This is a complete list of quotes and trivia ("Did you know?") that appear on loading screens in Tropico 3, its expansion pack Absolute Power, Tropico 4, Tropico 5 and Tropico 6.
Quotes in Tropico 3, Absolute Power and Tropico 4[]
"Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality the cost becomes prohibitive." George F. Will
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." Che Guevara
"I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man." Che Guevara
"To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail." Che Guevara
"The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall." Che Guevara
"I am not Christ or a philanthropist, old lady, I am all the contrary of a Christ..." Che Guevara
"Peaceful coexistence cannot be limited to the powerful countries if we want to ensure world peace." Che Guevara
"In a revolution one wins or dies, if it is a real one." Che Guevara
"How can it be "mutually beneficial" to sell at world market prices the raw materials that cost the underdeveloped countries immeasurable sweat and suffering." Che Guevara
"I will die. The person who succeeds me will also have to die. But elections, you won't have." Augusto Pinochet
"I'm not someone who usually sends out threats. I warn only once. The day they touch one of my men, the rule of law is over." Augusto Pinochet
"My face is sour. Maybe that's why they say I'm a dictator." Augusto Pinochet
"Not a single leaf moves in this country if I'm not the one moving it. I want that to be clear!" Augusto Pinochet
"I'm looking at them from above, because God put me there." Augusto Pinochet
"I was only an aspiring dictator. I was never a real dictator." Augusto Pinochet
"Condemn me, it does not matter: history will absolve me." Fidel Castro
"Ideas do not need weapons." Fidel Castro
"This country is heaven, in the spiritual sense of the word. And I say, we prefer to die in heaven than survive in hell." Fidel Castro
"A revolution is not a bed of roses. A revolution is a struggle between the future and the past." Fidel Castro
"They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?" Fidel Castro
"Our march to freedom is irreversible. We must not allow fear to stand in our way." Nelson Mandela
"I see red!" Joseph McCarthy
"Justice is incidental to law and order." J. Edgar Hoover
"We thank God that our enemies are idiots." Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
"It may be necessary to use methods other than constitutional ones." Robert Mugabe
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." John F. Kennedy
"I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this - who will count the votes, and how." Joseph Stalin
"Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas?" Joseph Stalin
"Great causes and little men go ill together." Jawaharlal Nehru
"I am an environmentalist. ... I am for clean air." Ronald Reagan
"People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got." Richard Nixon
"Ours is a people's democratic dictatorship, led by the working class and based on the worker-peasant alliance." Mao Zedong
"Power doesn't corrupt people, people corrupt power." William Gaddis
"I'm personally against seeing my pictures and statues in the streets... But it's what the people want." Saparmurat Niyazov
"Let the life of every Turkmen be as beautiful as our melons." Saparmurat Niyazov
"Win or lose, we go shopping after the election" Imelda Marcos
"We must make a radical turn, at 360 degrees." Todor Zhivkov
"A good journalist is not the one that writes what people say, but the one that writes what he is supposed to write." Todor Zhivkov
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive." Thomas Jefferson
"When annual elections end, there slavery begins." John Adams
"'Politics' is made up of two words. 'Poli', which is Greek for 'many', and 'tics', which are bloodsucking insects." Gore Vidal
"Any man who wants to be president is either an egomaniac or crazy." Dwight Eisenhower
"I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians." Charles DeGaulle
"If nominated I will not run. If elected I will not serve." Gen. William Sherman
"Politicians are the same all over: they promise to build a bridge even where there is no river." Nikita Khruschev
"Turn on to politics, or politics will turn on you." Ralph Nader
"Every country gets the Government it deserves." Aristotle
"When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right." Victor Hugo
"And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." John Kennedy
"The truth is that men are tired of liberty." Benito Mussolini
"All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state." Benito Mussolini
"So long as men worship dictators, Caesars and Napoleons will arise to make them miserable." Aldous Huxley
"All counter-revolutionary wars are unjust, all revolutionary wars are just." Mao Zedong
"The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end." Leon Trotsky
"Insurrection is an art, and like all arts has its own laws." Leon Trotsky
"Not believing in force is the same as not believing in gravity." Leon Trotsky
"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, it was planned that way." Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy." Franz Kafka
"One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship." George Orwell
