Trinidad and Tobago, 1990 — dissident coup attempt
Event Summary
On 27 July 1990 the radical Islamist group Jamaat al-Muslimeen, led by Yasin Abu Bakr, launched a violent insurrection against the government of Trinidad and Tobago in the only such attempt in the English speaking Caribbean. In a coordinated assault, some forty two insurgents stormed the Red House, the seat of parliament, taking Prime Minister A. N.
R. Robinson and much of his cabinet hostage, while around seventy two others seized the offices of the state television station and attacked police headquarters, which was gutted by a bomb and fire. Abu Bakr appeared on television to announce that the government had been overthrown.
But the insurrection failed to spread; the army did not defect, and the wounded Robinson, when ordered to tell troops to hold fire, famously commanded them instead to attack with full force. Over six days of siege, marked by widespread looting and arson in Port of Spain that caused enormous damage, the standoff wore on until the insurgents surrendered on 1 August under a promised amnesty. Around twenty four people died.
Though later freed on the amnesty, the plotters left a lasting scar on the nation.
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
05207271990
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Prime Minister A. N. R. Robinson was taken hostage in the July 1990 Jamaat al-Muslimeen insurrection but survived as it collapsed.
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
Wikipedia
Washington Post
Chicago Tribune
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 →