Jamaica, 1980 — military coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 19 June 1980, corresponding to the June 1980 coup plot against Prime Minister Michael Manley's government in Jamaica, discovered by the Jamaica Defence Force. The plot, associated with Charles Johnson, leader of the small right-wing Jamaica United Front and a United States Army Vietnam veteran running a Kingston security company, planned to bring down the Manley government by kidnapping the prime minister and JDF chief of staff Brigadier General Robert Neish, seizing a JDF base and armory and a radio station in Kingston, and forcing resignations on the radio. Some two dozen JDF officers and enlisted men, along with civilians, were detained around 23 to 24 June 1980.
It unfolded amid the extraordinarily violent 1980 election campaign, in which hundreds were killed, and against the backdrop of Manley's March 1980 break with the IMF and Cold War tensions over his ties to Cuba. The opposition Jamaica Labour Party disavowed any role, and Charles Johnson was acquitted in 1981. The June 1980 coding sits at this plot in the days before its public disclosure.
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
05106191980
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Manley survived the plot but lost the October 1980 election to Edward Seaga; Johnson was acquitted in 1981.
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
CSP
Christian Science Monitor
New York Times
New York Amsterdam News
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 →