After 24 years clinging to power in Syria that he inherited from his father, Hafez, who in turn took it in 1971, Dictator Bashar al Assad fell this Sunday after 12 days of a dizzying offensive of a rebel Islamist coalition that claims to have “liberated” the Arab country from the clutches of a ruthless leader with every hint of opposition.
Until now, the dictator’s whereabouts are unknown and, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, he would have ended his days boarding a plane to an unknown destination after the capture of Damascus by the Islamist alliance Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS, or Levant Liberation Organization).
Al Assad (Damascus, 1965) studied Medicine and specialized in ophthalmology in the Syrian capital, where after finishing his studies he worked as a military doctor for a time. The young man, to whom no political aspirations were attributed, then went to London to continue his professional training.
However, two years later, in 1994, a fortuitous family tragedy would change the course of his life forever: traffic accident that ended the life of his brother Basel, the eldest son and presumed heir to power of the then Syrian dictator, Hafez al Assad.
Bashar was called to Syria by his father and embarked on five years of preparation to eventually take the lead of the country, just as the first-born had done in the years before his death, gaining experience in the military ranks and weight in public life. .
The moment came in 2000 when Hafez al Assad died after almost three decades in power, which he had gained through a coup d’état.
Hafez imposed a secular ideologyr that sought to bury religious differences under Arab nationalism and the image of heroic resistance to Israel. He formed an alliance with Shia religious leaders in Iran, consolidated Syrian dominance over Lebanon, and established a network of Palestinian and Lebanese militia groups.
Although he was not initially chosen to inherit from his father, after obtaining it he clung to it tooth and nail, silencing his adversaries, quelling mass revolts and surviving more than ten years of civil war.
The Constitution was soon amended so that Bashar, then 34 years old, met the age requirements – minimum 40 years – and a referendum was held that supported his elevation to the head of state.
After four decades of Baath Party governments, almost all led by his father, Al Assad was initially seen as a hope for change and a likely instigator of democratic and open-minded reforms.
However, soon came the arrest campaigns of activists and opponents, and, a decade later, the brutal repression of the protests that broke out in Syria against its Government. within the framework of the “Arab Spring”.
He resisted pressure from the streets and was one of the few leaders who remained in power since the revolts that broke out in 2011 and overthrew the governments of several countries in the Middle East and North Africa, although at the cost of a civil war. and the practical liquidation of Syrian unity.
International human rights groups and prosecutors denounced widespread use of torture and extrajudicial executions in detention centers run by the Syrian regime. The war has killed almost half a million people and displaced half of the country’s pre-war population, 23 million people.
Its survival since 2016 was in the hands of its Russian allies and the Iranian, Lebanese and Iraqi Shiite militias that allowed it to recover territory from the insurgents, at the cost of brutal devastation of the cities and territories that had rebelled.
Formally, He occupied power with large electoral “victories”, as in the last elections in 2021, where he managed to win 95% of the votes.
However, his mandate faced growing popular discontent over the serious economic crisis and shortage of basic productswhich has led the vast majority of the population to suffer food insecurity and live below the poverty line.
Added to this are 14 million internally displaced people and refugees to other countriesmost of them in the Middle East, and an entire reconstruction process ahead, something that was considered almost impossible given the international isolation of the Al Assad Government and the multiple international sanctions imposed by the West.
As soon as its main allies became involved in more acute problems than the Syrian one (mainly Ukraine and Lebanon), their weaknesses were exposed and, ultimately, paved the way for their downfall.
Assad, like his father, also turned to his own family. His Younger brother Maher headed the elite Presidential Guard and would lead the repression against the uprising. His Sister Bushra was a strong voice in her inner circle, along with her husband, Deputy Defense Minister Assef Shawkat, until he was murdered in an attack in 2012. Bashar’s cousin, Rami Makhlouf, became the country’s biggest businessman, heading a financial empire before the two had a breakup that caused Makhlouf to be sidelined.
Assad also increasingly relied on key roles his wife, Asmabefore she announced in May that she was receiving treatment for leukemia and stepped back from the spotlight.
(With information from EFE and AP)
