Homage to Argentina's ex-president, who was born into Islamic tradition

Three years ago in February, Argentina's former President Carlos Menem took his last breath. He was of Syrian descent and governed the country from the late 1980s until the end of the 1990s.

Those like Adalberto Assad, President of Argentina's Islamic Arab Association and involved with Argentina's Islamic Cemetery, recall the importance of a figure like Menem, who share similar journeys and hail from a Sunni Muslim background.

"It was an honour for the Arab community to have a first-generation descendant of Arab origin elected President. He was someone who was from a vibrant religion and family with Muslim parents who converted to Catholicism to be President and governor," Assad tells TRT world.

In his youth, Menem was drawn to the politics of Argentina's leader, Juan Domingo Peron, and his social movement, Peronsim, centred on political sovereignty, economic independence, and social justice.

Assad describes Menem as someone from a normal social standing, prepared to work hard.

"It is not that he was a wealthy boy. He is a man who knew how to fight in life to achieve his goal. He had set his sights on it many years before and fought for it. He reached it,” says Assad.

In the 1950s, when Peron was overthrown in a military coup, Menem was arrested and briefly imprisoned for opposing authorities.

After his release, he formed a local branch of the Peronist movement. After gaining a law degree, Assad recalls how Menem forged his career in the northern province of La Rioja, becoming the governor in the early 1970s.

Several years later, in the mid-1970s, Argentina fell into dictatorship, and Menem was expelled from office and placed under house arrest until the early 1980s.

After the country returned to democracy, Menem became the Peronist party's candidate.

Arms smuggling and jail term

In the late 1980s, he campaigned on a pledge to safeguard national industries before winning the presidential election in 1989.

After the Malvinas War, he moved away from isolationist policies, re-establishing diplomatic ties with the UK and gaining Washington's backing.

He went on to open up the country to foreign investment and privatise public utilities.

Some accused him of creating the conditions for Argentina's largest debt default, as the Peso was pegged to the dollar.

"Of course, there are people who applauded him and others who disagreed," remembers Assad who considers Menem to be a "statesman" and "a visionary man" in Argentina's political landscape.

"He had his convictions, his character, his personality, and he put it into practice through the government," adds Assad.

However, he was found guilty of allegedly smuggling weapons and sentenced to seven years in jail; however, as a senator, he was immune from prosecution and faced several other allegations, including financial ones.

Among some, he remains controversial after pardoning some prominent military figures after Argentina's return to democracy.

A different side to Menem

While Western media often portrays Menem as having led a glamorous lifestyle, Assad recalls him on a personal level, describing him as someone who "got along well with all the communities."

"My experience with him touched me when we went to eat at the Quinta de Olivos; as the president, he set the table himself - he put on the tablecloth himself," Assad says.

But he says he saw another side to him beyond his passion for cars, golf, football and tennis.

"He is a person that I knew on a deeply personal level and a person who suffered a lot from the consequences at the time of the death of his son," Assad says, recalling a helicopter incident.

"He was buried in the Islamic cemetery, and from that date on, I began to treat him more deeply on a spiritual level. He went every week to visit his son's grave. He was very broken by that situation," he adds.

Assad says they spent time together and they also prayed, as he offered support to him for "many years."

According to Said Chaya, coordinator of Middle Eastern Studies at the Austral University in Buenos Aires, "There remains a halo of doubt about the death of his son, Carlos Facundo Menem, in 1995, who died in a helicopter accident that was never resolved."

He says Menem’s ex-wife and mother of their son, Zulema Yoma claimed their son was a victim in what became referred to as an alleged “third attack” on Argentina’s soil during Menem’s tenure. According to some reports, the investigation included irregularities, strange anomalies and contradictory findings which Menem eventually acknowledged.

However, Assad says that Menem did not forget his Arab roots, noting how Menem donated the premises to the Arab community.

Foreign Policy towards the Middle East

Internationally, Menem paid closer attention to the Middle East during his time in office, a departure from the previous Foreign Policy of his predecessor, Raul Alfonsin.

Menem was Argentina's first head of state to visit Israel in the early 1990s, calling for peace during his trip, spent time in Lebanon and also visited the homeland of his ancestors, Syria.

However, Chaya says Argentina followed in the steps of its neighbour to the north during Menem's tenure.

Historically he says Argentina has typically maintained a position of “equidistance in the Arab-Israeli conflict” until Javier Milei became president last year. However, he says it is possible to note that some presidents over history had a “greater affinity” towards the US agenda overseas while others engaged in approaches more in line with the “global south.”

