Carlos Menem

Carlos Menem (born July 2, 1930, Anillaco, Argentina—died February 14, 2021, Buenos Aires) was a politician and lawyer who served as president of Argentina (1989–99)—the first Peronist to be elected president of Argentina since Juan Perón in 1973.

Menem, the son of Syrian immigrants, was born into the Muslim faith but converted to Roman Catholicism, the official religion of Argentina, to achieve his political aspirations. He joined the Peronist (Justicialist Party) movement in 1956 and was briefly imprisoned that year after participating in a revolt aimed at restoring Juan Perón (who had been ousted from power) to the presidency. After obtaining a law degree from the National University of Córdoba in 1958, Menem began a career as a trade union lawyer in the northwestern city of La Rioja. He was elected governor of La Rioja province in 1973 but was expelled from office in 1976 by the military junta that had overthrown the government of Isabel Perón; he was held under house arrest until 1981.

After regaining the governorship of La Rioja in 1983, Menem expanded the size of government, gave favourable tax breaks to businesses, and pursued other policies typical of the Peronist movement. His support base among Peronists grew, and in May 1989, amid the worst economic crisis in the country’s history, he was elected president of Argentina. High inflation forced Menem to abandon party orthodoxy in favour of a fiscally conservative, market-oriented economic policy. With the aid of many non-Peronist cabinet members, he succeeded in stabilizing the economy. Menem cultivated a flamboyant image and enjoyed great national popularity despite sharp criticism for pardoning convicted human rights violators connected with the period of military rule (1976–83). The Olivos Pact (1994), an agreement between Menem and the opposing Congressional party, allowed him to revise the constitution of 1853 to permit his reelection as president in 1995 (the pact also limited presidential terms to four years and imposed restrictions on executive control over certain branches of government).

During his second term, Menem sought to improve relations with Great Britain. His 1998 trip marked the first time an Argentine leader had visited Britain since the Falkland Islands War (1982). Menem and British Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed to promote bilateral trade and investment. Menem’s second term, however, was marked by internal feuding and corruption in the Peronist party. Barred constitutionally from running for a third consecutive term, Menem was succeeded by Fernando de la Rúa, the candidate of an alliance of opposition groups, in December 1999. In June 2001 Menem was placed under house arrest on charges of involvement in an arms-smuggling conspiracy—selling illegal weapons to Ecuador and Croatia in the early 1990s—but he was freed five months later.

In 2002 Argentina faced enormous political, economic, and social chaos that forced de la Rúa’s resignation, and Menem reentered the political arena seeking to regain the presidency. Factional fighting within the Justicialist Party led to a split, and Menem contested the 2003 presidential election against two other Justicialist candidates as well as candidates from other parties. In the first round of voting, Menem led with one-fourth of the vote, finishing slightly ahead of Justicialist candidate Néstor Kirchner but failing to surpass the threshold necessary to win. Under pressure from many of his supporters who realized that he had little chance of defeating Kirchner, Menem withdrew prior to the runoff, and Kirchner was elected by default.

In 2005 Menem was elected to the federal Senate representing La Rioja province. He ran for governor of La Rioja in 2007 but placed third with only 22 percent of the vote, and he remained in the Senate. The following year the 2001 arms-smuggling charges were reinstated. However, as a senator, Menem had congressional immunity and thus could not be arrested on any charges brought during his senatorial term. The trial began in 2008, and he was acquitted three years later. In 2009 a federal judge indicted Menem for allegedly obstructing the investigation into the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Association building in Buenos Aires. As that case continued, Menem’s 2011 acquittal was overturned in 2013, and he was sentenced to seven years in prison for arms smuggling. His legal troubles continued in 2015 as he was convicted of embezzlement and received a jail sentence of four and a half years; the charges stemmed from the use of public funds for government bonuses while he was president. Menem appealed both verdicts, and in 2017 he was elected to his third term in the Senate. The following year his arms-smuggling conviction was overturned, and in 2019 he was acquitted of obstruction charges related to the inquiry into the 1994 bombing.