- Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf (born August 11 , 1943 , Delhi , India ) became ruler (head of state/chief executive) of Pakistan on October 12 , 1999 following a bloodless coup d'AAtat . He assumed the office of President of Pakistan on June 20 , 2001 . In order to legitimize and legalize his rule, he held a referendum on April 30 , 2002 thereby elected as President of Pakistan for duration of five years.
- Augusto Pinochet
"' The junta members originally planned for the presidency to rotate among the commanders-in-chief of the four military branches. However, Pinochet soon consolidated his control, first retaining sole chairmanship of the military junta, and then proclaiming himself "Supreme Chief of the Nation" (de facto provisional president) on June 27, 1974. He officially changed his title to "President" on December 17. In 1980, by the way of another national referendum, Chile got a new Constitution, …
- Omar Al-Bashir
Field Marshal Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir is a Sudanese military leader, and politician, chief of state (1989-1993) and President (1993-).
- Ayub Khan
(PA - 10) Muhammad Ayub Khan HJ, NPk (May 14, 1907 - April 19, 1974) was a Field Marshal during the mid-1960s, and the political leader of Pakistan from 1958 to 1969. He became Pakistan's first native Commander in Chief in 1951, and was the youngest full-rank general and self-appointed field marshal in Pakistan's military history. He was also the first Pakistani military general to seize power through a coup.
- Yahya Jammeh
Yahya (Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkung) Jammeh (born May 25, 1965) is the President of The Gambia. As chairman of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council, he took control of the country in a military coup in July 1994, and was elected as president two years later, in September 1996, in widely criticized elections. He founded the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction as his political party.
- Alberto Fujimori
Alberto Ken<nowiki>'</nowiki>ya Fujimori and growing instability, he left Peru to attend an APEC summit in Brunei and then continued on to Japan, where he resigned. His resignation was initially transmitted by fax machine and later officially via the Peruvian Embassy in Tokyo. The Congress of the Republic refused to accept his resignation, and itself removed him from office. It then barred him from holding any elective office for 10 years.
- Fulgencio Batista
General Ruben Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the "de facto" military leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1940, and thus the eminence grise of Cuban politics for that period of time, and the "de jure" President of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 after having won election. He then became the country's leader after staging a coup, from 1952 to 1959.
- Azali Assoumani
Azali Assoumani was a president of the Comoros. He became leader of the country on 30 April 1999 after leading a coup to depose acting president Tadjidine Ben Said Massounde, who he saw as pandering to the independence movement on Anjouan. He won multi-party elections in 2002, prior to which he was constitutionally required to temporarily step down in order to run as a candidate. Azali was born in 1959 at Mitsoudjé in south-western Grande Comore.
- Thomas Sankara
Captain Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara was the leader of Burkina Faso (formerly known as Upper Volta) from 1983 to 1987. With a potent combination of personal charisma and a social organization with some participatory democracy, his government undertook major initiatives to fight corruption and improve education, agriculture, and the status of women.
- Mobutu Sese Seko
Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga, known commonly as Mobutu, or Mobutu Sese Seko, born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, was the President of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) for 32 years (1965-1997), in which he rose to power after deposing Joseph Kasa-Vubu
- Tito Okello
Tito Lutwa Okello was one of the commanders in the coalition between the Tanzanian army and exiled Ugandans that removed Idi Amin in 1979, and Commander of Ugandan national army from 1980 to 1985. In 1985, together with Bazilio Olara-Okello, he staged the Coup d'état that ousted president Milton Obote, becoming the President of Uganda. He ruled for six months until he was overthrown by the National Resistance Army operating under the leadership of the current president, …
- Muhammad Zia-Ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (b. August 12 1924-August 17 1988) was the head of state of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan from July 1977 to August 1988. Appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976, General Zia-ul-Haq came to power after he overthrew ruling Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in a bloodless (save the execution of Bhutto) military coup d'état on July 5, 1977 and became the state's third ruler to impose martial law.
- Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has been the President of Equatorial Guinea since 1979. Born into the Esangui clan in Acoacán, Obiang joined the military during the colonial period, and attended the Generalissimo Francisco Franco Military Academy in Zaragoza, Spain. He achieved the rank of lieutenant upon his uncle Francisco Macías Nguema's election.
