Democracy Round-Up: Zimbabwe’s military detains president, takes control of country
Headlines from around the world in the fight to protect democracy and the rule of law
By Janna Brancolini
Zimbabwe’s military has taken Pres. Robert Mugabe, 93, into custody as the situation in the Southern African nation “moves to the next level,” an Army spokesman said today in a pre-dawn announcement on state broadcast TV. Observers struggled to understand what that meant and as it appeared more and more likely the military had taken control of the country. Mugabe and his family were “safe and sound, and their security guaranteed,” the Army spokesman said. But the military was “targeting criminals around him who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country in order to bring them to justice.” The country’s information minister, Simon Khaya Moyo, said he didn’t know if the military had staged a coup. Mugabe has been the only real head of government, first as prime minister and then as president, since the country achieved independence from Great Britain in 1980. He has been accused of crimes against humanity for destroying the country’s once-promising economy and pursuing policies that resulted in massive inequality and deaths. (New York Times)
The Australian Senate has introduced a bill legalizing same-sex marriage after an overwhelming majority of citizens expressed their support for the change in a non-binding postal poll. Almost 80 percent of eligible voters participated in the 8-week poll, which was optional and posed just one question: “Should the marriage law be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry?” More than 60 percent of voters responded “yes,” according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, leading supporters to take to the streets in celebration. The vote was the latest in a long, oftentimes contentious campaign to legalize same-sex marriage in Australia. A bill to amend the marriage act was introduced late Tuesday night and now goes to debate. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a strong supporter of same-sex marriage, said he hoped his government would pass the legislation by Christmas. (BBC)
WikiLeaks’ credibility as an independent transparency organization suffered a serious blow this week as private messages revealed the group was in repeated contact with Donald Trump Jr. during the 2016 Election. American intelligence agencies already suspected that WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, were handpicked by Russia to help disseminate information that would help then-candidate Donald Trump beat his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. The private messages show WikiLeaks was feeding the Trump campaign information and links to Donald Jr.’s Twitter account from at least September 2016 to July 2017. Trump Jr. stopped responding at the end of October, but the messages show the group was heavily invested in a Trump victory. A damning message sent the night of the Election, when Clinton was still heavily favored to win, said, “Hi Don if your father ‘loses’ we think it is much more interesting if he DOES NOT conceed [sic] and spends time CHALLENGING the media and other types of rigging that occurred — as he has implied that he might do.” (The Atlantic)
Tens of thousands of far-right nationalists gathered in Poland over the weekend for an annual independence day march that this year was marked by xenophobic signs and racist chants. Among the crowd of 60,000 were demonstrators chanting, “Pure Poland, white Poland!” and “Refugees get out!” according to witnesses. A sign on a bridge read, “Pray for Islamic Holocaust.” The march is organized each year by a far-right group, ostensibly to mark Poland’s independence in 1918, but has become an important rallying point for extremists across the Continent, experts said. Leaders of far-right parties in England and Italy also attended. (The Guardian)
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