Friendly Dictators
(written in 1995)
Many of the world's most repressive dictators have been friends
of America. Tyrants, torturers, killers, and sundry dictators
and corrupt puppet-presidents have been aided, supported, and
rewarded handsomely for their loyalty to US interests. Traditional
dictators seize control through force, while constitutional dictators
hold office through voting fraud or severely restricted elections,
and are frequently puppets and apologists for the military juntas
which control the ballot boxes. In any case, none have been democratically
elected by the majority of their people in fair and open elections.
They are democratic America's undemocratic allies. They may rise
to power through bloody ClA-backed coups and rule by terror and
torture. Their troops may receive training or advice from the
CIA and other US agencies. US military aid and weapons sales often
strengthen their armies and guarantee their hold on power. Unwavering
"anti-communism" and a willingness to provide unhampered
access for American business interests to exploit their countries'
natural resources and cheap labor are the excuses for their repression,
and the primary reason the US government supports them. They may
be linked internationalIy to extreme right-wing groups such as
the World Anti-Communist League, and some have had strong Nazi
affiliations and have offered sanctuary to WWll Nazi war criminals.
They usually grow rich, while their countries' economies deteriorate
and the majority of their people live in poverty. US tax dollars
and US-backed loans have made billionaires of some, while others
are international drug dealers who also collect CIA paychecks.
Rarely are they called to account for their crimes. And rarely
still, is the US government held responsible for supporting and
protecting some of the worst human rights violators in the world.
Friendly dictators
Abacha, General Sani ----------------------------Nigeria
Amin, Idi ------------------------------------------Uganda
Banzer, Colonel Hugo ---------------------------Bolivia
Batista, Fulgencio --------------------------------Cuba
Bolkiah, Sir Hassanal ----------------------------Brunei
Botha, P.W. ---------------------------------------South
Africa
Branco, General Humberto ---------------------Brazil
Cedras, Raoul -------------------------------------Haiti
Cerezo, Vinicio -----------------------------------Guatemala
Chiang Kai-Shek ---------------------------------Taiwan
Cordova, Roberto Suazo ------------------------Honduras
Christiani, Alfredo -------------------------------El
Salvador
Diem, Ngo Dihn ---------------------------------Vietnam
Doe, General Samuel ----------------------------Liberia
Duvalier, Francois --------------------------------Haiti
Duvalier, Jean Claude-----------------------------Haiti
Fahd bin'Abdul-'Aziz, King
---------------------Saudi Arabia
Franco, General Francisco -----------------------Spain
Hitler, Adolf ---------------------------------------Germany
Hassan II-------------------------------------------Morocco
Marcos, Ferdinand -------------------------------Philippines
Martinez, General Maximiliano
Hernandez ---El Salvador
Mobutu Sese Seko -------------------------------Zaire
Noriega, General Manuel ------------------------Panama
Ozal, Turgut --------------------------------------Turkey
Pahlevi, Shah Mohammed Reza
---------------Iran
Papadopoulos, George --------------------------Greece
Park Chung Hee ---------------------------------South
Korea
Pinochet, General Augusto ---------------------Chile
Pol Pot---------------------------------------------Cambodia
Rabuka, General Sitiveni ------------------------Fiji
Montt, General Efrain Rios
---------------------Guatemala
Salassie, Halie ------------------------------------Ethiopia
Salazar, Antonio de Oliveira
--------------------Portugal
Somoza, Anastasio Jr. --------------------------Nicaragua
Somoza, Anastasio, Sr. -------------------------Nicaragua
Smith, Ian ----------------------------------------Rhodesia
Stroessner, Alfredo -----------------------------Paraguay
Suharto, General ---------------------------------Indonesia
Trujillo, Rafael Leonidas -----------------------Dominican
Republic
Videla, General Jorge Rafael
------------------Argentina
Zia Ul-Haq, Mohammed ----------------------Pakistan
GENERAL SANI ABACHA
President of Nigeria
General Sani Abacha is a corrupt and repressive dictator in
the oil-rich country of Nigeria. Supported by oil wealth, Abacha
has tried to cover his repression under a mantle of democracy
by allowing fraudulent elections which only serve to guarantee
his continued control. During elections in 1994, Chief Moshood
Abiola, considered to be the likely winner, was arrested and placed
in prison before the rigged results were announced; Abacha retained
control. More than 100 government executions occurred in 1994,
and numerous pro-democracy demonstrators were killed by police.
Shell Oil provides most of the country's wealth by extracting
oil from the Ogoniland region, while in the process causing severe
environmental destruction and devastating the local economy. More
than 700 Ogoni environmentalists protesting the destruction of
their way of life, were executed in recent years. The greatest
travesty occurred in November 1995, when environmental leader
Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 associates, were hanged despite an international
outcry. Shell supported Abacha's policies by its silence. Despite
an outcry that Nigerian oil be boycotted, the US government refused
to do so.
IDI AMIN
General of Uganda
Amin was one of the most notorious of Africa's post-independence
dictators. A former heavyweight boxing champion in Uganda and
a non-commissioned officer in the British Army there, Amin caught
the attention of his superiors because of his efficient management
of concentration camps in Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion in
the 1950s, where he earned the title of "The Strangler".
Because of his loyalty to Britain and his strongly anti-communist
stance, Amin was picked by the British to replace the elected
Ugandan government in a 1971 coup. While in power, he earned a
reputation as a "clown" in some circles in the West,
but he was no joke at home. Amin brutalized his people with British
and US military aid and with Israeli and CIA training of his troops.
The body count of his friends, the clergy, soldiers, and ordinary
Ugandans rose daily, but the West ignored his cruelty. As he continued
to demand more aid and sophisticated weapons, he finally lost
support. In 1979, his quest for more power lead him to invade
Tanzania. In retaliation, he was overthrown by an invading Tanzanian
/ Ugandan army. Amin fled to Saudi Arabia, where he now lives
a quiet life in a modest villa outside Jeddah, looking after his
goats and chickens and cultivating his vegetable garden. Traditional
Arab garb has replaced the bemedalled Field Marshal's uniform
of his heyday.
COLONEL HUGO BANZER
President of Bolivia
In 1970, in Bolivia, when then-President Juan Jose Torres
nationalized Gulf Oil properties and tin mines owned by US interests,
and tried to establish friendly relations with Cuba and the Soviet
Union, he was playing with fire. The coup to overthrow Torres,
led by US-trained officer and Gulf Oil beneficiary Hugo Banzer,
had direct support from Washington. When Banzer's forces had a
breakdown in radio communications, US Air Force radio was placed
at their disposal. Once in power, Banzer began a reign of terror.
