While we all like to think that the nations of the world all live in peace and harmony, especially if we are fortunate to live in a Country like that ourselves, it’s not always true. There’s a lot of dictators out there, and some still reign and rule their people despite all the human rights violations they have done.
A dictator is anyone who runs a country with unlimited power, and they run it poorly. Countries that dictators rule often have poor poverty, infrastructure, a poor life expectancy, and healthcare, and several other problems that affect the people. Here are some of the worst offenders that are still in charge of their countries, and they always seem to be getting richer by the day while their country starves.
- Kim Jun Un
This dictator of North Korea has been a thorn in the side of most of Korea’s neighbors for a very long while. He’s been the Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011, and in that time, has seen 40% of his country go below the poverty line.
He also has restarted Korea’s nuclear weapons program and continues to act as a rogue nation for the Asian continent. Despite successful outreach attempts by the U.S, he is still someone to watch as a potential threat for democratic allies.
- Bashar Al-Assad
The dictator of Syria has ruled through an ongoing civil war and a failing economy as various resistance groups try to undermine him. He has multiple war crimes levelled against him, including the use of chemical weapons against both resistance fighters and civilians, numerous times.
Despite also fighting against terrorist threats in war torn Syria, he is still a dictator. Time should tell if the ongoing war can topple him from his throne.
- Nicolas Maduro
Images of hungry and tired Venezuelans fleeing their country are still burned into people’s minds, and it was because of the socialist ideology of Nicolas Maduro. He still supports the laws and rules of Hugo Chavez, the previous dictator, which has caused shortages of food, medicine and has also caused massive inflation.
It remains to be seen if Venezuela can be rebuilt or if it needs a change in leadership first.
- Idriss Deby
The dictator of Chad has been ruling ever since he seized power in a coup in 1990. He’s currently fighting a bloody war with Sudan on the foreign front, while at home, around half of his nation is in poverty. Despite Chad’s abundant resources and oil, as most of it goes to the government and the man in charge.
- Paul Kagame
This man has been the president of Rwanda since 2000, and while he has improved education and reduced poverty, he certainly hasn’t done enough for freedom. His government controls the media and shuts down any independent media outlets before they can criticize him. His rule does come with a lot of oppression and limits on freedom.
Be Grateful and Stand
It’s important to be thankful and grateful for the country we live in, although we should also be aware that dictatorships still exist. Not everyone gets to have the freedom that we do, and once we are aware of that, then we can help those who do not have the same freedom.
All we can do is continue to put pressure on the dictators of the world and let them know that the free world is watching their every move. Hopefully, that can be enough to either replace their government with democracy or change their policies to become more democratic and less oppressive.
