Patrice Lumumba (1961)

The CIA-backed assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the democratically elected first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in January 1961 ensured that the country's independence would benefit Western mining interests rather than its people. Lumumba's murder set Congo on a path of foreign-backed dictatorship under Mobutu that lasted 32 years and laid the groundwork for the Congo Wars that have killed over six million people since 1996.