Schools were shut down as hotbeds of political subversive activity.
Within two years, 2,000 people were arrested and tortured without
trial. As in Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, the native Indians
were ordered off their land and deprived of tribal identity. Tens-of-thousands
of white South Africans were enticed to immigrate with promises
of the land stolen from the Indians, with a goal of creating a
white Bolivia. When Catholic clergy tried to aid the Indians,
the regime, with CIA help, launched terrorist attacks against
them, and this "Banzer Plan" became a model for similar
anti-Catholic actions throughout Latin America.
FULGENCIO BATISTA
President of Cuba
Cuban Army Sergeant Fulgencio Batista first seized power in
a 1932 coup. He was President Roosevelt's handpicked dictator
to counteract leftists who had overthrown strongman Cerardo Machado.
Batista ruled or several years, then left for Miami, returning
in 1952 just in time for another coup, against elected president
Carlos Prio Socorras. His new regime was quickly recognized by
President Eisenhower. Under Batista, U.S. interests flourished
and little was said about democracy. With the loyal support of
Batista, Mafioso boss Meyer Lansky developed Havana into an international
drug port. Cabinet offices were bought and sold and military officials
made huge sums on smuggling and vice rackets. Havana became a
fashionable hot spot where America's rich and famous drank and
gambled with mobsters. As the gap between the rich and poor grew
wider, the poor grew impatient. In 1953, Fidel Castro led an armed
group of rebels in a failed uprising on the Moncada army barracks.
Castro temporarily fled the country and Batista struck back with
a vengeance. Freedom of speech was curtailed and subversive teachers,
lawyers and public officials were fired from their jobs. Death
squads tortured and killed thousands of "communists".
Batista was assisted in his crackdown by Lansky and other members
of organized crime who believed Castro would jeopardize their
gambling and drug trade. Despite this, Batista remained a friend
to Eisenhower and the US until he was finally overthrown by Castro
in 1959.
SIR HASSANAL BOLKIAH
The Sultan of Brunei
To illegally fund what they referred to as the "Democratic
Resistance" in Nicaragua, Oliver North and Former Assistant
Secretary d State Elliot Abrams solicited funds from several authoritarian
regimes, including Taiwan, South Korea and the more obscure Sultanate
of Brunei Darussalam. Sir Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei,
the world's richest monarch, was indeed generous to the Contras
-- to the tune of $10 million. But, this generosity was not because
of any commitment to democracy in Nicaragua or anywhere else,
for Brunei is a monarchical dictatorship, under a State of Emergency
since 1982. The Sultan also allows Brunei to be the ClA's ears
on the explosive Malaysian-lndonesian border. His Royal Highness
was also involved with the infamous Nugan Hand Bank of Australia,
a 1960s-70s CIA front for South East Asian drug operations and
money laundering. In fact, according to a secret 1978 memo, Nugan
Hand submitted a proposal to provide His Highness the Sultan with
a bank structure and depository system which he alone can control
should any change of government take place. The Sultan lives in
a new palace that may have cost as much as a billion dollars,
while over 90% of his subjects live in abject poverty. Those who
protest such inequalities don't fare well with the authorities.
According to Amnesty International, Brunei's jails hold "at
least five prisoners of conscience who have spent 25 years in
detention without having been convicted of any crime."
P.W. BOTHA
President of South Africa
During P.W. Botha's first term as President, the former Secretary
of Defense altered the structure of government, giving the military
and police unprecedented power. To justify this, he pointed to
increasingly vocal discontent among South Africa's disenfranchised
blacks, the large number of black states In Africa, and a so-called
"growing Marxist" threat in the region. South Africa,
he said, was engaged in a "total war' and must develop a
"total strategy" to fight the battle. South Africa's
apartheid regime was quietly supported by the US government, despite
a UN boycott and Congressional efforts to reduce US investment
there, Ronald Reagan significantly increased military expenditures
in the country. But few Americans realized that Botha's total
strategy against blacks had turned his nation into a ruthless
aggressor. When Portugal withdrew from its colonies in Mozambique
and Angola, Botha, claiming he wanted to strengthen capitalism
on the continent, financed the Mozambique National Resistance
(MNR) against the country's popular government. The MNR, who receive
direct training from South Africa, cut off the ears, noses, and
limbs of civilians. After killing their parents and raping young
women in front of 10 year old boys, they recruited these boys
to fight. In 1989, P.W. Botha suffered a stroke and later resigned.
In early 1990 his successor, F.W. De Klerk, watching as international
sanctions ruined S. Africa's economy, legalized political opposition
parties and freed several important black political prisoners,
including Nelson Mandela who had been imprisoned for 27 years
for political activities against apartheid. Apartheid finally
fell when Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa.
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.
These policies were clearly unacceptable to the American business
interests. 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 request for oil for Branco's soldiers in case Goulart's troops
blew up the refineries. Brancos 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 government 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.
RAOUL CEDRAS
General of Haiti
General Cedras seized power in Haiti in 1991 after the election
of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He ruled with the rod of iron associated
with Haiti's infamous former dictators, the Duvaliers -- there
were at least 4.000 political assassinations and more than 40,000
fled the country in boats for the US. He fled into exile in September
1994 when the US sent an invasion force under the banner of the
UN.
Cedras is now in Panama, the only rival to France as the favorite
haven for former dictators -- Juan Domingo Peron of Argentina
and the Shah of Iran once took refuge there, and Guatemala's Jorge
Serrano is a great success as a racehorse owner. Cedras has a
penthouse suite in Panama City's wealthy Punta Paitilla area.
He is not short of cash -- the US State Department alone pays
him $5,000 a month in rent for his properties in Haiti. Panama
University Professor Miguel Antonio Bernal complains: 'Our country
is being used as a wastebasket for the political toxic waste of
the world.'
VINICIO CEREZO
President of Guatemala
According to Amnesty International, arbitrary arrest, torture,
disappearance, and political killings were everyday realities
for Guatemalans during decades of US financed military dictatorship.
