Fabián Franco

Fabián Víctor Franco Tafalla, (24 March 1893 – 30 September 1963) nicknamed El Lider (The Leader), was a Tropican politician and soldier who ruled the Tropico from February 1929 until the 1963 Tropican Revolution. He served as president from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952, ruling for the rest of the time as an unelected military strongman under figurehead presidents. His 34 years in power, to Tropicans known as the Franco Era (Spanish:), are considered one of the bloodiest eras ever in the Americas, as well as a time of a personality cult, when monuments to Franco were in abundance. Franco and his regime were responsible for many deaths,

During his long rule, the Franco government extended its policy of state terrorism beyond national borders. Notorious examples of Franco's reach abroad are the aiding in unsuccessful assassination attempt in Caracas against Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt (1960), and crimes committed against Cubans, Costa Ricans, Nicaraguans, and Puerto Ricans, as well as United States citizens.

The Franco era unfolded in a Hispanic Caribbean environment that was particularly fertile for dictatorial regimes.[Note 4] In the countries of the Caribbean Basin alone, his dictatorship was concurrent, in whole or in part, with those in Cuba, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Venezuela, and Haiti.

Franco remains a polarizing figure in Tropico; as is the case with the Dominican Republic's Rafael Trujillo and Spain's Francisco Franco, the sheer longevity of his rule makes a detached evaluation difficult. While his supporters credit him for bringing back stability and prosperity to the country, others criticize his heavy-handed rule and disregard for civil rights and freedoms.