https://znetwork.org/category/topic/politics-gov/coups/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Sat, 21 Feb 2026 18:35:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/category/topic/politics-gov/coups/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/south-koreas-would-be-coup-leader-has-been-jailed-for-life/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/south-koreas-would-be-coup-leader-has-been-jailed-for-life/#respond Sat, 21 Feb 2026 18:35:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295014 The verdict is finally in. Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea’s impeached conservative president, was sentenced to life in prison on February 19 by a Seoul court for insurrection. The court’s decision came 443 days after Yoon’s abrupt attempt to overthrow the constitutional order in a December 2024 self-coup. The effort collapsed within six hours as a [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/south-koreas-would-be-coup-leader-has-been-jailed-for-life/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mujo-in-iran/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mujo-in-iran/#comments Mon, 19 Jan 2026 18:50:42 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293645 Anyone from the former Yugoslavia will immediately understand the title. Mujo is a legendary (though fictional) Bosnian character, the protagonist (together with his inseparable friend Haso) of countless jokes that generations of Yugoslavs grew up with. Wars took many lives, erased towns, and destroyed futures, yet Mujo survived even the darkest days of the Bosnian [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mujo-in-iran/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-somaliland-gamble-is-repeating-the-bloody-history-that-created-al-shabaab/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-somaliland-gamble-is-repeating-the-bloody-history-that-created-al-shabaab/#respond Mon, 19 Jan 2026 18:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293669 On Boxing Day 2006, Ethiopian troops, endorsed by the United States, rolled into Mogadishu. Their intervention, aimed at crushing the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and installing “a weak, decentralised client state … willing to settle for ongoing state collapse rather than risk a revived Arab-backed government in Mogadishu”, shattered a fragile moment of order and birthed [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-somaliland-gamble-is-repeating-the-bloody-history-that-created-al-shabaab/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/six-points-to-navigate-the-turmoil-in-iran/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/six-points-to-navigate-the-turmoil-in-iran/#comments Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:52:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293456 Iran is in turmoil. Across the country, there have been protests of different magnitudes, with violence on the increase with both protesters and police finding themselves in the morgue. What began as work stoppages and inflation protests drew together a range of discontent, with women and young people frustrated with a system unable to secure [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/six-points-to-navigate-the-turmoil-in-iran/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chronicle-of-a-foretold-coup-the-attack-on-venezuela-and-the-narco-terrorism-fairy-tale/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chronicle-of-a-foretold-coup-the-attack-on-venezuela-and-the-narco-terrorism-fairy-tale/#respond Fri, 09 Jan 2026 19:34:22 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293299 Current developments in Venezuela may appear to be unfathomable—until one recalls the long history of imperialist interference in Latin America and the Caribbean. The events of the first week of January constitute an escalation of a long-standing campaign to overthrow the Bolivarian Revolution and resume control on the country with the largest known oil reserves in the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chronicle-of-a-foretold-coup-the-attack-on-venezuela-and-the-narco-terrorism-fairy-tale/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hugo-chavez-predicted-this/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hugo-chavez-predicted-this/#respond Fri, 09 Jan 2026 19:16:43 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293292 On January 3rd, the United States invaded and bombed Venezuela and abducted President Maduro and First Lady Flores. This violent act of imperialist aggression by the Trump regime is a continuation of over two decades of hybrid warfare aimed at suppressing the Bolivarian Revolution. Over the past months, the US has been escalating aggression against [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hugo-chavez-predicted-this/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/corporations-are-ready-to-cash-in-on-venezuela/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/corporations-are-ready-to-cash-in-on-venezuela/#respond Mon, 05 Jan 2026 20:58:30 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293136 Just weeks before the American military operation in Venezuela to capture President Nicolás Maduro, the US energy giant Halliburton filed an unusual lawsuit in international court claiming the Venezuelan government owed them damages for US sanctions against the country. A separate case against Venezuela is also being pursued by another fossil fuel giant whose board includes an oil magnate whose family has delivered large [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/corporations-are-ready-to-cash-in-on-venezuela/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-wont-be-the-end-youre-naive-if-you-think-so/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-wont-be-the-end-youre-naive-if-you-think-so/#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2026 