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton
"Communism is like prohibition, it's a good idea but it won't work." Will Rogers
"Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite." John Kenneth Galbraith
"Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear." Alan Corenk
"The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid." Art Spander
"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom." Malcolm X
"In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved." Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows." David Wolf
"Get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything." Frank Dane
"Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects." Lester Pearson
"Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason." Unknown
"We'd all like to vote for the best man, but he's never a candidate." Frank Hubbard
"Don't vote, it only encourages them." Unknown
"Do you ever get the feeling that the only reason we have elections is to find out if the polls were right?" Robert Orben
"The problem with political jokes is they get elected." Henry Cate, VII
"The best thing about this group of candidates is that only one of them can win." Will Rogers
"During a campaign the air is full of speeches - and vice versa." Unknown
"The Christian Right is neither." Unknown
"It is true that liberty is precious; so precious that it must be carefully rationed." Vladimir Lenin
"Call it what you will, incentives are what get people to work harder." Nikita Khruschev
"Land and Liberty!" Emiliano Zapata
"Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force." Martin Luther King
"In any country there must be people who have to die. They are the sacrifices any nation has to make to achieve law and order." Idi Amin
"You cannot run faster than a bullet" Idi Amin
"Answer violence with violence. If one of us falls today, five of them must fall tomorrow." Evita Peron
"Where there is a worker, there lies a nation." Evita Peron
"One cannot accomplish anything without fanaticism." Evita Peron
"This is genuine democracy, but realistically the strong always rule." Muammar Gaddafi
"The chief is the chief. He is the eagle who flies high and cannot be touched by the spit of the toad." Mobutu Sese Seko
"If I could do it all again, I'd be a farmer." Mobutu Sese Seko
"If you want to steal, steal a little in a nice way. But if you steal too much to become rich overnight, you'll be caught." Mobutu Sese Seko
"I know the Haitian people because I am the Haitian people." Francois Duvalier
"You won the elections, but I won the count." Anastasio Somoza
"President in two centuries." Rafael Trujillo
"The international community wants us to accept a proposal that, if we were to accept, would mean the end to the opposition." Jean-Bertrand Aristide
"Thirty-two coups d'Etats are enough." Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Quotes in Absolute Power and Tropico 4[]
"I don't have to be nice to people who are causing great damage to the nation..." Frank Bainimarama
"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." Winston Churchill
"Money can't buy happiness, but neither can poverty." Leo Rosten
"About the time we think we can make ends meet, somebody moves the ends." Herbert Hoover
"We are a fact-gathering organization only. We don't clear anybody. We don't condemn anybody." J. Edgar Hoover
"My heart, as all of yours, breaks when it sees how the government is robbing the country of its riches, how they sell out our national interests." Viktor Yushchenko
"The regime is afraid of the people because it knows that free and fair elections will bring about its end." Viktor Yushchenko
"You must obey the law, always, not only when they grab you by your special place." Vladimir Putin
"There is no such thing as a former KGB man." Vladimir Putin
"Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain." Vladimir Putin
"It doesn't matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true." Paul Watson
"We have finished the job. What shall we do with the tools?" Haile Selassie
"I am the Jesus Christ of politics. I am a patient victim, I sacrifice myself for everyone" Silvio Berlusconi
"By definition, as a Prime Minister I cannot be a liar." Silvio Berlusconi
"Foreign press is usually leftist and describes us differently from what we really are." Silvio Berlusconi
"Communism is like one big phone company." Lenny Bruce
"It is better to own 10% of an elephant than 100% of a rat." Arthur Mutambara
"I want everyone to play cricket in Zimbabwe; I want ours to be a nation of gentlemen." Robert Mugabe
"We have set this goal: to win the election." Viktor Yanukovych
"We must improve our lives and we will do it together - all of our citizens and myself as president." Viktor Yanukovych
"The universities are available only to those who share my revolutionary beliefs." Fidel Castro
"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it." George W. Bush
"When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship." Harry S. Truman
"Some games teach you to kill. They once put my face on a game, 'you've got to find Chavez to kill him'." Hugo Chavez
"The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." Henry Kissinger
"I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people." Henry Kissinger
"Even a paranoid can have enemies." Henry Kissinger
