Argentina: death of former president Carlos Menem at 90

Former Argentine President Carlos Menem (1989-1999) died Sunday February 14 in a Buenos Aires clinic at the age of 90, the official Telam news agency and other media reported. “During the dictatorship (1976-1983), he was persecuted and imprisoned,” Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said on Twitter, offering his condolences to his family.

Senator since 2005, Carlos Menem had been hospitalized several times in recent months. On December 29, he was unable to participate in the Senate vote on the abortion law due to his hospitalization. Originally from the province of La Rioja (North West), Carlos Menem ruled Argentina for ten years, from 1989 to 1999, leading a neoliberal policy

Judicial investigation for corruption

During this period, he introduced “convertibility”, setting the peso-dollar exchange rate at one to one. The national currency had suffered a violent devaluation during the historic economic crisis that followed. The former head of state had three children from two marriages, the first with Zulema Yoma and the second with the former Chilean Miss Universe Cecilia Bolocco.

He was the subject of a judicial investigation in several corruption cases, but had never been convicted. Placed in house arrest in 2001 in a case of arms smuggling to Croatia and Ecuador, he was released a few weeks later by decision of the Supreme Court of Justice and finally discharged due to the excessive length of time. the proceedings after a quarter of a century of prosecution.


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