English: "I entered through the big door and left through the big door". - Carlos Menem

About Carlos Menem

Carlos Saúl Menem (Anillaco, La Rioja, July 2nd 1930) is an Argentine politician and lawyer. He held the position of President of the Nation between 1989 and 1999. As President, he identified as a right-wing "Federal Peronist" who supported the Washington Consensus. He implemented neoliberal economic policies which privatized many state-run industries and pegged the Argentine peso to the U.S. dollar. He also pursued closer diplomatic relations with the United States, normalized diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom for the first time since the Falklands War, and made significant amendments to the Argentine Constitution in 1994 under a deal with Raúl Alfonsín's left-wing opposition. Although Menem's economic policies were initially successful, his administration's tax cuts, heavy government borrowing, and inability to maintain the peso's fixed exchange rate with the dollar eventually resulted in a severe deficit and the 1998–2002 Argentine great depression. Menem tried to run for President again in the 2003 Argentine general election but dropped out to avoid a run-off defeat to Néstor Kirchner, and was later investigated for corruption.

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