Posted on 01/27/2003 11:42:49 AM PST by HAL9000
They were reviled by much of the world and responsible, collectively, for tens of thousands of deaths of those they ruled with brute force and terror. In the end, though, these dictators fled into exile. A look at a few of the most notable:
IDI AMIN - One of the 20th century's most notorious dictators, Amin presided over the murder of more than 400,000 of his fellow Ugandans and allegedly ate some of their flesh. His eight-year bloody reign ended in 1979, when Tanzanian forces stormed Uganda in retaliation for an attack by Amin's troops. Saudi Arabia offered him a haven, along with a monthly allotment for living expenses.
Now living well near Jeddah, Amin, 77, has his favorite goat meat flown from Uganda and passes the time with dips in the Red Sea. He drives expensive cars. He tried to return to Uganda several years ago, but was rebuffed by his former homeland.
ALFREDO STROESSNER - An Army general, Stroessner overthrew Paraguay's government in 1954 and went on to become the ironman of a police state that lasted 35 years. No good estimate exists of the number of Paraguayans killed or tortured during his regime, but it is believed to be in the tens of thousands.
Ousted by a coup in 1989, he accepted Brazil's invitation of refuge. Now 89, Stroessner lives quietly with his wife in a mansion in a tony neighborhood outside Brasilia, where he can occasionally be spotted sunning himself on his porch.
JEAN-CLAUDE "BABY DOC" DUVALIER - He inherited his iron rule over Haiti from his father, Papa Doc Duvalier, another of the century's most brutal despots. Baby Doc was no slouch either, being responsible for more than 60,000 political killings and thousands of acts of torture on the poor Caribbean island until he was forced out by reformers in 1986.
Duvalier, now 51, fled to France, where he has lived in high style in a villa near Cannes until 1990, when his wife divorced him for a businessman and got all the Duvalier fortune remaining after four years of profligate spending.
In 1997, Duvalier announced he would return to transform Haiti into a "pluralist democracy," but Haiti told him to get lost. Now Duvalier lives in an apartment in the Paris suburbs, where he relies on the generosity of friends in the Haitian community to pay his bills.
RAOUL CEDRAS - A Haitian army general, Cedras grabbed power with the help of the infamous Tons Tons Macoutes militia in 1990, about seven months after Jean-Bertrand Aristide had been elected president.
Political murders and torture were the hallmark of his regime, which is believed responsible for as many as 10,000 Haitian deaths. After waves of Haitian refugees began to flood Florida beaches in 1993, President Bill Clinton ordered a U.S. military intervention in 1994 to restore Aristide to power.
Hours before the invasion was slated to begin, U.S. negotiators cut a deal with Cedras and his cronies that allowed them to seek exile in other countries.
Cedras, 58, now resides in an affluent section of Panama City, Panama, where he is living well off the proceeds of the arms and drug trade he orchestrated when he ran Haiti.
And idi drank his own urine as a health drink.
FMCDH
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