"There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full." Henry Kissinger
"In my country we go to prison first and then become President." Nelson Mandela
"Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy." Mao Zedong
"There is a serious tendency toward capitalism among the well-to-do peasants." Mao Zedong
"To read too many books is harmful." Mao Zedong
"The police belongs to the people and the people belong to the police." Todor Zhivkov
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!" Todor Zhivkov
"Stalin: stop sending people to kill me. We've already captured five of them... If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow, and I won't have to send a second." Josip Broz Tito
"One murder makes a villain, millions a hero. Numbers sanctify, my good fellow." Charlie Chaplin
"I remain just one thing, and one thing only - and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician." Charlie Chaplin
"The trouble with free elections is, you never know who is going to win." Leonid Brezhnev
"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others." Groucho Marx
"Democracy is the road to socialism." Karl Marx
"Politics is like boxing - you try to knock out your opponents." Idi Amin
"Sometimes people mistake the way I talk for what I am thinking." Idi Amin
"Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind." John F. Kennedy
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." Oscar Wilde
"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people." Oscar Wilde
"A leader leads by example not by force." Sun Tzu
"Politics is when you say you are going to do one thing while intending to do another. Then you do neither" Saddam Hussein
"Let me tell you quite bluntly that this king business has given me personally nothing but headaches." Mohammed Reza Pahlavi
"Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin will live." Kim Il Sung
"Of what good is democracy if it is not for the poor?" Ferdinand Marcos
"I'm quite modest. I don't want to tell people I'm a leader." Pol Pot
"The only good bourgeois is a dead bourgeois." Pol Pot
"Neither an ox nor a donkey is able to stop the progress of socialism. " Erich Honecker
"If Russia rises, it means that the USA falls down." Vladimir Zhirinovsky
"We must force the government to stop the bird migration. We must shoot all birds, field all our men and troops..." Vladimir Zhirinovsky
"We are not expelling the journalists but they are free to leave whenever they want" Charles Taylor
"The truth is more important than the facts." Frank Lloyd Wright
"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." Voltaire
Quotes in Tropico 4[]
"The most dangerous strategy is to jump a chasm in two leaps." Benjamin Disraeli
"My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me." Benjamin Disraeli
"If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error." John Kenneth Galbraith
"Politics is made up largely of irrelevancies." Dalton Camp
"I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents." Sir Winston Churchill
"The future will be better tomorrow." Dan Quayle
"Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business." Tom Robbins
"Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time." E. B. White
"The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." Ronald Reagan
"An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought." Simon Cameron
"Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody." Franklin P. Adams
"Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk." Henry David Thoreau
"There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher." Victor Hugo
"It is dangerous for a national candidate to say things that people might remember." Eugene McCarthy
"The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth." Edith Sitwell
"It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours." Harry S. Truman
"In politics, absurdity is not a handicap." Napoleon Bonaparte
"The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived." Oscar Wilde
"The revolution has no time for elections. There is no more democratic government in Latin America than the revolutionary government." Fidel Castro
"... If Mr. Kennedy does not like Socialism, we do not like imperialism. We do not like Capitalism." Fidel Castro
"If surviving assassination attempts were an Olympic event, I would win the gold medal." Fidel Castro
"Political advertising ought to be stopped. It's the only really dishonest kind of advertising that's left." David M. Ogilvy
"Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves." Dorothy Parker
"Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity." Unknown
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
"Everybody hates me because I'm so universally liked." Peter de Vries
"A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them." P. J. O'Rourke
"Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat." John Lehman
"If mankind minus one were of one opinion, then mankind is no more justified in silencing the one than the one - if he had the power - would be justified in silencing mankind." John Stuart Mill
"You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist." Indira Gandhi
"If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much." Donald H. Rumsfeld
"Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians." Chester Bowles
