So is the new regime open to western investment/exploitation or are we about to hear about the "troubling human rights situation in Gabon"?
TIL about Gabon.
fuck Bongo, I don't know how the coup government will be but it'll be hard to do any worse. Power to the people, if this coup is actually for them ✊
Military coups generally don't give power to the people.
That's fairly reductive and inaccurate. The 1983 Upper Voltan coup d'état, the Carnation Revolution, and the Guatemalan Revolution are all examples to the contrary, and they are far from isolated exceptions to a rule.
I’ll freely admit I forgot this country existed since they’re never in the news in my country, what did this Bongo person do that was so bad the military is willing to take over like this? Other than a potentially fixed election I assume there must have been some prior acts to cause people to doubt this election’s legitimacy
The extremely short version is that he accepted a life of luxury bankrolled by the French in exchange for inducing poverty on his nation with aggressively extractive economic policies to the primary benefit of the French petroleum (and previously nuclear) industries. He's also the son of a French-appointed dictator who is basically continuing his father's platform to a tee.
Here's a fun little one-off story about the Bongo family https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/member-gabons-ruling-family-pascaline-bongo-puts-la-mansion-sale-14m-1610426 very Trump-style stuffing of the cabinet with family and funneling government funds into property for them to hold onto and also use
here's a story about Ali Bongo himself https://web.archive.org/web/20171117004922/http://observers.france24.com/en/20141223-luxury-cars-gabon-presidency-bongo-ali
Don't forget that he was also in the process of selling out his country to China. Very telling company he keeps.
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/zxxx_662805/202304/t20230422_11063752.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x6b7JFsuJo
Running for a third term is enough in my opinion. At no level do I vote for someone who has had two consecutive terms, they need to get out and see the real world outside of power.
Hell yeah cant wait for this coup to turn for the benefit of the people haha like that's ever happened ahahaha
Burkina Faso's Sankara comes to mind as an example where that actually happenned.
But yeah, usually it just means even more repression and inequality.
Carnation revolution also?
Potential. They said so on Gabon's national tv channel.
It's unwise to assume truth regarding breaking news, especially when it's continents away. We mustn't so quickly forget the "Russian bombing" of Poland that wound up being a Ukrainian misfire. Panic damn near caused WW3.
A community for discussing events around the World
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/