Carlos Menem Jr.: truth and fiction

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The relentless passage of time leaves behind sonorous stories, even though the interest in reviving them does not wane and brings many to the screen. The ex-president Carlos Menem He maintained for 19 years that his son Carlos Facundo He had died on March 15, 1995, at the age of 26, as a result of an accident. It was not the first accident, as he had been involved in several driving motorcycles, cars and even dangerously landing the helicopter in the empty swimming pool in Olivos, but it cost him his life. Silvio Oltra.

More than 40 witnesses had observed how, minutes before the accident, the modern and safe Bell 206B Jet Ranger III helicopter made low-altitude pirouettes on national route 9. The investigation of the federal judge of San Nicolás, Carlos Villafuerte Ruzoconfirmed that It was the pilot’s recklessness that was responsible for the aircraft taking over some medium voltage cables. 11 meters high and ended up falling to the ground in a place in the town of Ramallo.

a mourner Zulema Yoma He could never accept that it was chance that took his son’s life from him, which was also confirmed by the United States accident board and the Bell company, manufacturer of the helicopter. Mrs. Yoma tirelessly sought to prove her hypothesis that this violent and early death had been the product of a political event: that her son was killed because he was the president’s son. She supports her interpretation in that her own son had told her repeatedly that he was being followed and that something could happen to him.

To this day, and as stated in a brand new documentary that falls within the genre called true crime (real crimes), Zulema Yoma continues to support the hypothesis of the attack, although he was never able to provide irrefutable evidence. Both the Cassation Chamber as the Supreme Court of Justice They rejected the appeals he presented. Without witnesses who heard or saw shootings or explosions, without bullet impacts on the body of Menem Jr. – whose identity was duly confirmed in the exhumation of the body carried out in 2017 – or on the fuselage of the aircraft, Justice understood that their claims lacked evidentiary consistency, even after the reopening of the investigation in 2010, requested by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rightswhich she managed.

Both the Chamber of Cassation and the Supreme Court of Justice rejected the arguments aimed at proving that the tragedy in which the former president’s son died had not been the product of an accident, but of a political event.

In her legal battle, colored by her economic interest, she even convinced her ex-husband to recant and support the hypothesis of the attack 19 years after the events. Menem declared in 2016 that intelligence agencies, such as the FBI, the CIA and the Mossad, among others, developed the hypothesis that Hezbollah participated in “the genesis” of the attack that ended the life of his son.. But his evasion and silence left him on the verge of being sued for false testimony. For its part, the Oltra family had never agreed with the theory of the attack.

The documentary Menem Junior: the death of the president’s sonreleased at the end of February, features the testimonies of Zulema Yoma and her daughter Zulemita, judge Villafuerte Ruzo, the former minister Sunday Cavallo and numerous journalists. Throughout four 45-minute episodes, the hypotheses and speculations that followed the tragedy that shook the country are resumed.

The piece combines an extensive journalistic reconstruction with moments of fiction that also reveal a very particular period climate in our country: the 90s.

In this case, the fictional recreation faces the reality that Justice has already ruled that the death of Carlos Menem Jr. was the result of his recklessness in driving the helicopter.

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