"We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex--but Congress can." Cullen Hightower
"Nothing can so alienate a voter from the political system as backing a winning candidate." Mark B. Cohen
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy." Ernest Benn
"Democracy is not compatible with financial oligarchy." Che Guevara
"The American dream does not come to those who fall asleep." Richard Nixon
"Any nation that decides the only way to achieve peace is through peaceful means is a nation that will soon be a piece of another nation." Richard Nixon
"Now I know what a statesman is; he's a dead politician. We need more statesmen." Bob Edwards
"The difference between a Democracy and a dictatorship is that in a Democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting." Charles Bukowski
"If politicians all told the truth, we'd be out of business." Jay Leno
"If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?" Abraham Lincoln
"In Democracy it's your vote that counts; In feudalism it's your count that votes." Mogens Jallberg
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." Soren Kierkegaard
"Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right." Arthur Schopenhauer
"Politics is the entertainment branch of industry." Frank Zappa
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." Thomas Jefferson
"The day before yesterday I thought I was going to have to go to the extreme of decreeing a national emergency, but today I don't think I will have to." Hugo Chavez
"I have said it already; I am convinced that the way to build a new and better world is not Capitalism. Capitalism leads us straight to hell." Hugo Chavez
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." Plato
"The measure of a man is what he does with power." Plato
"The best argument against Democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." Winston Churchill
"It has been said that Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." Winston Churchill
"An ideal form of government is Democracy tempered with assassination." Voltaire
"Clever tyrants are never punished." Voltaire
"A leader is a dealer in hope." Napoleon Bonaparte
"History is a set of lies agreed upon." Napoleon Bonaparte
"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't." Margaret Thatcher
"Politics have no relation to morals." Niccolo Machiavelli
"Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it's set a rolling it must increase." Charles Caleb Colton
"Liberal: a power worshipper without power." George Orwell
"Governments never learn. Only people learn." Milton Friedman
"The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem." Milton Friedman
"If you must break the law, do it to seize power. In all other cases observe it." Julius Caesar
"Fear is the foundation of most governments." John Adams
"The happiness of society is the end of government." John Adams
"Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation." Henry A. Kissinger
"I never staged a coup. They picked me up. Like I say, they forced me to become premier, maybe hoping that by that way, they send me to the electric chair." Nguyen Cao Ky
"Revolution, n. In politics, an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment." Ambrose Bierce
"If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." Anatole France
"The seed of revolution is repression." Woodrow Wilson
"I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty." Imelda Marcos
"One man with a gun can control 100 without one." Vladimir Lenin
"Revolutions are frightening, but election campaigns are disgusting." Nicolas Gomez Davila
"History clearly demonstrates that governing is a task that exceeds man's ability." Nicolas Gomez Davila
Trivia in Tropico 5[]
After declaring himself President for Life of Haiti, Francois Duvalier banished all Catholic bishops from the country and pronounced himself the incarnation of the vengeful spirit of death - Baron Samedi.
Believing his rival had turned into a black dog, President Francois Duvalier ordered all black dogs in Haiti hunted and killed.
Francois Duvalier once called for early elections in Haiti, baffling everyone as his "term" wasn't over for two more years. Things become rather clear when his 100% victory was announced.
In his later years, President of Haiti - Francois Duvalier, declared he alone was responsible for the death of JFK, after casting a curse upon him.
Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan, took a liking to renaming things, like the days of the week or the months. He even changed the word for "bread" to be after the name of his mother - Gurbansoltan.
Saparmurat Niyazov, self-proclaimed President and Father of Turkmenistan had a 12 meter golden statue of himself built upon a 75 meter high arc - with the statue rotating so it always faces the sun.
Saparmurat Niuazov, president of Turkmenistan from 1990 to 2006, outlawed beards for men and make-up for TV anchors - insisting that Turkmenistan women are naturally beautiful and do not need it.
The President of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, wrote a book called Book of the Soul. It was made compulsory to learn in schools and to be held in the same regard as the Quran in mosques throughout the country. Also, in 2006 a copy of the book was sent to space.
