Former Argentine President Dies at 90

Official presidential portrait of Carlos Saúl Menem in 1989 (Wikimedia Commons)

Former Argentine President Carlos Saúl Menem died on February 14 in Buenos Aires at 90 years old. In December, Menem was hospitalized for kidney failure and put in a medically induced coma. 

Menem was born in 1930 to Syrian immigrants in La Rioja, where he became governor in 1973. After his arrest by a military junta in 1976, Menem regained his position in 1983. He eventually won the presidency with 48 percent of the vote.

Menem was Argentina’s president from 1989 to 1999. After his presidency, he represented La Rioja province from 2005 until his death. 

Menem succeeded Raúl Alfonsín in the country’s first peaceful transfer of power in 61 years. He assumed power in the midst of the worst economic crisis in Argentina’s history. Menem had campaigned on the promise to solve the country’s economic crisis; a year into his term, the country was on its way to recovery. The ex-president’s domestic and foreign policy also won the praise of George H. W. Bush and other world leaders. He ended Argentina’s history of isolationism, strengthened diplomatic relations with the United States and Europe, and focused on health and education policies. 

In 1995, Menem was reelected, but his second term was marred by accusations of corruption. After leaving office, he served six months under house arrest for participating in an arms-smuggling operation. He later stood trial for being involved in two anti-Semitic attacks that took place during his presidency, but he was acquitted.

Mourners gathered on February 15 to remember the ex-president as he was buried in the Islamic cemetery of La Tablada next to his son Carlos Menem Jr., who died in a helicopter accident in 1995. Menem was raised Muslim, but he converted to Roman Catholicism to run for office.

His death prompted Argentinians to reexamine the death of his son, whom some claim was murdered by Hezbollah—a militant Islamist group with ties to Iran. 

While newspapers described the mood at Menem’s funeral service as “caring,” with politicians from all parties expressing sympathy, the former president’s death did not upset all Argentine citizens. Argentine President Alberto Fernandez declared three days of national mourning immediately following Menem’s death, but one city refused to participate. Río Tercero declined to mourn the former president because of his role in the 1995 bombing of the city’s military factory that left seven dead and 300 injured. 

In a similar move, a Jewish Argentine group took to Twitter to criticize the former leader for his attempt to interfere in the investigation of two anti-Semitic terrorist attacks in the 1990s. The Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations condemned Menem and the fact that his political office kept him from serving a prison sentence for participating in an arms-smuggling operation. 

The mixed reactions to Carlos Menem’s death reflect his complicated legacy. The former president’s death opens old wounds, especially for the country’s Jewish population. However, despite controversy surrounding Menem for much of his political career, he managed to remain one of the country’s most influential Peronist politicians—even after his term ended. The ex-president’s death will leave a vacuum for other conservative leaders to fill within his Justicialist party.