Francisco Flores: President of El Salvador whose time in office was marred by accusations of corruption and elitism

Flores had a meteoric rise to the presidency, but once there gained a reputation for being arrogant and distant

Flores: he had been accused of embezzling money from an earthquake relief fund (EPA)

Francisco Flores, who has died of a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 56, served for five years as President of El Salvador, but his time in office was tarnished by accusations of corruption and elitism. Flores, who led El Salvador from 1999 to 2004, was under house arrest on charges of embezzlement and illegal enrichment. He was accused of diverting more than $15m, which had been donated by Taiwan to help the victims of earthquakes in 2001. It had been alleged that $10m of that went to his party and the remainder to him.

Loyda Robles, one of the plaintiff lawyers against Flores, said his death would end the criminal prosecution, but that the civil litigation would continue, adding that plaintiffs had asked the country's Supreme Court to add a charge of money laundering.

Flores had a meteoric rise to the presidency, but once there gained a reputation for being arrogant and distant. He became El Salvador's first president to be charged and put on trial for corruption during his time in office.

Born to a well-off, conservative and anti-communist family, Flores rose quickly through the ranks of the Arena party, which ruled El Salvador between 1989 and 2009. He started out in the government of Arena's first president, Alfredo Cristiani, in 1989, when he was still in his twenties.

A few days into his new position, a guerrilla attack killed his wife's father. In the 1990s, he served as an Arena legislator and he won the presidency in 1999, beating a former guerrilla commander, Facundo Guardado.

Francisco Guillermo Flores, politician: born Santa Ana, El Salvador 17 October 1959; married Lourdes Rodriguez; died San Salvador, El Salvador 30 January 2016.