Carlos Menem, Argentine President Who Ushered in ‘Pizza and Champagne’ Era, Dies at 90

Carlos Menem, who led Argentina as president by the 1990s and implemented a free-sector liberalization plan to stabilize a place chronically plagued by political and economic crises, died Sunday in a Buenos Aires clinic next problems from a urinary infection and heart problems, Argentine media reported, citing his loved ones. He was ninety many years aged.

President Alberto Fernández decreed a few times of mourning.

Generally observed surrounded by designs and posing with his crimson Ferrari, Mr. Menem projected a flamboyant, bon vivant persona that mirrored the prosperity he sought all through his decadelong rule starting in 1989. His tenure was marked by the adoption of the Washington Consensus, a package deal of economic measures promoted by the U.S. and multilateral lenders that involved cutbacks in social expending, privatizations of point out-run firms and pensions, and pegging the benefit of the national peso to that of the U.S. dollar.

For a time, all those steps tamed the hyperinflation and foodstuff riots that experienced weighed on Mr. Menem’s predecessor, allowing Argentines to accessibility credit, splurge on trips to Miami and import German automobiles. But the measures also laid the groundwork for a serious debt crisis that plunged the South American country into turmoil and opened the door to a collection of leftist populist leaders.

The phrase “pizza and Champagne” was used to explain the new Argentine society and the nouveau riche that sprouted all through Mr. Menem’s time in business office, mentioned veteran journalist and tv presenter Jorge Lanata. In cultural phrases, Mr. Menem’s rule “coincides with the peak of cocaine in Argentina, easy revenue and superficial good results,” Mr. Lanata mentioned, “which we are even now paying for.”