Current Political Leaders, Dictators & First Ladies

Juan Manuel Santos, President of Colombia (since August 8, 2010)

Juan Manuel Santos, President of Colombia

Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (born 10 August 1951) is the former Minister of National Defense, and the current President of the Republic of Colombia after winning the 2010 Colombian presidential election on June 20, 2010.

Juan Manuel Santos spent most of his childhood in Bogotá and attended middle school and a part of his high school years at Colegio San Carlos. His last years of high school were spent as a Cadet in the Escuela Naval de Cartagena (Naval Academy of Cartagena), from which he graduated. He continued his studies in the University of Kansas obtaining a degree in Economics and Business Administration. While attending the University of Kansas he joined the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. He later acquired master’s degrees in Economics, Economic Development and Public Administration in the London School of Economics, in business and journalism from Harvard, and in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Juan Manuel Santos has been Chief Executive of the Colombian Coffee Delegation to the International Coffee Organization in London, Sub-Director of his family owned newspaper El Tiempo and a columnist for 14 different newspapers.[citation needed] He was Minister of Foreign Trade during the administration of president César Gaviria in 1991[citation needed]. In 1992 he was appointed President of the VII United Nations Conference on Trade and Development for a period of four years.[citation needed] In 1999 he was appointed as President of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and served as Director of the Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) for the period 2001–2002.

Since September of 1994 he was the head of Good Government Foundation organization which presented the proposal of a demilitarized zone and made it possible to have peace talks with the FARC guerrilla.
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Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo, President of Somaliland (since Jul 26, 2010)

Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo, President of Somaliland (since Jul 26, 2010)

Ahmed Mohamed Mahamoud “Silanyo” (Somali: Axmed Maxamed Maxamuud “Siilaanyo”, Arabic: احمد محمد محمود سيلانيو‎) is a Somali politician. He is the current Chairman of the Peace, Unity and Development Party (Kulmiye) political party and President of Somaliland, a self-proclaimed republic internationally recognized as an autonomous region in Somalia. Standing as an opposition candidate, Silanyo was elected as President during the June 2010 presidential election.

Silanyo hails from the Habar Jeclo sub-clan of the Isaaq major clan. From 1946 to 1957, he attended the secondary schools in the towns of Sheekh and Amud in northwestern Somalia. He passed the advanced level GCE examinations in London, England, from 1958 to 1960. He then attended college at the University of Manchester, and earned an Honors Bachelor’s Degree in Economics (1960-63). He completed his Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Manchester in 1966. (more…)

Dési Bouterse, President of Suriname (since Aug 3, 2010)

Dési Bouterse, President of Suriname

Desiré Delano Bouterse (born 13 October 1945) is a Surinamese politician. As an army officer, he was the de facto leader of Suriname through most of the 1980s, serving as Chairman of the National Military Council. He lead the National Democratic Party (Nationale Democratische Partij, NDP). On July 19, 2010, Bouterse was elected the new President of Suriname taking office on August 3.

Born in Paramaribo District, Bouterse grew up in Suriname. He attended the Middelbare Handelsschool and acquired the MULO diploma (roughly equivalent to junior secondary general education). He received his military education in the Netherlands.

Military and political career

Bouterse’s name is closely bound with the military regime that controlled Suriname from 1980 until the beginning of the 1990s. On 25 February 1980, the government of newly-independent Suriname underwent a military coup which declared the country to be a Socialist Republic and Bouterse became Chairman of the National Military Council. Though the Suriname Presidency was retained, Bouterse was the nation’s de facto ruler until his resignation in 1988. He served briefly as president himself for a period in 1982.

Bouterse was a leading figure in Suriname’s post-independence civil war, and is responsible for the infamous “December murders” of 1982 and events in the Maroon village of Moiwana in 1986. Since then he has been accused on various occasions of involvement in illegal drug trafficking. In July 1999, he was convicted in absentia in the Netherlands for cocaine trafficking. The Netherlands has an international warrant for his arrest, which makes it almost impossible for him to leave Suriname. Suriname cannot extradite him because he is a former head of state. (more…)

Bronisław Komorowski, President of the Republic of Poland (since July 4, 2010)

Bronisław Komorowski, President of the Republic of Poland

After President of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, was killed in a plane crush on April 10, 2010, the marshal of the Sejm (Polish Parliament), Bronislaw Komorowski, became Acting President.

Bronislaw Komorowski was born on June 4, 1952 in Oborniki Slaskie, near Wroclaw, a family with strong traditions of independence and landowners.

In Communist times he was involved in opposition activities. Even as a high school student he took part in the demonstrations, including during the March events in 1968. The first time he was arrested was in December 1971.

During many years of underground activity, he was repeatedly arrested and victimized. Since September 1982 he was editor of the independent, underground magazine “ABC” (Adriatic Sea – Baltic Sea – Black Sea). The letter dealt with the problems of Eastern and Central European countries.

In 1977 he married Anne Dembowska. Bronislaw Komorowski has five children: Sophia, Tadeusz, Maria, Peter and Elizabeth.

In 1980-1981 he worked at the Centre for Social Research Solidarity Mazowsze Region. In the period of martial law and later, until 1989, he was a teacher in a seminary in the lower Niepokalanow, where he taught history. (more…)

Benigno S. Aquino III, President of Philippines (since June 30, 2010)

Benigno S. Aquino III, President of Philippines

Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (born February 8, 1960) also known as Noynoy Aquino is the fifteenth President of the Philippines and is concurrently the Secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Aquino is a fourth-generation politician: his great-grandfather, Servillano “Mianong” Aquino, served as a delegate to the Malolos Congress; his grandfather, Benigno Aquino, Sr., held several legislative positions from 1919–44; and his parents were former President Corazon Aquino and former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr. Aquino is a member of the Liberal Party.

Born in Manila, Aquino graduated from Ateneo de Manila University in 1981 and joined his family in their exile in the United States shortly thereafter. He returned to the Philippines in 1983 shortly after the assassination of his father and held several positions working in the private sector. In 1998, he was elected to the House of Representatives as Representative of the 2nd district of Tarlac province. He was subsequently re-elected to the House in 2001 and 2004. In 2007, having been barred from running for re-election to the House due to the term limit, he was elected to the Senate in the 14th Congress of the Philippines. (more…)

Pál Schmitt, President of Hungary (since JUne 29, 2010)

Pál Schmitt, President of Hungary

Pál Schmitt (born 13 May 1942 in Budapest) is a Hungarian politician, former Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary from 14 May 2010. He was elected as President of Hungary in a 263 to 59 vote in the Parliament of Hungary on June 29, 2010 and takes office on August 5, 2010.

Schmitt was elected in the 2009 elections as a Member of the European Parliament with the Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union, to the Bureau of the European People’s Party and was vice-chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education. Schmitt was also elected as the Vice President of the European Parliament , a post where he was succeeded by László Tőkés.

Schmitt chairs the Delegation to the EU-Croatia Joint Parliamentary Committee. On July 14, 2009 he was elected one of the 14 Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament.

He is also a sportsman, won team épée gold medal at the Games of the XIX. Olympiad in Mexico (1968) and the XX. Olympiad in Munich (1972). He is the Chief of Protocol of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and presided the World Olympians Association between 1999 and 2007.