Pearl Harbor Day, 2022 (Does anybody remember?)
When your solitary reporter was an undergrad at John Harvard’s College, many of the exams he had to take as a History major included questions such as “Compare and contrast China’s response to the West with that of Japan.”
So when Peru’s president, Pedro Castillo, flunked in his attempt to dictate how the legislature handled his attempted coup (which resulted in his immediate arrest, with his Vice-President, Dina Boluarte, taking over — -- with how German authorities handled a far more serious attempt at a coup —— our Chief International Correspondent, associate solitary reporter Larry Theis, offered some fascinating reflections.
Castillo, now Peru’s ex-president, could have been cast by Hollywood as a rakish leading man because of his macho good looks, was arrested this morning and impeached, forcing a quickie change of government with his Vice-President, Dina Boluarte, being sworn in as the Andean nation’s first woman president, https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/07/americas/peru-president-castillo-congress-dissolves-intl.
Theis’ ancestors came from Alsace-Lorraince, the part of eastern France which has been French at times and German at times. That explains his expertise in analyzing the swift high-level reaction of Germany’s intelligence apparatus when it arrested some 25 German right-wing extremists not only in Germany today, but also in Italy as well.
Reichsbürger ("Reich Citizens"), was all set to storm the Bundestag, imitating Donald Trump’s close personal friends in the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, until the authorities grabbed some 25 members of the Reichsbürger movement, which was ready to kill top officials after destroying the Constitution (there, they took their cue from Trump). See https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/07/europe/germany-far-right-arrests-grm-intl/index.html.
The Reichsburgers were led by Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, the descendant of German royalty, and they tried to enlist Vladimir Putin as their ally, but Putin told them he was far too busy murdering innocent civilians in Ukraine.
“The Germans are far more sophisticated than the Peruvians,” Theis explained. "Castillo should have made his arrangements with Trump’s close personal friend Steve Bannon, who is definitely in favor of overthrowing governments if given the help he needs.”
Theis also reminded the Times’ David Brooks that the CIA has historically been expert at overthrowing South American governments.