Shortest world leader

The world’s shortest national leader was Benito Juárez (21 March 1806 – 18 July 1872), five-term President of Mexico who served from 1858 until 1872. He stood a mere 4’6” (137 cm.). The son of peasants – and Mexico’s only indigenous President – his native language was Zapotec and he did not learn to speak Spanish or read it until the age of 12. He was known as a reformer who fought the French occupation of Mexico, and made early efforts to liberalise and modernise the country. He died in office, succumbing to a heart attack reportedly while reading a newspaper at his desk in his office at the National Palace.

As for a present-day world leader who fills this bill, former Russian Federation President Dmitry Medvedev (who was succeeded by Vladimir Putin in 2012) measures in at 5’3.78” or 162 cm. He usurps the late North Korea’s late “Beloved Leader,” Kim Jong-Il, who was reputed to be about 5’3” but had a penchant for wearing high platform shoes to augment his height along with his frizzied hair… But both towered over the diminutive former Philippine President Gloria Arroyo (served from 2001-2010) who is 4’11”… and although Napoleon has often been represented as having been only 5’2”, the French General and Emperor was in fact, far taller at 5’6.”