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Old 02-05-2012, 08:42 PM
 
Location: Beautiful Niagara Falls ON.
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I think Stalin takes the first prise when it comes to complete and total control of a very large and somewhat developed country. He murdered tens of millions.

Here is a Stalin quote, "When a man dies it's a tragedy, when a million men die it's a statistic!"
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Old 02-05-2012, 11:08 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lucknow View Post
I think Stalin takes the first prise when it comes to complete and total control of a very large and somewhat developed country. He murdered tens of millions.

Here is a Stalin quote, "When a man dies it's a tragedy, when a million men die it's a statistic!"
Yeah..
Except for that Soviet Union wasn't really a "Third World country..."
Not quite so.
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Old 02-06-2012, 10:15 AM
 
Location: Iowa
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Yes, IMO Russia under Stalin saw too much technological advancement to be considered third world, he had the US scrambling to catch up in rocket technology. But I think Mao's China almost makes it, not much advancement there, but for the nukes in the 60's. Of course Hitler and Mussolini don't make it into the third world category either. Some might consider Franco or Pinochet in the running, but things slowly got better for the majority under thier rule, so not enough oppression with those guys, I would count them out.

I think Idi Amin and Jean-Bédel Bokassa are excellent picks, but just don't measure up to Ceausescu in his ability to cover up his dirty deeds, and remain a player on the international stage. He had diplomatic relations with everybody and traveled everywhere. He even had lines open to Israel and the PLO at the same time, durring the 1967 war. Yet he was the perfect strongman on the home front, exporting all the food to pay off those IMF loans. And he had the intense Marcos like greed that shows up in the summer of 1989 when he finally gets that 13 billion paid off. Did he turn the gas and electric back on and fill the stores with food ? Hell no, he kept exporting and pocketed the cash, then that winter offered that generous 3 cent a day pay increase after the people started demonstrating.
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Old 02-06-2012, 10:28 PM
 
Location: Houston, texas
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Omar Bongo. A good example why Africa is a bloody mess with Aids, Ak47s,famine, cocaine and gunpowder. At the time of his death in 2009 he was the world's longest-serving leader.
Omar Bongo - Telegraph
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Old 02-07-2012, 06:54 AM
 
Location: Parts Unknown, Northern California
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Originally Posted by soupson1 View Post
Omar Bongo. A good example why Africa is a bloody mess with Aids, Ak47s,famine, cocaine and gunpowder. At the time of his death in 2009 he was the world's longest-serving leader.
Omar Bongo - Telegraph
Good contribution...and what a great name for a third world despot....."Today in Africa, Gabon strongman Omar Bongo ordered the arrest of....."
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Old 02-10-2012, 10:06 PM
 
Location: Turn right at the stop sign
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A worthy addition, I believe, would have to be Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina of the Dominican Republic. The third of eleven children, Trujillo came from a rather unremarkable background. After receiving very little formal education, Trujillo landed a job as a telegraph operator at the age of sixteen in his hometown of San Cristobal. A bit of a bully, Trujillo also began to associate with a band of petty criminals known as “The 44” from whom he learned the fine art of extortion, blackmail, and forgery. Trujillo left San Cristobal in the company of his brother, Arismendi, and landed a job first as a weigher at an American owned sugar plantation and then as an estate guard. He and his brother also tried their hand at cattle rustling. But Trujillo wanted more and he soon found it courtesy of the United States Marine Corps.

President Wilson had ordered the occupation of the Dominican Republic in 1916 as part of an effort to bring stability and reform to that nation. To assist in maintaining order, the Marines had formed the “Dominican Constabulary Force”, later renamed the “National Guard”, which was made up of Dominican citizens led by U.S. Marine officers. In 1918 at the age of eighteen, Trujillo enlisted in the organization. His quick mind and willingness to get his hands dirty impressed the U.S. officers and Trujillo began to rapidly move up in the ranks. When the Marines departed in 1924, Trujillo was a high level commander in what was now called the “National Armed Forces”, and eventually assumed full control of it in 1928. In 1930, Trujillo ran for president, and through the use of his considerable influence as head of the military, “won” the election with what he claimed was ninety-five percent of the vote.

