Foreign Policy Magazine: Hugo Chávez Named 17th Worst Leader in the World

June 28

The latest issue of Foreign Policy Magazine places Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in the company of the most elitist and corrupt men in the world. In its “Worst of the Worst” issue, FPM ranked Mr. Chávez as the 17th worst dictator in the world. It gives him the dubious distinction of having been ranked lower than the Castro brothers of Cuba (#21), Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus (#18) – who still maintains a secret police force actually called the KGB – and Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso (#22) – who ruthlessly murdered his predecessor in a 1987 coup.

Foreign Policy’s assessment of the Chávez government was as blunt as it was harsh: “The quack leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, Chávez promotes a doctrine of participatory democracy in which he is the sole participant, having jailed opposition leaders, extended term limits indefinitely, and closed independent media.”