His name is Eduardo Menem, but everyone knows him as “El Lule”, because his name is confused with that of his uncle, the former senator and brother of former president Carlos Saúl Menem. “Lule” has two peculiarities: the first is that his full name is Eduardo Menem-Menem. Why? Because his parents were kind of distant cousins who got married in Syria before coming to Argentina. His father’s name was Mohamed Menem and his mother’s name was Fátima Menem. The second peculiarity is that he is the Menem who has been in the national public service for the longest time.
Since 1984 – 40 years ago – he has been an advisor in the Senate, where he entered with the help of his uncle Eduardo, who entered Congress with the return to democracy. He was the private secretary of his uncle throughout Don Eduardo’s parliamentary life and even accompanied him in 1994 to Santa Fe for the Constituent Convention that reformed the Constitution. Then, in the years of Kirchnerism, he would go on to collaborate with his other uncle, Carlos Saúl, in the years when the former president was a senator, until his death in 2021.
Later he was an advisor to Senator Ricardo Guerra, of La Rioja Peronism, and in recent months he served as a collaborator of Juan Carlos Pagotto, the senator from La Libertad Avanza for the same province. Between 1999 and 2007 he also collaborated with the then national deputy Adrián Menem – Martín’s brother –, and at the same time he was general and legal secretary of La Rioja, during the government of Ángel Maza.
Appointment
After 40 years behind the scenes of politics, his name began to gain strength in recent months thanks to his cousin Martín Menem, who today presides over the Chamber of Deputies, but also because of the closeness that “Lule” has with Karina Milei, the President’s sister. After the failure of the omnibus law, she decided to take him to work with her at the General Secretariat of the Presidency.
On February 21, his appointment as Undersecretary of Institutional Management was made official, a position that has not been very successful in recent years, but which for Menem will be a way of whitewashing his role as political organizer and manager of the ties of milleism (especially Karina ) with other areas of the Government and other institutions.
Before their landing at the Casa Rosada, on C5N, on Jorge Ríal’s program, they played a videograph that said: “Karina Milei, in love with ‘Lule’ Menem”, and they also called them “The Romeo and Juliet of power.” These romance rumors were denied by Menem’s entourage and they added that the official is in a relationship.
The role of “Lule” in Congress, where everyone knows him, was to help Martín in the legislative task, not only when working to find consensus, but also to assist his cousin in matters of regulation and the uses and customs of the lower House.
The rapprochement of “Lule” with Milei occurred in parallel to the one that the libertarian had with his cousin Martín, and between the two they were the ones who organized a meeting with his deceased uncle, former president. It was in 2019, when Milei was still a media economist and was far from entering politics. In that meeting, Menem had more than complimentary words with his visitor. “You have all the conditions to go very far, you have to be President.” he packed it back then. Milei came away convinced that this statement was a prophecy.
When Milei decided to work in politics, the Menems got to work. “Lule” was one of the main political operators in last year’s Rioja campaign in which his cousin Martín obtained 28 points – which were not enough to win – and he also worked hard for Milei’s presidential campaign. La Rioja has no secrets for “Lule”, who worked in all political campaigns from 1983 to date.
Tragedy
Menem had eight children, of which four were with his first wife, Teresa Rodríguez. In November 1997, the Menem-Rodríguez couple had the hardest blow of their lives when they found their youngest son drowned in the pool of his grandmother’s house. He was two years and ten months old and was playing with 14 other children in the family farm in Lobos. At one point in the afternoon, the relatives were alerted because little Jerónimo was not among the group of children and, when they went out to look for him, one of the uncles found him in the pool that had water from the previous summer.
“Lule” cultivated a low profile all his life and was always in places with high management demand. When he started working in the Senate with his uncle Eduardo, he was 19 years old. He had just finished high school and had moved to Buenos Aires to pursue his university studies. She pursued a law degree in parallel with work.
In the ’90s the intensity was incomparable with the years before and after. Today, for the first time, he is in a role within the National Executive Branch. It will be quite a challenge, especially since he is the political advisor to the President’s sister. In the corridors of politics they refer to him as “the very brother-in-law” due to rumors of an affair with Karina and in reference to the former Spanish minister during the Francisco Franco years, who was the brother-in-law of Carmen Polo, the dictator’s wife. Those who disbelieve the rumors of the romance between “Lule” and Milei’s sister do not underestimate his influence and prefer to nickname him “the undersecretary.”
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