Dictator Biographies

ALFREDO STROESSNER

President of Paraguay

Alfredo Stroessner seized power in Paraguay in 1954, leading an army coup deposing President Federico Chavez. Soon after 1954 coup Stroessner was credited with stabilizing the country's currency, moderating inflation, and providing new schools, roads, and health facilities, though half of the national income was spent on the military.

European correspondents who visited Paraguay during his rule used the term the "poor man's Nazi regime" to describe the Paraguayan government. Of German descent, Stroessner was a great admirer of Nazism, and this showed not only in the refuge he offered to many Nazi war criminals, such as Joseph Mengele, but also in his ruthless methods.

From the Nazis, the Paraguayan military learned the art of genocide. The native Ache Indians were in the way of progress -- progress represented by American and European corporations who planned to exploit the nation's forests, mines, and grazing lands. The Indians were hunted down, parents killed, and children sold into slavery. Survivors were herded into reservations headed by American fundamentalist missionaries, some of whom had partipated in the hunts.

Between 1962 and 1975, Paraguay received $146 million in U.S. aid. Paraguayan officials seemingly wanted more, however, for in 1971, high ranking members of the regime were implicated in the Marseilles drug ring, with Paraguay their transfer point for shipments from France to the US. In the 1980s, America finally condemned Paraguayan civil rights abuses and drug trafficking. Stroessner still looked as if he'd be dictator for life, but in 1988 one of his closest generals, Andres Rodriguez, a known drug dealer, took over after a coup. Rodriguez promised to restore democracy, and President Bush called the 1989 elections a democratic opening, but opponents declared them a massive fraud. Rodriguez's Colorado party won 74% of the vote. Stroessner took refuge in Brasilia, Brazil.

FERDINAND MARCOS

President of Philippines

Ferdinand Marcos (Born on Sept. 11, 1917) began his career with a bang. At age 21, convicted of gunning down Julio Nalundasan, his father's victorious opponent in the Philippines first national elections, he went to prison. He was later released by a Supreme Court Justice who, like Marcos and his father, was a Nazi collaborator. Despite Marcos's record as murderer, fake WW ll hero and Nazi agent, he was elected Philippine President in 1965. Marcos defeated President Diosdado Macapagal and was inaugurated on Dec. 30, 1965. During Marcos' first term he attempted to improve the quality of agriculture, industry, and education, but the late 1960s were troubled by student unrest and urban guerrilla activity.

Reelected in 1969, Marcos became the first Philippine president to serve two terms. On Sept. 21, 1972, he imposed martial law. He jailed opposition politicians, including Benigno Aquino, Jr. Under Marcos, the Philippine national debt grew from $2 billion to $30 billion, but US corporations in the Philippines prospered, perhaps explaining why the US didn't protest Marcos's imposition of martial law. Although martial law was lifted in January 1981, Marcos continued to rule as a dictator. Many factions opposed him as the economy slowly disintegrated amid charges of enormous corruption.

The annual salary of Ferdinand Marcos as president of the Philippines was 5,700 dollars. The Marcoses enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle, and they salted away billions of dollars in the course of their rule between 1965 and 1986. After 20 years in office, it was estimated that he had built a personal fortune in excess of 5 billion dollars. When he and his wife, Imelda, were forced to flee the country in 1986, the economy of the Philippines was in ruins, the treasury had been looted, and money from foreign aid had been siphoned off by Marcos and his friends.

The Carter Administration engineered an $88 million World Bank loan to Marcos and increased military aid to him by 300 percent. But a 1976 Amnesty International report identified 88 government torturers, and stated that alleged subversives had their heads slammed into walls, their genitals and pubic hair torched, and were beaten with clubs, fists, bottles, and rifle butts. By 1977, the armed forces had quadrupled and over 60,000 Filipinos had been arrested for political reasons. Marcos was overthrown in 1986 by followers of Corazon Aquino, widow of the assassinated opposition leader.

