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 touched off widespread protests and violence by Aristide supporters, who blamed the opposition in the attack on 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 were destroyed Monday for the third time in 10 years 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 passers-by were shot by fleeing attackers.
Aristide, in what he called a "message of peace" following the violence, said Monday: "We have thwarted the coup, but it's not all over."
Paul, who was Aristide's campaign manager in 1990 but now leads an opposition party, pointed to 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 gunbattle at the palace in central Port-au-Prince and a wounded gunman was captured at a roadblock near the border with the Dominican Republic. The rest escaped.
Aristide said police had made "a strategic retreat" to allow the attackers to get away so they could "snare them in a fish net."
Aristide became Haiti's first freely elected president in 1990 but was ousted by the army in 1991 after eight months in office despite protests by thousands of people who took to the streets to protect their new democracy and president.
Aristide loyalists, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that demonstrations Monday in response to the violence at the National Palace 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.
In the hours after the palace attack, hundreds of Aristide supporters surrounded the building armed with machetes, sticks and revolvers. Some set fire to opposition offices and the homes of opposition leaders around the country. They killed at least two people.
On Tuesday, banks and schools reopened, street vendors returned to their stalls and Haiti's international airport reopened, but the border with the Dominican Republic remained closed. Streets in the capital still smelled of smoking tire barricades set up by Aristide supporters.
Aristide said police were searching for dozens of conspirators. Palace spokesman Jacques Maurice said the attackers wore the khaki and camouflage fatigues worn by the army that Aristide disbanded in 1995.
Haiti has been plagued by eight major revolts and thwarted or successful coups since 1986, when the Duvalier family was ousted in a popular uprising after a 29-year dictatorship.
After the 1991 coup, Aristide spent three years in exile before President Clinton sent 20,000 troops to restore him to power. In 1996, he stepped down because of term limits and was replaced by his protege.
In November 2000, Aristide was re-elected following disputed legislative elections earlier in the year that led the international community to freeze most aid. He took office in February.
The United States appealed Tuesday to the Haitian government and opposition parties to reach agreement in their long-running conflict over election issues.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher condemned the raid on the palace and the mob violence that followed, saying it "underscores the need for dialogue and reconciliation among all elements of Haitian society."