RAFAEL FLORES LIMA - EL SALVADOR

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06743107
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: August 28, 2018
• Case Number: F-2017-01411
• Publication Date: December 2, 1983

Approved for Release: 2018/08/14 C06743107
C-16!/Z
Rafael FLORES LIMA
(Phonetic: FLOHrace LEEmah)
Deputy Minister of Defense
(.cinee February 1983)
Addressed as:
General Flores Lima
Ambitious and politically astute, Gen. Rafael
Flores Lima is a survivor who has managed to
maintain and often improve his position in the
military
A press secretary to President (19T7=79)
Carlos Humberto Romero, Flores Lima was one of
the few military officers in that administration who
were permitted to have a role in the government
that succeeded it. In December 1980 he was
assigned as Chief of the Armed Forces General
Staff after serving for a year as a military attache in Peru; he remained Chief of Staff until
receiving his current post. He was widely considered to owe his assignment as Chief of Staff
to then Minister of Defense Jose Guillermo Garcia and to have been "Garcia's man" in that
position, when it became apparent that
Garcia was losing political and military support and was on his way out, Flores Lima began
distancing himself from the Minister and saying that he disagreed with many of Garcia's
policies. current President Alvaro Magafia
likes and respects Flores Lima, but there has been varied opinion about him in the
military�some officers say he is one of the few senior officers who received their positions
through competence instead of cronyism; others say he is dangerous because his only loyalty
is to himself. there have been frequent rumors that
Flores Lima would not keep his present post for long, in April 1983 he was retained by the
then new Defense Minister Eugenio Vides Casanova, who promoted him to general a few
months later
EL SALVADOR
A Political Moderate
Flores Lima has
proved to be a moderating influence within the Salvadoran military: he has tried hard to
make the military a more professional, less repressive, and less political institution than it
has been in the past. For example, before the March 1982 elections he publicly urged that
members of the military be prohibited from voting in order to demonstrate that the military
was apolitical: he has since recanted that position, saying that (even though military voting
was not absolutely prohibited in that election) confusion in the military ranks over whether
to vote led to an inconclusive result. he now believes
members of the military should vote in the general elections scheduled for March 1984.
Flores Lima supports agrarian reform and has told them
that the reforms so far implemented would not have been possible without the Army's
backing.
A strong anti-Communist, Flores Lima has told that the
Salvadoran guerrillas would be hurt most by a US military strike against the Marxist-
Leninist Government of Nicaragua he might support a
(cont.)
CR M 83-16404
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
Approved for Release: 2018/08/14 C06743107
Approved for Release: 2018/08/14 C06743107
negotiated end to the war in El Salvador if the settlement did not provide for power sharing
with the insurgents, he was
concerned more about the threat to his country from the National Republican Alliance of
ultrarightist Roberto D'Aubuisson than about the guerrillas.
Career and Personal Data
Flores Lima entered the Army in 1955 and was subsequently assigned to the artillery
branch. He has received training at the Mexican Superior War College (1968-71), and he
has attended public safety (1967) and military intelligence (1977) courses in the United
States. Most of his military experience has been in staff positions.
An excellent speaker, Flores Lima knows how to reach and motivate an audience,
Flores Lima, 48 Marcied to
the former Maria Teresa Guangique Esquivel, he has two sons and two daughters
2 December 1983
2
Approved for Release: 2018/08/14 C06743107