Dictator Swagger:On This Day Tirana, Albania – April 11, 1985: Albania’s communist leader Enver Hoxha dies of complications brought on by a ventricular fibrillation. Hoxha had been in increasingly fragile health since a 1973 heart attack and, in his final weeks, had been confined to a wheelchair. Hoxha’s handpicked successor Ramiz Alia assumed control of…
Dictator Swagger:On This Day Baghdad, Iraq, April 9, 2003: With the help of U.S. troops, Iraqi civilians tear down a statue of Saddam Hussein in central Baghdad. In a display of insensitivity, a U.S. marine draped a U.S. flag over the head of the statue, which reportedly stunned the crowd and drew ire from Arab…
Dictator Swagger:On This Day April 7, 2020 – Hissène Habré, the former dictator of Chad from 1982-1990, has been granted 60 days of house arrest due to the increased risk of his contracting COVID-19 in prison. The decision to move Habré from Cap Manuel Prison was made by the Senegal Ministry of Justice, the body…
Dictator Swagger:On This Day April 6-7, 2019 – Large scale protests break out across Sudan and, within 5 days, Sudan’s seventh President, Omar al-Bashir, is removed in a military coup ending his thirty-year rule. The protests and coup in April 2019, were a resumption of the civil unrest which initially broke out the previous December…
Dictator Swagger:On This Day Baghdad, Iraq, April 9, 2003: With the help of U.S. troops, Iraqi civilians tear down a statue of Saddam Hussein in central Baghdad. In a display of insensitivity, a U.S. marine draped a U.S. flag over the head of the statue, which reportedly stunned the crowd and drew ire from Arab…