28 June - 4 July 2001
Issue No.540
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 28 June - 4 July 2001 Issue No.540 |
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No honeymoon for Menem
Things don't look good for Argentina's recently-married former president Carlos Menem after he found himself in preventive custody. However, it seems to be a sign that Argentina is moving on, Hisham El-Naggar writes from Buenos Aires
Even by the dazzling standards of the past months, last week was a sensational one for Buenos Aires. Carlos Saul Menem, who until the end of 1999 was President of Argentina, was arrested and held in preventive custody pending the resolution of a corruption scandal in which he is said to be involved.
The move came as a shock to Menem and his supporters. To the very end, the feisty ex-president and leader of the opposition Peronist Party protested his innocence and insisted he was the victim of "persecution" by the government of President Fernando de la Rua, who hails from the rival Radical Party.
For many Argentines -- a clear majority, according to opinion polls -- he had got what he deserved. His 10-year tenure in power was notorious for rumours of corruption and one scandal after another. "Menemismo" had become a by-word for frivolity and almost open, not to say insolent, impunity, at least according to Menem's critics.
So discredited was his regime that towards the end what popularity he had gained for taming hyper inflation, stabilising the currency and giving the country a taste of accelerated growth -- albeit briefly -- had evaporated almost completely.
Menem was, without a doubt, a towering figure. Those who hated him -- and near the end of his mandate their voice predominated -- considered him a living symbol of what they said was wrong with Argentina: an indifference to the rule of law which he was inclined to extend to the constitution, as he attempted, unsuccessfully, to bend the provision barring him from running for a third consecutive term.
Not only did Menem fail -- a circumstance which may have had something to do with a 15 per cent approval rating during his final months in office -- but he had a difficult time holding on to even titular leadership of his party, which blamed him for the rout it suffered in the elections. Indeed, most prominent Peronists, barring those who are manifestly his creatures, make no bones about the resentment they feel toward him.
On the face of it, the case which cost Menem his freedom is not one about which Argentines are particularly excited. It has to do with the illegal export of arms to Croatia and Ecuador. That was grievous indeed in view of the international embargo against Croatia and Argentina's traditionally warm ties with Peru, which at that time was at war with Ecuador. But it was far less irksome to public opinion than, for instance, the highly untransparent privatisations carried out under Menem, especially as the country still has to live with the consequences.
Menem's legal position proved tenuous once Judge Urso, who is investigating the case, started questioning ex-ministers and did not hesitate to hold them in preventive custody. The decree authorising the arms sales was signed by the president himself, and there was no avoiding dragging him into the case once the judge decided that someone must be held responsible. Menem, a master at public relations, used all means at his disposal to fend off the inevitable. Urso was himself accused of "illicit enrichment."
Menem's supporters tried to embarrass President de la Rua by turning virulently hostile to his latest attempts to contain the ongoing financial crisis.
Menem then tried to suggest that the United States, with which he had engineered a highly visible alliance, had secretly favoured the arms shipment to Croatia. Whether or not that is true, the State Department vigorously denied it. So much for the special relations Menem made a show of cultivating with the US.
When all else fails, make noise. Menem brought matters to a head by marrying an attractive and much younger former Miss Universe who hailed from Chile. He then applied for permission to take her on a honeymoon abroad, promising to return in time for the hearing schedule for July. Urso, apparently fearing Menem would escape, ordered an immediate hearing, in the course of which he decided on preventive custody.
Menem's lot could, indeed, be much worse. For one thing, he is still under investigation and has not yet been found guilty of anything; his detention is merely intended to avoid his getting away. Besides, he is not exactly confined to a jail cell; because of his age, 71 years. He was allowed to stay in a charming rural property belonging to a friend.
And yes, Menem still has friends. It is true that the demonstration staged to protest at his arrest attracted a mere 500 people, but some six or seven senators are believed to be more or less loyal to him. Some of his supporters have taken to hinting that "governability" could now prove elusive, but the stock market, for one, shrugged off such fears.
What could prove problematic is the possibility of a ferocious and destabilising struggle for succession among Peronist hot shots, if they do conclude -- and some of them might -- that Menem is soon to be banished to judicial limbo. Such a struggle could not be more unwelcome at this juncture, with the country barely on its feet after a horrendous financial crisis which nearly led to default of foreign obligations.
It is, however, impressive how calmly all but the most rabid Menemists have taken the latest event. This is, after all, the first time a democratically elected ex-president has been jailed under a no-less-democratic government. Alas for Menem, Argentines have seen too many crises lately to be too fazed by the fate of a figure whose era, they seem to believe, has already come to an end.
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