By the mid 1930’s, Trujillo’s power over the Dominican Republic and its’ people was considerable. All political parties were banned save for his own “Dominican Party”. Censorship of the press was a fact of life. Opposition to his reign was dealt with quickly and violently with many of his victims simply dragged from their homes or off the streets in broad daylight by men from the “SIM” or “Servicio de Inteligencia Militar”. After being tortured to death, their bodies were usually fed to the ever present sharks at a spot along the coast referred to as “the swimming pool”. In October 1937, one of the most brutal events of the Trujillo regime took place along the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Some 25,000 Haitian men, women, and children had settled in the area to work on Dominican sugar plantations. Though himself partially Haitian on his grandmother’s side, Trujillo was obsessed with “whiteness”. He continually emphasized his “Spanish” heritage, wore makeup to lighten his dark complexion, and even declared the Dominican Republic to be a “white” nation. The presence of these Haitians was a personal affront to Trujillo, so he ordered the army to eradicate them. During the first day of the massacre, thousands of these migrant workers were hacked to death by machete wielding soldiers. When news of this “ethnic cleansing” leaked out and formal protests were lodged by both the U.S. and Haitian governments, Trujillo agreed to pay reparations to Haiti in the amount of $29 per person killed.

The onset of World War II proved to be a boon for Trujillo. Eager to curry favor with the United States, Trujillo declared war against the Axis and sent a steady supply of sugar, coffee, and cocoa to the Allies; all at a healthy profit, of course. As the Cold War began, Trujillo cemented his ties with the West even further by offering up the Dominican Republic as a bulwark against the spread of Communism in the Caribbean. By the beginning of the 1950’s, Trujillo’s hold on the Dominican Republic was absolute. The capital city of Santo Domingo had been renamed “Ciudad Trujillo”. The nation’s highest mountain peak as well as hundreds of streets and parks also bore his name. Statues of Trujillo and plaques with his likeness could be found in every corner of the land. Policemen and paid informants would walk the streets of the capital to make sure that every home had a picture of “El Jefe” or “El Benefactor”, as Trujillo liked to be called, that was both illuminated and visible from the street. Entrances to homes would often have signs stating “In this house, Trujillo is the Chief” and neon signs placed in prominent locations around the city would flash “God and Trujillo”. People were not permitted to walk the streets of Ciudad Trujillo barefoot, so stalls were set up across the city where the poor could rent shoes to wear while visiting. Men were required to wear a jacket and tie at all times, regardless of how hot and humid it might be outside. Smoking was prohibited in public and in automobiles. And any party or event that was larger than a family gathering could not be held unless a permit had been obtained from the authorities.

The dictatorship was also personally lucrative for Trujillo and his family. He held the monopoly on sugar, salt, milk, beef, and tobacco as well control of the insurance industry and the national lottery. Trujillo “owned” nearly sixty percent of the arable land in the country. Any work project in the Dominican Republic was undertaken either by a company that belonged to Trujillo or one he was receiving bribes from. To ensure that he had an adequate supply of labor for his companies and sugar plantations, Trujillo would simply order that whatever number he required be gathered and transported wherever he needed them. Once there, they were forbidden to leave without his personal permission. Peasants, when not laboring for Trujillo, were essentially tied to their meager plots of land, unable to come and go as they pleased. Business was so good that Trujillo began to be routinely listed as one of the wealthiest men in the world, having a net worth of $800 million dollars by the time his reign came to an end.

On August 16, 1954, Trujillo declared “The Year of the Benefactor” to commemorate his coming to power, and awarded himself the so called “Collar of the Fatherland” which was studded with twenty-five precious jewels for each year of his reign. He also announced that an exposition would be held, or as he labeled it, the “Fair of Peace and Fraternity of the Free World”. The fair opened in December of 1955 with much fanfare, parades, and endless speeches delivered by Trujillo’s lackeys, all extolling the greatest of Trujillo. It even featured the crowning of Trujillo’s sixteen year old daughter as “Queen Angelita I”, with the girl modeling an $80,000 silk dress made in Italy. In all, Trujillo spent $40 million dollars, or just over one third of the entire treasury of the Dominican Republic, for this celebration of himself. But this spectacle of excess did not go unnoticed by Trujillo’s critics both at home and abroad and actually began a chain of events that would lead to the downfall of “El Jefe”.

