Carlos Saúl Menem was born on July 2, 1930 in Anillaco, Argentina, as one of four sons of Saúl and Mohibe Akil Menem, who were Syrian immigrants. His father, a trader, sent all his sons to college. Carlos Saúl is studying at the National University of Córdoba, in the second city of Argentina. He acquired a rights in 1955 and became a passionate Peronis.
In 1966 he married Zulema Yoma. They have two children, Zulema Menem and Carlos Saúl Jr., and divorced in 1991. In 2001, he married Cecilia Bolocco. They had a son, Máximo, and were divorced in 2011. Carlos Saúl Jr. died in a helicopter crash in 1995.
Besides his daughter, Zulema Menem, and his son Máximo Menem Bolocco, survivors include another son, Carlos Nair Menem and a brother, Eduardo.
Mr. Menem was briefly sent to prison when Perón was overthrown in 1955. He later joined the Justice Party, the successor to the Peronist Party. In 1973, after returning from exile, Perón regained power. Mr. Menem, the leader of his provincial party, was elected governor of La Rioja province.
Perón died in 1974 and is succeeded by his third wife, Isabel Martínez de Perón, who was ousted in 1976 by a junta that Mr. Menem was expelled and imprisoned for several years. In 1983, after the junta collapsed, Mr. Alfonsín was elected president, and Mr. Menem again to governor of La Rioja province. He was re-elected in 1987.
In 1989, when Argentina ‘s economy was deteriorating sharply, Mr. Menem was elected president, despite great uncertainty about what he stood for. Analysts said his popularity, like that of Perón, lay in his personal career rather than in any programs he did not outline.
“Menem is a kind of Reagan,” a prominent Peronis told The Times during the campaign. ‘He’s an excellent communicator with a dozen basic ideas, who has a good instinct to deal with people, but who has little interest in detailed programmatic ideas. The result is inevitably some ambiguity, but it does not worry its followers. ”