As crowds stormed the building in the heart of American democracy on Wednesday, stunned U.S. officials, including a former president, reached the same phrase to make comparisons: ‘banana republic’.
“This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic – not our democratic republic,” former President George W. Bush said in a statement.
His sentiment more colorful echoes on Twitter by Representative Mike Gallagher, R-Wis: “We are currently engaged in absolute banana republic in the U.S. Capitol.”
While Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a former presidential candidate, tweeted: “This is the 3rd world-style anti-American anarchy.”
But American comparisons of the violent and insane pro-Trump crowd that plunged the Capitol into chaos, killing at least five people, with events in so-called Third World countries, are ridiculous and insulted by many people who live and work . in developing countries.
The term “banana republic” is widely believed to have been coined in the early 1900’s by American author O. Henry in his short story collection “Cabbages and Kings”. It is often used as a shorthand for Latin American countries characterized by political instability and one-crop economies dominated by foreign capital.
The analogy, which is mainly derived from the monopoly of United Fruit Co. held over the banana industry in South America in the early 20th century is an unhelpful and ‘tired herd’, said Lisa Munro, a historian of Latin America.
Thinking of the U.S. as a “banana republic” does not help people understand that the events in Washington “were entirely from the creation of the U.S.,” she added.
As the events unfolded in Washington, Andrei Gómez-Suárez, a former Colombian government official, said that ‘banana republic’ was used repeatedly on social media and that comparisons were being made between President Donald Trump and populist leaders such as Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the Brazilian president. Jair Bolsonaro.
For ‘people who always thought these things were happening outside of America, not inside America, it was a turning point,’ Gómez-Suárez said. He co-founded the think tank Rodeemos el Diálogo, or Embrace Dialogue, and works as an academic. specializes in peacebuilding in Colombia.
The events “set a bad precedent for the United States,” he said.
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The social divisions that led to the Black Lives Matter protests, America’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and the riots at the Capitol challenged the idea of American exclusion and the status of the United States on the world stage. that the US will soon be “replaced” by other actors.
“Many are now saying that the US will not be ‘the’ world power,” Gómez-Suárez said, adding that the events at the Capitol were “one part of America’s decline”.
Comparisons with ‘third world’ countries were ‘insulting’ and based ‘on the pretext that the so-called First World is better’, said Carlos Lopes, a professor at the Mandela School of Public Governance, at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. . .
However, many Africans were used to “degrading” language from the US and Trump, especially, he said, referring to Trump referring to Haiti and African countries in 2018 as “shit-hole countries”. Trump denies using the phrase.
Gautam Bhatia, an Indian writer and constitutional lawyer, told NBC News that comparisons to the “Third World” “are not so offensive because they are ironic.”
From slavery to protracted wars and foreign interventions, Bhatia said, American violence was not new or surprising.
The United States has long suffered from a “democratic deficit,” he said, “but because of American hegemony it is not so defined.”
