Guyana, 1983 — dissident coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 24 December 1983, during the authoritarian consolidation and mounting opposition under President Forbes Burnham's People's National Congress regime in Guyana. Burnham ruled Guyana with a firm grip from 1964 until his death in 1985, declaring in the 1974 Declaration of Sophia that the PNC was paramount over the state, tightly controlling the media, staging fraudulent elections, and using state and paramilitary violence to suppress dissent. His government was later found by a Commission of Inquiry to have been part of the conspiracy to assassinate Working People's Alliance leader Walter Rodney in June 1980.
By the early 1980s Burnham's quasi-socialist policies had produced economic stagnation, a trade deficit, massive foreign debt, shortages of essential goods and foreign currency, and heavy emigration, and opposition to him remained multiracial. The 24 December 1983 coding sits in this period of anti-Burnham conspiracy and the regime's suppression of opposition amid deepening economic collapse.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
11012241983
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Burnham held power until his death in August 1985, when Desmond Hoyte succeeded him.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
New York Times
Boston Globe
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →