[피플in포커스]Argentina’s former President Menem dies amid economic turmoil

Argentine President Alberto Fernandez and his partner Fabiola Janez are leaving Congress after paying homage to the late Carlos Menem. Former President Menem died at the age of 90 in a hospital in Buenos Aires on February 14, 2021. © AFP=News1 © News1 Taesung Won

Former Argentine President Carlos Menem, who led Argentina amid the economic crisis with aggressive privatization policies, died at the age of 90.

On the 15th (local time), AFP news agency reported that former President Menem died on the 14th at a hospital in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, citing media reports such as Telam.

Menem is known to have been hospitalized several times in recent months for pneumonia.

He served as President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999, pursuing aggressive privatization policies, such as privatizing state-owned enterprises.

Menem, who ideologically identified himself as a follower of Peronism, a movement based on the policies and legacy of former President Juan Peron, succeeded in calming hyperinflation by implementing a convertible policy that fixed the peso’s exchange rate at US$1 while serving as president. .

But this policy ended up causing Argentina’s worst economic crisis in 2001.

Menem retired in 1999 after failing to revise the constitution to run for the third president. He continued his political activities from 2005 to 2019 as a senator of the Justice Party representing the province of La Rioja in Argentina.

Meanwhile, he has been investigated for various corruption cases, but has never been convicted in court.

He was ordered to detain his home in 2001 for a case involving the smuggling of arms to Croatia and Ecuador, but was found acquitted by the Supreme Court and eventually released.

In honor of Menem, the current President Alberto Fernandez declared a three-day period of mourning from Sunday.

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