POLITICS-ARGENTINA: Menem Says Adios Amid Corruption Scandals

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 7 1999 (IPS) - Argentine President Carlos Menem steps down Friday after 10 years in office, in the midst of yet another wave of corruption scandals in which several of his closest associates are implicated.

The inauguration ceremony for Menem’s successor, Fernando de la Rúa, will be the first time a Justice (Peronist) Party president passes the mantle to a president-elect from another party.

Historically, the terms of Peronist presidents have been cut short by coups.

The outgoing president, who made an unsuccessful bid to be allowed to run for a third consecutive term, said Monday that he had made good on all his pledges, and that he did not regret anything he had done. “I am finishing a cycle, my first cycle, but I will keep working,” he announced.

The Menem administration is leaving behind unprecedented levels of economic stability, but also soaring poverty and unemployment (15 percent) levels, poor distribution of wealth and rampant corruption in the public administration.

According to the Office of Public Ethics, created by Menem, the members of the cabinet and the president himself – a total of 11 individuals – declare a net worth of over 32 million dollars, although in some cases the declarations seem to fall shy of the truth.

One of those cases is that of the cabinet chief, who claims to own seven plots of land and one house, with 150,000 dollars in the bank – a surprisingly low net worth for a cabinet official who earns more than 10,000 pesos (on par with the dollar) a month and who previously served as education minister.

Menem, who declared a net worth of around two million dollars, failed to mention several of his vacation homes. Nevertheless, his secretary, Luis Ferreyra, said Menem “declared everything he owns.”

On Monday, the centre-left opposition Alliance led by De la Rúa filed charges against Menem’s controversial environment minister, María Julia Alsogaray, who reportedly has a bank account in her name in the Cayman Islands containing 200 million dollars.

Alsogaray served as supervisor of the national telecommunications company while it was undergoing privatisation, as ordered by Menem in 1990. She later served as supervisor of a state-owned steelworks, until she was named head of the environment ministry.

Another controversial official is the supervisor of the agency in charge of social security and health services for pensioners, Víctor Alderete, who is facing at least seven lawsuits, does not go anywhere without several bodyguards, and who in spite of the strong public sentiment against him continues to enjoy the support of the president.

Corruption watchdog Transparency International’s fifth annual ‘Corruption Perceptions Index’, which scored 99 countries, gave Argentina a score of 3.0 on a scale of 1 to 10. Corruption problems were deemed serious in all countries with scores below 5.5, and chronic in those with fewer than three points.

Analysts unanimously agree that one of the keys to De la Rúa’s victory in October was his image of honesty and staid uprightness, and the clean image of the centre-left Alliance made up of the Radical Civic Union (UCR) and Front for a Country with Solidarity (FREPASO).

While a continuous diet of newspaper reports on corruption scandals have marked Menem’s two terms in office, the federal courts have recently begun to crack down harder on corruption.

The Alliance announced that its chief strategy against corruption would be to allow the courts to act independently – an implicit criticism of the Menem administration, which has been accused of interfering with the performance of the judiciary.

One of the highest profile scandals to crop up in the past decade involved computer giant IBM, which allegedly paid huge illegal commissions to win the contract for equipping state agencies.

Other scandals involved the alleged laundering of drug money, and denunciations of arms deals with Ecuador and Croatia, which led to the resignation of several ministers and military chiefs. Allegations of corruption have become so routine under Menem that in many cases they no longer even lead to legal action.

In opinion polls, society cites corruption as one of the country’s most pressing problems. For example, 86 percent of youths surveyed by the polling firm Demoskopía said corruption was the key characteristic describing Argentine society.

De la Rúa, who won the October elections basically by promising a transparent administration, presented his future cabinet last month, explaining that he had personally asked each and every member to commit themselves to the fight against corruption.

In a poll conducted by the firm Hugo Haime y Asociados, 53 percent of respondents said they believed corruption would diminish under De la Rúa, 30 percent said the phenomenon would remain largely unchanged, and just nine percent said they believed corruption would get worse.