- Lansana Conté
Lansana Conté has been the President of Guinea since 3 April 1984. He is a Muslim and a member of the Sosso ethnic group.
- Chun Doo-Hwan
Chun Doo-hwan (born 18 January, 1931) was former ROK Army general and the President of South Korea from 1980 to 1988. Chun was sentenced to death in 1996 for providing causes of Gwangju massacre, but later pardoned by President Kim Young-sam with the advice of then President-elect Kim Dae-jung, whom Chun himself had sentenced to death some 20 years earlier.
- Omar Torrijos
Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera was a Panamanian army officer and the de facto leader of Panama from 1968 to 1981. Torrijos never held elected office in Panama, and was never president. He did hold the title of "Maximum Leader of the Panamanian Revolution" during a period in the late 1970s. Torrijos is best known for negotiating the treaties that eventually gave Panama full sovereignty over the Panama Canal, in 1978.
- France-Albert René
France-Albert René was the long-time socialist President of Seychelles from 1977 to 2004. He is known by government officials and party members as "the Boss." His name is often given as simply Albert René or F.A. René; he is also nicknamed Ti France
- Alfredo Stroessner
Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda, whose name is also spelled Strössner or Strößner served as President of Paraguay from 1954 to 1989.
- Yakubu Gowon
General Yakubu "Jack" Dan-Yumma Gowon (born October 19, 1934) was the head of state (Head of the Federal Military Government) of Nigeria from 1966 to 1975. He took power after one military coup d'etat and was overthrown in another. During his rule, the Nigerian government successfully prevented Biafran secession, and he subsequently followed a magnanimous "no victor, …
- Jorge Rafael Videla
Jorge Rafael Videla Redondo was the "de facto" President of Argentina from 1976 to 1981. He came to power in a coup d'état that deposed Isabel Martínez de Perón. After the return to democracy, he was prosecuted for large-scale human rights abuses, including widespread torture and extrajudicial murder of suspected and actual leftists under his rule. He is now under house arrest.
- Siad Barre
Mohamed Siad Barre was the Head of State of Somalia from 1969 to 1991. Prior to his presidency he was an army commander under the democratic government of Somalia which had been in place since independence in June 1960. During his rule, he styled himself Jaalle Siyaad (Comrade Siad).
- Frank Bainimarama
Commodore Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, MSD, OStJ, Fijian Navy, known commonly as Frank Bainimarama and sometimes by the chiefly title, "Ratu" (born 27 April 1954) is the Commander of the Fijian Military Forces and, as of 5 January 2007, Interim Prime Minister. He also holds the ministerial portfolios for Information and Home Affairs. Bainimarama has taken power twice in Fiji's history, …
- Ely Ould Mohamed Vall
Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall was the military leader of Mauritania from a coup d'état in August 2005 until 19 April 2007, when he relinquished power to an elected government. Vall was a long-time ally of President Maaouya Ould Taya, and participated in the December 1984 coup that brought Taya to power. Prior to the 2005 coup, he had been director of the national police force, the "Sûreté Nationale", since 1987.
- Gustavo Leigh
Air General Gustavo Leigh Guzmán was a Chilean military officer, who represented the Air Force in the Government Junta that ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990. He was born in Santiago, son of Hernán Leigh Bañados and Laura Guzmán Cea. After a brilliant career, President Salvador Allende named him commander-in-chief of the Air Force on August 17, 1973. However, Leigh was the first to sign the coup document, drafted by Vice Admiral José Toribio Merino, to depose Allende.
- François Bozizé
François Bozizé Yangouvonda is the President of the Central African Republic. He came to power in March 2003 after leading a rebellion against President Ange-Félix Patassé and ushered in a transitional period of government. He won the country's 2005 presidential election; he received the most votes in the first round in March 2005, but less than a majority, requiring a second round, which he won in May 2005.
- Muhammadu Buhari
Muhammadu Buhari (born December 17, 1942) was the military ruler of Nigeria (December 31,1983 - August 27, 1985) and an unsuccessful candidate for president in the April 19, 2003 presidential election. His ethnic background is Fulani and his faith is Islam; his family is from Katsina State.
- Blaise Compaoré
Blaise Compaoré has been the president of Burkina Faso since 1987. He is the founder of the ruling political party, the Congress for Democracy and Progress.