Saparmurat Niyazov had all hospitals outside of Turkmenistan's capital closed as he felt it was reasonable for people needing medical care to travel to the capital.
Rafael Trujillo, President of the Dominican Republic, appointed his 3 year old son colonel, and went on to make him General at the age of 10.
Rafael Trujillo, President of the Dominican Republic, campaigned to win a Nobel prize in literature for his illiterate wife, after honoring her as a writer and philosopher.
Rafael Trujillo required every license plate in the Dominican Republic to say "Viva Trujillo" and every church to say "God in Heaven, Trujillo on Earth".
Rafael Trujillo, President of the Dominican Republic, had streets, provinces, mountains, schools and bridges named not only in his honor, but in honor of various members of his family as well.
When in Rome in August 2010, Muammar Gaddafi paid a modeling agency to get 500 women to attend his lecture where he tried to get them to convert to Islam.
Muammar Gaddafi had a fear of climbing more than 35 steps at a time and would often refuse to go to the upper floors of buildings.
When travelling, Muammar Gaddafi slept in a Bedouin tent that he brought along with him. He sometimes brought camels and horses along as well.
Muammar Gaddafi decreed that all his bodyguards be female virgins.
Mobutu Sese Seko, former President of Zaire, had an airport especially constructed so he could charter Concorde jets to take shopping trips in Paris with his family.
In Zaire, the evening news was always preceded with an image of autocratic ruler Mobutu Sese Seko, smiling through the clouds and looking down from the heavens. He also forbade the newscasters to mention anybody but him by name.
Mobutu, dictator of Zaire, had prohibited anybody except him from wearing leopard-print hats and carried with him a wooden cane that he claimed took the strength of eight men to carry.
Mobutu Sese Seko, ruler of Zaire, once paid Muhammad Ali and George Foreman $5 million each to fight in his country to give it more recognition in the world.
The ruler of Zaire had his name changed to Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga ("The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake").
When Francisco Nguema was President of The Republic of Equatorial Guinea, he banned the word "intellectual", shut down schools, drove educated people out of his country and declared himself the Grandmaster of Education, Science and Culture.
Francisco Nguema shut down several hospitals in Equatorial Guinea in favor of his witch doctor ancestry.
Francisco Nguema changed The Republic of Equatorial Guinea's national motto to "There is no other God than Macias Nguema."
Once while in power, Francisco Nguema banned the use of lubricants in power plants, claiming that he had the magical capacity to keep them operational - he could not - and caused major power outages throughout Equatorial Guinea.
In a stroke of genius, Nguema - President of Equatorial Guinea - had the the governor of the public bank killed and hid all the money in his jungle shed.
A former chef for Kim Jong II revealed the North Korean leader employed staff to make sure the grains of rice served to him were absolutely uniform in size and color.
According to his official biography, Kim Jong II's birth in Baekdu Mountain was prophesied by a swallow and heralded with a double rainbow and a new star in the heavens.
Apart from claiming that he is the greatest golfer in the history of existence, Kim Jong II also apparently composed six operas and enjoyed staging musicals.
Kim Jong II had a town called Kijong-Dong built right in the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea and had a small crew work around the clock to preserve the illusion that people actually live there - as a farce to try to trick South Koreans into defecting.
Kim Jong II told his people that he invented the hamburger, after which he built a hamburger factory, saying "I've made up my mind to feed quality bread and french-fries to university students, professors and researchers even if we are in (economic) hardship".
Kim Jong II is rumored to have had spent $350,000 a year on brandy and to always had traveled with a pack of beautiful women he referred to as his "Pleasure Squad."
Idi Amin Dada called himself "His Excellency, President for Life Field Marshall Al Hadj Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC. Lord of all the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular".
An African despot, Idi Amin Dada laid claim to the Scottish throne and offered to marry Queen Elizabeth to lead the Commonwealth.
To mock the people who pointed out Uganda's crippling famine, Idi Amin Dada created the "Save Britain Fund" by taking a truckload of food from starving peasants and offering it to the U.K.
