Who's Your Daddy?

World leaders and their fathers.

BY CLARE SESTANOVICH, SYLVIE STEIN | JUNE 18, 2010

Hugo versus Hugo: Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez speaks with father Hugo de los Reyes Chavez at the National Assembly in Caracas in August 2007. It's doubtful that the son inherited his trademark fiery politics and public persona from his dad; a former schoolteacher, Hugo Sr. had a comparably mild-mannered political and policy-making career as a regional director of education and prominent member of the Social Christian Party. As he rose to power, Chavez Jr. took his father with him, facilitating his old man's ascension to governor of the state of Barinas. Still, their relationship has been strained: as a youth, Chavez Jr. rebelled against his father's party of "Venezuela's rotten elite" and lived with his grandmother for most of his childhood. Today, it is Fidel Castro whom Chavez Jr. most famously calls his "father." 

Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images

 SUBJECTS: HISTORY
 

Clare Sestanovich and Sylvie Stein are researchers at Foreign Policy.

NNDREZA

2:12 AM ET

June 19, 2010

Hmm wut abt Iran?? any names

Hmm wut abt Iran??
any names ??

 

EKEDOLPHIN

6:24 AM ET

June 19, 2010

Photo gallery

Kim Jong-il is one *ugly* dude. Not that any of the eight toadies he seems to have with him at all times would ever tell him that.

I liked the quote attributed to President Obama about making up for his father's mistakes. Very honest and insightful.

I'm not sure I would have included #6, given that the father is no longer alive, even if he *is* on the poster. Same general principle with #10. #9 was a bit of a stretch, too, showing a leader with his son, not his father.

Overall, though, I enjoyed the photo gallery, and especially the captions.

 

RSAFSOZ

1:03 PM ET

June 20, 2010

Gaddafi

Throughout my life, most of Libyan leader Gaddafi've wondered who was the father. A psychopath like that must have been difficult to bring to the world. sikis sex

 

DRUMMER05

12:44 PM ET

June 22, 2010

Euchh.. ugly!

Very ugly man, and very ugly characteristics... what a psycopath... honestly!!

YLOD

 

ENGUZELSIN

7:41 PM ET

June 27, 2010

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MSTART12

12:56 AM ET

July 16, 2010

Most of these featured daddy

Most of these featured daddy and child tandem have same or almost similar line of career like their father. No wonder why cause most fathers become very influential when it comes to their children' careers.martin start

 

EUGENE ONEIL

12:34 AM ET

July 18, 2010

Dictators and Sons

Almost all modern dictators dream of handing power over to their progeny. But aside from a few exceptions (Syria's Bashar Assad and North Korea's Kim Jong-il), dictators raise sons who abjectly fail at the family business. In Africa, the children of Jomo Kenyatta, Idi Amin, and Daniel arap Moi have all made a hash of political careers handed to them on platters. hemorrhoid relief Stalin's son Vasily died a miserable drunk. Despite inheriting his father's goon squad of Tonton Macoutes, Baby Doc couldn't hold Haiti for a third generation of Duvaliers. (Even more pathetically, in French exile he squandered $120 million and suffered evictions from multiple villas.) And after failing in a military career, Augusto Pinochet's boy now wants to exploit his father's infamy, by marketing Pinochet brand credit cards and Don Augusto wine. Their failure has nothing to do with diminished capacity for evil. As far as I can discern, no dictator has ever raised a mensch. The biggest difference between father and son is the application of violence. Where the fathers calculatingly use rape, torture, and murder to tighten their grip on power, the sons throw bratty temper tantrums. Odai Hussein was especially prone to flying off the handle. hemorrhoid relief Upon learning that a servant had helped Saddam's liaison with a mistress, Odai shot the underling dead in front of foreign dignitaries. The son of Liberian strongman Charles Taylor, Chucky, reportedly flogged his chauffeur to death after the driver accidentally hit a dog and scratched his car.