Ferdinand and Imelda fled to Hawaii, only to be indicted in 1988 for fraud and tax evasion. Marcos died in 1989. Despite facing more than 100 criminal charges in the Philippine courts ranging from money smuggling to theft, Imelda returned to run unsuccessfully for president in the May 1992 elections. In 1993 she was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for criminal graft and to other long sentences for corruption. She is still free while she appeals. Meanwhile, in its attempts to recover the lost Marcos billions from Swiss bank accounts and other shadier locations, the Philippines Government has, after paying its US lawyers, recovered the princely sum of $2,000.

SOMOZA DYNASTY

Rulers of Nicaragua

Rulers of Nicaragua from 1937 – 1979. A father-and-son operation, started by Anastasio Somoza Garcia (Tacho), who was placed at the head of a newly formed National Guard created by occupying US Marines.

His cunning, wit, charm and excellent grasp of the English language endeared him with successive US administrations and allowed the family dynasty to plunder the country for over 40 years. The Guard, both an army and internal police force, was meant to be a tool to ensure peaceful democracy in Nicaragua, but instead became a personal army for the Somoza’s and their cronies.

Tacho was not without humour however. Classically, rather than send in the National Guard to break up a demonstration by upper-class women, upset at their husbands’ arrests, he hired a group of prostitutes to start an unseemly brawl, thereby ending the charade with little fuss and some muffled sniggers.

His grab for the wealth of the nation was not met with similar amusement however. Starting off with a salary of $700 a month as head of the National Guard, Tacho managed to raise his personal fortune to $100 million in almost 20 years. He accomplished this by monopolising elements of the economy and using the influence only a National Leader could bring, something his sons would later to capitalise on.

His desire to continue his rule past 1956, either as head of the National Guard or as President, lead to his assassination, shot 4 times whilst attending a party with friends. The assassin, a poet, was himself shot and killed, riddled with 35 bullets. His body was beaten, spat upon, then dumped outside a theatre, subsequently disappearing. Tacho was to eventually die 7 days later, attended by some of the best doctors the US government could arrange. The US, not wanting to lose a good ally and vocal anti-Communist, helped his sons Luis Somoza Debayle (Head of the Nicaraguan Congress and ruling Liberal Party) and Anastasio Somoza Debayle (Tacho II) (Now head of the National Guard) maintain the family’s grasp on power.

Repression followed the death of their father, with over 3000 prisoners held at one point. Just as it seemed the brothers were about to go over the edge, a liberalisation of the regime began, in an effort to appease foreign concerns of human rights abuses and the growing opposition of the elite.

After Luis’ death in 1967 from a heart attack, Anastasio Somoza Debayle took over as ruler of Nicaragua, like his father and elder brother before him. His methods of rule were the least subtle and most corrupt of the family dynasty.

In 1972, the Nicaraguan capital Managua was shaken by a violent earthquake, killing 10,000 and leaving many, already destitute Nicaraguans, with nothing but growing anger for the government, which did little but pilfer the International Aid sent, some $16 million going missing. Not content with a fortune that now totalled some $500 million, the Somoza’s proceeded to prevent aid from reaching the needy and instead they and their cronies bought huge tracts of earthquake-damaged land at rock-bottom prices from the, by now crippled, landowners. Later they were to sell this land for extortionate mark-ups when redevelopment began. And whose concrete factories were used to rebuild the country? Somoza’s!

This, along with the longevity of the family rule, lead to widespread resentment and to the growth of the Sandanista movement, that for years had been but a rag-tag rabble of intellectuals, bent on overthrowing the regime.

After growing outbursts of anti-Somoza resentment across Nicaragua in 1977-1978, a national father-figure by the name of Pedro Chamorro, editor of the anti-government newspaper La Prensa, was shot and killed. Persistent rumours were that this was undertaken on the orders of Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero (Tacho III) Somoza’s eldest son, who wanted him out of the way for when he assumed the presidency after his father, who by now was ill. Tacho II’s illness was the topic of wild rumour. One story goes that whilst hospitalised in Florida, doctors were discussing a bypass operation. "Bypass, Bypass!! Then you must use my concrete!" Somoza shouted fitfully.

As the Somoza dynasties response to the national uprising became more repressive many acts of vandalism against property occurred. In one incident the Nicaraguan bloodbank was burnt to the ground. For years this depository, owned by the Somoza’s, had bought blood from the destitute lower-classes, only to sell it on at a huge mark-up in the US. The Country united against the family dynasty and after a bitter 15-month battle, Tacho II, his family and his cronies fled on the morning of July 17th 1979.

