Profile: Carlos Menem

Carlos Menem: Comeback hopes appear dashed

In the 1990s, Carlos Menem stood out in a region of largely anonymous leaders as perhaps the only figure of true international standing.

With his white sideburns and flamboyant lifestyle, Mr Menem, who was Argentine president for 10 years until 1999, was certainly the most recognisable in South America.

Mr Menem married former beauty queen Cecilia Bolocco earlier this year

He is best remembered as president for repairing a broken economy he inherited upon taking office.

But Mr Menem, 70, who served two consecutive terms as Argentina's president, stood down amid swirling accusations of rampant corruption in his administration.

Carlos Menem was born in the Rioja Province of Argentina in 1930 of Syrian parents. He trained as a lawyer and became a lifelong supporter of President Juan Peron.

He was elected governor of the La Rioja Province in 1973, a position which gave him national prominence during the last years of Mr Peron's presidency.

Controversial reforms

His fortunes turned when the armed forces overthrew the government of Mr Peron's widow in 1976 and he was imprisoned by the leaders of the new military government.

The country returned to democracy in 1983 and Mr Menem was re-elected to his old job as governor of La Rioja. In 1988 he was elected governor of Buenos Aires.

In 1989 Mr Menem was elected president of Argentina.

Menem took over from President Raul Alfonsin

He took over from President Raul Alfonsin at a desperate time for the country.

The economy was in a critical state and Argentina was still divided after its years of military government.

Mr Menem's measures were swift but also controversial.

His economic reforms pegged the Argentine currency to the US dollar.

Unemployment rose, but inflation was ended.

International power

In 1990 Mr Menem issued a pardon for the leaders of the military government.

Argentina has always considered itself an important international power.

Mr Menem was keen to convert his country's ambitions into achievements.

In 1991 he helped to establish the South American Common Market Mercosur (along with Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay).

Mr Menem also campaigned for Latin America to have a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

He maintained Argentina's claim to the Falklands Islands (Islas Malvinas), but has said he will not pursue this claim by force.

Autocracy

In the later years of his rule, Mr Menem was accused of autocracy and of accumulation of power.

He was able to change the constitution to enable him to run for re-election in 1995, but he could not gather the support needed to reinterpret the constitution to run for a third consecutive term of office in the 1999 presidential elections.

Domingo Cavallo became one of his greatest rivals

His former allies became his greatest opponents. Former Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo, who was responsible for curbing hyperinflation, split from Mr Menem and started his own party.

Former supporter Eduardo Duhalde, the governor of Buenos Aires, became Mr Menem's greatest rival and critic within the Peronist Party.

Mr Menem's government got caught up in a scandal involving the illegal sale of arms to Croatia and to Ecuador in the early 1990s. Many in Argentina began to feel that he was out of touch after too many years in power.

Many analysts took his announcement that he would not run for re-election in 1999 as a sign that his political career was over.

But shortly after the announcement, Mr Menem confirmed what many already suspected - he wanted to stand in the presidential elections to be held in 2003.

Mr Duhalde, the Peronist candidate in the 1999 elections, was defeated in a landslide by Buenos Aires mayor Fernando de la Rua.

Scandal

Mr Duhalde blamed his defeat on Mr Menem, saying the former president had worked against him in order to retain his own control over the party.

Last year the arms affair came back to haunt Mr Menem, when three of his former ministers were charged with conspiring to export weapons in contravention of international arms embargoes.

Though Mr Menem has protested his innocence throughout the affair, this year the net finally closed in on him with the arrest on Wednesday of former army commander General Martin Balza.

Only weeks ago, Mr Menem married a Chilean ex-beauty queen, Cecilia Bolocco, 36.

With Mr Menem's arrest on 7 June and polls saying 60% of Argentines think he is guilty, a honeymoon he hoped for in Syria, let alone a political comeback in 2003 is looking increasingly unlikely.