The first involved a man named Jesus Galindez. Galindez had fled Spain in 1939 for the Dominican Republic to escape the Franco regime. He soon took a post as legal adviser for Trujillo’s “Department of Labor and National Economy”. During his seven years there, he compiled a substantial amount of documentation regarding the Trujillo dictatorship. In 1946, Galindez left the Dominican Republic for the United States and became a lecturer at Columbia University. Over time, he began to organize the information he had obtained regarding Trujillo for use in his dissertation which he titled “The Trujillo Era”. Word reached Trujillo through his spies in the U.S. that Galindez intended to present his dissertation to the Department of History faculty at Columbia on February 27, 1956, which happened to be “Dominican Independence Day”. Trujillo was enraged and decided to exact revenge upon Galindez. On the evening of March 12th, U.S. based SIM agents kidnapped Galindez from his New York apartment, drugged him, and placed him on a plane bound for the Dominican Republic. Once there, Galindez was brought before Trujillo, who ordered the barely coherent man to eat pages of his “Trujillo Era” dissertation. When he could not comply, Trujillo had Galindez taken to a cell where he was tortured and finally scalded to death in a vat of boiling water.

The next event took place on June 14, 1959. On that day a group of Dominican exiles, with the assistance of agents from Cuba and Venezuela, invaded the Dominican Republic in an attempt to overthrow Trujillo. The coup attempt was quickly snuffed out by Trujillo’s troops and those rebels not killed in the initial fighting were captured, tortured, and executed. The involvement of Venezuela was particularly galling to Trujillo, in large part because that country’s president, Romulo Betancourt, had become Trujillo’s most outspoken critic in Latin America. Wanting to silence Betancourt permanently, Trujillo ordered his agents to assassinate the Venezuelan president. On June 24, 1960 on a busy street in Caracas, a car bomb was exploded as Betancourt drove past, seriously injuring him. A meeting of the “Organization of American States” was convened, and the outraged members voted unanimously to sever diplomatic relations with the Dominican Republic and impose economic sanctions. The Galindez kidnapping and the assassination attempt on Betancourt also led to a review of U.S. policy toward Trujillo. Some in the Eisenhower administration were concerned that Trujillo had become a major liability much like Batista had in Cuba and believed it only a matter of time before he was overthrown. Not wishing to see another Castro rise in the Dominican Republic, President Eisenhower asked the National Security Council to prepare possible options for the removal of Trujillo. In the end, the Eisenhower administration chose to downgrade the U.S. diplomatic mission to the consular level and distanced itself from Trujillo.

Lastly was the case of the Mirabal sisters. Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa Mirabal came from a prominent Dominican family. Known as “Las Mariposas” or “The Butterflies”, they, as well as their husbands, were a part of the “14 of June Movement”, an underground organization dedicated to the removal of Trujillo. Well known and respected by many in the Dominican Republic for their very public opposition to Trujillo, the sisters had been imprisoned for a time until domestic and international pressure forced Trujillo to release them. On November 25, 1960, while returning home from visiting their husbands in jail, the sisters were stopped along the road by agents from the SIM. One by one they were led into a sugar cane field, beaten with clubs, and strangled. Their bodies were then placed back in their car, which was pushed off a cliff to make it appear they were victims of an accident.

