Former president Carlos Menem plunged Argentina's presidential runoff into turmoil after the 72-year-old resisted growing pressure by some of his own advisers to abandon his underdog race for a third term in office.
Flashing a "V" for victory sign, Menem appeared on a hotel balcony late Tuesday after reports that some of his top aides wanted him to withdraw to avoid a potentially embarrassing defeat to rival Nestor Kirchner.
Kirchner has enjoyed an overwhelming lead in major opinion polls ahead of Sunday's runoff vote.
PHOTO: AFP
Campaign spokesman Jorge Azcarate said Menem would make a final decision yesterday.
Throughout the day, Menem holed up in his Buenos Aires headquarters for hours as questions about the future of his third presidential run dominated newspapers and live television broadcasts. Although Menem himself had no public comment on whether he might quit, another campaign aide Jorge Raventos insisted he would not.
"Menem is continuing the campaign," Raventos told reporters shortly after a smiling Menem appeared briefly at his hotel headquarters before hundreds of cheering well-wishers.
"Menem won't go! Menem won't go!" many of the supporters chanted.
For days, Menem's quest for a third presidential term has been dogged by reports of infighting among top advisers. One lawmaker close to the Menem camp, who spoke with reporters on condition of not being named, said the former president had listened Tuesday to his officials debate the merits of both remaining and abandoning the race.
Under Argentine election laws, if Menem were to still abandon the race along with his running mate it would leave Kirchner the winner. But it could also seriously undermine the start of a Kirchner presidency, depriving him of a popular mandate to lead the country out its economic crisis.
In a sharply divided first round April 27, Menem won 24 percent compared to 22 percent for Kirchner, governor of the oil-rich province of Santa Cruz in southern Argentina. But neither came close to the 40 percent needed to win outright.
Since then, Menem's campaign has failed to generate widespread support, hampered in large part by widespread rejection of the former president by many Argentines weary of the corruption scandals that clouded his decade in power.
A three-term governor, Kirchner has surged in the polls by harnessing heavy support from outgoing President Eduardo Duhalde, who took office last January after deadly street protests unseated five president in two weeks.
Duhalde, who is to leave office May 25, sounded a warning to Menem about pulling out, saying it was his "historic duty" to see the election process through to the end.
"To interrupt this process would be a gross irresponsibility," Duhalde said on radio.
Kirchner's vice presidential running mate, Daniel Scioli, said the front-runner was making plans for governing should Menem ultimately withdraw.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese