Lourdes Flores

Lourdes Flores Nano
Member of Congress
In office
July 26, 1995 – July 26, 2000
ConstituencyNational
Member of the Democratic Constituent Congress
In office
November 26, 1992 – July 26, 1995
ConstituencyNational
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
July 28, 1990 – April 5, 1992
ConstituencyLima
President of the Christian People's Party
In office
18 December 2003 – 18 December 2011
Preceded byÁntero Flores Aráoz
Succeeded byRaúl Castro Stagnaro
Personal details
Born (1959-10-07) 7 October 1959 (age 65)
Lima, Peru
Political partyPartido Popular Cristiano
Unidad Nacional
Alma materPontifical Catholic University of Peru (LLB)
IE Business School (MA)
Complutense University of Madrid (PhD)
ProfessionLawyer

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,[2] after aspiring to the office of Lieutenant Mayor of Lima. She became Deputy of the Republic in 1990, representing Lima. With the Alberto Fujimori's self-coup and the dissolution of the 1992 Parliament, Flores was elected member of the Democratic Constituent Congress in 1992 and re-elected as a Congresswoman in 1995, becoming a leader of the parliamentary opposition to the Fujimori administration.[3] After the fall of the regime,[4] Flores decided to run for President in 2001,[5] finishing in third place with 24% of the national vote in the first round, behind Alejandro Toledo and Alan García. Flores undertook a second run for the presidency[6] in 2006, again occupying the third place in the voting results after being overtaken by Alan García, who went to a run-off with Ollanta Humala. Flores is the first woman to be a major contender for the presidency in the history of Peru.[7]

Following her second presidential run, she assumed the position of chancellor of the San Ignacio de Loyola University from 2006 to 2009. She was a candidate for the mayor of Lima in the municipal elections of Lima in 2010. She obtained the second place, being surpassed by her leftist rival, Susana Villarán, by a narrow margin. In 2016, she ran for the First Vice Presidency on the Popular Alliance ticket, a heavily-criticized coalition[8] between the Peruvian Aprista Party and the Christian People's Party for the presidential election of that year, receiving 5.83% of the voting and placing fifth.

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]

  1. ^ "Lourdes Flores Nano Abogados". www.lfnabogados.com.pe. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
  2. ^ Politics, iKNOW (2007-10-09). "Lourdes Flores Nano". International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cooper, Marc. "Peru & the Post-Fujimori Future | The Nation". ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
  5. ^ "A woman's touch". The Economist. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
  6. ^ "Peru's 2006 presidential candidates". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2022-12-11. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
  7. ^ "Flores Nano, Lourdes (1959–) | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
  8. ^ "Peru's small political parties scramble to survive". Perú Reports. 2016-03-31. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
  9. ^ "Organización - idc-cdi". idc-cdi (in European Spanish). Archived from the original on 2018-09-03. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
  10. ^ "Lourdes Flores Nano – The Dialogue". www.thedialogue.org. Retrieved 2018-09-03.