Madagascar, 1989 — dissident coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an event coded as an attempted dissident coup in Madagascar on 24 July 1989 against President Didier Ratsiraka, the naval officer who had ruled the island since 1975 through his authoritarian revolutionary regime built around the Malagasy Socialist Revolution and a one party state. By the late 1980s Ratsiraka's rule was under mounting strain from economic collapse, austerity imposed under structural adjustment, and rising political discontent, and the period around the contested 1989 presidential election, which Ratsiraka won amid opposition charges of fraud, was marked by unrest and violence in the capital Antananarivo. A coup attempt or plot in July 1989 came within that atmosphere of tension and did not unseat Ratsiraka, who survived and clung to power.
But the pressures kept building; a broad pro democracy movement erupted in 1991 with massive protests and a general strike that forced Ratsiraka to concede a transition, leading to a new constitution and his electoral defeat in 1993, though he would later return to the presidency before being ousted again in the disputed 2002 crisis.
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
58007241989
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Didier Ratsiraka survived the July 1989 plotting amid post election unrest and held power into the 1990s.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. 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
Globe and Mail
Times of India
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 →