Ex-Argentine leader Menem gets 7 years for arms trafficking; could lose Senate immunity

[Judi Lynn]

Ex-Argentine leader Menem gets 7 years for arms trafficking; could lose Senate immunity

By Associated Press,
Updated: Thursday, June 13, 2:23 PM

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Former Argentine President Carlos Menem was sentenced to seven years in prison on Thursday for illegally smuggling weapons to Ecuador and Croatia in violation of international embargoes in the 1990s.

The court also banned Menem, now a senator, from holding elective office, and asked the Senate to vote to remove the immunity he enjoys as an elected member of Congress.

The sentence is final unless overturned by the Supreme Court, but it’s unclear whether senators will vote him out of office. Menem’s leadership of Argentina in the 1990s is frequently criticized by President Cristina Fernandez, but as senator he has provided a reliable swing vote on critical issues, and the current president’s allies control the Senate.

Given his advanced age, 82, Menem would likely serve his sentence at home.

An appeals court found Menem and 11 others guilty in March, overturning his earlier acquittal at trial in 2011. The court said much of the evidence had been mistakenly dismissed, and that there is no logical way the weapons could have been smuggled without Menem’s direct participation and approval.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/ex-argentine-leader-menem-gets-7-years-for-arms-trafficking-could-lose-senate-immunity/2013/06/13/579228f6-d45c-11e2-b3a2-3bf5eb37b9d0_story.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. More on Menem from an older story: Bush Friend Arrested for Illegal Arms Trafficking

Bush Friend Arrested for Illegal Arms Trafficking
by Ana Simo

JUNE 7, 2001. A long-time friend of former U.S. President George H. Bush was arrested today on charges of illegal arms trafficking. If found guilty, he could face a jail term of up to ten years. Only a phone call from the new Bush White House might spare him the indignity, he thinks. But the phones aren't ringing.

The friend in trouble is the former President of Argentina, Carlos Menem, a golfing partner and business benefactor of the elder Bush. He is suspected of having illegally sold 6,500 tons of arms to Croatia and Ecuador between 1991 and 1995, in violation of international arms embargoes. Menem, who was put under house arrest today by a Buenos Aires federal judge, said in his defense last weekend that the U.S. knew all about the arms sales.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher gave Menem the cold shoulder on Monday. He was unaware, he said, of any action by the U.S. government entailing approval or encouragement of Argentinean arms sales to Croatia. Given how profitable the Menem connection has been for the Bushes, one might imagine Boucher was frostily putting interests of state ahead of the Bush family, until you realize that, with a Bush in the White House, they are essentially one and the same.

In 1988, a few months before Menem was elected for his first term, George W. Bush, the then oilman son of a sitting U.S. President, had tried to pressure the administration of outgoing President Raúl Alfonsín to favor Enron, the Houston-based company, over other, more qualified bidders to build a gas pipeline in Argentina. He was unsuccessful, but the Bushes hit it off with the high-rolling, big-spending Menem from the start. One of Menem's first acts as President was to give Enron a $300-million sweetheart deal on the pipeline project.

More:
http://www.thegully.com/essays/argentina/010607bush_menem.html