Flores was accused in May 2014 of pocketing US$15 million donated by Taiwan, intended for survivors of the January and February 2001 El Salvador earthquakes, which occurred during his presidency.

He also studied law, philosophy and economic development at Harvard University and history and literature at Trinity College, Oxford.

At the age of 37 (the youngest chief executive on the continent at that time), Flores became the third consecutive president from ARENA by winning an outright majority in the elections in March 1999, and took office on 1 June 1999.

The lack of flexibility exemplified by his government resulted in a number of crippling strikes, most notably one led by the medical professionals in an attempt to forestall threatened privatization of the country's public health facilities.

Even though the replacement of Colones with dollars proved to reduce interest rates, it also caused huge long-term inflation as prices were rounded upwards.

Delivery of international aid was inefficient and was criticized by reporters, especially Mauricio Funes (who later became President of El Salvador) from the local channel TV12, an affiliate of the Mexican company TV Azteca.

[citation needed] Another occurrence was the Summit of the Americas where Flores called Fidel Castro a "dictator" and accused him of being responsible for thousands of deaths which have occurred in El Salvador.

Later, Rodríguez had to resign from this post when he was indicted in his country for alleged acts of corruption during his tenure as president, a situation which called for an extraordinary election for his successor.

This situation could be explained because some of his policies were seen as being to closely aligned to US interests at a time when most Latin American governments were highly critical of the positions adopted by the United States.

[citation needed] At the time of his death, Flores was, along with several other key actors in the deal, being investigated by the Salvadoran Attorney General on corruption and disobedience charges.

Attorney General Luis Martínez was to have taken up the case against the late former president despite his own prior history of having worked in the previous ARENA administration of Tony Saca and having been Flores's partner in several businesses.

[10] A further charge of disobedience accused Flores of failing to show up for a meeting with a congressional commission investigating what happened to the money Taiwan donated.

[5] On 30 January 2016, Flores died, aged 56, in a private hospital in San Salvador while in a coma after undergoing emergency surgery and suffering irreversible neurological damage.