Lourdes Flores

Lourdes Flores Nano
Member of Congress
In office July 26, 1995 – July 26, 2000
Member of the Democratic Constituent Congress
In office November 22, 1992 – July 28, 1995
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office July 28, 1990 – April 5, 1992
Personal details
Born	(1959-10-07) October 7, 1959 Lima, Peru
Political party	Partido Popular Cristiano Unidad Nacional
Alma mater	IE Business School
Profession	Lawyer

Lourdes Celmira Rosario Flores Nano (born October 7, 1959) is a Peruvian politician and lawyer who is a former councilwoman, former Deputy from 1990 to 1992, former Constituent Congresswoman from 1992 to 1995, former Peruvian Congresswoman representing Lima from 1995 to 2000, and former chair of the Christian People's Party. Flores served as the first chairwoman of the Christian People's Party (Partido Popular Cristiano) from January 2003 until November 2011.

Flores unsuccessfully ran in the Peruvian 2001 and 2006 presidential elections, finishing third in both occasions. In 2016, she was Alan García's first running mate in Popular Alliance presidential ticket, a dissolved coalition of the Peruvian Aprista Party and the Christian People's Party.

Biography

Lourdes Flores was born in Lima on 7 October 1959. She studied at the Colegio Reyna de Los Ángeles and the law school of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. She pursued graduate studies in Madrid, earning a master in legal advice at Instituto de Empresa (currently known as IE Business School) and a doctorate in law at the Universidad Complutense. As an independent lawyer, Flores specialized in civil and business law. In 1992, Flores attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. She later taught commercial law at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and the University of Lima. She served for two years as rector of the Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola.

Political life

At age 18, Flores joined the Popular Christian Party, a conservative 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 National Deputy from Lima to the Congress of the Republic in 1990 with more than 250 000 votes. During that election, the PPC formed part of the FREDEMO front backing Mario Vargas Llosa for president.

She opposed the 1992 "auto-golpe" of President of the Republic Alberto Fujimori, organizing congressional meetings in her home. She was elected to the constituent congress later that year and re-elected to congress in 1995.

She denounced Fujimori's holding of Japanese citizenship in 1997 and opposed the activities of his security chief, Vladimiro Montesinos.

Candidate for President

Flores and Unidad Nacional stayed in opposition to the Toledo government, while supporting some of his economic measures. She ran unsuccessfully in the 2006 presidential race which took place 9 April 2006. As in 2001, former President Alan Garcia (1985–1990) edged her out by a slim margin (0.5%) for the second run-off spot. Garcia was reelected in the 2006 general election.

Candidate for Mayor of Lima

In 2010, Flores narrowly lost the election for Mayor of Lima to Susana Villarán of the Social Force Decentralisation Party (Partido Descentralista Fuerza Social).