Liberia, 1986 — dissident coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 4 September 1986, during President Samuel Doe's consolidation of his fraudulently elected civilian presidency in Liberia and his continued suppression of opposition. After the heavily rigged October 1985 election, which foreign observers judged fraudulent and which many believed opposition candidate Jackson Doe had actually won, and the crushing of General Thomas Quiwonkpa's November 1985 coup attempt, Doe was sworn in as president in January 1986. Through 1986 he moved to eliminate organized opposition: elected opposition members who had refused to take their seats were expelled from their parties, and by the partial election of December 1986 the National Assembly was left without any opposition.
Doe frequently charged opponents with treason and had them executed after summary trials, presiding over a pattern of recurring alleged coup plots that he used to justify crackdowns, including further alleged plots in 1986, March 1988, and October 1989. The 4 September 1986 coding sits in this period of anti-Doe conspiracy and the regime's suppression of opposition.
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
45009041986
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Doe consolidated a de facto one-party state; he was overthrown and killed in 1990.
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
The Guardian
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 →