- Dési Bouterse
Désiré Delano Bouterse of Suriname (born October 13, 1945) has been a military sports instructor, coup leader, army leader and a politician in the Nationale Democratische Partij (NDP). He is perhaps the most controversial figure in the history of independent Suriname. Bouterse's name is closely bound with the military regime that controlled Suriname from 1980 until the beginning of the 1990s.
- Sani Abacha
General Sani Abacha (Kano, 20 September 1943 - Abuja, 8 June 1998) was a Nigerian military leader and politician. He was the "de facto" President of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998.
- Humberto De Alencar Castelo Branco
Field Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castello Branco, pron., (September 20, 1897 - July 18, 1967). Brazilian military leader and politician. Castello Branco entered the Brazilian Army in 1918 and was a colonel in the Brazilian Expeditionary Force during World War II. Appointed Chief of Staff of the Army by President João Goulart in 1963, he became one of the leaders of the coup d'etat of March 31, 1964 that overthrew Goulart.
- Idriss Déby
Lieutenant General Idriss Déby is the President of Chad and the head of the Patriotic Salvation Movement. Déby is of the Bidayat clan of the Zaghawa ethnic group. He added "Itno" to his surname in January 2006. Déby has been married several times and has at least a dozen children. He married Hinda (b. 1977) in September 2006.
- Ne Win
Bo Ne Win was a Burmese military commander and dictator of Burma from 1962 until 1988. Ne Win was appointed Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces (Tatmadaw) on 31 January 1949. He then became head of the caretaker government between 28 October 1958 and 4 April 1960. He appointed himself Chairman of the Revolutionary Council and Prime Minister of the Revolutionary Government after staging a coup d'etat on 2 March 1962 till 2 March 1974, …
- Napoléon Bonaparte
Napoleon I (born Napoleone Buonaparte, later Napoléon Bonaparte ; 15 August 1769 - 5 May 1821) was a general during the French Revolution, the ruler of France as First Consul ("Premier Consul") of the French Republic from 11 November 1799 to 18 May 1804, Emperor of the French ("Empereur des Français") from 18 May 1804 to 6 April 1814, and was briefly restored as Emperor from 20 March to 22 June 1815.
- Luis García Meza Tejada
Luis García Meza Tejada is a notorious former Bolivian dictator. A native of La Paz, he was a career military officer who rose to the rank of general in the 1970s.
- Luis Altamirano
Division General Luis Altamirano Talavera (July 5, 1867 - July 25, 1938) was a Chilean military officer, minister, Vice President of the Republic and finally President of the Government Junta of Chile between 1924 and 1925.
- Samuel Doe
Master Sergeant Samuel Kanyon Doe (May 6, 1951 - September 9, 1990) was the President of Liberia from 1980 to 1990. His regime was characterized by ethnically-based dictatorship and the suppression of political opposition. Trained by U.S. Army Special Forces, Doe was an ethnic Krahn, part of a rural tribe in inland Liberia. The Krahn were part of the large majority of the Liberian population that was of native African descent, …
- Jerry Rawlings
Flight Lieutenant (Retired) Jerry John Rawlings was twice the head of state of Ghana. He first appeared on the Ghanaian political scene on May 15, 1979 when an unsuccessful coup d'état he led resulted in his arrest, imprisonment, and a death sentence. But before he could be executed, his friends in the Ghana military led by Major Boakye Djan overthrew the then military government of General Fred Akuffo in a bloody coup on June 4, 1979.
- Pedro Carmona
Pedro Francisco Carmona Estanga is a former Venezuelan trade organization leader who was briefly declared President of Venezuela during an abortive 2002 military coup against Hugo Chávez. He occupied the office of President from April 12 to April 13. After the coup failed, Carmona, wanted by the authorities for illegal usurpation of power, escaped house arrest, fled to Colombia and later surfaced in Miami, Florida.
- Ioannis Metaxas
General Ioannis Metaxas (April 12, 1871 - January 29, 1941) was a Greek general and the Prime Minister of Greece during the 4th of August Regime, from 1936 until his death in 1941.
- Hugo Banzer
Hugo Banzer Suárez was a conservative politician, military general, and President of Bolivia. He held the Bolivian presidency twice: from August 22, 1971 to July 21, 1978, as a military dictator; and then again from August 6, 1997 to August 7, 2001, as constitutional President.