Word: coupes
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Fighting between the Timorese Democratic Union (U.D.T.) and the radical Fretelin party broke out three weeks ago when the U.D.T. staged a coup. Since then Fretelin, seeking to unseat the U.D.T., has reportedly gained control of the capital of Dili. Refugees fleeing the island told chilling stories of heavy casualties and numerous atrocities. The captain of the MacDili, a freighter that has been ferrying refugees to Darwin, described the fighting as "bloody carnage." Estimates of the death toll ranged from several hundred to 2,000. An Australian engineer who fled to Darwin last week said: "Children are being picked...
...beribboned general's uniform, clearly relished his role as host. He gave the keynote address, a self-congratulatory 50-minute oration on Peru's left-wing revolution and the aspirations of the entire nonaligned group. But at week's end an utterly unexpected coup (see page 16) brought not only Velasco's role as host but also his role as Peru's leader to a crashing halt...
While delegates to the conference of nonaligned countries were winding up their meeting in Lima last week, host Peru did a little realigning of its own. In a swift, bloodless coup, Strongman Juan Velasco Alvarado was ousted, and left the palace freely for his home in the suburb of Chaclacayo. His No. 2 man, Francisco Morales Bermudez, took his place. The change, the new government said rather vaguely, would not only end "personality cults" but would also ensure a "free fatherland...
...visiting delegates may have been surprised-a resplendently uniformed Velasco had addressed them only a few days before at the conference's opening. But the coup will probably have little effect on the leftist policies that Peru has pursued since Velasco staged his own coup in 1968. The former President, 65, had been ailing for some time (severe circulatory problems caused the amputation of his right leg in 1973), and his power within Peru's military had been declining. Morales, 53, had been thought of as his successor anyway and already held the titles of Premier, Army Chief...
...royal epithets had a hollow, mocking ring. Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, had wielded virtually absolute power for almost six decades-longer than any other contemporary head of state. But when he was finally deposed in September 1974 by the military leaders of the "creeping coup," which had been enveloping Ethiopia for seven months, the tiny (5 ft. 4 in.) ruler was whisked away from his palace in a Volkswagen and imprisoned in a three-room mud hut. Only later was he moved to more comfortable quarters at the Grand Palace. It was there that the aged Lion, still...