The former president of Argentina Carlos Menem dies 1:30
(CNN Spanish) -
The former president of Argentina Carlos Menem died this Sunday at the age of 90, his daughter Zulema Menem confirmed to CNN.
He was 90 years old.
Menem was born in the province of La Rioja in 1930. He was governor of his province by justicialism or Peronism from 1973 until the military coup of 1976, when he was arrested.
He was president of Argentina between 1989 and 1999. He succeeded in advance the then-ruler Raúl Alfonsín.
Under his mandate, he sanctioned state and economic reform laws, privatized some companies, stabilized the economy, and controlled inflation.
The son of Syrian immigrants, Carlos Menem promoted the constitutional reform called Pacto de Olivos, which he agreed with Raúl Alfonsín.
He tried unsuccessfully to reform the Constitution to obtain a third term.
In 1999 he handed over power to the elected president Fernando de la Rúa.
Carlos Menem in 2003. Credit: Quique Kierszenbaum / Getty Images
In the 2003 presidential elections, he was the most voted candidate with 24.4%.
However, he decided not to run in the second round, allowing Néstor Kirchner, who was second in the first round, to be elected as the new president.
He remained active in politics as a national senator for the Justicialista Party, for the province of La Rioja from 2005 to 2019, the year in which he joined the Peronist Coalition Frente de Todos and was again elected in the Senate until 2023.
advertising
Carlos Menem in 2019. Credit: JUAN MABROMATA / AFP via Getty Images
He was married to Zulema Yoma, then to former Miss Universe and Chilean television presenter Cecilia Bolocco, and had four children.
With information from Hugo Manu Correa
Carlos Menem
