Word: coup
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...historically poignant, backdrop for former U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton's first joint visit to Haiti. Both men played pivotal roles in the Caribbean nation's crumbling politics and economy. Clinton returned democratically elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in 1994 after a military coup had ousted him; a decade later, the Bush Administration flew Aristide out of Haiti and into exile. (See pictures from Haiti's devastating earthquake...
...Thailand is blended with a brew of Hindu, animist, Khmer, pagan and other beliefs. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the country's 82-year-old constitutional monarch, spent time as a Buddhist monk but also retains astrologers and Brahmin priests at court, as is tradition. So it's no wonder that coup plotters, Prime Ministers and lawmakers have frequently consulted fortune-tellers before making important decisions. Performing dark rites to increase one's power and defeat your adversaries is as pervasive among the political class as bribery and vote buying. Even Thaksin, who became a billionaire from satellite services, computers and telecommunications...
...ousted and executed in 1782 by a general who then proclaimed himself king and founded the Chakri Dynasty. (King Bhumibol, Thailand's present king, is a descendant of that general and part of the Chakri Dynasty.) Thaksin has frequently blamed King Bhumibol's advisors for the coup that ousted him, and claimed they informed the king in advance about the coup. The royal advisors have denied the allegations...
...Thaksin's opponents are equally steeped in the supernatural. The generals who overthrew Thaksin made special trips to Chiang Mai to consult a leading astrologer both before and after their 2006 coup. According to Wassana, the astrologer told her in an interview that he advised the coup makers they would be successful in their putsch, and afterwards performed ceremonies with them in Bangkok to further increase their power. "In the last two successful coups in 1991 and 2006,'' says Craig Reynolds, a professor of Thai history at Australian National University, "the astrologer who advised the chief coup planner became...
...days it might be more apt to say that Mexico looks so far from Latin America. Mexico was once the region's vocero, its spokesman. But in the past decade, the country's diplomatic role seems to have fallen aside - apparent in Mexico's failure to engage with the coup crisis in Honduras last year - and has been assumed by its South American rival Brazil. In fact, says a senior Mexican official, President Felipe Calderón and his compatriots are all too aware that the foreign policy spotlight in the Americas today is "shining over Brazil." (See pictures from...