Some 40,000 dead, internationally bankrupt and isolated by US opposition to the left wing Sandanista’s, the legacy of the Somoza’s 42 years rule still lives on.

Rather fittingly, Anastasio Somoza Debayle (Tacho II) was himself assassinated in Paraguay in 1980, whilst residing as a guest of another grand dictator, Alfredo Stroessner. Somoza’s car was hit by a rocket fired from a launcher in a nearby building, as the families chauffeur of 35 years drove him through the streets of the capital Asuncion; their bodies tangled in the wrecked car, the motor of which was still running.

Mercedes were later to use this final irony, when demonstrating the reliability of their cars!

MrP Dec 2000.

GENERAL HUMBERTO BRANCO

President of Brazil

In 1961, Brazilian President Jaao Goulart sought to trade with communist nations, supported the labor movement, and had limited the profits multi-nationals could take out of the country. In 1964, the US took part in the overthrow of Goulart by General Humberto de Alencar Castello Branco, although US government officials have denied involvement. As an example of US support for Branco, just prior to the coup, US officials cabled Washington a reguest for oil for Branco's soldiers in case Goulart's troops blew up the refineries.

Branco's regime was short but brutal. Labor unions were banned, criticism of the President became unlawful, and thousands of suspected communists (including children) were arrested and tortured. As in Paraguay, Argentina, and Bolivia, land was stolen from native Indians and their culture was destroyed. Drug dealers, many of them grovernment officials, were given protection because they maintained national security interests. Brazil formed ties with the World Anti-communist League and assisted General Videla in his takeover of Argentina. When Branco stepped down in 1967, he left behind a constitution with greatly increased military and executive powers, crippling Brazil's efforts to restore democracy.

MUAMMER QADDAFI

Libyan Dictator

In 1979, Muammar Qaddafi, a young and treacherous Libyan army officer, engineered a lightning coup d'etat, which saw him take over Libya and quickly institute a reign of terror throughout the Arab world. President Reagan aptly described him as "the most dangerous man in the world." He would stop at nothing to advance the cause of what he called "Islamic Unity." He established a vast network of spies and saboteurs throughout the Middle East and Africa, attempting to overthrow many governments. His agents successfully conducted a coup in Sudan and were almost as successful in Zaire.

Qaddafi's agents spread terror in Iraq, Tunisia, and North Yeman. The dictator made Libya a training camp for terrorists, including those of PLO leader Yasir Arafat. The U.S. rightly accused him of creating "state-sponsored terrorism."

In 1959, Qaddafi organized a secret cabal of revolutionaries dedicated to the violent overthrow of King Idris Senussi I, ruler of Libya who was thought to be a British puppet. Qaddafi graduated from the University of Libya in 1963 and, two years later, he graduated from the military academy at Benghazi, receiving an army commission. He further trained in England at Beaconsfield where he became an expert at radio communications. Returning to Libya in 1966 a lieutenant, he served in several outposts. Throughout all these years, he stayed in contact with the revolutionary cell he had established and continued plotting the overthrow of King Senussi.

Winning the support of the army, Captain Qaddafi staged a bloodless coup on September 1, 1969. The 27-year-old Qaddafi immediately established a private terrorist group he called the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), made up of those young men who had earlier joined his revolutionary cell. The RCC wasted no time in exporting terrorism, supporting the terrorist attacks in Rome and Vienna in 1985. He ousted the 20,000 Italian nationals living in Libya, abolished the U.S. bases in his country and all but declared war on Israel, the nation he hated most.

In 1986, Qaddafi's terrorist groups caused the U.S. to anchor a fleet off Libya. The dictator sent patrol boats against it and two were blown up, along with a shoreline missile site. In retaliation, on April 5, 1986, Qaddafi's terrorists blew up a cafe in Beirut that was frequented by U.S. military personnel. On April 14, U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers attacked several strategic military installations inside Libya, destroying a barracks where the dictator was said to be living at the time. More than 100 Libyans, including two of Colonel Qaddafi's sons, were killed in the attack. A stunned Qaddafi emerged safe some time later, touring his country to show his people that he had survived. His reputation did not, especially among the Arab nations that concluded that siding with Qaddafi meant risking war with the world's super power.

