Rwanda, 1980 — dissident coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 5 May 1980, corresponding to the Lizinde affair, an alleged coup attempt against President Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda uncovered in April 1980. The plot was said to involve former head of the national security service Theoneste Lizinde and former Interior Minister Alexis Kanyarengwe, two disgruntled senior figures who were accused of trying to recruit others to overthrow Habyarimana. Habyarimana had seized power in a 1973 coup and ruled a one-party state under the MRND, and by 1980 he was under pressure from public criticism.
Lizinde was arrested in April 1980 and held; he and others were tried before the State Security Court and Lizinde was sentenced to death in November 1981, a sentence not carried out after Amnesty International intervention that recognized him as a prisoner of conscience. Other than this abortive coup, Habyarimana's grip on power was largely unchallenged until the 1990s. The May 1980 coding sits in this period of the discovered plot, the arrests, and the ensuing show trials.
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
51705051980
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Habyarimana survived the plot and ruled Rwanda until his assassination in 1994; Lizinde was imprisoned until 1992.
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
LA Times
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 →