Dictators

After the sudden deaths of his father and brother, Anastasio “Tachito” Somoza Debayle took office in May 1967. By 1978, his regime was crumbling. An opposition group known as the Sandinistas were rallying Nicaraguans against their leader — and soon, it wasn’t just citizens denouncing Somoza. As resentment boiled over into revolution, the revolution found international allies. 

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In 1934, a beloved anti-imperialist guerrilla in Nicaragua was betrayed and executed by a National Guard commander. General Anastasio Somoza García seized power, establishing his own political party and steadily cementing his rule before forming one of the few familial dynasties in Latin America. The Somoza dynasty ruled for nearly four decades in Nicaragua. This week, we trace its rise. 

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Efraín Ríos Montt's time as leader of Guatemala was brief, but bloody. Under his tenure, he oversaw arguably some of the most ruthless fighting of the three-decade-long civil war. He was determined to see it come to an end — even if that meant going scorched earth. 

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In 1954, the CIA overthrew the democratically elected Guatemalan president, ushering in a series of brutal military dictators and a decades-long civil war. This was the backdrop to Efraín Ríos Montt’s rise to power — an ascent that saw him determined to not only end the civil war, but transform the nation into a godly one. And yet just months into his reign, Montt would oversee the deaths of thousands. 

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For thirty years, Trujillo’s corrupt regime came at the expense of the people. He hoarded funds from the treasury, and enacted a campaign of terror — first against his own citizens, then against Haitian immigrants, and finally against enemies living abroad. When he finally lost the unrelenting support of the U.S., he found himself directly in the CIA’s crosshairs. 

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When the U.S. occupied the Dominican Republic at the turn of the century, Rafael Trujillo saw an opportunity to advance in life. He joined the military and learned from the U.S. Marines, and when turmoil hit the small island nation, Trujillo cut a deal that brought him to power. 

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After an ascendant rise to the papacy, Pope Leo X began draining the massive treasury left by his predecessor. The nonstop feasting and over-the-top festivities were partly strategic, mostly indulgent, and at the root of a controversy that would produce the sale of indulgences, Luther’s 95 Theses… and Leo’s suspicious death. 

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Giovanni de' Medici was a shrewd strategist who became pope before the age of 40. As a cardinal, he ended the Medicis’ exile in Florence, returning the dynasty to their seat of power. As pope, he would nearly bankrupt the Vatican — and upend the Christian world. 

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Seated atop the papal throne, Pope Julius II was determined to bring order along the Italian Peninsula by any means necessary. For years, the region had seen invasion after invasion by nascent foreign powers. Julius made it his mission to bring the surrounding states in line — even if it meant betraying former allies, and making deals with former enemies.

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Later nicknamed ‘The Warrior Pope,’ Giuliano della Rovere had always nurtured visions of personal glory. As a young man and newly elected cardinal, he believed he could obtain that glory on the battlefield. But he was constantly embroiled in feuds off the battlefield, too — rivalries with family members, former allies, and power-grabbing popes. 

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