Attack on the US Capitol: "Instead of unifying the country, this tragedy has divided it"

Audio 19:30

An explosion caused by police ammunition as supporters of former US President Donald Trump revolt in front of the Capitol in Washington, United States, January 6, 2021. © Leah Millis / REUTERS

By: Mikaël Ponge Follow |

Mikaël Ponge Follow

3 min

A year ago to the day, the American Capitol, responsible for certifying the victory of Joe Biden in the presidential election in November, was invaded by a crowd of attackers.

Supporters of Donald Trump convinced that the ballot was stolen from them.

If within the Republicans one tries to rewrite the history of this dark day, " 

the assault on Capitol Hill was an armed insurrection 

" affirms President Biden on the occasion of the commemoration ceremony.

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Attackers who beat police officers with iron bars, an agent crushed on a doorstep screaming in pain, rioters in combat gear ... A year later, Americans have not forgotten the incredible images of supporters of Donald Trump invaded the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Nevertheless the "

 trauma has faded 

" according to our guest Antoine Yoshinaka, professor of political science at the University of the State of New York in Buffalo. " 

Instead of unifying the country, this tragedy has divided it, in terms of its importance, its causes, its consequences, its place in history

 " notes the researcher who explains to us that if until then the commission of inquiry set up by the House of Representatives to shed light on the event worked behind closed doors, she goes "

hold public hearings within a few weeks, with the hope of arriving at a first report by the summer

 ”.

At the same time, a year after the assault, the courts indicted some 700 people.

" 

Men, white, conservative, from the middle classes, not necessarily left behind, many white collar workers in their forties or fifties, from Democratic counties 

."

Rioters who share as a whole " 

the fear of the great replacement

 " explains Antoine Yoshinaka

Haiti: debate on the end of mandate of the last senators in office

As in 2020 and 2021, in order not to go back too far in the past, the country finds itself entangled, at the beginning of 2022, in a debate on the end of the mandate of the remaining third of the Senate, explains Frantz Duval, the editor in head of the daily

Le Nouvelliste

. Monday, January 10, the elected officials will return to school and will therefore ask the question of the continuation of their term of office theoretically supposed to end. “ 

In 2020 and 2021, although weakened, there was an elected president in place. Faced with the constitutional vacuum, the fate of parliamentarians depended on him. Today, it is a Prime Minister brought to power by force of circumstances who will decide whether the senators will leave or not. In the absence of a Constitutional Court, everyone tries to interpret the Constitution according to their whims

 »Underlines the editorialist of Le

Nouvelliste

.

A new duo at the head of the Chilean constituent

In Chile, after long and agitated debates, the Constituent Assembly which must draft the new fundamental law, finally elected yesterday (January 5, 2022) the new duo responsible for leading the debates until the end of the work this summer. And both are like the Constituent Assembly which, when it was elected last year, was at odds with the rest of the political class. Maria Elisa Quinteros is elected president. Feminist, environmentalist and leftist, this public health specialist entered the hemicycle last year thanks to the support of neighborhood assemblies born after the social movement of 2019, against inequalities. Just after her, Gaspar Dominguez, a 33-year-old, center-left doctor, was widely elected vice-president.He is the first gay to reach such a high political post in Chile. Young, both live in the provinces, do not militate in any political party and had never stood for an election before last year. They succeed in particular the native academic Elisa Loncon.

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