For the complete article, go HERE.

AUGUSTO PINOCHET

Ruler of Chile

Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (Born November 26, 1915) began his military career early, having been pushed by both his mother and his wife, the latter being the daughter of a prominent politician.

Rising through the officer ranks, he clamped down on the Chilean Communist Party, yet his apparent refusal to become more involved in politics was, ironically, what led to his rapid advancement under the tutelage of the left-wing government of President Allende.

It was this president that, on the 11th September 1973, Pinochet and his co-conspirators were to overthrow in a bloody coup. Some 3000 people were to die during that first month; Allende was himself assassinated in the Presidential Palace, bombed by fighter jets on the orders of the military junta.

Pinochet was named head of the Junta’s Governing Council and proceeded to crush any hint of opposition, arresting some 100-150,000 people in the three years 1973-76. Torture was widespread and many thousands went missing. In 1974 Pinochet took sole control of Chile, putting into the shadows the other Junta members, ignoring their earlier agreement to rotate the presidency. Congress was disbanded, opposition parties banned and the Constitution suspended.

In contract to the left-wing reforms of the Allende presidency, which had allowed inflation to spiral out of control, free-market forces were allowed to reign. The economy boomed during the period 1975-79 and in a plebiscite in 1978 75% of the electorate endorsed the rule of Augusto Pinochet.

Under a new constitution drafted and put in place in March 1981, the junta’s candidate, Pinochet, was to serve another 8-year term, in which free-market policies, as in the 70’s, were to grant low inflation and acceptable economic growth. Of course this went hand-in-hand with widespread repression, the effects of which are still felt across Chile today.

As a result of a further Plebiscite in 1989, 55% of Chilean’s voted for Pinochet to end his term and step down, against 43% remaining in office. He was to remain in office until the newly elected President Patricio Aylwin was installed on the 11th March 1990. The new government was not however allowed to replace him as Commander-In-Chief of the Army and it was in this role that he continued to directly influence Chile, preventing prosecutions against him or his security forces.

In 1998 he finally stepped down from his post as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, the next day to take a seat as Senator-for-Life in Parliament, a further stipulation he had cleverly bound into the 1981 constitution. Subsequent events have shown that Pinochet may yet face trail for crimes committed during his reign. But whether he lives to see the inside of a prison cell is subject to much debate.

MrP – January 2001

DUVALIER DYNASTY

Rulers of Haiti

Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier came to power in Haiti through elections held in September 1957. He was a prominent doctor and self-confessed practitioner of Voodoo, who immediately set about reducing the size and power of the army, whilst creating his own private force known as the Tonton Macoutes (Bogeymen). They were tasked with enforcing his growing powers and unexplained deaths and disappearances became common as Papa Doc stamped his authority on the country.

With the army and general populous suppressed he used intimidation and corruption to influence the few existing ruling elite left and to promote his supporters and family members into government roles. All the time, of course, allowing them to plunder the government funds. His vast medical experience and open practice of Voodoo endeared him to much of the peasant class, despite his methods of repression. It was from this poor underclass that he recruited the members of the feared Tonton Macoutes, who were utterly loyal to him, and were allowed free reign to terrorise Haitians.

Papa Doc managed to ride out several external crises, his foreign standing having been dented by his megalomanical personality. But his closeness to Cuba and his ability to bang the anti-Communist drum during the 60’s allowed him, mostly, to stay on the right side of successive US administrations.

Aid was however suspended in 1962; the US government demanded stricter control of funds donated, most of which had, up until now, lined the pockets of Duvalier and his cronies. Papa Doc used this demand as an opportunity to renounce US aid altogether, thereby successfully standing up against a foreign power trying to influence Haitian internal affairs. This endeared him to a vast number of Haitians, who were of a nationalistic outlook.

Throughout his rule Papa Doc had balanced foreign and domestic challenges and also established an effective, if not efficient, regime of terror, some 30,000 Haitians having died during his reign. With a view to extending the family rule he named his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, known as "Baby Doc", his successor.