In January 1986, Christian Democrat leader Vinicio Cerezo was
elected President and said he had "the political will to
respect the rights of man", but it didn't take long to find
out that his political will was irrelevant in the face of Guatemala's
well-oiled military machine. Hopes for change were dashed when
Cerezo announced that Guatemala would continue to provide amnesty
for all past military offenses committed from General Elrain Rios
Montt's coup in 1982 through the 1986 elections. Although Ronald
Reagan's State Department asserted "there has not been a
single clear-cut case of political killing, within months of Cerezo's
inauguration, opposition leaders attributed 56 murders to security
forces and death squads, while Americas Watch claimed that "throughout
1986, violent killings were reported in the Guatemalan press at
the rate of 100 per month". Altogether, Americas Watch says,
tens-of-thousands were killed and 400 rural villages were destroyed
by government death squads during Reagan's term in office. Colonel
D'Jalma Dominguez, former army spokesman, explains "For convenience
sake a civilian government is preferable, such as the one we have
now. If anything goes wrong, only the Christian Democrats will
get the blame. It's better to remain outside. The real power will
not be lost." Today, the real power still resides with the
military.
CHIANG KAI-SHEK
President of Taiwan
The Chinese civil war pitted Mao Tse-Tung's Communists against
Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalists. The US-backed Chiang, but when
he couldn't do the job they also supported Japanese troops fighting
the Communists, even before WWll had ended. Hated for his wanton
cruelty, corruption, and decadence, Chiang did not enjoy the support
of the Chinese people; entire divisions of the Nationalist army
defected and fled to the island of Formosa (Taiwan). A presidential
commission appointed by Harry Truman reported after Chiang's arrival
there that his forces "ruthlessly, corruptly, and avariciously
imposed their regime on the population. Under Nationalist rule,
85% of the population was disenfranchised, but the onset of the
Korean War and the anti-communist hysteria of the McCarthy era
led the US to declare that the tiny island represented the real
government of China. The US was crucial in keeping mainland China
out of the UN until 1971. Chiang gave the World Anti-Communist
League (an international organization with links to Nazis, drug
smugglers, and the CIA) its first home, permitting WACL members
to use a military academy there to train troops for Latin American
military coups. President Carter tried to cut US ties to WACL,
but Ronald Reagan received campaign funds from the group, and
WACL became involved with training and supplying contras in Argentina
and Taiwan. Chiang Kai-Shek died in 1975, but many of his policies
continue in Taiwan.
ROBERTO SUAZO CORDOVA
President of Honduras
Honduras was the original "Banana Republic" -- its
history inextricably intertwined with that of the US-based United
Fruit Company, but in 1979, when Anastasio Somoza was overthrown
in Nicaragua, Honduras got a new nickname -- "The Pentagon
Republic". In 1978 Honduras received $16.2 million in US
aid. By 1985, it was getting $231 million, primarily because President
Suazo Cordova, working with the US Ambassador and the Honduran
military, allowed Honduras to become a training center for U.S.
funded Nicaraguan contras. General Alvarez assisted in training
programs and founded a special "hit squad", the Cobras.
Victims of the Cobras were stripped, bound, thrown into pits,
and tortured. The Reagan Administration claimed ignorance of these
human rights violations, but US advisors have admitted knowledge.
Alvarez who made enemies among his troops because he pocketed
U.S. aid and because he belonged to the "Moonies", a
far-right South Korean religious cult, was overthrown by the military
in 1984. Suazo's ties to Alvarez cost him his bid in the next
election, but death squad activity and US aid to Honduras continued.
Many high ranking government and military personnel during and
after Suazo's term were drug traffickers, and although the US
government denies knowledge of this, there is evidence to the
contrary. In fact, the US embassy was renting space from known
drug dealers.
ALFREDO CRISTIANI
President of El Salvador
General Hernandez Martinez's 1932 anti-communist purge, was
carried out on behalf of El Salvador's rich coffee oligarchy,
the so-called "Fourteen Families". New president Alfredo
Cristiani is a member of those same " Fourteen Families",
and his ARENA party is linked to brutalities surpassing Hernandez
Martinez's. Cristiani is moderate-sounding, schooled in Washington
D. C., and indebted to the military for power. As puppet - president,
he yielded to ARENA founder Roberto D'Aubuisson, whom a former
US Ambassador called a "pathological killer". D'Aubuisson,
a former Army Major with ties to Jesse Helms and the US right,
studied unconventional warfare in the U S and Taiwan. According
to D'Aubuisson, "the Christian Democrats (Ex-President Jose
Napoleon Duarte's party) are communists, but Jesuit priests are
"the worst scum of all". US State Department cables
indicate D'Aubuisson "planned and ordered the assassination
of the late Archbishop Oscar Amulfoo Romero". It's believed
he was behind the White Warriors Union (UGB), whose slogan was
"Be patriotic-kill a priest". In 1989 six priests were
slain and Cristiani soon admitted his US trained soldiers had
committed the murders. Yet, although assassinations of priests
are notable, 70,000 other civilians were killed by the Salvadoran
military and the death squads since 1980.
NGO DINH DIEM
President of South Vietnam
Ngo Dinh Diem oppressed the Vietnamese people so badly that
many of them turned to the communists for protection from his
ruthless rule. Even President Eisenhower admitted that "had
elections been held, possibly 80% of the population would have
voted for Ho Chi Minh, the communist leader". Yet Diem, who
had once lived in the US, had connections, in Washington, who
liked his anti-communism. He founded the Can Lao Party (CLP),
a secret police force overseen by his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, and
Nhu's wife, Madame Nhu. The three were notorious for their ineptitude
and cruelty. The CLP was not even their idea, it was originally
promoted by the US State Department to rid the country of communists.
Diem alienated urban professionals by suppressing all opposition
to his regime. He alienated peasants by canceling their age-old
local elections, forcing them off their land, and moving them
into "agrovilles" surrounded by barbed wire, which even
US officials conceded bore a striking resemblance to concentration
camps. Ultimately, he angered his own military officers because
he promoted on the basis of loyalty, not merit. In an effort to
keep Diem in power, the US tried to persuade him to make political
reforms. He refused, so they persuaded him to make military reforms.
But when Diem was finally overthrown and assassinated in 1963,
none of his generals rose to defend him. Nor did the US, which,
after 8 years, had finally realized that Diem wasn't popular.
GENERAL SAMUEL DOE
President of Liberia
Samuel Doe came to power in a bloody 1980 coup, a Master Sergeant
in military gear. Today, he is a self-made General in a suit,
living on US aid and corporate kickbacks. But while Doe and his
cronies live in luxury, the rest of Liberia dwells in squalor.
