On the eve of the announcement of the official results of the presidential and legislative elections in Guinea-Bissau, armed forces stormed the government headquarters and ousted leader Amr Sissoko Embalo, a candidate for re-election.
Since last Wednesday (26), the Portuguese-speaking West African nation has joined seven other countries that fell victim to coups between 2020 and 2024 and six others currently under military rule on the continent.
Strictly speaking, the citizens of Guinea-Bissau had already been subjected to authoritarian bias by the civil administration of Embalo, a retired general. This trend was clearly evident in his decisions to dissolve the national parliament in December 2023, which is seen in the country as a way to silence the opposition and postpone the elections scheduled for the end of last year.
From these and other arbitrary actions, the former president has now secured a nine-month extension of his term and, at least in theory, a more favorable scenario for defeating his opponent Fernando Dias at the ballot box and remaining in power for another five years.
The direction that General Horta Ntam, the army chief of staff who was sworn in as interim president, will take appears to be undecided. However, aborting the ongoing electoral process and overthrowing an elected civilian government by military force does not in any way indicate a democratic transition in the near future.
There are no illusions about the ability of an exceptional government to attract investment and provide promising economic trends for one of the world’s poorest and most institutionally fragile countries. Above all, the status as a warehouse for Latin American cartels for the flow of cocaine to Europe and its classification as a drug by the United Nations weighs heavily on it.
The country’s population is about two million people, and its per capita income is only $2,800 – one-seventh of Brazil’s income – and is calculated by the International Monetary Fund on the basis of purchasing power parity of currencies. In the United Nations World Human Development Rankings, Guinea Bissau ranks 174th out of 193 countries.
Poverty and violent disruption are tragically linked there. This was the fifth military coup – as well as 18 other attempts – carried out since Portugal’s independence in 1974.
We must also denounce the neglect of Western powers towards the continent, which in recent decades has been left to the influence of states that do not value the democratic rule of law and favor solving domestic problems through authoritarian means.
Editorials@grupofolha.com.br