[3] Launched on 8 March with the arrival of 44 mostly unarmed personnel on the island of São Tomé via small boats, the attempted coup was quickly suppressed, with three of the pustchists being killed and one policeman wounded.

"[6] The National Resistance Front of São Tomé and Príncipe (FRNSTP) was formed in 1981 as armed exile movement based in Gabon that sought the overthrow of the MLSTP government.

As a result of political liberalisations from the mid-1980s onwards, relations with the government of Gabon improved and the leadership of the FRNSTP abandoned armed struggle.

[7] They had then planned to attack the Presidential Palace, execute Pinto da Costa and declare dos Santos as president.

[9] In December 1990, months after a new constitution permitting multiparty politics was approved, former FRNSTP-R members founded the Christian Democratic Front (FDC) party.