The possible phenomenological consequences of R-parity violating inter
actions in the framework of low energy supersymmetry breaking are stud
ied. It is pointed out that even very weak R-parity violation would co
mpletely overshadow one of the basic signatures of low energy supersym
metry breaking models, that is the decay of the next to lightest super
symmetric particle into a photon (lepton) and missing energy. Thus, th
e observation of these decays would put very strong limits on R-parity
violating couplings. Vice-versa, if R-parity violation is established
experimentally, before a detailed knowledge of the spectrum is obtain
ed, it will be very difficult to distinguish gravity mediated from low
energy gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking scenarios. Those conclus
ions are very model independent. We also comment on the possibility of
mixing between charged and neutral leptons with charginos and neutral
inos, respectively, and its phenomenological consequences for the phot
on (lepton) signatures, in scenarios where this mixing is generated by
the presence of bilinear or trilinear R-parity violating terms in the
superpotential. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All right
s reserved.