Opposition leader Juan Guaido has declared ‘final phase of Operation Freedom.’ If Guaido and his supporters are successful, Venezuela would be the ninth nation to…
Opposition leader Juan Guaido has declared ‘final phase of Operation Freedom.’
If Guaido and his supporters are successful, Venezuela would be the ninth nation to undergo a successful coup in just the last decade. Here is a list of the other successful coups of the past decade or so.
In 2009, then-president Mamadou Tandja was scheduled to complete his second term at the end of the year, but announced his intention to stay in office, despite constitutionally-mandated term limits, saying the people wanted him to remain in power. He then dissolved his country’s legislature and installed his own.
In February 2010, soldiers from a nearby military base stormed into the city, as BBC News reported at the time. Eventually, Tandja was kidnapped and placed in prison, and was released months later, after a new government had been installed.
Within a week of the coup, the new government had consolidated its power and life in Niger largely returned to normal. Only ten people are believed to have died in the coup.
On this day in history, 4 August 2009, Nigeriens went to the polls to vote in a constitutional referendum to extend President Mamadou Tandja’s long rule despite an opposition boycott.
