It's been a long year so far for Thailand, where early this morning, the Thai military came over the airwaves to announce they had taken control of the government and were suspending the constitution. This came just two days after their announcement of martial law, which many saw as the harbinger of an inevitable coup. Now, media is being censored, a curfew has been put in place, and government officials have been shuttled to a camp set up to hold them while the unrest persists.
Today's coup has been a long time coming. The last successful coup in the country occurred in 2006, when populist billionaire Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was overthrown by the military, who then dissolved parliament, and hastily rewrote the constitution after installing a new interim government it found to be more favorable. The backlash against the 2006 coup from across the country came to a boiling point in 2010, when deadly clashes between civilians and security forces took place in Bangkok. Mr. Shinawatra had built up a large support group, primarily in the rural north of Thailand, and his disposal from government was the catalyst for significant unrest for years. Several governments revolved through the leadership during this time, many of which were mired in corruption scandals, prosecutions, and other serious governing problems.
