Mengistu Haile Mariam

Mengistu Haile Mariam is an Ethiopian soldier and politician who was the president of Ethiopia from 1977 to 1991 and General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Ethiopia from 1984 to 1991. He was the chairman of the Derg, the socialist military junta that governed Ethiopia, from 1977 to 1987, and the President of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) from 1987 to 1991. He is considered to be one of the most notorious African leaders of the 20th century, and his reign to be infamous for its brutality, autocracy and economic mismanagement.