Mad at the Queen of Britain for her refusal to marry him, Idi Amin Dada had four local British businessmen to carry him around in a sedan chair at a diplomatic conference in Uganda.
When Mariano Melgerejo of Bolivia was presented with a white stallion as a gift from Brazil, he was so stunned by the horse that he immediately took a map of Bolivia and put one of its hooves on it ... and gave the Brazilians the entire area covered by it.
Melgarejo of Bolivia, having heard the history of Caligula and his horse consul, thought the story was so cool that he made his horse, named Holofernes, General of Bolivia.
Bucaram, elected President of Ecuador in 1996, was known as "El Loco" ("The Madman"), a nickname he championed himself.
While President, Bucaram recorded a pop album called A Madman in Love ... which he released while still in office and also took advantage of his president side job to circulate his demo to other presidents at an Ibero-American conference in Chile.
One of the first things Bucaram did after taking office was to place his business associates in high government positions and fill the rest of the cabinet with his own family. He even put his 18-year-old son in charge of the Ecuadorian customs office.
While head of state of an economically struggling Ecuador, Bucaram offered professional coach Diego Maradona $1 million to play one soccer game with him.
In his later years, Jean Bedel Bokassa declared himself the 13th Apostle and claimed that he frequently met the Pope in secret.
Bokassa crowned himself emperor of the Central African Empire (which he made up one day) in a ceremony that cost the country's annual GDP, where two-thirds of the population lived with less than a dollar per day.
Ne Win consulted soothsayers on almost every aspect of his decision making in his nearly 3 decades as ruler of Burma.
Being extremely superstitious, Burma's President Ne Win reportedly bathed in dolphin blood believing it restored his youth and vitality and would also cross bridges backwards to ward off evil.
One shiny day, Ne Win, head of state of Burma, announced that he was going to change the currency into denominations of 15, 30, 45 and 90, so that he could live to be over 90 years old. This minor inconvenience effectively rendered the population's savings invalid.
Enver Hoxha banned beards, typewriters and color TVs in Albania.
Enver Hoxha famously built 750,000 bunkers across Albania, to protect its meager 3 million inhabitants from a hypothetic Soviet invasion.
Visitors to Albania were forced to go through a disinfectant bath, by decree of Enver Hoxha.
Comrade, Chairman, Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Minister of War, Commander-in-Chief of the People's Army Enver Hoxha, was the dictator of Albania. He got that title because he rewarded all cabinet positions to himself.
Enver Hoxha kidnapped a dentist in rural Albania who looked like him, then forced plastic surgery on him to make the resemblance even more so - leaving the poor fellow no choice but to leave his life behind and live on pretending to be the prime minister.
Nicolae Ceausescu made sure that the street leading right up to the palace was constructed to be exactly 1 meter wider than the Champs Elysees in Paris.... just because.
Nicolae Ceausescu called himself The Genius of the Carpathians and even made a scepter for himself, prompting Salvador Dali to personally send a telegram of mocking, but having no concept of satire, Ceausescu had Dali's letter published on the front page of the newspaper.
In 1980, Ceausescu destroyed most of the historical part of Bucharest in order to build what was lauded as the biggest building in the world after the Pentagon. After his death, Romania's Parliament moved in, only able to use 30 % of the building.
Ceausescu demanded that his nearly illiterate wife be made a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and the Royal Institute of Chemistry. In Romania, she been crowned "Comrade-Academician-Doctor-Engineer," and top scientists had to include her name in their research.
Ceausescu proclaimed his alcoholic and womanizing son, to be a "scientist of international reputation" and alleged that he had published several volumes on nuclear physics.
Kim II Sung claimed that he could turn sand into rice, and that he could cross rivers on leaves
Trivia in Tropico 6[]
Dictator Charles Taylor campaigned for president of Liberia on the slogan "He killed my ma. He killed my pa. I'll vote for him." He won the election.
Stalin had a secret lab to analyze the feces of other foreign leaders for the purpose of constructing psychological portraits.
Saddam Hussein used "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston as his campaign song.
