A military officer and consummate alcoholic who climbed the ranks through a mixture of sycophancy and recklessness that his colleagues mistook for bravery, Mariano Melgarejo became “president” (i.e. dictator) of Bolivia in 1864. During his 6-year reign, Melgarejo put much of the mining industry in the hand of foreigners, brutally oppressed the indigenous population, and gave away Bolivian land like no one’s business. Of all his blunders, the Treaty of Ayacucho was one of the worst. As legend has it (and there are a lot of legends about Melgarejo), the impulsive dictator fell in love with what he described as a “magnificent white horse” belonging to the Brazillian minister. Whipping out a map of Bolivia, Melgarejo traced the horse’s hoof and gave the enclosed territory to Brazil in exchange for the four-legged object of his lust, which supposedly died a few days later. Read Less