This week, the podcast has taken a dark and foreboding turn! We’re going to talk about infamous dictators. You’ll learn some historical facts about each one and, at the same time, improve your listening skills in English. Welcome to infamous dictators!

Thank you to everyone who reached out to us after the devastating floods that hit the Valencia region last week. Voice message from Walter from Belgium.

A selection of dictators in order of estimated number of people killed during their regime.

Note: Estimating the exact number of deaths caused by dictators is challenging due to various factors, including political motivations, lack of reliable data, and intentional misinformation. The figures provided are approximate and subject to debate.

1. Mao Zedong (China)
Death toll: At least 45 million. Maybe as high as 70 or 80 million (Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, purges)
Leader of: The People’s Republic of China (1949–1976)
Key events:
Great Leap Forward (1958–1962): A failed industrialization and agricultural program that led to widespread famine.
Cultural Revolution (1966–1976): Aimed at purging capitalist and traditional elements, led to mass persecution and deaths.
Promoted a personality cult, where his image and ideology were paramount.
Mao remains a controversial figure, with some still admiring him in China.

2. Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union)
Death toll: between 6 and 20 million. Maybe higher (purges, forced labor, famine)
Leader of: The Soviet Union (1924–1953)
Key events:
Great Purge (1936–1938): Mass execution and imprisonment of political rivals and ordinary citizens.
Holodomor (1932–1933): A man-made famine in Ukraine that killed millions.
Stalin industrialized the Soviet Union and played a crucial role in the Allied victory in World War II, but his paranoia led to mass repression.

3. Adolf Hitler (Germany)
Death toll: Possibly as many as 17 million (Holocaust, World War II)
Leader of: Nazi Germany (1933–1945)
Key events:
Holocaust: Systematic extermination of 6 million Jews and millions of others, including Romani, disabled individuals, political dissidents, and more.
World War II: Initiated the deadliest conflict in human history, leading to millions of military and civilian deaths.
His regime propagated extreme nationalism, anti-Semitism, and Aryan racial supremacy.
Committed suicide in 1945 as Allied forces closed in on Berlin.

4. Leopold II of Belgium (Congo Free State)
Death toll: 10–15 million (forced labor, starvation, disease)
Leader of: Congo Free State (1885–1908)
Key events:
Leopold privately owned the Congo and exploited its resources, primarily rubber, through brutal forced labor.
Villagers who did not meet quotas were often mutilated or killed, leading to a humanitarian outcry.
International pressure led Belgium to take control of the Congo in 1908, ending his personal rule.

5. Pol Pot (Cambodia)
Death toll: 1.5–3 million (genocide, executions, forced labor)
Leader of: Cambodia (Khmer Rouge regime, 1975–1979)
Key events:
Cambodian Genocide: A radical attempt to transform Cambodia into a rural, agrarian society, which led to mass killings, starvation, and disease.
Intellectuals, professionals, and perceived enemies were executed or worked to death in labor camps.
Overthrown by a Vietnamese invasion in 1979, but continued to wage guerrilla warfare until his death.

6. Kim Il Sung (North Korea)
Death toll: 1.5–3 million (famine, purges)
Leader of: North Korea (1948–1994)
Key events:
Founder of North Korea and established a totalitarian regime with a strong cult of personality.
Responsible for the Korean War (1950–1953), which resulted in millions of deaths and the division of the Korean peninsula.
A series of famines during his and his successor’s rule killed millions, exacerbated by the regime’s mismanagement and isolationist policies.

7. Saddam Hussein (Iraq)
Death toll: 250,000–1 million (executions, wars, repression)
Leader of: Iraq (1979–2003)
Key events:
Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988): A brutal conflict with Iran that led to hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Anfal Campaign (1986–1989): Genocidal campaign against the Kurdish population in Iraq, including the use of chemical weapons.
Gulf War (1990–1991): Invaded Kuwait, leading to a U.S.-led coalition intervention.
Overthrown by the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, captured, and executed in 2006.

8. Idi Amin (Uganda)
Death toll: 100,000–500,000 (political killings, ethnic cleansing)
Leader of: Uganda (1971–1979)
Key events:
Known for brutal purges of ethnic groups, political opponents, and perceived threats.
Expelled 80,000 Asians from Uganda in 1972, causing economic collapse.
His reign was marked by economic mismanagement, human rights abuses, and erratic behavior.
Overthrown by Ugandan exiles backed by Tanzanian forces in 1979, Amin lived in exile until his death in 2003.

9. Doctor François Duvalier “Papa Doc” (Haiti)
Death toll: between 30 and 50 thousand from a population of about 4 million. (executions, purges, starvation)
Leader of: Haiti (1957–1971)
Key events:
Known for brutal killings of mostly imaginary opponents, widespread and very bloody torture and gradual destruction of the economy. Vehemently anti-Communist.
Used Voodoo to terrify and control the population, many believing he had special voodoo powers. He displayed decapitated heads and participated personally in torture.
The infamous Tontons Macoutes (Bogeymen) were an extra-official paramilitary group who kidnapped, raped, tortured and killed on behalf of Papa Doc.
Son “Baby Doc” succeeded him but was eventually overthrown in a popular uprising, when the USA would no longer prop up the despotic regime.

10. Muammar Gaddafi (Libya)
Death toll: difficult to give figures due to the secretive nature of his dictatorship, but certainly many thousands
Leader of: Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1969 – 2011)
Key events:
The son of a Bedouin farmer, he was born in a tent in the desert. After graduating in a military academy, he overthrew the King in a military coup.
Though an absolute autocrat who assisted terrorists worldwide, he was also notorious for his eccentricities and erratic behaviour. For example, his all-female elite virgin bodyguard group, the obligation for all citizens to raise chickens, or the state-imposed 0% interest rate on bank loans.
As a result of a revolt against him, he was hunted down and killed during the civil war in 2011.

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