Under his regime, the gross domestic product has decreased by
13%, the country's health statistics are among the world's worst,
80% of the population is illiterate, all opposition parties but
one were forbidden to participate in the 1985 national elections,
and those who protest these inequities are jailed or killed. Doe,
a pro-American anti-communist, received $500 million in U.S. aid
between 1980 and 1985. When Congress threatened to cut off funds
because of Liberia's human rights abuses, Doe requested "American
financial advice" as a show of good will. The U.S. sent 17
accountants, bank examiners, and economists to help Doe balance
his budget, but they realized a difficult task lay ahead when
they learned that Doe had purchased over sixty $60,000 Mercedes
Benz cars for his government ministers and had given the Liberian
soccer team $1 million for winning a match against rival Ghana.
Ultimately Doe refused to allow access to records concerning 40%
of Liberia's funds, for this "second budget", revenues
from gasoline and lodging taxes, goes directly into the President's
bank account. The American advisors returned home in 1989, mission
not accomplished, and Samuel Doe remains in office, despite early
1990 rumblings of rebel plots against him.
FRANCOIS & JEAN CLAUDE DUVALIER
Presidents of Haiti
In 1957 Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier became Haiti's
President-For-Life, establishing a strategic relationship with
the US that lasted until 1971, when he was succeeded by his son
Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier. During the 30 years
that they ruled with an iron hand, 60,000 Haitians were killed
and countless more were tortured by the Duvaliers' Tonton Macoutes
death squads. While Haiti became the poorest country in the Western
Hemisphere, the Duvaliers enriched themselves by stealing foreign
aid money. In 1980, for instance, the International Monetary Fund
granted Haiti a $22 million budget supplement. Within weeks, $16
million was "unaccounted for". Baby Doc made Haiti into
a trans-shipment point for Colombian cocaine. Nevertheless, as
long as Papa and Baby Doc were anti-communists, they could do
no wrong in the US government's eyes. Their regime finally ended
in 1986, when Baby Doc fled angry mobs of Haitians for asylum
in France, with a fortune estimated at $400 million. It has been
estimated that under Baby Doc's rule 40,000 Haitians were murdered.
KING FAHD BIN 'ABDUL - 'AZIZ
King of Saudi Arabia
King Fahd bin 'Abdul -'Aziz is the absolute monarch of the
kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Fahd and 2000 related royals rule with
an iron grip of medieval feudalism. Control over the lives of
their citizens is total and arbitrary. Torture is common, and
amputation is frequently ordered by the courts. Women have few
rights, and adultery by women is punished by death by stoning.
Executions by hanging are public -- there were at least 60 such
executions in 1994. The main opposition is from Sunni Islamists,
and hundreds are in prison. Saudi Arabia is supported by the United
States and other western democracies because of the enormous oil
wealth that lies below the country's desert sands, its pro-West
stance, and the royal family's staunch anti-fundamentalist position.
The irony of American policy in Saudi Arabia is that the US, the
world's most vocal advocate for democracy, supports one of the
most undemocratic regimes in the world.
GENERAL FRANCISCO FRANCO
President of Spain
General Francisco Bahamonde Franco was not the most popular
leader in Spain during the early 1930s. A man of humble origins,
he had worked his way up the military ladder fighting colonial
wars in Africa. Franco, a staunch conservative, was infuriated
when a Republican alliance of socialists, Marxists, and liberals
won Spain's first free elections in 1936. So the General decided
to restore order by force. Franco's Nationalists were losing the
civil war, but military support from Hitler, Mussolini, and the
US corporations that backed Hitler, turned the tide in his favor.
Italy and Germany sent 6,060 trucks to Franco's fascists, but
12,000 were supplied by Ford, General Motors and Studebaker. The
US claimed neutrality but didn't stop these companies from aiding
Franco. The failure of the US and other democratic nations to
assist Spain's democratic government was ultimately responsible
for Franco's victory in 1939, and sadly, American volunteers who
fought for the Republic were relentlessly persecuted during the
US anti-communist hysteria of the 1950s. Under Franco, all political
parties and labor unions were banned, books were burned, and dissenters
were tortured and executed. Spain was ostracized by the international
community, but the US considered Franco a Cold War ally and sank
millions into the country. After Franco's death in 1975, Spain
became a democratic republic once again.
ADOLF HITLER
Chancellor of Germany
As German bombs fell on London and Nazi tanks rolled over
US troops, Sosthenes Behn president and founder of the US based
ITT corporation, met with his German representative to discuss
improving German communication systems. ITT was designing and
building Nazi phone and radio systems as well as supplying crucial
parts for German bombs. Our government knew all about this, for
under a presidential order, US companies were licensed to trade
with the Nazis. The choice of who would be licensed was odd, though.
While the Secretary of State gave the Ford Motor Company permission
to make Nazi tanks, he simultaneously blocked aid to German-Jewish
refugees because the US wasn't supposed to be trading with the
enemy. Other US companies trading with the Third Reich were General
Motors, DuPont, Standard Oil of New Jersey, Davis Oil Co., and
the Chase National Bank. President Roosevelt did not stop them,
fearing a scandal might lead to another stock market crash or
lower US moral. Besides, the same companies that traded with Hitler
were supplying the US with its armaments, and some corporate leaders
threatened to withdraw their support if Roosevelt exposed them.
Henry Ford was a good friend of Hitler's. His book -- The International
Jew -- had Inspired Hltler's Mein Kampf. The Fuhrer kept Ford's
picture in his office, and Ford was one of only four foreigners
to receive Germany's highest civilian award. As for Sosthenes
Behn, at the end of the war, he received the highest civilian
award for service to his country -- the United States of America.
HASSAN II
King of Morocco
Like his former ally, the Shah of Iran, King Hassan ll of
Morocco spares himself no earthly delight. He has seven principal
palaces, keeps 260 horses in just one of his many stables, boards
most of his camels, ostriches, and zebras with his 945 head of
cattle at his 1500 acre dairy farm, and he's got a couple of harems.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in Morocco is over 20%, and 95%
of the population lives in abject poverty, sheltering in makeshift
huts in the country's increasingly swollen cities. Citing dubious
historical ties, in 1975, Hassan took his nation into a war in
the Western Sahara that is costing the country over $l million
a day. Although the International Court of Justice ruled that
Morocco has no historical claims to the territory, the US continues
to back Hassan diplomatically and financially in his war to annex
the area. The US also takes an active role in stopping coup attempts
against the King. According to one dissident, the CIA gave Hassan
a video tape that enabled him to catch the plotters in the act.
The favor was returned when Hassan visited Washington in 1982
-- he and President Reagan agreed that the US could use Morocco
as an emergency base for its planes. Although Hassan has been
less repressive in recent years, members of the opposition are
still arrested and tortured. But as his people start to make connections
between the rising cost of living and the war in the Sahara, criticism
grows, and even the CIA has admitted that Hassan may not be able
to keep the lid on dissent much longer.
