Flores, Luis A. (1899–1969)

Luis A. Flores (b. 1899; d. 1969), Peruvian politician, lawyer, and diplomat. Born in Ayabaca, Piura, he is best known for his leadership of the Revolutionary Union, a radical nationalist party adopted by Colonel and President Luis Sánchez Cerro (1931–1933). Flores had been imprisoned during the Leguía regime but became deputy for Lima during the term of the Constituent Assembly (1931–1936). After the assassination of Sánchez Cerro in 1933, Flores assumed the leadership of the Revolutionary Union and espoused overt fascist principles, tactics, and organization, modeled after Benito Mussolini's party. Flores sought popular support and battled communism and populist aprismo. In the 1936 presidential elections, which were annulled by President Oscar Benavides, Flores finished second behind the candidate supported by the Aprista Party. Flores was subsequently exiled by Benavides but returned to become senator for Piura (1947–1948) and ambassador to Italy (1948–1950) and Nicaragua and Paraguay (1956–1962). He died in Lima.

See alsoFascism; Sanchez Cerro, Luis Manuel.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Steve Stein, Populism in Peru: The Emergence of the Masses and the Politics of Social Control (1980).

Additional Bibliography

Manrique, Nelson. Historia de la república. Lima: Fondo Editorial de COFIDE, 1995.

Villanueva, Armando, and Guillermo Thorndike. La gran persecución, 1932–1956. Lima: Empresa Periodística Nacional, 2004.

                                                           Alfonso W. Quiroz