2014 Thailand military coup

[Bala Perdida]

This might not be the best article, but I'm hoping that someone will post a better one. This is just to help get us started.
http://scgnews.com/thailands-martial-law-now-officially-a-coup-as-military-seizes-power

Well that escalated quickly.

Thailand is by some estimates the most coup prone country in the world. It has had 12 such episodes in the course of the last 80 years. On Tuesday the Thai military declared martial law, citing a 1914 act which gives the military the authority to declare martial law during a crisis. They initially denied that the move was a coup, but today the head of the military, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, went on TV to declare the military was taking over the government.

Thailand's Martial Law Now Officially a Coup as Military Seizes Power

Political gatherings of more than five people have been banned, a nationwide curfew has been imposed, and all TV and radio broadcasts have been suspended.

Thai Martial Law

Thai Military Coup

Thailand has been experiencing months of protests against the ex-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra who is accused of corruption and abuse of power.

[Red Banana]

I just heard about this yesterday from http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/22/us-thailand-protest-coup-idUSBREA4L0XW20140522

My aunt lives in Bangkok, I haven't been able to speak to her yet, I hope she's ok.

[cyu]

http://www.alternet.org/world/how-wealthy-elites-are-hijacking-democracy-all-over-world?paging=off

in Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, the business-tycoon-turned-prime-minister who was driven from power in 2006, “was trying to bring the country to modern capitalism.” He introduced medical care that is much better than the system in the United States, with “heavily subsidized medicines.” Additionally Thailand now has 15 years of basic education free for all citizens. Thaksin gave citizenship to a population of millions in the north who were disenfranchised. Thaksin’s supporters called themselves the Red Shirt Movement, and consisted primarily of rural Thai farmers and left-wing activists.

Thaksin’s rule had several serious problems, including a brutal “war on drugs” and a war against a Muslim minority in the south of Thailand. But it was his progressive social programs for which he was hated by the elites—the monarchy and the military.

the so-called Yellow Shirt movement consists of forces allied to the Thai royal family and military. The movement has ironically adopted the name People’s Alliance for Democracy. I asked whether its supporters were really in favor of democracy. “No, they were not, they have nothing to do with democracy”; rather, “they were against democracy”. Thai elites are afraid of true democracy, as the opposition ran in multiple elections after Thaksin was pushed out and lost time and again.

the West has played a quiet role in supporting the royalist leaning forces, despite the opposition’s assertions that “Thaksin is very popular in the West and that it is him who is getting support from the West.” But opposition forces were “very reliable allies of the West. Don’t forget that Thailand for decades was massacring the left-wing opposition; they were burning communists alive in barrels of petroleum. They liquidated the entire left-wing opposition and gained a reputation as reliable allies [of the West].” In fact, “The majority of the people from the opposition were educated in Eton, Cambridge and Oxford. Thai people don’t speak foreign languages, but when you talk to their leaders they all speak perfect, fluent English.”