Carlos Menem
Carlos Saúl Menem Akil (born July 2, 1930) was President of Argentina from 8 July 1989 to 10 December 1999 for the Justicialist Party (Peronist).
Nicknames given to Menem by his supporters included El Turco ("The Turk"), El Carlo, El Número Uno ("Number One"), El Salvador ("The Saviour"), and he was noted for his catchphrases
¡Síganme! ("Follow me!") and ¡Síganme!, no los voy a defraudar! ("Follow me! I won't let you down!").
He was born into a Muslim family of Syrian immigrants in Anillaco, in La Rioja province in Argentina.
His family allowed him to be a Catholic.
He trained as a lawyer at the University of Córdoba and became a supporter of Juan Domingo Perón.
He campaigned for political prisoners and was arrested in 1957 for supporting violent action against the dictatorship of Aramburu.
In 1964, he travelled to Syria where he met Zulema Fátima Yoma, another Syrian-Argentinian, whom he married in 1966.
He also presided the Syrian-Lebanese Association of La Rioja.
He was elected governor of La Rioja in 1973, a prominent post that left him exposed after the overthrow of President Isabel Martínez de Perón in March 1976.
He was imprisoned by the junta until 1981.
In October 1983, with the collapse of military rule, Menem was re-elected as governor.
In 1989 he was elected president, succeeding Raúl Alfonsín.
His major problem was the economy, damaged by hyperinflation and recession.
Menem acted quickly: finance minister Domingo Cavallo introduced a series of reforms and linked the peso to the US dollar.
The economy improved at the cost of considerable unemployment.
In 1991 he helped the formation of the Mercosur customs union.
His rule became tainted with accusations of corruption and instances of nepotism.
He pardoned Jorge Rafael Videla, Emilio Massera, Leopoldo Galtieri and other leaders of the 1976-1983 dictatorship.
Between his terms, his only son Carlos Saúl Menem Yoma died tragically.
He had the constitution altered to allow him to run again in 1995.
Menem led the integration of Argentina in Mercosur.
His government reestablished relations with the United Kingdom, broken during the Falklands War.
He divorced Zulema Yoma.
Their remaining daughter Zulema María Eva Menem fulfilled the role of First Lady.
He attempted to change the constitution again to let him run for a third time in 1999, but failed.
In May 2001, he married the Chilean model Cecilia Bolocco (1987's Miss Universe).
On June 7, 2001, he was arrested over an arms export scandal dating back to 1991 and 1996, and remained under house arrest until November.
He appeared before a judge in late August 2002 and denied all charges.
There are suspects that he has bank accounts in Switzerland for USD $10 million , but later,
the Swiss Banks and authorities rejected that fact, no money was found in their acounts.
Menem garnered the greatest number of votes in the April 27, 2003, first round presidential election, but failed to get the votes necessary to win an overall majority. A second-round run-off vote between Menem and Néstor Kirchner was scheduled for May 18, 2003, but knowing that he was facing a sure defeat, Menem decided to withdraw his candidacy, thus automatically making his rival, Kirchner, the new president.
Kirchner's government has tried to have Menem extradicted to face questioning over embezzlement but this has been rejected by the Chilean Supreme Court as under Chilean law people cannot be extradicted for questioning.
In June 2004 he announced that he had founded a new faction within the Justicialist Party, called People's Peronism.
