[thisisit]

"While denying that the military had seized power, they said that Mr. Mugabe and his family “are safe and sound, and their security is guaranteed.”

“We are only targeting criminals around him who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country in order to bring them to justice,"

This doesn't look good.

[lb1lf]

According to (whoever controls...) the official Zanu-PF twitter account, Robert Mugabe and his wife has been detained.

The former vice president, Mnangagwa (who was sacked by Mugabe last week, so that his wife Grace could take the #2 spot) is acting president, according to an army statement.

Also, reports of gun and artillery fire from northern Harare - the district where Mugabe and his cronies live.

Also, predictably, the army claims this is not a coup, and that they are merely acting to preserve the constitution and the republic. (That being said, if one is to stage a coup somewhere, one could find a less deserving country than Zimbabwe; let's just hope the army has the good sense to hand over power to civilian authorities ASAP.)

[tasssko]

I know people that live in northern Harare and they haven't heard any gun and artillery fire. They live within a 3-5km radius of RM and his cronies also they haven't seen any tanks - yet. All very curious, but something is up.

[gaius]

According to Wikipedia, Zimbabwe's army has no serviceable tanks.

[anon989]

That is not their official twitter handle. I wouldn't take what they tweet as an official statement from ZanuPF

[Lazare]

> This doesn't look good.

Who for?

The situation in Zimbabwe is bad enough that things could hardly get much worse. Worst case, one corrupt dictator gets replaced by a different successor than would otherwise have been the case. It's not like a military junta could be less democratic or more corrupt than the existing regime, after all.

[KGIII]

I'd not be so sure. It can almost always get worse.

[Lazare]

Sure, there could be a dictatorship, awe-inspiring corruption, brutal repression of political opposition, genocide, hyper-inflation, a famine, and stunning mismanagement of every aspect of the country.

...wait, those are all things that occurred under Mugabe. How much worse can things get? (Mind you, I have no particular reason to think the coup will make things better, inasmuch as it seems to have been conducted by close allies of Mugabe is order to maintain power, rather than a different faction looking to seize it.)

[KGIII]

Well, they still have people living. They could address that next.

[SideburnsOfDoom]

While that is true, there is more room for improvement in Zimbabwe than there is in most countries.

[katastic]

I thought military coups were a good thing. That's what Hollywood celebrities like Chelsea Handler and Sarah Silverman told us this year.