Carlos Saúl Menem, Who Led Argentina Through Economic Turmoil, Dies at 90
As president from 1989 to 1999, he helped restore the economy after a major crisis, but was later embroiled in corruption charges.
Carlos Saúl Menem in 1997. âThe only things I can offer my people are work, sacrifice and hope,â he said in 1989, as he became president of an Argentina in economic crisis.Credit.Daniel Muzio/Associated Press
Carlos Saúl Menem, who as Argentinaâs president from 1989 to 1999 fostered a striking economic recovery and renewed ties to the United States and Britain, but was later convicted of graft and accused of covering up evidence in a deadly anti-Semitic bombing on his watch, died on Sunday in Buenos Aires. He was 90.
Argentina’s former President Carlos Menem has died at age 90 in Buenos Aires, the country’s Telam news agency and other media outlets reported on Sunday.
Menem, who served two terms as president from 1989 to 1999 during which he pursued an aggressive privatisation policy, had been hospitalised several times in recent months for pneumonia.
“It is with deep regret that I learned of the death of Carlos Saul Menem,” Argentina President Alberto Fernandez said on Twitter.
The son of Syrian immigrants in La Rioja province, 1,200km (750 miles) west of Buenos Aires, Menem became active in the Peronist party in the 1950s and 60s and visited party founder Juan Peron in exile in Spain in 1964.
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Former Argentine President Carlos Menem sits in a courthouse in Buenos Aires, Argentina, February 28, 2019. (Natacha Pisarenko/ AP)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina Carlos Menem, a former Argentine president who delivered short-lived economic stability and forged close ties with the United States in the 1990s even as he navigated scandal and enjoyed an often flamboyant lifestyle, has died.
Argentine President Alberto Fernández confirmed the death of the 90-year-old former leader, who had been ailing in recent weeks.
The dapper lawyer from one of Argentina’s poorest provinces, dismissed by critics as a playboy, steered Argentina toward a free-market model that was, at one point, envied by neighbors and favored by investors.