Mariano roa
02/14/2021 21:52
Clarín.com
Zonal
Updated 02/15/2021 4:18 PM
After the death of Carlos Menem, Argentina has seven former presidents of the democracy alive.
But the Hall of Honor in the Casa Rosada is incomplete.
The busts of
María Estela Martínez de Perón, Carlos Menem, Fernando De la Rúa, Eduardo Duhalde and Cristina Kirchner
are missing there
.
Mauricio Macri will
have to wait until December 10,
2027. Eduardo Camano, Ramón Puerta and Adolfo Rodríguez Saá are left out, although the cuyano asked to have his, arguing that he was elected by a Legislative Assembly like Duhalde was.
A presidential decree signed by
Néstor Kirchner
(who already has his bust) established that only those presidents "who have served by
constitutional mandate
can be honored in the gallery of the Government House
."
It was also established that the statues should be installed
eight years
after their mandate ended.
Cristina Fernández can now access her recognition because it is counted from the end of her first four years.
Hall of Honor Hall of the Casa Rosada also known as "Gallery of the Presidential Busts".
Photo Rafael Quinteros
They wanted to make a bust of Carlos Menem last year, but the pandemic prevented it.
The tribute was to be on
July 2
, commemorating his 90 years.
This Sunday, before the wake began in the National Congress, Alberto Fernández contacted Zulemita and promised that "
when the family so decides
, the bust of Menem will be placed in the Casa Rosada."
At the beginning of 2020 it was also announced that they would locate sculptures with the faces of
Fernando de la Rúa and Eduardo Duhalde,
although for these two former presidents there was not so much speed in defining a date.
This tradition began in 1883 by determination of the also head of state,
Julio Argentino Roca
.
In marble columns, today the faces of 28 presidents are exposed.
Six of the former presidents alive belong to
the Justicialista Party.
The seventh, Mauricio Macri, is from
PRO
.
There is no living head of state who has been active in the
Radical Civic Union
.
María Estela Martínez de Perón, 90 years old (1974/76)
In August 1989, Carlos Menem received the visit of former president María Estela Martínez de Perón at the Casa Rosada, whom he consulted about his initiative to pardon the military.
Acuariana, the ex-wife of
Juan Domingo Perón,
turned 90 on February 4.
He lives in a closed neighborhood 30 kilometers from Madrid.
They claim that for years he has not been on the street, not even to go to church, in breach of the mandate of his religious fervor.
Although she still maintains her affinity with
Pope Francis,
who called her to greet her on her birthday.
She has not visited our country since 1994, precisely when Carlos Menem invited her to consult her on
pardons
for the military.
He never came back.
He left politics as he arrived: with a phobia and distrust of the leaders.
Although she knew how to negotiate with Alfonsín and Menem a
millionaire compensation
for the years she was imprisoned during the dictatorship.
The amount was never clear:
US $ 4 million?
His current house of 300 square meters covered was bought after that compensation.
He continues to collect a lifetime pension as a former president of
$ 150,000
per month.
For a decade his health has been delicate due to a strong blow that broke his hip.
Federico Ramón Puerta, 69 years old (December 21-23, 2001)
The former ambassador to Spain, Ramón Puerta.
Photo Luciano Thieberger
The Peronist missionary was President of the Nation during the
two days
prior to the chaotic Christmas of 2001. He assumed as first president for his position at the head of the Senate after the escape by
helicopter
of Fernando de la Rúa and thanks to the fact that Chacho Álvarez had resigned to the Vice Presidency in October 2000, initiating the decline of the Alliance government.
He was accommodated during the presidency of his friend Mauricio Macri, who appointed him
ambassador
to Spain.
He was one of those who operated the most for the incorporation of Miguel Angel Pichetto to Cambiemos.
Single with a reputation as a seducer, he was in a relationship with the national queen of yerba.
It all has to do with everything: Puerta is a millionaire thanks to his
yerba mate
production holding company
in Misiones.
He resigned his pension as president.
Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, 73 years old (December 23 to 30, 2001)
Senator Carlos Menem greets Adolfo Rodríguez Saá.
