Angola, 1977 — military coup attempt

Event Summary

On 27 May 1977 the Angolan interior minister Nito Alves attempted a coup, known in Angola as the vinte e sete de Maio, against the government of President Agostinho Neto, less than two years after Angola's independence under the ruling MPLA. Alves, a hardline Marxist and hero of the independence war who had built a personal following, the Nitistas, in the musseques of Luanda, had been accused of fractionism and expelled from the party days before. On the morning of 27 May his supporters, backed by the mutinous 8th and 9th armored brigades, stormed the Sao Paulo prison to free detainees, seized the radio station to broadcast anti-government appeals, and kidnapped and shot several senior government and military leaders.

But the rising was poorly planned and drew only a small crowd to the palace; crucially, the Cuban troops in Angola under Operation Carlota sided immediately with Neto and retook the palace and radio station by early afternoon. The coup collapsed, and in the ferocious purge that followed, thousands of real and alleged Nitistas were killed, with Nito Alves captured in July and executed.