Before his death, Lenin published a testament that stated Stalin should be immediately removed from power as Lenin was "not sure if he can be trusted to use authority with sufficient caution".
In 1989, Nicolae Ceaușescu, the dictator of Romania, claimed that Scrabble was too intellectual and banned it.
Moammar Gaddafi claimed he washed his hands in deer's blood, which he thought was sexy. He also was very into male beauty and had plastic surgery in 1994.
As a revolutionary, Joseph Stalin was arrested and exiled to Siberia 6 times. He escaped the first 5. For his 6th, he was sent to a hamlet just south of the Arctic Circle where he lived as a hunter-gatherer alongside an arctic tribe for 2 years.
In 1980, Saddam Hussein got the key to city of Detroit.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un was elected with 100% of the votes. The ballot listed only him. Citizens could cross out his name and write in a new one, but they must step outside the election booth to do so and write down the new name in front of election officials.
Peter Tatchell, a British gay rights activist, attempted a citizen's arrest on Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe in 1999. Tatchell walked up to Mugabe's motorcade, grabbed the stunned dictator by the arm and stated calmly: "President Mugabe, you are under arrest for torture".
Saparmurat Niyazov, president for life of Turkmenistan from 1990 to 2007, changed the names of the days of the week and renamed calendar months after heroes of the state. He even changed the word for bread, naming it after his beloved mother.
In 2001, Kim Jong Il's eldest son (Kim Jong Nam) was caught using a fake Dominican passport to enter Japan. When asked for an explanation, he said he "just wanted to visit Disneyland". He was subsequently disowned by his father.
Mobutu, the president of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), made a law saying that TV in Zaire cannot mention anybody but him by name. He also commanded that all evening news begin with a scene of him descending from the heavens.
Schoolchildren in North Korea were taught that Kim Jong-il never defecated. Not once.
Amongst Saparmurat Niyazov's most ridiculous laws was the ban on beards, make-up for newsreaders, recorded music and the exclusion of dogs from the capital city. Apparently, he didn't like the way they smell.
In 2003, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the dictator of Equatorial Guinea took personal control of the national treasury, handing more than $500,000,000 to family members, ostensibly to prevent corruption by civil servants.
Francisco Nguema frequently indulged in bhang, a drink made from marijuana, and often dined with imaginary friends and executed imaginary enemies.
According to the US soldiers who guarded him, one of the few times Saddam Hussein ever looked defeated in prison was when they brought him the wrong cereal.
As a young boy, Fidel Castro sent President Roosevelt a letter of congratulations for his re-election and asked him for a US$10 bill because he'd never gotten to see one.
General Ne Win of Myanmar changed the country from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right-hand side, due to fears the nation had moved politically too far left.
The U.S. dropped drug trafficking charges against Manuel Noriega after a 50 lb. stash of 'cocaine' found in his freezer was revealed to be a 50 lb. stash of tamales. Noriega used the tamales for 'magic binding' rituals against his opponents and people he wanted to control.
Santa Anna, president of Mexico, exhumed his shriveled amputated leg, paraded it to Mexico City in an ornate coach and buried it beneath a cemetery monument in an elaborate state funeral that included cannon salvos, poetry and lofty orations.
Moammar Gaddafi, in love with tradition yet terrified of drive-by shootings, had a bulletproof tent during his political travels. In this bizarre merger of high tech and ancient tradition, he would often keep two camels tethered outside his tent.
Doctors induced labor on Kim Jong-un's child so that he would be born in 2012, the 100th birthday of Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea.
A former dictator of Myanmar (Ne Win) thought 9 was his lucky number, so decreed that all currency denominations not divisible by 9 no longer had value, devastating the savings of much of the population.
Benito Mussolini tried to stabilize the Leaning Tower of Pisa by filling the base with concrete, only to have it sag further.
Moammar Gaddafi once petitioned the U.N. to dissolve Switzerland and split the land among Germany, France and Italy, which is probably an indication that he was about to ban the Swiss from his country.
Saparmurat Niyazov, president of Turkmenistan, told his people that because of a pact made between him and Allah, anybody who read his "book of the soul " three times would automatically go to heaven.