The definition of a third world country is “the underdeveloped nations of the world, especially those with widespread poverty” says dictionary. Third world countries make up 25% of the world. The amount of third world countries is troubling considering that most of those countries are ruled by corrupt leaders. These leaders abuse the power that they have been given and will kill to keep it. There are lots of leaders in third world countries that abuse their power, but the worst of them are president Omar al-Bashir, the leader of Sudan. Two other presidents that run third world countries and abuse their power are; Hugo Chavez, the leader of Venezuela, and Rodrigo Duterte, the leader of the Philippines. All of these leaders are known for taking from the country and its citizens to raise their personal wealth and power. They have taken the power that the citizens have given them to better their lives instead of the people of their country. Some of these leaders are even known for killing their people.  These points will show that, without a doubt, third world leaders abuse their power to gain wealth and power.

The first example of how third world leaders abuse their power is in Sudan. Omar al-Bashir is of Arab descent and was interested  in the military and it’s power during his young adult life. The Famous People website states that he studied at the Egyptian Military Academy and the Sudan Military Academy. Omar fought in many wars and rose in rank quickly. After 16 years he led a few officers through a bloodless coup and was put into power.  He soon decided to ban some political parties, and independent news papers. Bashir also ordered imprisonment of leading political figures and journalists. He also executed many people who he believed were coup leaders that were targeting him. He is known for his oppression and unconventional killing of people of different cultures and beliefs. This shows an abuse of power from Omar because he has used his power to massively kill people without any major consequence.

Omar is known for abusing his extensive authority to kill people that are against him and his ideologies. One of his first acts in office was to kill potential revolt leaders. Later he started a war with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). After the war in 2009 he was charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC). An arrest warrant was issued against him by the ICC. Then after that Omar was charged with with three acounts of genocide and was issued yet another arrest warrant. The Guardian website states that Bashir tried to wipe out three non-Arab ethnic groups. More than two hundred thousand people died during this attempt and 2.5 million more were kept in Darfur in Internment camps. The detainees were kept under conditions that resembled Auschwitz’s conditions. These crimes against certain people show specifically how Omar abused his power to commit genocide. He has abused his power to commit and get out of these crimes with no major consequences yet.

The second example of a power abusive third world leader is Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadži?. He is one of the only leaders that has been prosecuted for his crimes against his people. Radovans’ early life is not well know but what is known is that he grew up loving poetry and literature but was also a psychiatrist. He has a burning hatred of Muslims that he instilled in his clients when he was a psychiatrist says Your Dictionary. Karadži? did this by telling people about horror stories of Muslims murdering Serbs and conspiring against them through the television. Radovan is known for killing many people just like many other leaders but one of the very few that got consequences for doing it.

Additionally Hugo Chávez is a good example of what not to do when governing a country and how to exploit your power until you have stretched it as far as it can go. Encyclopedia Britannica states that he left 38 thousand of people unemployed and killed many peaceful protesters in his 13 years of presidency. In his first term as president of Venezuela he reached a 80 percent approval rating. Loved by all, his first actions were to take out all other positions of power with laws and bills, giving almost all of the power to him. With this new power, Hugo used it to make himself rich and powerful instead of helping his people to better their lives. Although he did not take out all positions, he oversaw the drafting of a new, undemocratic constitution that gave him the power to create laws with no one to tell him otherwise. Later in his multiple terms as president he faced a revolt by the people that tried to overthrow him. One of his first oppositions was with a peaceful protest where close to millions marched to the president's palace to insist that he step down.  According to Encyclopedia Britannica the protestors were met with military forces and gunfire. This escalated into a full fledged firefight and that left dead and wounded on both sides. Chávez didn’t care who died, only that his presidency was still intact.

Another foe that Chavez was faced with was the oil working force going on a national strike for Petróleos de Venezuela, south America (PDVSA) , designed to push Hugo to retire from power. This had the opposite effect when Chavez fired the 38,000 workers going on strike and hired non-union workers and foreign oil crews to maintain the oil production in Venezuela. This put tens of thousands of people out of work in the already poor country of Venezuela. These three examples show that Hugo Chavez was a tyrant and abused his people along with his power.  He killed them and took their jobs while making tons of money for years, until he was killed by cancer in 2013. During his reign of terror, on top of treating his people terribly, he lived in a luxurious palace while his people lived in terrible conditions and slums. Hugo didn’t care about his people, only himself. As a result of this strike, Hugo practically owns the oil market in Venezuela and become richer every day while his people continued to struggled. This is a clear example of how horrible he was and how he destroyed his country and his people's lives.

Even after death, the effects of his long term presidency were are still haunting Venezuelan three years later. The lands are littered with poverty and struggling citizens. After Hugo's death the Venezuelan people were torn in two, those who despised Hugo and those who praised him. The country was divided and things got worse. Bloomberg elucidated that when Hugo was in office the inflation in Venezuela rose to a wooping 100 percent and then after his death is rose even higher to a 150 percent inflation rate. People had lost their wealth considerably and because of this prices rose and food stopped coming into stores fast enough. The NY Times states that after his death, 100 people were lined up at a local market just to get bread, eggs, and olive oil. On top of abusing his people during his life, his negative legacy still lives on today. Hugo Chávez is just one of the horrible leaders in third world countries and he has destroyed his country for a very long time with enough greed and power hungriness to even take form the poor and kill others.

