What you should know about the coup in Myanmar 9:16
(CNN) -
The military coup in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is a tragedy for a people who have enjoyed fragile freedom after decades of darkness under the dictatorship.
It also marks the failure of an effort by the United States and its allies to instill democracy and remove the country from the orbit of China.
Long-established democratic structures held firm in the US when an autocratic leader tried to steal an election, but Myanmar's quasi-democracy dissolved on Monday morning local time, leaving it under the boot of a junta again. .
Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's civilian leader since the military constitution barred her from serving as president, is again under house arrest, where she spent much of the past 30 years.
Pro-democracy leaders have been detained.
The future looks bleak again.
Everything you need to know about the coup in Myanmar
The Myanmar generals clearly took advantage of Aung San Suu Kyi's deteriorating global reputation.
His outright denial that the Myanmar Army was guilty of genocide against Rohingya Muslims revealed a nationalist streak that the West had ignored in its quest to impose a heroine narrative on Myanmar's complex political history.
Aung San Suu Kyi, icon of democracy in Myanmar.
But "the Lady" is still loved within Myanmar.
And their current situation is a reminder that fledgling democracies need support.
Washington has lost focus on Myanmar since former President Barack Obama's visit to Yangon in 2012, when hundreds of thousands of euphoric citizens took to the streets.
The Trump administration lacked a coherent policy in Southeast Asia and cared little about democracy anywhere.
Its top officials were rarely seen in a region where being present is everything.
The United States stood by as the military in Myanmar's neighbor Thailand also extinguished democratic rule.
What you should know about Myanmar
US President Joe Biden now faces a test of his influence in Asia.
He has already threatened sanctions, but strangling the economy amid the pandemic would cause more pain for people.
As Myanmar's Army shuts down the Internet and communications networks, closes banks, and sends patrols of soldiers into the city streets, can Biden corner India, Japan, Australia and the other nine members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations? to mitigate the severity of the repression?
The international struggle for democracy in Myanmar 1:02
Ultimately, the US response will show how far Biden will go in pursuit of his promise to restore global democracy, or whether he will keep the lines open to generals in the capital, Naypyidaw, as part of the great geopolitical game of countering. Chinese influence.
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