20:47:35 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293132 Late Friday night into early Saturday, I watched the news and scrolled through social media as reports of explosions in Caracas began to spread. I went to sleep unaware of what the morning would bring. Hours later, bleary-eyed and half-blind without my glasses, I woke to headlines announcing that the Trump administration had captured and arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-wont-be-the-end-youre-naive-if-you-think-so/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/sovereignty-is-a-sham-the-hypocrisy-of-state-power-playing-the-rules-it-pretends-to-follow/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/sovereignty-is-a-sham-the-hypocrisy-of-state-power-playing-the-rules-it-pretends-to-follow/#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2026 20:40:08 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293130 From Ukraine to Venezuela, claims of sovereignty often conceal strategic self-interest, exposing how global norms are wielded selectively to justify power rather than enforced consistently. The Kremlin’s declaration that Venezuela “must be guaranteed the right to determine its own future without destructive external interference, particularly of a military nature,” issued after American forces captured President [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/sovereignty-is-a-sham-the-hypocrisy-of-state-power-playing-the-rules-it-pretends-to-follow/feed/ 3 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-has-tried-this-and-failed-in-venezuela-before/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-has-tried-this-and-failed-in-venezuela-before/#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2026 20:26:43 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293126 We’ve been here before when it comes to the Trump administration’s attempts to force a political transition in Venezuela. In 2019 and 2020, the Trump administration attempted to engineer such a change through pressure, spectacle, and public declarations of inevitability. Military defections were said to be imminent. Regime insiders were allegedly ready to flip. Juan [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-has-tried-this-and-failed-in-venezuela-before/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-president-trump-emerges-victorious-from-his-litter-box/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-president-trump-emerges-victorious-from-his-litter-box/#respond Mon, 05 Jan 2026 20:16:52 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293122 KEY TAKEAWAYS This Time, Merely Exiting the Litter Box Won’t Cut it  The year 2026 commenced with a new war: the U.S.’ invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of its head of state. Donald J. Trump’s foreign policy bears a striking resemblance to how cats defecate. Our feline overlords arrive with great ceremony, scratch the ground [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-president-trump-emerges-victorious-from-his-litter-box/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-the-united-states-against-the-sovereignty-of-nations/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-the-united-states-against-the-sovereignty-of-nations/#respond Mon, 05 Jan 2026 20:04:29 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293117 On January 3, 2026, at two o’clock in the morning, the United States declared war on Venezuela by bombing several strategic sectors of the capital and kidnapping the elected president, Nicolás Maduro. The latter, the victim of a betrayal at the highest level, was captured by elite troops from U.S. Special Forces during an operation [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-the-united-states-against-the-sovereignty-of-nations/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/surprising-lessons-for-the-u-s-resistance-to-trump-in-sudans-recent-history/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/surprising-lessons-for-the-u-s-resistance-to-trump-in-sudans-recent-history/#respond Mon, 15 Dec 2025 19:32:38 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292405 Follow a line south and west from the Gaza Strip, continue through Egypt, and you’ll end up in another place where a genocide is in progress. It’s one we don’t hear much about in the United States, probably because it’s happening in an African nation, one of those places Donald Trump refers to as “shithole countries.” (Interestingly, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/surprising-lessons-for-the-u-s-resistance-to-trump-in-sudans-recent-history/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-trump-corollary/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-trump-corollary/#respond Mon, 08 Dec 2025 21:52:58 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292163 In recent months, the Trump administration has escalated a decades-long campaign against the Venezuelan government and people. The renewed, intensifying threats of regime change, justified through false or inflated claims that Nicolás Maduro, its president, is directing narco-terrorism against the United States, serve as a convenient pretext for deeper and more direct intervention. A recent wave of extrajudicial killings at sea, the directing of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-trump-corollary/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-isnt-the-global-threat-trump-and-rubio-are/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-isnt-the-global-threat-trump-and-rubio-are/#comments Wed, 26 Nov 2025 