The Acts of the Democracies

Details

SiteMeter

1980

Coup in Liberia

In Liberia, the USA backed Samuel Doe takes power in a bloody coup. All opposition parties are barred from future elections. The president and his family become very rich from bribery and corruption. Revenues from petrol and hotel taxes go directly into the Doe's bank account. His fellow tribes people (4% of the population) are elevated into a ruling elite who savagely oppress the rest of the population.

According the USA newspaper, Chicago Tribune (22 August 1990), in an article by Howard Witt entitled "US Fingerprints - Not Heart - Are All Over Liberia", a USA official admits that "Our strategic interests are more important than democracy".

Witt describes Doe as a "brutish, nearly illiterate army sergent" who seized power "after disemboweling the previous president in his bed".

The USA gives the new regime military and economic aid. USA companies Firestone and B F Goodrich prosper under the new regime.

[Top]