Haiti Police Search for Palace Attackers

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —  Police searched for coup conspirators Tuesday as some opposition leaders claimed that what President Jean-Bertrand Aristide called a failed coup was really staged as a pretext to crush dissent.

The attack Monday touched off widespread protests and violence by Aristide supporters, who blamed the opposition for the incident at the National Palace.

“The so-called coup d’etat was a masquerade,” opposition leader Evans Paul said. The former Port-au-Prince mayor’s party headquarters was destroyed by Aristide supporters seeking revenge after armed men stormed the National Palace before dawn.

Aristide was not at the palace early Monday morning, when authorities say 33 heavily armed men shot and killed two police officers and took over one wing of the building for seven hours before they fled. Two passersby were shot by the fleeing attackers.

Aristide, in what he called a “message of peace” after the violence, said Monday, “We have thwarted the coup, but it’s not all over.”

Paul, who was Aristide’s campaign manager in 1990, cited what he called the “absurdity” of 33 men attacking the palace, which is guarded by hundreds of police officers.

He also said it is widely known that Aristide rarely spends the night there.

Authorities said one of the attackers was killed in a gun battle at the palace in central Port-au-Prince and a wounded suspect was captured at a roadblock. The rest escaped.

Aristide became Haiti’s first freely elected president in December 1990 but was ousted by the army nine months later despite protests by thousands of people who took to the streets in support of their new president.

Aristide loyalists who spoke on condition of anonymity acknowledged that demonstrations Monday in response to the violence weren’t spontaneous.

They said pro-Aristide organizers told them Sunday night, hours before the attack, that something was happening and that they should mobilize.

On Tuesday, banks, schools and the airport reopened.