FERDINAND MARCOS
President of the Philippines
Ferdinand Marcos 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 release by a Supreme Court Justice who,
like Marcos and his father, was a Nazi collaborator. Despite Marcos's
record as murderer, fake WWll hero and Nazi agent, he was elected
Philippine President in 1965. 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 in 1972. The Marcoses
enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle, and they salted away billions of
dollars in the course of their US-backed rule between 1965 and
1986.
The Carter Administration engineered an $88 million World
Bank loan to Marcos, increased military aid to him by 300%, and
called him a "soft dictator". 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.
Yet, in 1981, Vice President George Bush praised Marcos for his
"adherence to democratic principals and to the democratic
processes". Marcos was overthrown in 1986 by followers of
Corazon Aquino, widow of an assassinated opposition leader.
Ferdinand and Imelda fled to Hawaii, only to be indicted in
1988 for fraud and tax evasion. Marcos died in 1989. Imelda returned
to the Philippines in 1991 and stood unsuccessfully in the Presidential
elections of 1992. 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. She was elected to Congress
in May 1995. Meanwhile, in it 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.
MAXIMILIANO HERNANDEZ MARTlNEZ
General of El Salvador
Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez seized power El Salvador in
a 1931 coup. His philosophy with regard to human rights was clear
-- "It is a greater crime to kill an ant than a man,"
said the General.
Hernandez Martinez initiated an anti-communist purge in 1932
in El Salvador. Subsequent massacres left 40,000 peasants dead
and wiped out the country's Indian culture. An uprising, six weeks
later, organized by El Salvador's Communist Party founder, Farabundo
Marti, failed, and was followed by the crackdown on "communists".
Roadways and drainage ditches were littered with bodies. Hotels
were raided, individuals with blond hair were dragged out and
killed as suspected Russians. Many were executed and then shoved
into mass graves they had first been forced to dig. U.S. warships
were stationed off-shore, ready to send in Marines to aid the
General in case he ran into serious opposition. Hernandez Martinez
was run out of the country in 1944, but his memory was celebrated
as recently as 1980, when the Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez Brigade
carried out a series of death-squad assassinations of prominent
Salvadoran leftists. Farabundo Marti, killed during the purge,
has also left a legacy -- the rebels who fought the U.S. backed
government of El Salvador during the 1980s, call themselves the
FMLN, the Farabundo Marti Liberation Front.
MOBUTU SESE SEKO
President of Zaire
When Zaire's first elected President, Patrice Lumumba, appeared
to be getting too close to socialism, US companies feared they
might lose control of Zaire's precious cobalt, copper, and diamonds.
So the CIA stepped in, assassinated Lumumba, and replaced him
with Mobutu Sese Seko. Since 1965, Mobutu has been the US's main
man in Central Africa. Mobutu has amassed an estimated $5 billion
personal fortune at his nation's expense. He is perhaps the only
world leader who could pay his national debt from his own bank
account. In fact, there seems to be no division between his pocket
and the national treasury. In 1974, when the US sent $1.4 million
to assist troops fighting a civil war, Mobutu pocketed the entire
sum. And no foreign company sets itself up in Zaire without a
tribute to Mobutu. Although Zaire has more resources than most
other countries in the region, it is the fifth poorest. Malnutrition
takes the lives of one-third of Zaire's children, and one child
out of two dies before age five. But Mobutu has vowed to keep
the world safe for democracy and according to Amnesty International,
in the name of anti-communism, he imprisons and tortures, often
without trial, anyone who threatens his power base. While some
members of Congress grumble about giving assistance to Mobutu,
they continue to reward his work against communism and his warm
reception of American corporations.
GENERAL EFRAIN RIOS MONTT
President of Guatemala
"A Christian has to walk around with his Bible and his
machine gun", said born-again General Efrain Rios Montt,
military ruler of Guatemala from March 1982 to August 1983. Rios
Montt was one in a long series of dictators who ran Guatemala
after the Dulles brothers and United Fruit, backed by the CIA,
decided that democratically-elected President Jacobo Arbenz was
too reform-minded. And so, they overthrew the country's constitutional
democracy in 1954. The succession of corrupt military dictators
ruled Guatemala for over 30 years, one anti-communist tyrant after
another receiving U.S. support, aid, and training. After the 1982
coup that brought Rios Montt to power, the U.S. Ambassador to
Guatemala said "Guatemala has come out of the darkness and
into the light". President Reagan claimed Rios Montt was
given "a bum rap" by human rights groups, and that he
was cleaning up problems inherited from his predecessor, General
Romeo Lucas Garcia. Ironically, Garcia had given $500,000 to Reagan's
1980 campaign, and his henchman, Mario Sandoval Alarcon, the 'Godfather'
of Central American death squads, was a guest at Reagan's first
inaugural celebration. Sandoval proudly calls his National Liberation
Movement " the party of organized violence". Montt simply
moved Garcia's dirty war from urban centers to the countryside
where "the spirit of the lord" guided him against "communist
subversives', mostly indigenous Indians. As many as 10,000 Indians
were killed and over 100,000 fled to Mexico as a result of Rios
Montt's "Christian" campaign.
GENERAL MANUEL NORIEGA
Chief of Defense Forces, Panama
The US command post for covert Latin American operations is
located in the Canal Zone where a series of figurehead presidents,
some backed by General Manuel Noriega, had involved Panama in
US intelligence operations. General Noriega became commander-in-chief
of the National Guard in Panama in 1983, and for the next six
years was more powerful than the President. He was the kind of
ruthless leader the US favored in the rest of Central America.
Noriega first met with then CIA Director George Bush in 1976,
while Noriega was collecting $100 thousand a year as a CIA asset.
Their friendly relationship persisted even after Noriega's drug
dealing was revealed by a 1975 DEA investigation. During the Reagan
era, Noriega collaborated with Oliver North on covert actions
against Nicaragua, training contras and providing a transshipment
point for CIA supported operations that flew weapons to the contras
and cocaine into the US.
But he fell foul of the US when he failed to support their
plan to invade Nicaragua -- they withdrew aid and imposed sanctions.
In 1987, a Miami grand jury indicted him for drug-trafficking,
and the CIA tried to destabilize his regime. Noriega warned Bush
that he had information which could change the course of the 1988
US elections and the CIA backed off. When Noriega annulled Panama's
1989 elections, citing CIA interference, Bush renewed attempts
to unseat his one-time ally. Critics called Bush's failure to
support an abortive 1989 coup "indecisive", but his
response to that criticism, the December 1989 invasion of Panama,
led to world condemnation. Noriega eventually surrendered to face
US drug charges. The invasion of 26,000 American troops led to
over 4,000 Panamanian deaths and installed a regime with similar
close links to drugs, plus a willingness to alter Panama Canal
treaties to serve US interests.
