What Comes into Your Mind When You Hear the Word "dictator?" Most People

What comes into your mind when you hear the word "dictator?" Most people

think of Hitler in Nazi Germany or Stalin in the Soviet Union. However, in addition to Hitler and Stalin, there are also many South American dictators. A dictator controls all aspects of the country including the economy the military, the education and all cultural institutions of the country. How dictators become dictators can widely vary. He can get elected to a position and slowly gain more and more power or he can just declare himself supreme ruler and stay in power through violence and force. In Latin America, dictators have come to power in both ways and every thing in between. Usually when a dictatorship is taking place, there is "Totalitarianism," which means that one political group is in complete control of the country.

Totalitarianism is similar to a dictatorship. With totalitarianism, the country's economy, military, education and all cultural institutions are controlled by the gove- rnment. The thing that made people follow this is referred to as the "totalitarianism temptation." The totalitarianism temptation is when people support totalitarianism because of what they are promised. The government uses propaganda to "promise" the citizens peace, order and harmony. Dictators such as Simon de Bolivar, also use propaganda to win elections and to maintain power.

Simon de Bolivar was the dictator of Venezuela. Simon was the George Washington of South America. He helped Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela as these countries were trying to gain their independence. When Bolivar was 27, he joined a group of patriots. He then went to the U.K. to search for aid, but couldn't find any. Then in 1813, he took control of the patriot army and captured Caracas from the Spaniards. In August of 1819 he took over the remaining Spaniards at Boyaka. Then 4 months later, he became president of the newly formed republic with primary letter to Angostura, in which he uses propaganda to trick the citizens. His dictatorship began when he was trying to "save" the republic, which led to the abuse of his power.

Francois Duvalier of Haiti was another dictator. He arose to power through an election, but the election wasn't a very fair election. Francois Duvalier or "Papa Doc" won his election by fraud and violence. Papa Doc was a master in voodoo, and if his lies did not get people to vote for him, this would. He used voodoo to threaten and scare people, so they would vote for him to protect themselves from him. Besides violence, he also used propaganda. He made posters and gave speeches claiming that he was going to rebuild the country and give it a new start. However after he was elected, he immediately recruited a vast civilian militia. After the militia was formed, if you did not like him, you kept quiet about it. If anyone suspected you opposing him, you were immediately eliminated. The next election was the chance for a new president. After Duvalier heard the results of the