|
 Menem led a tabloid personal
life while he pushed Argentina to an economic
boom, but his two-term 1989-1999 presidency
crumbled under the weight of corruption scandals
and he spent years plotting an unlikely
comeback.
With his black mane of hair and bushy gray
sideburns, Menem at his peak entertained the
Rolling Stones at his residence and put
Argentina on the international stage, sending
troops to the Gulf War and Bosnia.
"Above all, he leaves us with memories of a good
person, whom I will remember with great
affection," former President Mauricio Macri
tweeted.
Menem died at 11:20 a.m. (1420 GMT) after
several weeks in hospital for a urinary
infection, heart problems and other health
issues.
His body will lie in state at the capitol
building before being buried in an Islamic
cemetery in provincial Buenos Aires.
Menem won re-election after he privatized creaky
state enterprises in a massive transformation of
Argentine institutions in the early 1990s and
the economy flourished.
But he left office under a cloud -- charged with
corruption and conducting illegal arms deals in
1991 and 1995 with Croatia and Ecuador.
Ten years later, he was cleared of the arms
smuggling charges, but Menem could never shake
off the widely held suspicion that he had been
involved in shady dealings even if he was never
convicted.
The lawyer son of Syrian immigrants in La Rioja
province, 750 miles (1,200 km) west of Buenos
Aires, Menem became active in the Peronist party
in the 1950s and 1960s and visited party founder
Juan Peron in exile in Spain in 1964.
He served as La Rioja's governor from 1973-1976.
After a 1976 military coup Menem was arrested
and imprisoned for five years, a time he
dedicated to planning his bid for the
presidency.
After his release he was re-elected governor two
more times.
A charismatic speaker who favored stylish silk
and linen suits, Menem saw himself as the
successor of his political mentor, Peron, who
died in 1974 after returning from exile.
While some Peronist leaders were trying to take
the divided party down a sedate middle road,
Menem revived the political boss, or caudillo,
origins of the party, courting union leaders and
rallying extreme factions from the left and the
right to win the party's primaries in 1988.
DOLLAR PEG
Under Menem, Argentina finally emerged from the
polarization of the 1976-1983 "Dirty War"
dictatorship during which as many as 30,000
suspected dissidents were killed. He pardoned
military chiefs and guerrilla leaders from both
sides of the conflict.
He inherited an economy burdened by rampant
inflation, and though he had run on a populist
platform, he began selling off state companies
and instituting free-market reforms that
transformed the economy and drew praise from
Washington and international lenders.
He also adopted the controversial one-to-one peg
of the peso currency to the dollar.
[to top of second column]
|
 His policies were praised while
the economy grew robustly in the early 1990s,
but he was later blamed for high unemployment,
corruption and overspending that ate away the
benefits his market-economy politics may have
brought.
A year after becoming president he had a
acrimonious separation from his wife, Zulema
Yoma, who was unhappy with his rock-star
lifestyle and devotion to fast cars, golf and
glamour. Menem kicked her out of the
presidential residence in front of television
cameras. His daughter, Zulemita,
remained close to him after the split, serving
as his first lady, although they later clashed
over his second wife, Chilean former Miss
Universe Cecilia Bolocco, who was 35 years
younger than him.
That marriage ended in divorce in 2011, several
years after he and Bolocco admitted they were
separated. Chilean and Mexican media had
published photos of her embracing another man.
OBSESSED WITH RETURN
Menem wanted to run for a third term but courts
ruled he could not, and economic and political
chaos descended on Argentina soon after he left
power.
His elected successor was toppled by street
protests, and the next leader dropped Menem's
currency peg as the country descended into a
debt default and a deep 2001-2002 recession that
drove millions into poverty.
Despite the arms dealing and corruption charges,
most of which were eventually thrown out, Menem
received the most votes in 2003's first round
presidential elections.
He withdrew from the second round when polls
showed he would lose to Nestor Kirchner, a rival
Peronist faction's candidate, in a landslide.
In self-imposed exile in Bolocco's luxury
apartment in Santiago, Chile, Menem received
union leaders and plotted his return to power.
"With the last breath I take I will remain in
politics," he told Reuters in a 2004 interview.
He eventually returned to Argentina when judges
dropped arrest orders against him and he was
elected to the Senate for his home province in
2005 where he remained until his death.
During his final years, he was investigated and
charged over allegations he thwarted an
investigation into the 1994 bombing of a Jewish
community center, Argentina's deadliest
terrorist attack. The case made international
headlines in 2015 after a prosecutor
investigating the case was mysteriously found
dead.
In 2015, he failed to show up for a court date,
though he responded to prosecutors' questions on
the case in September 2016, mostly saying he did
not know or did not remember the answers to
their questions, Argentina's state-run news
agency Telam reported.
Menem had shelved his plans to run for president
again in 2007, and he looked frail in the years
before his death when his appearances in the
Senate became increasingly rare.
(Reporting by Jorge Otaola and Hugh Bronstein;
Editing by Daniel Wallis and Sonya Hepinstall)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content |
