Investigation

by CISPES

Photo: La Prensa Grafica

Yesterday, a legislative commission investigating former president Francisco Flores for possibly embezzling $15 million donated by the Government of Taiwan held a hearing (for background click here) to question the former Head of State, who is currently a campaign advisor to Norman  Quijano, presidential candidate for the right−wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party.  The commission includes representatives of all political parties except ARENA who refused to participate.

When asked to provide details, Flores stressed that he did not remember all the details related to the multi-million dollar Taiwanese donation nor could he provide answers to any of the questions asked by legislators, even when they provided him documents with information on all the aid he had received from Taiwan.  The legislators continued interrogating Flores for four hours, yet all he said was that the final recipients of the donation had handled the funds. Throughout the hearing, Flores assumed a dismissive attitude about the investigation. He was on his phone and kept pushing the microphones away every time someone came by to move them closer to him.  The hearing is set to resume later on today.

A scandal related to corruption charges against a former president from the ARENA party and adviser to their current campaign does not bode well for their candidate who is already lagging in the polls.