LONDON
Former Argentine President Carlos Menem has died at Los Arcos Sanatorium in the capital Buenos Aires aged 90 following long-term health issues, local newspaper La Nacion reported Sunday.
At the time of his death, Menem was serving as a senator.
He was Argentina’s president from 1989 to 1999.
Menem is remembered as a politician who led a glamorous lifestyle.
He famously took to the field with football icon Diego Maradona and played a friendly match against tennis star Gabriela Sabatini.
Menem restored diplomatic ties with the UK after the Falklands War and received backing from Washington.
As a leader, his supporters regarded him as a savior, while his detractors considered him to be a pariah.
Menem sought to tackle Argentina’s deep economic issues and moved away from isolationist policies.
He opened up the country to foreign investment, although many have accused him of creating the conditions for Argentina's largest debt default in history.
Current President Alberto Fernandez, who has decreed that the country observe three days of official mourning, paid tribute to Menem on Twitter.
“With deep regret, I learned of the death of Carlos Saul Menem,” wrote Fernandez, remembering that he was always elected in a democracy and was imprisoned during a dictatorship.
Origins
Menem was born on July 2, 1930 in the town of Anillaco in the north west of Argentina.
His parents were Syrian immigrants and Menem was raised as a Muslim before converting to Roman Catholicism.
Throughout his life, Menem maintained strong ties to his parent’s homeland.
After completing university, he became involved in politics and was a champion of former Argentine President Juan Domingo Peron.
In 1956, when Peron was overthrown in a military coup, Menem was arrested for strongly opposing the government and was briefly imprisoned.
After forming a local youth branch of the Peronist movement, Menem became a local representative in 1962.
However, another military coup impeded his political career.
Menem later travelled to Spain, meeting with the exiled Peron, who endorsed him as a political candidate.
Menem married another Argentine-born Syrian, Zulema Yoma.
In 1973, after the ban on Peronism was removed, Menem was elected governor of the northern province of La Rioja.
Argentina experienced another military coup in 1976 and Menem was imprisoned by the military junta for two years.
He was accused of corruption and having ties to guerrilla movements.
After being hit with political restrictions, Menem was elected again as governor of La Rioja when Argentina returned to democracy.
Presidency
In 1988, he became the Peronist party’s presidential candidate, leading on a campaign to protect national industries.
He won the presidential election in 1989.
Fanfare and controversy followed Menem into the presidency.
He famously accepted a Ferrari from a businessman as a gift and after a public outcry promised to donate it.
When he assumed the presidency, Argentina was experiencing deep economic issues, with inflation peaking around 5000%.
In response, Menem had to convince the international community that he was the right person to change the country’s economic fortunes.
In doing so, he introduced wholesale free-market reforms, privatizing public utilities and famously pegging the Argentine peso to the US dollar.
Foreign investment reduced inflation and increased output but resulted in mass unemployment.
After amending the constitution in order to run for a second presidential term, Menem was elected in 1995.
He became Argentina’s first president to serve two full terms since the country’s independence.
Economic impact
But economic issues remained.
The pegging of the peso to the US dollar became expensive as the US currency began to surge in value.
Menem also had to repay foreign debt.
As a result, Argentina experienced high interest rates, hitting its economy hard.
In 1999, Argentina fell into recession, with the currency peg widening the economic deficit.
Foreign Policy
Despite this, Menem managed to re-establish diplomatic relations with the UK, which had been suspended since the Falklands War, and visited it in 1998.
He was invited to a joint session of the US Congress, while also becoming close to US presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Menem also helped found the South American trade bloc Mercosur.
But he remained a controversial figure while in office and for leading a glamorous lifestyle.
Menem divorced Zulema, who had alleged that their son’s death in a helicopter accident was due to ties of associates of Menem to drug trafficking.
He married former Miss Universe Cecilia Bolocco from Chile, but the pair later divorced in 2011.
Corruption allegations
In 2001, Argentina’s economy collapsed, and the country defaulted on its foreign debt. People lost their savings and took to the streets. Menem was later placed under house arrest, being accused of signing decrees to export weapons to Ecuador and Croatia.
Menem and his wife moved to Chile, returning to Argentina after their arrest warrants were cancelled.
Despite the political scandals and Argentina’s economic standing, Menem ran again for the presidency in 2003 but was forced to withdraw.
Authorities continued to investigate him for a number of allegations, such as illegal financial matters.
His time in office was marked by a terrorist bombing in 1992 of the Israeli embassy in the capital which left 29 dead and another of the Amia Jewish Centre in 1994, which killed 85. The perpetrators were never discovered, and in 2012, Menem was indicted for allegedly obstructing justice in regards to the investigation.
In 2013, Menem was found guilty concerning the smuggling of weapons and was sentenced to seven years in prison. But as a senator, he received immunity from prosecution.
Ultimately, he will be remembered as one of the great survivors of Latin American politics, a follower of Juan Peron, pivoting politically from a protectionist policy to market-friendly policies.
He remains deeply controversial in Argentina, pardoning several prominent military figures as the country transitioned to democracy, and as a divisive figure who many still blame for the 2001 economic collapse.
