Lesotho and Latin America

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29045113

Above is the link to Prime Minister Thabane re-entering Lesotho after fleeing from an attempted coup d'état. It seems like the article is hesitant to call it a coup, since it used quotation marks around the word. Which makes sense, considering it seems to be unsuccessful.

What struck me about the article, which is short and quickly explains the situation, is how similar it is to a lot of what I learned in my Latin American History class. Following independence from Spain, (Portugal for Brazil, though they had it easy) Latin American countries were, and to an extent still are, unstable politically. Mainly from the same cause early on: imperialism by European powers. Sound familiar?

In addition, the usual cause for that instability was continual coups by a caudillo (military leader)  with the backing of the army. Technically during the 20th century, the United States also had a hand in backing those coups after our chosen dictator won the support of the military in order to overthrow what was usually a democratically elected leader, but back to Africa.

It is essentially the same as far as I can tell. As I said, the article is short and this seems to be a developing situation. According to the article, the Deputy Prime Minister, who is at odd with PM Thabane, has the support of the military. Anyway, Thabane returned with an escort of South African police who are now guarding the state house and homes of both Thabane and his Deputy Prime Minister. Lesotho is completely surrounded by South Africa but I think it will be very interesting to see where this goes.

Is there still some bitterness between the two countries following independence? Will Thabane have to deal with backlash by bringing in foreign troops to restore order? Why did South Africa decide to assist Thabane? Does it still eye Lesotho? I do not know, but this could be an explosion waiting to happen.