Noriega was taken prisoner and stood trial in Miami on charges
of drug trafficking and was sentenced to 40 years' imprisonment.
He is still in a Florida jail contemplating the irony that he
was once also the protégé of the US Drug Enforcement
Agency. Meanwhile the legal office of the President the US installed
in his place was discovered to have connections with 14 companies
that had laundered drug money.
TURGUT OZAL
Prime Minister of Turkey
Turgut Ozal was elected prime minister of Turkey in 1983,
after several years of harsh military rule. But while free expression
in Turkey has opened up somewhat in recent years, torture and
long prison terms for political opponents and government critics
have remained a way of life. In 1988, according to Amnesty International,
"thousands of people were imprisoned for political reasons...and
the use of torture continued to be widespread and systematic".
Turkey's torturers are ruthless. Says one victim: " I loosened
the blindfold and looked around. The scene was horrific. People
were piled up in the corridor waiting their turn to be tortured.
Ten people were being led, blindfolded and naked, up and down
the corridor and were being beaten to force them to sing reactionary
marches. Others, incapable of standing, were tied to hot radiator
pipes. A man was forced to watch while his children were tortured."
Regardless of the repression that a succession of governments
have subjected the country to, US-Turkish relations remain cordial.
In the past, US officials have even attributed the torture problem
to "the violent nature of the Turkish people." Retired
Turkish General Turgut Sunalp explains it a different way. "There
has been, still is, and will be torture in Turkey because there
is torture everywhere in the world," he said. But despite
its human rights abuses, Turkey can do no wrong in US eyes, for
it is one of the CIA's key listening posts on the Soviet border.
Not surprisingly, in 1987, Turkey was the third largest recipient
of U.S. aid.
MOHAMMAD REZA PAHLEVI
Shah of Iran
1953 was a busy year for Allen Dulles. Even as he readied
the CIA for a coup in Guatemala, his agents were toppling the
liberal left government of Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq and paving the
way for the Shah of Iran. With Dulles' encouragement, the Shah
made the Iranian people an offer they couldn't refuse -- join
his party or go to jail. Thousands who refused to yield were imprisoned
or murdered. During regional elections in 1954, the Shah's agents
raided a religious school and hurled hundreds of students to their
deaths from the roof. His regime received 100% of the vote that
year, in an election which registered more votes than there were
voters.
The Shah's subsequent solidification of power led to an iron
fisted rule enforced by fear and torture. His secret police agency,
SAVAK, was created in 1957 and managed by the CIA at all levels
of daily operation, including the choice and organization of personnel,
selection and operation of equipment, and the running of agents.
SAVAK's torture methods included electric shock, whipping, beating,
inserting broken glass and pouring boiling water into the rectum,
tying weights to the testicles, and the extraction of teeth and
nails. Iran under the Shah became a devoted US ally and a base
for spy operations on the border of the Soviet Union. But eventually,
the Shah was overthrown in 1978 by an indigenous people's revolution
that held sway until fundamentalist religious leader Ayatollah
Khomeini returned to Iran from exile and reasserted his power
during the 1979 US hostage crisis.
GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS
Prlme Minister of Greece
When President Lyndon Johnson offered a solution to the Greek
Ambassador for the dispute between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus,
the Ambassador protested, saying the solution was unacceptable
to the Greek parliament and constitution. Three years later, in
1967, a military coup overthrew the freely elected government
of Andreas Papandreou. The coup was headed by CIA employee and
ex-Nazi George Papadopoulolis. He had been on the CIA payroll
for 15 years when he came to power, and during WW ll he was a
captain in the Nazi Security Battalions, whose main purpose was
to catch members of the Greek Resistance. Almost anyone who even
said the word "communist" was jailed. During Papadopoulos's
first month in power, 8,000 so-called "leftist" were
imprisoned and tortured. Greece was expelled from the European
Commission on Human Rights, but continued to receive US aid. In
return, Greece kept the world safe for democracy by housing US
military bases. Papadopoulos was ousted in 1973 after falling
from grace with the inner clique that helped him rule. When the
entire government fell in 1974, he and his comrades were tried
for human rights abuses.
PARK CHUNG HEE
President of South Korea
Free and open expression has not come easily to South Koreans.
Beatings, torture, and execution of the regimes' political opponents
have been a way of life since the Korean War. The tenure of former
President Park Chung Hee, who came to power in a 1961 military
coup, exemplifies the kind of leader South Koreans have been forced
to endure. Park's virulent anti-communism won him U.S. support.
The water torture, which leaves no physical marks on the victim,
was a favored technique of Park's security forces. Cold water
was forced up the nostrils through a tube, while a cloth was placed
in the victim's mouth to prevent breathing. Many anti-communist
interrogations were run by the KCIA, a US creation modeled after
the American CIA. One victim told Amnesty International, "
I was taken to KCIA headquarters, my hands tied together, and
I was tied to a chair. I was not allowed to have any sleep. At
night, they would drag me to the basement where they would beat
me with a long, heavy stick, and jump on me. They were trying
to make me confess that I was a spy. Despite such brutal behavior,
the US has maintained a first-rate strategic relationship with
South Korea, providing successive repressive regimes with extensive
US aid. Park Chung Hee was assassinated by the KCIA in 1979, but
South Korea is still a nation troubled by lack of human rights.
GENERAL AUGUSTO PINOCHET
President of Chile
Augusto Pinochet deposed democratically elected President
Salvador Allende in 1973, and buried Chile's 150 year old democracy.
"Democracy is the breeding ground of communism", says
Pinochet. The bloody coup, in which Allende was assassinated,
was carefully managed by the CIA and ITT. Tens of thousands of
Chileans have been tortured, killed, and exiled since then, according
to Amnesty International. A U.S. congressional delegation was
told by inmates at San Miguel Prison that they had been tortured
by "the application of electric shock, simultaneous blows
to the ears, cigarette burns, and simulated executions by firing
squads." Despite Chile's bad human rights record, the U.S.
government continued to support Pinochet with international loans.
Even the state-sponsored car-bomb assassination of Chile's former
Ambassador to the U.S., Orlando Letelier, did not convince the
U.S. to break with Pinochet. In 1988 a plebiscite refused to extend
Pinochet's rule, so he altered the constitution to reduce the
powers of the incoming elected President, and left himself head
of the armed forces. All the other South American dictators are
gone but Pinochet has found the perfect solution: Chile now has
the squeaky-clean sheen of democracy yet he still has his finger
on the trigger.
