El-Sisi the assassin of Egypt’s emerging democracy
[Black Star News Editorial]
In 1973 the United States was party to a dastardly crime in Chile. There, a popularly elected government not favored by Washington was brutally overthrown by the military and President Salvador Allende Gossens was murdered.
Allende died defending his presidency until the last minute even as treacherous generals who seized control sent air force jets to bomb the presidential palace.
His was a testament to courage and dedication. Allende, who died of bullet wounds, was defiant to the end, refusing an offer to flee. He spoke with Chileans over radio even as the palace, the station transmitter, and his rule crumbled around him.
The CIA played an active role in the coup, encouraging the generals and undermining Allende’s government. U.S. multinational corporations wanted Allende ousted as they feared their domination of Chile’s mines would come to an end.
Thousands of Chileans lost their lives in subsequent years during the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Gen Augusto Pinochet.
Chile was praised for adopting Milton Friedman’s economic prescriptions– privatization, removal of subsides on essential goods, and opening the country’s economy to U.S. investors. Even as Chileans were murdered or made to “disappear” the corporate media praised the country’s “economic miracle.”
In his final years of life, Pinochet, broken, aged, and unrepentant, was pursued, unsuccessfully, by activists and human rights organizations, for the crimes committed during his regime.
Decades before Chile, the U.S. and U.K. had backed the 1953 ouster of Iran’s democratically-elected prime minister Mohammad Mossaddegh, who had introduced land reforms and nationalized the oil industry, in favor of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who presided over a police-state monarchy. The Shah’s regime was enforced by the notorious Savak secret police, until he was driven from power by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
Fastforward to 2013 in Egypt.
Once again, the U.S. has backed a military coup against a popularly elected government backed by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Gen Abdel Fattah el-Sisi leads the military junta that deposed Mohamed Morsi’s government. The U.S. has yet to condemn the violent takeover or even refer to it as a coup which would trigger automatic sanctions. Secretary of State John Kerry, who was once the conscience of America as a young service man opposed to the Vietnam war repulsively said el-Sisi was “restoring” democracy.
How has el-Sisi “restored” democracy? He has created a state of terror in Egypt by ordering his security forces to kill more than a thousands Morsi supporters who were demonstrating in the streets.
And after a recent visit by Kerry to meet with the junta leaders, as soon as his plane left Egypt, the generals dragged Morsi before a Kangaroo court to stand trial for murder.
He is supposedly responsible for deaths of Egyptians during clashes between his supporters and opposition supporters in December 2012. He is being tried by criminals who actually presided over the murder of possibly 2,000 Egyptian civilians, with many of the killings captured on live television.
As with Allende 40 years ago, Morsi is defiant. He says he is the rightfully-elected president of Egypt and he has refused to recognize the authority of the junta’s kangaroo court. He has condemned Gen El-Sisi for “a crime and treason.”
What is the use of the U.S. cynically preaching global democracy and one-person one-vote when at the end of the day it really has no meaning at all when citizens yearning for self determination are mowed down with bullets and the killers are rewarded?
Here before us we have some pretty ugly stuff.
