Haiti, 1989 — military coup attempt

Event Summary

The dataset records a second attempted military coupi in Haiti on 5 April 1989, days after the first, during the same convulsive episode of army infighting against the military government of Lieutenant General Prosper Avril. The early April 1989 crisis in Port au Prince involved a rolling series of mutinies and countermoves among rival army units, particularly the elite Leopards and Dessalines battalions whose commanders turned against Avril, and the confused fighting stretched across several days as factions maneuvered for control. This 5 April action, like its predecessor days earlier, formed part of the attempt to unseat Avril and did not succeed.

Avril weathered the storm, purging and reshuffling the officer corps to neutralize the rebellious units and reassert his authority, though his hold remained tenuous and the underlying instability persisted. His military regime, unable to establish legitimacy or halt the deepening crisis, lasted less than another year before popular protests and army pressure drove him from power in March 1990, continuing Haiti's turbulent and violent transition out of the Duvalier era.