POL POT
Commander of the Khmer Rouge
The bombing of Cambodia by the US from 1969 to 1972, left
600,000 civilians dead, millions of refugees, tens-of-thousands
dying from disease and starvation, and the Cambodian economy and
culture in ruins. Cambodians blamed the US and the puppet regime
of Lon Nol for the country's destruction, and gradually sided
with the guerrilla army of the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot, which
finally defeated Lon Nol, and took power in April, 1975. Once
in power, Pol Pot emptied the cities, forcing the people into
the countryside. Virtually all educated people were killed and
more than 1.5 million people perished in this "holocaust".
Only when the Khmer Rouge was ousted by Vietnam in 1979, did the
terror stop. Washington took steps to preserve the Khmer Rouge
as a counter force to the Vietnamese. International relief agencies
were pressured by the US to provide food and humanitarian assistance
to the Khmer Rouge, which had fled to Thailand, and the US sent
military aid as well. In 1982, in an effort to isolate the Vietnamese,
the US forced together the three contending anti-Vietnamese groups,
insisting that the Khmer Rouge be part of the negotiations. Cambodia
continues to suffer from the devastation produced by both the
US bombing and the Khmer Rouge atrocities. Pol Pot is considered
to still be the power behind the Khmer Rouge, which has a strong
presence in Cambodia today, thanks to the US.
GENERAL SITIVENI RABUKA
Commander, Armed Forces of Fiji
On May, 1987, General Sitiveni Rabuka stormed the Fijian Parliament
and arrested the newly elected Prime Minister, Dr. Timoci Bavadra.
Bavadra's fledgling Labor Party had just defeated Fiji's pro-US
puppet Prime Minister, Ratu Slr Kamese Mara, and although Bavadra's
support for a nuclear free South Pacific was welcomed by the regional
populace, a nuclear free zone was be unacceptable to the US. Thirty-two
days after his electoral victory, Dr. Bavadra was overthrown by
the pro-nuclear General Rabuka, with the help of the US. Once
in control, General Rabuka quickly allied himself with some of
the most brutal regimes in the world. "Military dictators
seem to like other military dictators", says deposed Fijian
Prime Minister Bavadra. "It did not take long for our illegal
rulers to establish strong ties with Indonesia, Taiwan, and South
Korea". Under General Rabuka's US supported police state,
Amnesty International has reported, for the first time in Fijian
history, cases of illegal detention and torture -- the beginning
of the Latinization of the Pacific.
ANTONIO DE OLIVEIRA SALAZAR
Prlme Minister of Portugal
Antonio de Oliveira Salazar worshipped Hitler and Mussolini,
but after they lost, he joined the Allies and became a card-carrying
member of NATO. However, he always kept a piece of fascism alive
in Portugal. His secret police, the PIDE, were much like the Gastapo;
concentration camps were set up for "enemies of the state",
news organizations were merely propaganda machines, and all schools
had their lesson plans carefully monitored by "Big Brother".
Salazar also kept a little piece of the Dark Ages alive in Western
Europe. In 1970, 30% of the population was illiterate, and the
infant mortality rate was the second worst in Europe. The Portugese
economy stagnated. Most of the land was held by 5% of the population,
the vast majority of Portuguese worked in agriculture, and all
union activities were forbidden. Portugal was the last stronghold
of European colonialism. Salazar refused to give up colonies in
East Timor, Portuguese Guiana, Mozambique, and Angola. He believed
the "white man" must bring higher civilization to the
" black man". The U.S. openly backed Portugal's colonial
claims, due to the strategic importance of military bases such
as the one in the Portugese Azores. Salazar died in 1968, after
40 years in power. His regime fell in 1974, at which point Portugal
left Angola, but the US continued to back South African efforts
there.
HALIE SELASSIE
Emperor of Ethiopla
Emperor Halie Selassie may have been a better king to the
animals of Ethiopia than to its people. In 1973, during the height
of a drought in which 200,000 Ethiopians died of starvation, Salassie
fed beef to his Great Danes. Selassie was a fairer ruler than
many of those around him. For example, as a young provincial governor,
he only took 50% of his peasants crops while other governors were
taking 90%, and in the 1950s as few as 100 political prisoners
were tortured in his jails at one time. But, under his long rule,
Ethiopia remained in the dark ages. Just after his overthrow in
1974, the annual per capita income was $90, the literacy rate
was 7% and Ethiopia was the poorest nation in Africa. Under Selassie,
Ethiopia received more US aid than any other African country and
Washington purchased a $2 million yacht for the Emperor. When
Selassie faced an uprising in the province of Eritrea, the US
sent advisors and arms to help him smash the revolt. In return
for our support, Selassie provided the United States with a naval
oasis in the Red Sea and a place for a strategic communications
station. Selassie's kindness to his animals was his downfall;
he was overthrown when photos of him feeding his dogs during the
1973 famine were circulated among his outraged troops.
IAN SMITH
Prime Minister of Rhodesia
lan Smith promised the whites who elected him Prime Minister
of Rhodesia in 1982 that he would keep Rhodesia white, at any
cost. To stop the black guerrilla fighters trying to overthrow
his regime, Smith rationed food for Africans whom he believed
were feeding the guerrillas. This cruel measure only served to
starve the already undernourished black population. Studies found
that over 90% of Rhodesia's black children were malnourished and
nutritional deficiencies were the major cause of infant death.
Smith rounded up blacks into concentration camps he called "protective"
villages. Believing that ignorant people were less likely to revolt,
he cut funding for black education, spending $5 on each black
child compared to $80 on each white child. His all white Parliament
passed a law protecting officials who took actions for the suppression
of "terrorism", enabling the police and military to
commit atrocities. An international trade boycott against Rhodesia
arose, but while the US publicly condemned the government, it
continued to do business there. In 1971, President Nixon lifted
the chrome embargo against Rhodesia at a time when there was a
surplus of chrome in the US. Blacks were eventually given the
right to vote for some officials, but the opposition to Smith's
government grew so strong that he was ultimately forced to give
up some power to blacks. In 1979, Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, a
country primarily ruled by blacks.
ANASTASIO SOMOZA, SR. AND JR.
Presidents of Nicaragua
The Marines invaded Nicaragua in 1912, and stayed until 1933,
fighting but never defeating the revolutionary Augusto Sandino.
