May 14, 2018
From the article:
Robert Mugabe’s rule of Zimbabwe is effectively at an end. As of this morning, he and his family are confined to house arrest and the security forces are rounding up many of his closest allies. The army is now firmly in control of the airport and the television station. Although the Zimbabwean military denies it, this is a coup. Regardless of what happens in the next few days, the 93-year-old leader’s time is finally up. And the United States, which has been uncharacteristically passive on African affairs over the past year, has a vital role to play.
The events over the past 48 hours in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, are mostly an internecine fight between two factions in Mugabe’s inner circle. For years, first lady Grace Mugabe and Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa battled to succeed Mugabe, the only leader the country has ever known since independence in 1980. Then, a week ago, the president finally sided with his wife and fired Mnangagwa, forcing him to flee the country. The military intervention, organized by Mnangagwa ally Gen. Constantino Chiwenga, is the blowback.
The roots of this crisis are in Mugabe’s increasingly dictatorial rule and the man-made destruction of a once-thriving economy. The only sustainable path to recovery is through parallel political reform and economic re-engagement with the outside world. This is where the United States becomes highly relevant.