On Nov. 7, 1987, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali became only the second president of Tunisia since the country gained independence from France in 1956. He’s been ruling the country since, seemingly legitimizing his leadership through five elections that have been neither free nor fair, the last one on Oct. 25, 2009, when he was reelected with an improbable 90% of the vote. Ben Ali is one of North Africa’s strongmen—undemocratic and brutal against dissenters and a fitful steward of the economy but a friend of Western governments because of his hard line against Islamists.

See Also:

• Tunisia: Country Profile
• Tunisia Still Blocking Human Rights Monitors from Its Prisons
• Oussama Mellouli, Tunisia's Aquatic Lion
• Tunisia's Teasing of Paradise