Guinea-Bissau, 2008 — military coup attempt

Event Summary

The dataset records an event coded as an attempted military coupi in Guinea-Bissau on 23 November 2008 against President Joao Bernardo Vieira, an attack on the president's residence that presaged his assassination months later. Vieira, who had returned to power in the 2005 election, presided over a state deeply penetrated by South American cocaine traffickers and riven by a bitter, dangerous rivalry with the army chief of staff, General Batista Tagme Na Waie. In the early hours of 23 November 2008, days after legislative elections, soldiers attacked Vieira's residence in Bissau in a gun battle, in what was reported as an attempted coup or assassination; the president's guard repelled the assault, and Vieira survived unharmed.

But the reprieve was brief. The murderous feud between Vieira and Tagme Na Waie came to a head on 1 to 2 March 2009: a bomb blast killed the army chief, and hours later soldiers loyal to him stormed Vieira's home and assassinated the president, reportedly hacking and shooting him to death in revenge. Guinea-Bissau's chronic instability, fueled by military factionalism and the drug trade, ground on.