“Without abandoning such equidistance, Carlos Menem found himself among the first (category)," Chaya tells TRT World.

Menem was initially indicted for allegedly obstructing justice regarding the bombing of the Israeli embassy in 1992, which left 29 people dead, and another of the AMIA Jewish Centre in 1994, which killed 85. But, he was later absolved of charges of interference alongside a dozen people in the AMIA bombing.

"I believe that the attacks on the Israeli Embassy and the central building of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) were relevant challenges in Menem's relationship with the region, in a context in which agents from the Middle East were investigated and found guilty or accused of those attacks during the trials," Chaya tells TRT World.

The Middle East expert also points to a shift in Argentine Foreign Policy, which involved putting boots on the ground in the region.

"I also think of Argentina's participation in the 1990-91 Gulf War, a conflict that was distant to us where, however, we supported the American initiative,” he says, adding that this fact was a kind of "foreign matter" regarding the country’s foreign policy, “which usually maintained cordial relations with all Arab countries without getting fully involved in the region's problems, that is, without taking sides,” says Chaya.

Palestine

But, Menem's tenure also included symbolic gestures towards Palestine.

"He donated (and) inaugurated the Palestinian embassy," recalls Assad of the abandoned building in Argentina's capital that had been used in numerous roles, including social work.

At the inauguration of the Palestinian mission in Buenos Aires, Menem paid tribute to the work by the Argentina’s White Helmets in Palestine and donations, which were part of the country’s push for regional peace. Menem also famously offered his residence to the head of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, should he officially visit Argentina.

At the event, Palestinian ambassador Suhair Akel said Menem's inauguration of the Palestinian mission was a way of pushing towards peace in the region while insisting upon "an independent and sovereign Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital."

Menem's government even pledged to act as a regional mediator, helping him gain regional and international prestige.

In the mid 1990s, Argentina recognised The Palestinian National Authority and Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), while at Arafat’s request, Menem pushed Israeli authorities to reduce border controls impacting food and medicines reaching Palestinians.

During Menem's tenure, he also helped pave the way for the largest mosque in Argentina - The King Fahd Islamic Cultural Centre. In the mid-1990s, Menem donated the land to the Saudi Arabian Embassy, leading to its construction in Palermo, Buenos Aires.

But as an Argentine, he also kept ties to his home region.

"He loved La Rioja, a province he never stopped visiting. After becoming President, he always went because he had his house there," says Assad.

Menem eventually served two full terms as president of Argentina.

Islamic burial

In February 2021, while still a senator of La Rioja province, Menem passed away due to ill health while Menem's daughter Zulemita said he would be buried at the Islamic cemetery in San Justo in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of La Matanza.

At his ceremony, the President of Argentina's Islamic Center, Anibal Bashir Bakir, recited the Holy Quran and offered a prayer for Menem before he was buried at the Islamic cemetery.

However, earlier this month, 100s of tombs at the Islamic Cemetery, including the tombs of Carlos Menem and his son were vandalised.

"The criminals stole bronze frames, destroyed marble structures and stole the Argentine flag that was flying over the resting place of the former president and his son Carlos Menem Jr," The Argentine Islamic Arab Association said in a statement. "These attacks are not the first that we have suffered on the property and cannot be taken lightly in the case of a place of such spiritual and symbolic importance."

Local reports say bronze items are typically smelted down across warehouses that authorities have previously raided before in the city.

"The Islamic community also feels attacked by this situation," Assad says, describing it is the most significant incident in the cemetery since 2011 in the 6-hectare cemetery with only a caretaker for security.

Chaya says the incident likely has more to do with a security issue than a specific attack due to Islamophobia or against the late President and his son.

"I understand that the attacks have been repeated since there is little police presence, but there are no messages of aggression against the (Islamic) faith or its symbols. This does not mean that acts of Arab-Islamic discrimination cannot sometimes occur in the country, although they are very rare," he says.

Assad says he has also been in frequent contact with Menem's family since the incident.

"I speak with the Menem family very frequently on the 14th (February), practically the day after the incident; the family was at Dr. Menem's grave after the desecration, thank God," he says.

A day before the incident, on the third anniversary of Menem's passing, his Daughter, Zulemita, who adheres to Islam, thanked God for Menem's teachings and paid homage to her father's "strength, love and dedication."