The burning chapel of former Argentine president Menem is installed in the Argentine Congress
The burning chapel with the remains of former President Carlos Menem (1989-1999) was installed in the Senate of the Nation, after the coffin reached Congress, where it was received by Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her family.
Menem died this Sunday at the age of 90 due to heart failure, according to his lawyer Luis Daer, at the Los Arcos Sanatorium, in the city of Buenos Aires, EFE. where he had been hospitalized since December 15 last.
The ex-president’s farewell will be held open to the public in the Blue room of the Senate of the Nation and will last until tomorrow, according to official sources.
His body will be buried in the Islamic cemetery of the province of Buenos Aires where the remains of the politician’s eldest son, Carlos Menem Jr, rest, despite the fact that Menem professed the Catholic religion, as confirmed by his daughter Zulemita this Sunday at the door of the sanatorium where the former president died.
When the funeral procession entered Congress, it was greeted with applause and cheers by the people who, despite the rain, gathered at the gates of Congress to fire the former president.
The current head of state, Alberto Fernández, also a Peronist, like the late politician, expressed his “deep regret” and decreed three days of national mourning in memory of who, “always elected in a democracy”, was governor of the province of La Rioja and president of the nation, but also a senator, a position he held since 2005.
Shortly after the funeral chapel was set up, President Fernández attended the wake accompanied by the first lady, Fabiola Yáñez.
The Minister of Economy who carried out the convertibility regime that curbed inflation during the first part of Menem’s presidency, Domingo Cavallo, said on Twitter that “Menem was an example of leadership committed to peace and progress. Without a doubt, a true statesman, unparalleled among the leaders of his time and among those who succeeded him in the Presidency of the Nation ”.
The governor of the province of La Rioja, Ricardo Quintela, He fired him with admiration on Twitter and ordered a three-day provincial mourning for the death of Menem, who was a native of that province, governed it three times and since 2005 has represented it as a senator.
On the contrary, the municipality of Río Tercero, in the province of Córdoba, resolved “not to adhere to the national mourning and not to pay tribute to Carlos Saúl Menem, accused of being the main person responsible for the bombing of the Río Tercero Military Factory in 1995, “he said on his Twitter account.
Menem was currently on trial for “aggravated malicious havoc” in the case of the explosion at that factory that left seven dead and 30 injured.
Meanwhile, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), representing the Argentine Jewish community, recalled today on its Twitter account that during Menem’s presidency “the two most serious terrorist attacks in Argentine history” took place, by the Israeli embassy in 1992 and the AMIA in 1994, and that “both massacres remain unpunished.”
“Menem died protected until the last day by his powers as a senator that prevented him from being imprisoned” and “never paid for his responsibility in covering up the attack against the AMIA-DAIA,” he added.
Meanwhile, the DAIA did not forget the “outrageous and sad decision to pardon those responsible for the crimes committed during the last military dictatorship, making fun of the Justice, relatives of detained disappeared and survivors.”
Menem died after being transferred last year to the Los Arcos Sanatorium, initially to undergo a prostate medical check-up and where he was diagnosed with a urinary infection that complicated his heart problems.
On Christmas Eve he was induced into a coma after suffering kidney failure in the midst of his delicate health, on January 8 he had come out of a coma and on January 19 he was reported to have worsened again.
A lawyer by profession, Menem was president for two consecutive terms, from 1989 to 1999, after having been governor of La Rioja, his native province, between 1973 and 1976 – the year in which he was arrested after the coup that led to the last dictatorship. (1976-1983) – and again from 1983 until he began his presidential campaign for the 1989 elections, which he ended up winning.
His management as head of state was marked by the transformation in the economy, with a great commercial opening and an intense process of privatization of public companies, but also due to accusations of corruption, which he has had to face in court in recent years, while serving as a senator, a position he has held since 2005.