16:05:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291688 U.S. warships and aircraft have gathered in the Caribbean as part of Washington’s latest military buildup in a renewed effort to combat narcotics trafficking. Many analysts see a familiar mix of political posturing and regime-change ambitions rather than a serious security operation. In this exclusive interview for FPIF, sociologist and Venezuela specialist David Smilde talks about how the current show [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-isnt-the-global-threat-trump-and-rubio-are/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/for-the-next-election-prepare-to-fight-magas-steal/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/for-the-next-election-prepare-to-fight-magas-steal/#respond Mon, 17 Nov 2025 16:26:24 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291346 The November 4 election gave us a huge boost. But for the 2026 midterms, success requires both electoral majorities and preparations for a popular uprising at vote-counting sites, state capitols, courthouses, workplaces, and schools. The November 4 elections give the opposition to MAGA—and its progressive contingent especially—a huge boost. But in the coming year, the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/for-the-next-election-prepare-to-fight-magas-steal/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/escalating-the-escalation/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/escalating-the-escalation/#respond Fri, 14 Nov 2025 16:41:05 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291255 Today, Donald Trump presides over his own Murder Incorporated, less a government than a death squad. Many brushed off his proclamation early in his second term that the Gulf of Mexico would henceforth be called the Gulf of America as a foolish, yet harmless, show of dominance. Now, however, he’s created an ongoing bloodbath in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/escalating-the-escalation/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nepals-new-reality/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nepals-new-reality/#respond Fri, 19 Sep 2025 18:20:34 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1288776 The protests in Nepal this week were unprecedented. In just 48 hours, a disparate movement of largely young people throughout major towns and cities brought down the entire political establishment that had dominated Nepalese politics since the 2006 revolution. The Gen Z movement was confronted by a brutal police crackdown, and the death toll from [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nepals-new-reality/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/burkina-faso-traore-a-conservative-anti-democratic-despot/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/burkina-faso-traore-a-conservative-anti-democratic-despot/#comments Sat, 23 Aug 2025 17:21:16 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1287666 Amandla!: Ibrahim Traoré came to power in a coup in 2022. What was the situation in the country that led to the coup? Rahmane Idrissa: Traoré came to power by toppling another coup maker, Lt.-Col. Paul-Henri Damiba, who, himself, had overthrown the elected ruler, Roch March Christian Kaboré, in January 2022. It is impossible to understand these [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/burkina-faso-traore-a-conservative-anti-democratic-despot/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-the-coups/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-the-coups/#respond Tue, 15 Jul 2025 15:08:04 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1286199 In the early morning of July 26, 2023, Niger’s Presidential Guard stormed the Presidential Palace in Niamey and detained the democratically elected head of state, Mohamed Bazoum. What followed was a high-intensity standoff between Niger’s coup leaders and the regional bloc of which it was a member—the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-the-coups/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/another-shinawatra-suspended/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/another-shinawatra-suspended/#respond Fri, 04 Jul 2025 16:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1285785 Paetongtarn becomes the third Shinawatra to be ousted from the Prime Minister’s office, following her aunt (Yingluck 2014) and her father (Thaksin 2006). The Shinawatra family, in particular Thaksin, have long been the figureheads behind the Red Shirt movement – a big tent coalition made up largely of the rural poor, but also including some [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/another-shinawatra-suspended/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-roots-of-bukeles-gulag/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-roots-of-bukeles-gulag/#respond Mon, 02 Jun 2025 13:03:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1284492 The Terrorism Confinement Center was designed to be a black hole. When Nayib Bukele’s flagship “megaprison”—known as CECOT, after its Spanish acronym—opened in January 2023 in a desolate stretch of Tecoluca, about forty-five miles from San Salvador, his administration boasted that people held there “would not have contact with the outside world again.” Bukele has made global [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-roots-of-bukeles-gulag/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/samsungs-union-battle-and-the-crisis-facing-korean-labor/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/samsungs-union-battle-and-the-crisis-facing-korean-labor/#respond Mon, 19 May 2025 16:57:06 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1283935 Last year saw a historic strike by workers at Samsung, the Korean electronics firm with a