On the death of his father, in 1971, Baby Doc continued the family tradition as President of Haiti, at the tender age of 19. Due to both external pressure from the U.S. and because of a crippled economy, caused by years of corruption under his fathers rule, Baby Doc attempted to soften the tyrannical and self-serving methods used previously and incorporated limited judicial and budgetary reforms; also replacing his fathers cronies with men loyal to him.

Despite this apparent relaxation of the regime’s grip, wholesale theft of government funds by the Duvalier family and their supporters continued and any hint of opposition to the regime was crushed. The winds of reform had not blown for long. Baby Doc was always careful to ensure however that foreign aid continued to flow into Haiti, much of it coming from the U.S. still keen on preventing Communism from creeping into it’s very backyard.

In the early and mid 80’s the Duvalier’s continued to plunder the wealth of the country, whilst the majority of Haitians saw their living standards fall. With the economic conditions worsening and a feeling of hopelessness pervading the populous, street demonstrations began in October 1985, lasting until January 1986. By this time it had spread throughout the country. Despite various efforts to re-establish his authority and improve the lot of the Haitian people his grasp on power was slipping. With the U.S. announcement on the 31st January 1986, that no further aid or funding was to be granted to Haiti, Baby Doc’s most significant source of income dried up.

With rioting spreading across Haiti Baby Doc and his family fled the country on the 7th February 1986, ending 29 years of oppressive and corrupt family rule.

To read a 1998 article on the now destitute and sick Baby Doc, and how Haitians are demanding justice for his families crimes, go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_231000/231156.stm

MrP – January 2001

ANTONIO de OLIVIERA SALAZAR

Portugal Dictator

In 1926 a military junta seized control of the Portuguese government and installed Antonio de Oliveira Salazar in the position of Finance Minister in 1928, with extraordinary powers of control over the mechanics of government. It was with these powers, and those he was to acquire later, that allowed him to rule Portugal for 40 years.

He immediately reversed the indebtedness of Portugal, by introducing stringent reductions in government expenditure and waste, whilst increasing it’s revenue, thereby ensuring a surplus of government funds that was to become a hallmark throughout most of his rule.

To ensure his position as the sole ruler of Portugal he eradicated opposition parties, curtailed the power of the National Assembly and created an efficient and effective secret police force. It was with the use of the secret police, the approval of his regime by the military and the strong relationship he held with the church that guaranteed one of the longest running personal dictatorships in the 20th Century.

Wisely remaining neutral at the beginning of World War II, he later allowed the Allies to establish bases on the Portuguese islands of The Azores, once it was clear which way the winds of victory were blowing.

A strong colonialist, he refused to allow Portuguese colonies independence and much of the military served overseas. This ensured a large flow of cheap raw materials into Portugal, whilst keeping less reliable elements of the military at arms length.

Salazar is credited with developing the countries infrastructure, building schools, roads, bridges, electric power plants and expanding the previously limited telephone network. The price paid by the Portuguese masses was a ruthless suppression of unions and maintenance by Salazar of the ruling elite, and their stranglehold on much of the countries wealth. Strict controls of the press and media, along with constant arrests of his political opponents, created a repressive regime that was to characterise his rule.

In the late 50’s and into much of the 60’s the draining effect of a costly war against colonial independence began to suffocate the previously strong economy. Salazar, recognising that Portugal needed to develop an industrial sector sponsored the establishment of limited iron, steel, shipbuilding and petroleum concessions. This was accomplished with the success he had demonstrated in all matters economic.

An ageing Salazar began to lose support of the church in the 60’s, once incident leading to the expulsion of the Bishop of Porto. Further, elements of the ruling elite began to resent the very limited growth that Salazar allowed, wanting instead more opportunities to expand their wealth and to reduce the oppressive state control of all financial matters. Before any serious attempt could be made to remove him he suffered a heart attack (1968) whilst sitting in a deckchair at his seaside residence.

When he died in 1970 he had dragged Portugal from one of the most backward countries in Europe’s, in the 20’s, to a strong economic nation, respected in NATO and the EEC. The cost of which was a sophisticated machine of oppression that denied most Portugease of even basic rights and freedoms.

MrP – February 2001