A junta or military junta ( /ˈhʊntə/ or /ˈdʒʌntə/) is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term derives from the Spanish language junta meaning committee or meeting, specifically a board of directors. Sometimes it becomes a military dictatorship,

Steve Pieczenik, MD, PhD (born December 7, 1943, in Havana, Cuba) is an American psychiatrist, former State Department official, author, and publisher.

Pieczenik was born of Russian-Polish parents in Cuba and reared in France. His father, a doctor from Dombrovicz who studied and worked in Toulouse, fled Poland before World War II. His mother, a Russian Jew from Bialystok, fled Europe after many of her family members were killed. The couple met in Portugal, where both had fled ahead of the Nazi invaders. Pieczenik was born in Cuba—out of wedlock in 1943. After living in Toulouse, France for six years, Pieczenik's family migrated to the United States where they settled in the Harlem area of New York City, New York. Steve Pieczenik was eight years old when his parents received their visa to the US.

Pieczenik is a classical pianist who wrote a full-length musical at the age of eight.

Pieczenik is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and has a doctorate in international relations from MIT.

According to Pieczenik's autobiography, he attended Booker T. Washington High School in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Pieczenik received a full scholarship to Cornell University at the age of 16. In 1964, Pieczenik claims he received a B.A. degree in Pre-Medicine and Psychology from Cornell, later attending Cornell University Medical College. In his spare time, he attained a PhD in international relations from MIT while studying at Harvard Medical School. Pieczenik claims to be the first psychiatrist ever to receive a PhD focusing on international relations.

Mohamed Nasheed (Dhivehi: މުހައްމަދު ނަޝީދު) (born 17 May 1967) is a Maldivian politician and one of the founders of the Maldivian Democratic Party, who served as the fourth President of the Maldives from 2008 to 2012. Sometimes called "the Mandela of the Maldives", he was imprisoned more than twenty times for his opposition to long-time President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. He triggered the 2003 Maldives civil unrest by requesting an autopsy on murdered teenage prisoner Hassan Evan Naseem, and his own arrest sparked the 2005 Maldives civil unrest.

In the October 2008 presidential election, he defeated Gayoom in the second round, assuming office on 11 November 2008. On 7 February 2012, Mohamed Nasheed stepped down from his presidency under disputed circumstances, following weeks of protests by opposition which had then been joined by majority of military and police forces. The next day, Nasheed stated that these protesters had joined with "powerful networks" of Gayoom loyalists to force his resignation in a coup d'état, and that he was forced to resign "at gunpoint" by police and army officers. His successor, Mohammed Waheed Hassan, has denied these claims and stated that the transfer of power was voluntary and constitutional.