The stainless strongman of San Luis (only overshadowed by his brother Alberto, with whom he fights a kind of war of monarchs) received the
presidential baton
from the hand of Ramón Puerta.
He was elected by the
Legislative Assembly
as interim president to call elections in 60 days.
But as in his province, he tried to screw himself into power: in just one week he decreed the
default
on the private debt and wanted to create a
new currency
.
He did not give him the leather and the Peronist governors were scared by his "imbalances": they
emptied
him
a summit in the residence of Chapadmalal.
"In seven days I have changed the country. I pacified it. I spoke with Bush and he supports me. But to continue I need political support," he replied.
Years later, he acknowledged that he told the governors: "I'm not going to be anyone's lining. Get another De la Rúa."
Weakened and fought with almost everyone, he left his post the day before the end of the year, although he
never presented his
formal
resignation
in Buenos Aires to federal judge
Servini de Cubría.
Eduardo Camano, 74 years old (December 30, 2001 to January 2, 2002)
Eduardo Camano continued as incumbent in the Lower House after his days as Interim President.
"Rodríguez Saá refused to come to sign his resignation as president and Ramón Puerta did not want to take office again," recalled later this leader of the PJ Quilmeño who recognizes that there is only one thing that he loves more than politics:
tango
.
Even before the pandemic, he was seen taking the chip off the dance floors of Mar del Plata.
He found out early on December 30.
"
I did not know that I was going to be President.
I did not want to know anything but it turns out that they had already notified journalism, so at the door of my house, at 6 in the morning, there were 50 reporters anxious to interview the new President, I got out in shorts and a T-shirt, I made them all go up and I told them: 'There's the coffee, the mate, you can sit wherever you want, I'm going to change' ", he recalls.
He acted as a bridge for the arrival of Eduardo Duhalde:
"Everyone thought that Duhalde's government
would last 10 days.
So much so that the day he took office was 10 at night on January 1 and there were cacerolazos in the house of Government. That's why I always tell him jokingly and he gets very angry: 'When I was president, the people toasted and ate sweet bread, and you came and the people panned you. "
Eduardo Duhalde, 79 years old (January 2, 2002 to May 25, 2003)
Duhalde, when he was the strong man of Buenos Aires as governor, in one of his visits to President Menem.
Strong man of Peronism and political leader of his predecessors Puerta and Camaño, he was the fifth president in 12 days.
At some point he thought of calling elections and running for office with the support of the popular vote.
It did not arrive
.
He came out of Cavallo's convertibility, devalued 400% and pesified the savings after promising that the one who had "deposited dollars will receive dollars."
At the hand of his minister Jorge Rémes Lenicov, he did the dirty work of fiscal adjustment that laid the foundations for growth years later, already with Néstor Kirchner, whom he chose to face Menem.
He even opened the internal PJ to be held in the general election of 2003. The objective was to
weaken Menem,
who won those elections but then did not run for the second round.
The supposed "decade won" was starting.
In 2016, Duhalde said: "I didn't want to assume but Raúl Alfonsín called me. He told me: 'Duhalde, you can't keep pulling your ass out of the syringe. You're going to be responsible for a massacre in Argentina. The country is on fire' ".
Last year he was close to Alberto Fernández.
He even assured that they had lunch together every 15 days.
He was very critical of his management and, above all, his weakness in the face of "the outrage" of his vice president Cristina Kirchner.
He even spoke of a possible coup, although he later attributed his statements to a
“momentary psychotic”
behavior
that he suffered.
He still dreams of being a "consensus maker" and founding a social and political pact "with everyone inside", like that of La Moncloa, in Spain.
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, 68 years old (from 2007 to 2015);
and Mauricio Macri, 62 years old (from 2015 to 2019)
Pendulums.
Cristina Kichner and Mauricio Macri, leaders on each side of the rift.
Unlike the other former presidents, both continue to retain
large shares of power
and maintain leadership on each side of the rift, as if they were fueled by a confrontation that revalidates them.
The history of these political leaders still has pages to be written.
MR
