Menem was also extremely flexible as a politician, beginning his career as a self-styled disciple of General Juan Domingo Peron, who founded the populist movement that bears his name and placed the economy largely under state control. Menem, who served two terms as president between 1989 and 1999, transformed the country – but in the opposite direction.
“I don’t know if I’m going to get the country out of economic trouble, but I’m sure I’m going to make the country more fun,” said Menem once. He savored the celebrity company, introducing the Rolling Stones and Madonna in Buenos Aires, and memorably ignored criticism after receiving a red Ferrari as a gift from an Italian businessman in 1990.
“It’s mine, mine and mine,” said Menem, a fan of motor racing, in front of television cameras. “Why would I donate?”
He later reluctantly agreed to auction the car for $ 135,000, with the proceeds going to the state coffers.
The son of Syrian immigrants whose family owned a winery, Menem was a three-time folkloric governor of the province of La Rioja, known for his shoulder-length hair and lamb chops when he gained international prominence.
He won the nomination of the Peronist Party and achieved victory in the 1989 presidential elections, capitalizing on the economic and social chaos in Argentina. The country was mired in annual inflation of 5,000% and the poor looted supermarkets to get food.
Under Menem, the economy registered strong growth, inflation fell to single digits and the peso, the national currency, enjoyed unprecedented stability as it was pegged to the US dollar. The long hair and sideburns are gone and the flashy clothes have been replaced by imported hand-made suits.
The heart of Menem’s recovery plan, devised by the energetic Harvard-educated Economy Minister, Domingo Cavallo, was the withdrawal of the State from the economy.
Menem removed controls on prices and interest rates. He sold the state-owned telephone company, airlines, racetracks, steelmakers and oil giant YPF, then the largest company in South America. He cut the state’s payroll and encouraged foreign investment. He repressed once powerful unions that formed the backbone of the Peronist movement and were irritated by the state’s payroll cuts that eliminated jobs.
In foreign affairs, Menem withdrew Argentina from the Non-Aligned Movement, a Cold War era structure that defended the independence of the United States and – less – from the Soviet Union, and forged strong ties with Washington.
Argentine troops participated in the Gulf War against Iraq in 1991 and joined the UN peacekeepers in Haiti and the former Yugoslavia.
During Menem’s term, Argentina was the scene of deadly attacks – against the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 and a Jewish center in 1994. Argentina accused Iran of involvement; Iran denied it. Menem was later tried for the alleged cover-up of those responsible for the attack on the Jewish center, but was found not guilty in a 2019 trial.
As president, Menem prevailed in disputes with the Argentine military, whose 1976 coup resulted in the extrajudicial death and disappearance of tens of thousands of people. It reduced the military’s spending and abolished the highly unpopular military recruitment system.
He dismayed human rights groups by granting pardon to former members of the military junta who served sentences of up to life in prison for crimes related to the disappearance of Argentine dissidents during the 1976-1983 dictatorship. The pardon was extended to former guerrillas in what Menem described as a process of national reconciliation.