For Power's Sake
Comrades-in-arms Isaias and Meles bartering Assab port In the early 1990s, Isaias and Meles suddenly found themselves owners of Ethiopia--including its geographic space, its resources and its people. How did this come about? In their own narrative, it came about because they defeated the mighty Derg. That narrative could only be partly true. The real story is that the US and Britain wanted them in power to advance their own regional agenda. Let's not forget that this was two years after the end of the Cold War and Soviet collapse. The Capitalist West was absolutely inebriated with victory over Communism. Now it could once again reshape the whole world in its own "democratic" image. Meles Zenawi and Isaias Afwerki quickly found favor in the eyes of the West (as well as they were good at deception) and acclaimed as "new breed" democrats! The other aspect of their success was of course a vacuum needing to be filled on account of Mengistu slipping away to Zimbabwe...