Carlos Menem, who led Argentina during AMIA terror bombing, dies at 90

Carlos Menem, a former Argentine president who delivered short-lived economic stability and forged close ties with the United States in the 1990s, even as he navigated scandal and enjoyed an often flamboyant lifestyle, has died.

Argentine President Alberto Fernández confirmed the death of the 90-year-old former leader, who had been ailing in recent weeks.

In 2019, a court absolved Menem of charges that he tried to interfere with the investigation into Argentina’s deadliest terrorist incident — the bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in 1994 that killed 85 people.

Former Argentine president and then-senator Carlos Menem before hearing his sentence during his trial over accusations of attempting to block the 1994 AMIA bombing investigation, in Buenos Aires, on February 28, 2019. (Juan Mabromata/AFP)

The ruling came in a trial ordered in August 2015 on allegations that Menem and other officials tried to divert attention in the bombing investigation away from a Syrian businessman who was a Menem family friend.

Relatives of victims of the bombing at the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association rejected the ruling.