Benin: ECOWAS Deploys Forces After Foiled Coup Attempt

Does foreign intervention protect Benin's democracy, or does it prop up a neocolonial puppet regime crushing dissent?

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Benin: ECOWAS Deploys Forces After Foiled Coup Attempt

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Above: Patrice Talon at the Benin House Museum in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, on May 25, 2024. Image credit: Rafaela Araújo and Rafaela Araújo/AFP/Getty Images

The Spin

Pro-government narrative

ECOWAS rightfully condemned the unconstitutional military takeover attempt that threatened Benin's democratic institutions and deployed forces to defend constitutional order. The coup plotters' actions represented a dangerous subversion of the people's will in a country that has maintained democratic stability for decades, and swift intervention by loyalist forces backed by regional support successfully protected Benin's territorial integrity and constitutional framework.

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Government-critical narrative

The soldiers who declared Talon removed acted because democratic channels in Benin had collapsed. Years of shrinking political space, mistrust in electoral reforms, and rising frustration inside the ranks made a rupture inevitable. Their intervention framed itself as a correction to a leadership that ignored security and accountability. In this view, the broadcast on state TV was not treason but a last resort to reclaim sovereignty from an entrenched and unresponsive France-backed puppet regime.

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