Published July 6th, 2009 by Future Atlas
Latin America: Coups No Longer Normal
The response to the removal of Honduras’ president by the country’s military illustrates an important change: democracy is now the norm in Latin America.
This is a stark change from the past, when coups were common and brutal human rights violations were the norm for even ostensibly democratic states. And the clear American response also shows how things have changed; the US was largely indifferent to military rule and human rights violations in the region well into the 1980s (with the exception of the Carter administration), but has since been fairly attentive to these issues (with some backsliding by the Bush administration in the 2000s).
In other words, a serous values change has transformed a large region, as part of a broader global trend.
(Image courtesy YamilGonzales, Flickr: attribution and ShareAlike license)