Carlos Saúl Menem, whose decade-long presidency of Argentina in the 1990s transformed the country, died on Sunday, aged 90.
One of Latin America’s best known and most controversial presidents, who had a flamboyant lifestyle and sported lamb-chop sideburns, Menem presided over the liberalisation of Argentina’s economy. He wholeheartedly embraced the free-market doctrine enshrined in the “Washington consensus” more than any other leader in the region.
The charismatic leader unexpectedly swept to power in 1989 after the presidency of his predecessor Raúl Alfonsín was cut short during a hyperinflation crisis, swiftly stabilising the economy with a bold economic plan. But he departed the presidency in 1999 leaving behind him a flawed and deteriorating economy that ultimately collapsed in Argentina’s 2001 financial crisis.
Rising to power as a typical regional “caudillo” (strongman) governing the remote Andean province of La Rioja, Menem reinvented…