They created the Nicaraguan National Guard and installed Anastasio
Somoza Garcia in power. Then Sandino, who had signed a truce and
put down his arms, was assassinated by Somoza. A general who led
the Marines into Nicaragua, explained, " I was a high class
muscle-man for big business, for Wall Street and for the banks.
In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism. l helped purify Nicaragua
for an International banking house." President Franklin Roosevelt
put it another way. "Somoza may be a son-of-a-bitch, but
he's our son-of-a-bitch." Corruption, torture, and wholesale
murder of dissidents continued for 45 years under two generations
of Somozas, for after Somoza Garcia was gunned down in the streets
in 1956, his son Anastasio Somoza Debayle took control. The Somozas
plundered Nicaragua and became millionaires. The younger Somoza,
made $12 million a year buying the blood of his people and selling
it abroad at a 300% mark-up. In 1972 after an earthquake killed
and wounded hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans, Somoza had his
National Guard seize $30 million in international relief supplies
and sold them to the highest bidder. Near the end of his reign,
he aerially bombed his own capital to stay in power, but he was
overthrown in 1979 by a rebel group who called themselves the
Sandinistas, after the revolutionary hero his father had slain.
ALFREDO STROESSNER
President of Paraguay
Alfredo Stroessner seized power in Paraguay in 1954. 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 participated
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. He still lives there, in comfort.
GENERAL SUHARTO
President of Indonesia
Indonesia is a totalitarian state and its uncontested ruler
for over 20 years, General Suharto, is one of the most brutal
dictators in history. After a CIA organized coup brought him to
power in 1965, Suharto, decided to purge every communist subversive
from Indonesian soil. General Nasution, a close associate of Suharto,
called for the extermination of three million Indonesian communist
party members, and with the CIA supervised the murderous purge.
Paratroopers would arrive in a region with a list of "subversives"
and provide it to local vigilante groups. Using machetes and other
crude weapons, the vigilantes would hack the alleged subversives
to death. Entire populations of towns and villages were herded
to central locations and massacred. Children would be asked to
identify communists who would then be executed on the spot. In
addition to the half million people who were killed outright after
the coup, another 750,000 were arrested and tortured. Ultimately,
one million people died in one of the most savage mass slaughters
of modern political history. The US continues to this day to train
and arm the Indonesian military with the latest high-tech equipment.
(Suharto resigned in 1999 after mass public protest)
RAFAEL LEONIDAS TRUJILLO
President of the Dominican Republic
The US occupied the Dominican Republic in 1916 and created
the National Guard to put Rafael Leonidas Trujillo into power.
The fact that Trujillo was court-martialed for kidnapping and
rape in 1920 did not impede his rise to power or taint his relationship
with the US. As dictator of the Dominican Republic for 30 years,
Trujillo had a penchant for self-adulation, and put his personal
stamp on everything, including the capital, village water pumps,
and homes for the aged. Trujillo won the 1930 presidential election
with more votes than there were registered voters, but because
he was anti-communist, Washington was happy. He invoked anti-communism
to justify mass deportations, torture and summary executions.
Workers who asked for wage increases were labeled communists,
and shot on the spot, as were farmers who tried to stop Trujillo
from confiscating their land. He eventually controlled over 80%
of the country's sugar plantations, using slave labor provided
by neighboring Haiti to keep profits high. In 1937, he decided
to blame depressed sugar prices on the Haitian workers, and massacred
20,000 them. Trujillo was finally assassinated by the CIA in 1961
after he attempted to have President Romulo Betancourt of Venezuela
murdered because of his criticism of Trujillo's brutal regime.
It was only then that the Marine Corps made public the fact that
our ally Trujillo was a convicted rapist.
GENERAL JORGE RAFAEL VIDELA
President of Argentina
Soon after the coup that brought him to power in 1976 General
Jorge Rafael Videla began Argentina's dirty war. All political
and union activities were suspended, wages were reduced by 60%,
and dissidents were tortured by Nazi and US-trained military and
police. Survivors say the torture rooms contained swastikas and
pictures of Hitler, Mussolini and Franco. One year after Videla's
coup, Amnesty International estimated 15,000 people had disappeared
and many were in secret detention camps, but although the U.S.
press admitted human rights abuses occurred in Argentina, Videla
was often described as a "moderate' who revitalized his nation's
troubled economy. Videla had a good public relations firm in the
U.S., Deaver and Hannaford, the same firm used by Ronald Reagan,
Taiwan, and Guatemala. Videla also received aid from the World
Anti-Communist League (WACL), through its affiliate, CAL (Confederation
AntiCommunists Latinoamericana). CAL sent millions of dollars
to Argentina from the US, including old anti-communist organizations
with alliances with the Italian drug mafia. As part of its WACL
affiliation, Argentina trained Nicaraguan contras for the US.
Videla left office in 1981, and after the Falklands Crisis of
1982, he and his cohorts were tried for human rights abuses by
the new government.
MOHAMMED ZIA UL-HAQ
Presldent of Pakistan
In 1979, when General Mohammod Zia Ul-Haq executed his elected
predecessor, Zulfigar Ali Bhutto, and declared martial law, drugs
were unknown in Pakistan, but by 1984 Pakistan was furnishing
70% of the world's high grade heroin. That same year, George Bush
addressed a group of Pakistani officials and praised the government
of President Zia for its anti-narcotics program. However, among
the guests listening to Vice-President Bush were many high ranking
officials with links to one of the most lucrative heroin syndicates
in the world. Although the US government had some very capable
drug enforcement agents in Pakistan, they did not break even one
narcotics case there. A senior Pakstani narcotics officer said
he had concluded the US was unwilling to press for arrests that
might embarrass a government so closely tied to Washington. Former
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called Pakistan a "frontline
state" defending "free people everywhere'. That may
explain why despite its unsavory record of jailing and torturing
dissidents, Pakistan under Zia was the largest recipient of US.
aid, receiving over $3 billion in 1982, of which over half was
for weapons. Zia eventually lifted martial law and called for
general elections in 1985. However, many of his outspoken opponents
were jailed during the elections and for several days afterward.
Zia died in a mysterious plane crash in 1988, and the political
party of his predecessor then formed a government behind the late
President Bhutto's daughter Benazir Bhutto.
Most of this information is from:
Eclipse Enterprises trading card series -- Friendly Dictators
authors - Dennis Bernstein and Laura Sydell
Eclipse Enterprises, 1995
PO Box 1099, Forestville, CA 95436
Foreign
Policy and Pentagon
Terrorism
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and Third World