How does an authoritarian regime like Morocco's survive? Through repression. When it falters at the slightest shock, it resorts to what it knows best to silence any serious opposition or any it considers dangerous: first it tries to buy loyalties and, if that doesn't yield results, it brings out the truncheon, imprisons, or, on some occasions in the past, kills. And that is how it has been since the beginning of Morocco's independence in 1956.