The Puppeteers: The Dictators' Wives Who Actually Ruled Behind the Scenes | Weekend Special

A weekend magazine feature on i24NEWS examines the figures of five women who stood behind 20th-century dictators and actually ruled: Elena Ceaușescu, Mirjana Marković, Eva Perón, Jiang Qing, and Lucía Hiriart. The article presents each of them as a full partner in oppression, sometimes more frightening than their husbands, and analyzes their personal power mechanisms.

A weekend magazine feature on i24NEWS examines the figures of five women who stood behind 20th-century dictators and actually ruled. The article opens with the claim that the most famous dictatorships were family enterprises, and the men were just the face. It presents Elena Ceaușescu, who turned herself into a brand with a dubious doctorate in chemistry and served as Deputy Prime Minister of Romania; Mirjana Marković, a sociology professor who was the intellectual force behind Slobodan Milošević in Yugoslavia; Eva Perón, who implemented private welfare policies in Argentina and bought loyalty; Jiang Qing, head of the "Gang of Four" in China who oversaw mass purges during the Cultural Revolution; and Lucía Hiriart, who according to testimonies urged Augusto Pinochet to join the military coup in Chile. The article emphasizes that these women were not ceremonial decorations but architects of power, and concludes that evil is not defined by gender.