Assad bombs civilian centers literally every day, specifically to make the opposition as radicalized as possible so he can build legitimacy to keep fighting them. Hard to beat that.
I think both Syria and Venezuela are odd cases because of how chaotic they are. The government simply isn't in firm enough control to qualify. They're horror shows of a different breed.
Yeah, was gonna say this. Venezuela's main problem isn't how repressive their regime is but how incompetent it is in managing society.
Eritrea, China and Saudi Arabia all sound like decent choices to me for reasons already mentioned. I have a vague feeling about the Central Asian countries brought up but am not updated enough about them to be sure there.