global footprint. Yet the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) that organized the strike has since stumbled over an old practice in South Korea’s labor movement — one often used to drive a wedge between the leadership and the rank-and-file members. The [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/samsungs-union-battle-and-the-crisis-facing-korean-labor/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/americas-constitutional-crisis/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/americas-constitutional-crisis/#respond Mon, 31 Mar 2025 15:32:22 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1281812 In conversation with Chris Hedges legal scholar Katherine Franke explains trump’s authoritarian Crackdown. The United States is facing a constitutional crisis one that if it is not resolved will cement into place an authoritarian State. (0:00) Intro (3:23) Constitutional crisis (8:11) How Columbia put a target on Mahmoud Khalil’s back (12:52) Columbia’s Groveling for Zionism [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/americas-constitutional-crisis/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-dark-enlightenment-the-tech-oligarch-ideology-driving-doges-destruction/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-dark-enlightenment-the-tech-oligarch-ideology-driving-doges-destruction/#respond Mon, 24 Mar 2025 13:49:53 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1281468 The future of American democracy isn’t being dismantled by accident; it’s being systematically replaced to prepare the way for something entirely new. A radical ideology known as the Dark Enlightenment is fueling a billionaire-led movement to gut our government, erase democratic norms, and install a technocratic elite in their place. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk aren’t just tearing [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-dark-enlightenment-the-tech-oligarch-ideology-driving-doges-destruction/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-state-operating-system-and-tyrannys-backdoor/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-state-operating-system-and-tyrannys-backdoor/#respond Mon, 17 Mar 2025 14:53:53 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1281149 On March 15, 2025, in a new executive order, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 that endows the president with sweeping and unchecked authority to target and deport foreign nationals. According to the text of the law, it can be invoked only when “there is a declared war between the United States and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-state-operating-system-and-tyrannys-backdoor/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-us-is-undergoing-a-corporate-coup-sudan-shows-how-dangerous-it-can-become/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-us-is-undergoing-a-corporate-coup-sudan-shows-how-dangerous-it-can-become/#respond Mon, 10 Mar 2025 16:51:28 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1280825 As billionaire Elon Musk seizes control over vast swaths of the U.S. government, blurring the line between his private business empire and the state, some analysts have begun to call this takeover what it is: a coup. This corporate coup may not look like the military coups we are familiar with — often backed by [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-us-is-undergoing-a-corporate-coup-sudan-shows-how-dangerous-it-can-become/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/23-dem-ags-think-theyve-cracked-the-code-to-fighting-trump/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/23-dem-ags-think-theyve-cracked-the-code-to-fighting-trump/#respond Mon, 03 Mar 2025 15:21:07 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1280489 The resistance meets daily on Microsoft Teams. The country’s 23 Democratic state attorneys general log on at 4pm ET for a thirty-minute confidential video chat to coordinate their plans for pushing back against the Trump administration. They share updates on the seven cases they have moving through federal courts and argue about whether to treat [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/23-dem-ags-think-theyve-cracked-the-code-to-fighting-trump/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/10-more-reasons-for-modest-optimism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/10-more-reasons-for-modest-optimism/#respond Fri, 28 Feb 2025 16:02:23 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1280385 Since I offered you 10 reasons for modest optimism last week, discontent with the Trump-Musk regime has surged even further. America appears to be waking up. Here’s the latest evidence — 10 more reasons for modest optimism. 1. Trump’s approval ratings continue to plummet. The chief reason Trump was elected was to reduce the high [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/10-more-reasons-for-modest-optimism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resisting-the-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-blitzkrieg/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resisting-the-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-blitzkrieg/#respond Fri, 28 Feb 2025 15:22:06 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1280365 MAGA’s fast-moving coup is upending the longstanding arrangements that have undergirded domestic politics and the US role in the world. What does this mean for the resistance, and how can the US Left maximize our impact? No wonder all our heads are spinning. The foundations of the world and the domestic order that everyone under [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resisting-the-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-blitzkrieg/feed/ 0