The murder of the sisters simply fueled the anger and resentment of Dominicans who were growing weary of Trujillo’s repressive rule and were now suffering the ill effects of the OAS sanctions. A plot to rid the Dominican Republic of Trujillo was hatched by a group of eight men led by Antonio de la Maza, a longtime associate of Trujillo. The conspirators knew the best time to act was when Trujillo went to visit his hometown of San Cristobal, which he usually did accompanied by a chauffeur only and not with his normal contingent of heavily armed SIM agents. On the night of May 30, 1961, the men took action. As Trujillo’s car sped along the highway, a car driven by Antonio Imbert and carrying De la Maza, Salvador Sahdala, and Lt. Amado Guerrero, pulled alongside Trujillo’s vehicle. De la Maza, armed with a sawed off shotgun, fired into Trujillo’s car, striking Trujillo in the shoulder. Trujillo’s driver slammed on the brakes, which allowed Imbert to pass and block Trujillo’s car from going forward. Trujillo’s driver, Captain Zacarias de la Cruz, attempted to turn the car around and flee back toward the capital. But Trujillo, angered by this brazen attack upon his person, ordered De la Cruz to halt and assist him in fighting off the attackers. Trujillo exited his car, armed with a .38 revolver, and began firing toward De la Maza and his fellow conspirators who were now out of their vehicle and advancing toward Trujillo. De la Cruz soon joined Trujillo, firing a Thompson submachine gun, and a brief gun battle ensued. After unloading two magazines from the Thompson, De la Cruz was grazed in the head with a bullet which knocked him unconscious. With De la Cruz out of action, Imbert and De la Maza once more began to move toward Trujillo, who despite having now sustained four gunshot wounds, was still on his feet. Imbert shot Trujillo again. The dictator staggered forward, now fully illuminated by his car’s headlights. Trujillo turned, took several steps in the direction of the capital, dropped to his knees, and fell face forward onto the pavement, dead. But just to make sure, De la Maza walked over to Trujillo and shot him in the head. The assassins picked up Trujillo’s body and threw it into the trunk of their car and drove away.

“El Jefe” was gone at last. And with that, the thirty year nightmare known as the “Trujillo Era” finally came to an end.
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Old 02-11-2012, 07:30 AM
 
Location: Parts Unknown, Northern California
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Excellent contribution, TonyT, Trujillo's life could be converted into a "How To Be A Strongman" manual. All of the classic elements are present...exploits sponsorship by 1st world power, rises through military, wins bogus election by ridiculous margin, converts apparatus of state into personal fiefdom and national treasury into personal wealth, clandestine assassinations of critics, decorates and glorifies self...and comes to a bloody end.

Well, I suppose that last would not be part of the manual, but it would be part of any novel or fictional movie.
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Old 02-11-2012, 12:49 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX
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One of my favorites is Bokassa from the Central African Republic. Another is "Papa Doc." Duvalier from Haiti .
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Old 02-12-2012, 06:56 PM
 
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Originally Posted by erasure View Post
Yeah..
Except for that Soviet Union wasn't really a "Third World country..."
Not quite so.
Well the correct definition of Third World were those nations not aligned with either the Soviets or the West which comprised the First and Second Worlds.

When it comes to Strongmen, my mind gravitates to our southern hemisphere amigos, Anastasio Somoza, Augusto Pinochet, Policarpo Garcis, Alfredo Stroessner, and this nasty little demi shiite of a strongman Roberto D'Aubuisson.

All very close friends of the U.S.

Ah, forgot the wonderful Argentine Junta.
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Old 02-12-2012, 07:52 PM
 
Location: Iowa
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Nice post TonyT, thanks for the interesting details about Trujillo. I think it was very neighborly of you to pick a strongman closer to home. No need to go looking for strongman in places like Eastern Europe, Asia or Africa, when the Western Hemisphere has been a fantastic location for all varieties of strongman. So much nourishment here for them, especially in Central and South America, islands are good too. Plenty of recreational plant life around to finance your army, and if you play your cards right, advisors from out of town will help prop you up when you're feelin' down. Oh, and the guns, did I mention the guns ?....they almost smuggle themselves into your training camp, all you have to do is put out some bowls of WD40 and they come in for a drink.

Enjoyed reading the end of Tony's post where they filled Trujillo full of lead, it was a happy ending for me. I was hoping for a vat boiling like he gave Galindez. Also would have been OK to save him until Christmas day, then give him a quick TV trial and execution like they did for the Chow in Romania.
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