A comparative study of military coups in Latin America and Middle East and the U.S. attitude: Venezuela and Egypt

Military regimes are often non-permanent, powerless, unstable forms of rule that arise due to the political weakness of governments. Governments run in this way are usually weak in the tradition of democracy while effectiveness of opposition parties, associations, pressure and interest groups is minimal. The army controls society, the state, and the media by using force, producing policies aimed at its own interests. Therefore, the geographies of the Middle East and Latin America are the regions where military coups are most common. The main reasons for this are the lack of a political structure and strong and stable institutions to compete with developed countries, the inability to maintain the tradition of democracy and the hosting of world states that remain in the background in the global market economy. In this study, military coup attempts taking place separately in Venezuela and Egypt are discussed within the framework of civil-military relations. The main aim of the study is to explain the similarities and differences of the recent military coups in Venezuela and Egypt due to the natural resources and strategic importance of Latin America and the Middle East. In addition, the attitude of the U.S. and its role, if any, is included in the explanation of the military coups that have taken place. The hypothesis of this study is that while there were ideological divisions between the upper echelon of the Egyptian army and the Muslim Brotherhood and the government that it overthrew, the army command in Venezuela and the Maduro government has been united around the Chavismo ideology. In addition, the deep-rooted relations between Egypt and the U.S. army dating back to the era of Anwar Sadat played an important role in he success of the military coup against the Muslim Brotherhood government. Thus, together with the civil-military relations in the pre-coup period, the relations of the USA with the Venezuelan and Egyptian armies affected the course of the military coups in these countries. Key Words: Military Coup, Egypt, Venezuela, Civil-Military Relations, U.S., Chavismo