Another one of the many examples of poor third world leaders is Rodrigo Duterte. Rodrigo was elected in June of 2016. Before he was elected he was serving in the Philippines as mayor. During his life he was a student getting a low degree in  Lyceum of the Philippines University in Manila. He was also a very strong activist that acted on what he believed in. On top of being an activist he is was known as an extremist. Success Story states that at his school he shot and injured a student for saying racist comments. Because the shot was not fatal he was allowed to earn his degree but couldn’t go to the graduation. This transferred over into his later life when he was mayor and president. He is known for killing his own people during his ‘fight against drugs’ and not caring who or what is collateral to that ‘battle’. He even openly admitted to murdering people during his 10 years as mayor.
During his time in office as mayor Rodrigo admitted to personally pulling the trigger on three people and killing them. He also has all of the people that he inadvertently killed on top of this pile of death. New York Times says that Rodrigo even ran his own death squad in which he had suspects murdered in horrifying ways, one was even fed to crocodiles. The site Al Jazeera states that during Rodrigo's first month of presidency the daily death toll raised from 11 to a crazy 36 people that died every day. Additionally he has personally contributed to this widespread murder in his fight against drug dealers. Rodrigo has used his power in the the police force to kill people left and right suspected of dealing drugs. In just 167 days in office Rodrigo has killed over six thousand people with his war, that is an average of about 1,015 a month says  Al Jazeera. Out of all of these murders 2,102 people were killed by police who were acting on the behalf of Rodrigo.  He even says in a report conducted by Al Jazeera "I do not want to commit a crime but if by chance, God will place me there, you all better watch out. That 1,000 [dead] will become 100,000 [dead]. I'll dump all of you into Manila Bay, and fatten all the fish there." The rest of the murders were by unknown suspects states Al Jazeera. Rodrigo has abused his power as president of the Philippines to kill without consequence. He has abused his power and people for his benefit in this third world country.

In conjunction with abusing his power to kill, the president also abused his power to get out of consequences for these killings. He has personally killed three people without ever being brought to trial and close to none of his hit men or police forces have been litigate.They have escaped prosecution many times due to the corrupt courts created by Rodrigo. Rappler states that only 20% of crimes in the Philippines are taken into court and only 10% of that 20% server their time. This creates a major flaw in the system that lets murders and hitmen to get away. On top of his pawns not getting prosecuted Rodrigo doesn’t get prosecuted in his country for everything that he has done because of this corrupted system. Even worse is ABS and CBN news states that he isn’t getting prosecuted for breaking human rights laws because of technicalities in the ICC and were their jurisdiction ends. While there have been some minor difficulties taking Rodrigo to court, as soon as they get things sorted out they plan to try and prosecute him. He has escaped prosecution for his abusive actions and abusing his power for too long and might soon meet the consequences for his actions.

Since he was elected president on June 30th 2016, 6 thousand people have already died in his fight against drugs. In the aftermath of these firefights and killing, people are left stranded. Rodigo has destroyed his country with his obsession of destroying drugs and we are already starting to see the effects of this war. Almost all of the Philippines’ enforcers have backed out of proposals and investments because of the building human rights violations the president has piled up. Even the US is withdrawing the money that should be going to helping people escape poverty. This is leaving people with shortages of money and nowhere to go to make that money. These conditions are the breeding ground for drug dealers and users that Rodrigo has declared war on. This is creating a downward spiral that could go on forever. Rodrigo has abused his power as president to kill people that are against him and what he believes in and escape prosecution for those crimes . In doing so he has doomed his country and got them stuck between a rock and a hard place.

While one might be able to give good examples of third world leaders that don't abuse their power. They could say the leader liberated the country and that he or she helped it get to a better standard of living, it all comes down to money. There are very few if any world leaders that don’t have a palace. This is a great abuses of power that is so common that people look over it all of the time. The palace that the leader lives in represents an abuse of power because when a country spends money on a palace it is just trying to better the lives of its leaders and project a powerful government. This money could go to the people in need in the country but instead the government abuses their power to give themselves more. Any president could work in the comfort of his own home instead of living a luxurious life at a palace or mansion. Most all presidents and leaders have mansions and places, especially in third world countries where work is cheap. This shows that even though it may not seem like they are abusing their power they are, and sometimes without even realizing it. While this might be unfair it is true, most third world leaders abuse their power to benefit themselves and not their people.

To conclude, this evidence shows overwhelmingly that third world leaders abuse their power to help themselves gain power and money. These three leaders are prime examples of how leaders abuse their power, especially in the third world. Omar, Hugo, and Rodrigo Duterte all used their power to kill without consequence and gain in wealth. Although these are a few of the best examples of third world leaders that abuse their power there are many more. These three examples and countless more prove that third world leaders abuse the enormous power they are bestowed with to better themselves rather than the country.

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